Arguably, one of the most definitive moments of Andrew Garfield's tenure as Spider-Man is when he fails to catch Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) as she falls down a clock tower while he fights Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) in "The Amazing Spider-Man 2." The death of Gwen Stacy is a major event in Marvel Comics that is translated to become an equally major onscreen event that likely caused more than one audience member to shed a tear back in 2014.
The event caused his Spider-Man to temporarily hang up the suit and stop being the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man the city needed. He comes back around to fighting Rhino (Paul Giamatti) by the end of the film, but it's clear from his most recent appearance that he's still not quite over Gwen's death just yet. When Tom Holland's Peter Parker is at his lowest, the Garfield variant lets him know about how he lost his girlfriend some time ago. He doesn't go into detail, but we, the audience, know who he's referring to. We know this is a Spider-Man haunted by his mistakes, and when a similar moment transpires in "No Way Home," he doesn't throw away the opportunity to prevent history from repeating itself.
When MJ falls off the Statue of Liberty, Holland's Spider-Man jumps to save her but is stopped short by Green Goblin (Willem Dafoe). Fortunately, Garfield's Spider-Man sees what's happening and leaps into action. He catches MJ, allowing her to land safely on the ground. The scene lingers on the superhero for a beat, letting the audience really take in what's happened. He may not have been able to save Gwen, but he prevented another Spider-Man from losing the person he loves most.
