Mysterio (Marvel Cinematic Universe)


 * NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of Mysterio from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film series. The mainstream version can be found here: Mysterio.

"I created Mysterio to give the world someone to believe in. I control the truth... Mysterio is the truth!"

- Quentin Beck/Mysterio's most famous quote upon confronting Spider-Man.

Quentin Beck, also known as Mysterio, is the main antagonist of the 2019 Marvel film Spider-Man: Far From Home. He is a former Stark Industries illusions specialist who wants to become the world's biggest superhero in lieu of Tony Stark, feigning attacks from inter-dimensional beings called the Elementals in order to do so.

He was portrayed by, who also portrayed Louis Bloom in Nightcrawler, Dr. Johnny Wilcox in Okja and Anthony Claire in Enemy.

Elemental Attacks
Beck first appeared when Nick Fury and Maria Hill encountered Sandman, which he later destroys using his powers. Once Peter Parker and his friends get attacked by Hydro-Man in Venise, Beck saves Peter from its wrath. The two fight together and Beck destroys the Elemental, appearing as a hero to Italy. Later that night, Nick Fury brings Spider-Man to his hideout, where Spider-Man meets Beck.

Beck tells Spider-Man that he came from a Earth of a different dimension that was destroyed by the Elementals, and that they’re on the original Earth. He reveals that there are four of them and their elements: Earth, Water, Fire and Air. Fury suggested that Spider-Man team up with Mysterio to fight the last Elemental Molten Man, but Spider-Man refuses as he is too busy hanging with his classmates on their field trip.

Eventually, Spider-Man spotted Molten Man attacking the Prague Carnival, so he disguises himself as 'Night Monkey' to avoid suspicion and helps Mysterio fight against Molten Man. The two battle the Elemental for a long time, but they finally get it, Spider-Man webs it and Mysterio attempts to destroy it like the previous one, but they fail. Mysterio then punches the giant in its chest, making it explode and dissipate forever.

After the defeat of Molten Man, Spider-Man and Mysterio head over to a bar, where Spider-Man declares Mysterio worthy for an Avenger. He then hands over his glasses (containing a intelligence system called E.D.I.T.H. built by Stark), saying that Mysterio should be worthy of being a great superhero just like Stark. However, after Spider-Man leaves, the bar reveals to be an illusion, and Mysterio happily cheered for his team (composed of former Stark Industries employees, mostly William Ginter Riva, Victoria Snow, Guterman and Janice Lincoln). It turns out that Beck himself was a former Stark Industries employee who created a projection prototype that Stark would later rename as B.A.R.F., and that Beck felt jealous and furious because of this event. Beck also commented that Stark fired him for his unstable behavior and that he actually plans to usurp Stark as the world's greatest hero since the latter sacrificed himself to destroy Thanos and the Black Order. It also turns out that the Elementals are actually projection drones (built by Giva) as part of Mysterio's true plot to cement himself as a hero to the world and that he tricked Spider-Man into handing over E.D.I.T.H. to further facilitate his plans.

As Peter prepares to reveal his feelings for MJ, the two happen upon a piece of detritus and end up activating it, proving that Mysterio didn't notice that he accidentally bumped into one of his Drones and it lost a projector, which reveals that the Elementals are cybernetic beings and not magical monsters. They then realize that Beck is a fraud who was using them to make himself look like a hero to the public.

Around the same time, Mysterio realized the missing projector was orchestral in a rehearsal to his next battle, planning an Avengers-level threat. Knowing that his plan will be compromised, Mysterio later uses E.D.I.T.H. to find out that Spider-Man and MJ knew his true colors. He also prompts Giva that once he had to kill Spider-Man, Giva will get the blame. In Berlin, Mysterio shoots 'Nick Fury' with one of his drones, then Spider-Man then encounters Mysterio, who fights against and torments him by making him go through separate illusions, such as Mysterio in full armor dropping MJ from the top of the Eiffel Tower, a dozen of mirrored Spider-Men attacking, a zombie Iron Man, a spider whose eyes form a marching army of Mysterios, and also trapping Spider-Man inside his helmet as a snow globe version of New York City including the Avengers Tower. He gets shot by Fury, which asks Peter who did he tell about his identity. Peter tells him that he only told Ned and MJ. Fury turns out to be a disguised Beck, who leads Peter in front of a speeding train. Beck and his team unleash his largest illusion yet, Elemental Fusion in London, which is supposed to kill Michelle and the rest of Spider-Man's classmates. Then Spider-Man comes to the rescue and jumps into the Elemental Fusion's mouth and uses the Peter-Tingle to destroy the Drones inside of the Elemental. Mysterio with anger orders the Drones to attack Spider-Man.

After Spider-Man defeats the Drones, he confronts Mysterio to give him the E.D.I.T.H. glasses. Mysterio creates an illusion where Peter fights the remaining androids, using his Spider Sense again. With Beck being shot by a drone, he attempts to give Peter the glasses but he turns out to be an illusion, as his real self attempts to shoot Spider-Man, but is stopped and shot by an android through misfire. Spider-Man watches as Mysterio succumbs to his wounds; even E.D.I.T.H. confirms that the event is actually real as all illusions are finally shut down, implying that Mysterio is finally dead for good.

