Sandman (Spider-Man Films)

"I'm not a bad person. Just had bad luck."

- Sandman

""What does it matter to you, anyway?!" "Everything!!!""

- Sandman and Spider-Man during their battle in the subway

Flint Marko, also known as Sandman, is the main, later secondary antagonist-turned-anti-villain of the 2007 film Spider-Man 3. He is an escaped convicted professional criminal who had been accused on the death of Peter Parker's uncle; Benjamin "Ben" Parker. Sandman is seen as a tragic villain because he is portrayed as decent, understandable and honorable. A far cry from the Sandman of the comics.

Flint Marko's main weapon of choice was his own body, which he distorted to fit whatever purpose he wanted, although his main firearm was a Colt Python .357 Magnum revolver, which he used in his robberies prior to getting his powers.

Flint Marko was at first the main antagonist, but the true antagonist was revealed later through the film.

He was portrayed by Thomas Haden Church who also played Lyle Van de Groot, Dwayne LaFontant, and Tal Hajus.

Character Biography
Flint Marko originally appeared in the comics but was a main character in Spider-Man 3. Marko was a down-on-his-luck father of a child named Penny with cancer. In an effort to support her, the unemployed Marko was forced to rob banks and numerous other places to pay for her cancer treatments. One night, the robbery failed and Marko fled outside the city limits, trying to escape from the police, who were in hot pursuit. Marko fled into a gigantic chamber filled with sand at a remote testing facility. Marko didn't know it at the time, but it was an experiment that was testing if sand could protect against radiation. Marko successfully hid from the police in the pit, but the sand was blasted with radiation, and Marko's genes were blended together with the sand. Marko discovered that he could still be a normal man, but was invincible, as he was now made of sand. Marko realized that his sand makeup allowed him to grow in size and make weapons with his body. Marko used his new-found powers to rob numerous banks, but he was thwarted by Spider-Man, who was growing increasingly unstable as a result of the symbiote, and washed him away down a drain. Sandman didn't know it, but Spider-Man was actually Peter Parker, a mild-mannered photographer for the Daily Bugle, who discovered that Marko killed his beloved uncle, Ben.

Venom later comes to Marko and forms an alliance with him, although Marko is slightly reluctant to do so, due to Venom's vile nature. After Spider-Man kills Venom with one of the Green Goblin's pumpkin bombs, Marko finally learns about Spider-Man's identity and finally reveals that he never meant to kill his uncle. He told Ben, who was waiting for Peter, that he needed his car to get some money to help his daughter. Ben attempted to talk Marko out of it, but before Marko could turn back, his accomplice, Dennis Carradine, ran up to him to steal the car and slapped Marko on the shoulder, startling him and causing him to jolt and accidentally pull the trigger of his gun. A shocked Marko tried to help Ben, but Carradine abandoned his partner. Carradine was later pushed out a window by Peter that same night. Out of complete regret, Flint surrendered to the police, stating that he spent "a lot of nights wishing [he] could take it back". Flint states that he's not asking for forgiveness, but that he only wants Peter to understand what he's been going through. Finally understanding that what happened to Ben was an accident, Peter forgives Flint and allows him to escape peacefully into the wind, having finally come to terms with what he's done.

Trivia

 * He was the only villain in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man trilogy who did not die or commit suicide.
 * He is also the fourth villain in the films to be redeemed.
 * He is very similar to the 2004 film version of Doctor Octopus; as they were both tragic villains turned into good, but Marko didn't die.
 * Just like Eddie Brock/Venom, his alias "Sandman" was never mentioned in the film, however in the film when the news was broadcasted to the citizens of New York the news reporter called Flint "The Sandman". He was always known as Marko.
 * In the earlier scripts of the film, Sandman and Venom were replaced by Electro and the Lizard. However, finally, Lizard and Electro were scrapped and replaced by Sandman and Venom.
 * It's completely unknown if he would have reappeared in the cancelled Spider-Man 4.
 * In the videogame adaptation of Spider-Man 3, Sandman's fate is very different to his fate in the movie. At the end of the game, a cop appears with Sandman's daughter, and he is reunited with his daughter, and after that, he apologizes to Spider-Man by what happened. It was unknown if he was arrested by the cop after this. Also in the game he helped Eddie Brock to kill Spider-Man because Brock kidnapped his daughter, unlike the film where he was willing to help him.
 * Unlike Doctor Octopus and Green Goblin whom their aliases were actually mentioned in the films they had appeared, both Venom and Sandman are the two villains whose their aliases were never mentioned.