Exposing Spider-Man
However, it turns out that Mysterio, knowing that his plan could fail, had his crew edit the footage of him and Peter fighting the Elementals to frame Peter as the culprit behind the events and to reveal his true identity in revenge for foiling his plans. The footage is then given to and displayed by J. Jonah Jameson, exposing Peter's secret identity to the entire world.

Personality
During his days as an employee at Stark Industries, Quentin Beck had always shown a glorious desire for using his skills of technology in order to work with Tony Stark. He designed and invented the B.A.R.F. (Binary Augmented Retro-Framing) prototype, but after Stark noticed his callous and unstable nature, Beck was fired, leaving him embittered. Beck later witnessed his former employer die in the Battle of Earth (in Avengers: Endgame), seizing the advantage in order to use his skills to create drones which project the Elementals and an advanced suit of armor with a helmet to shield his identity. He decided to use the Elementals to cause massive destruction across the continent of Europe and defeat them himself, to be seen as a great hero in the eyes of the wide public.

This plan would succeed, with people such as Flash Thompson giving him praise. Brad Davis states that Beck is similar to Thor and Iron Man together, implying how powerful he truly is without knowing the issue would require the attention of Spider-Man, 'Nick Fury' and 'Maria Hill'. Beck manipulated them by claiming that he is from another Earth, as well as the Elementals, presenting himself as an expert on them and that they are entities from his dimension, all as a move to advance his plan.

While being portrayed as a superhero, he had a selfless and caring nature, appearing to risk his life to protect innocents and allies. Beck would also become somewhat of a father figure to Spider-Man showing sympathy for his desires for a normal life and advising Peter to think about what he wants, rather than following other people's expectations.

However, beneath his superhero guise lies an egotistical, dark, ruthless, destructive and manipulative psychopath who would stop at nothing to get what he wants. While Beck may show some close friendship to his crew that helped him become Mysterio, Beck is a dangerous perfectionist who would not hesitate to murder them for the smallest missteps. Beck also cares less about the casualties caused by his performances than the attention he would receive for them, expressing giddy excitement at staging an "Avengers-level threat", nonchalantly watching Spider-Man get hit by a bullet train, and plotting to kill MJ, Ned Leeds and Betty Brant for knowing his true intentions.

Beck accentuated his psychopathy in the illusions he conjured during his first fight with Peter; one such illusion featured him throwing MJ from the Eiffel Tower, manipulating Peter's feelings for her and fears for her safety. He created dark, terrifying and foggy illusions that terrified Peter, trapped him inside an illusion of a snow globe of New York with the Avengers Tower and causing an illusion of Mysterio's giant arm to fall on him.

He grew much more desperate and blood-lusted in his second confrontation with Spider-Man, unleashed all of his destructiveness to ensure his plan's success; but his lack of emotional stability brought him down, as he turned against E.D.I.T.H.'s advice, only to be riddled with his own drones' gunfire. In spite of this, Beck was partially successful in his goals, as he balanced his still-heroic image to expose Spider-Man's true identity and frame him for the destruction he never caused.

Powers and Abilities
"He's like Iron Man and Thor rolled into one."

- Brad Davis about Mysterio.

Powers

 * Energy Projection: To be added
 * Shield Generation: To be added
 * Teleportation: To be added
 * Mist Generation: To be added
 * Flight: To be added

Abilities

 * Genius Level Intellect: To be added
 * Master Engineer: To be added
 * Expert Combatant: To be added

Trivia

 * Despite being the main antagonist of the second film of the Spider-Man film series within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mysterio is more evil and far worse than the Vulture, his predecessor. This is because the Vulture actually turned to a life of crime to support his family and had redeemable traits whereas Mysterio became a criminal for pure selfishness and greed. And while the Vulture proved to be honorable by not revealing Spidey's identity to Mac Gargan in gratitude for saving him, Mysterio didn't redeem himself and made it look had all been Spider-Man's fault and posthumously succeeded in exposing Spidey's secret identity to the whole world.
 * Incidentally, Tony Stark is indirectly responsible for their start to villainy. In Toomes' case, he lost his job when Tony and the U.S. government shut down his business and became a black market arms dealer to feed his family. Beck was fired by Tony, the latter aware of him being unstable and orchestrated the Elementals' attacks just to gain a good publicity.
 * Matt Damon was initially offered the role of Mysterio, but would ultimately turn it down.
 * Prior to the release of Spider-Man: Far From Home, Damon appeared in Thor: Ragnarok as an actor portraying Loki in an Asgardian play.
 * Although it's apparent that Mysterio died at the end of Spider-Man: Far From Home, director Jon Watts commented on Mysterio's fate in which he doesn't rule out Mysterio's possible survival but that Mysterio seemed pretty dead for him.
 * Mysterio is the first Spider-Man movie villain in film thus far to succeed at exposing Spider-Man's identity (as most antagonists in previous films, while they discovered it, either died with the secret or honorably refused to expose his identity).
 * Mysterio is one the six villains in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to succeed in their plans, framing Spider-Man as his murderer and exposing his true identity. The others are Loki, Helmut Zemo, Surtur, Ghost and Thanos.
 * This is easily one of the most evil incarnations of Mysterio, along with his Shattered Dimensions incarnation.
 * Out of all villains in all Spider-Man films, Mysterio is the most evil as he is the only one to be Pure Evil.

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Mysterio (Marvel Cinematic Universe)