Dennis Carradine

Dennis Carradine, or more commonly known as either The Burglar or The Carjacker, is an important villain in the Spider-Man trilogy, serving as the secondary antagonist of the 2002 film Spider-Man and a posthumous antagonist in the 2007 film Spider-Man 3. Peter Parker first encounters him when he robs the organizer. He is also accused of murdering Uncle Ben while hijacking the car.

He was portrayed by Michael Papajohn, who reprises the role for flashback/imaginary sequences in Spider-Man 3 and later portrayed the InGen Contractor in Jurassic World.

Biography

Spider-Man

After Spider-Man wins a wrestling match, the manager cheats him out of the reward money (giving him only a hundred bucks instead of the promised thousand). Shortly after, Carradine arrives, points a gun at the manager and steals all his money. The manager tells Parker to stop him, but Parker spitefully lets him go. The Gunman thanks Peter as the Elevator door closes.

Some time later, Parker finds a crowd of people gathered around a mortally-wounded Uncle Ben, who is believed to have been shot by a carjacker. Uncle Ben succumbs to his wounds, prompting Parker to pursue the alleged murderer before he dies. Parker discovers the carjacker was the same person who ran past him. Taking advantage of Parker's dismay, Carradine attempts to shoot him, who snaps his wrist. Intimidated, Carradine backs away, only to fall out the window to his death.

Spider-Man 2

Carradine doesn't appear in the film, but is mentioned once by Parker as the latter was confessing to Aunt May that he let the thief go that resulted Ben's death. Although May is shocked by this revelation, she praises Parker for telling the truth before forgiving him.

Spider-Man 3

A few years later, Parker and Aunt May are informed by Captain Stacey that new evidence indicates that Carradine was not the true killer, bur rather the accomplice to the true murderer, Flint Marko. Parker feels tremendous guilt for enabling an innocent man to die.

After a climactic battle and upon seeing Harry Osborn succumb to his wounds and Venom dying from one of Osborn's pumpkin bombs, Marko confesses to Parker that he only wanted Ben's car as he was stealing money to support for his sick daughter Penny, and that Carradine was helping him out on it. However, as Ben tries to reason with Marko, Carradine ran up and slapped Marko on the shoulder, startling him and causing him to jolt and accidentally shoot Ben in the chest, much to Marko's shock. As Marko was wrecked with guilt for this, Carradine abandoned his partner as the police arrive to the scene. Carradine was later pushed out a window by Parker that same night. As such, Carradine was inadvertently responsible for Uncle Ben's death.

Realizing now that Ben's death was a genuine accident (as neither Marko nor Carradine had any intention of killing him in the first place), Parker decides to forgive Marko and lets him escape so that he can support Penny.

Spider-Man: the Video Game

In the video game of the first film, the Burglar appears as the first boss and the leader of the Skulls Gang. However, his name in this iteration is "Spike" (regarding that the name "Dennis Carradine" wasn't officially given until the third film's release).

Quotes

Gallery

Dennis Carradine as he appears in the film.

As he appears in the 2002 video game.

Add a photo to this gallery

Trivia

• In The Amazing Spider-Man 2 video game, Uncle Ben's killer is also called Dennis Carradine.
• While Carradine is a minor villain in the long run he is by far the single most important villain since if he did not exist, Peter would never have become Spider-Man as we know him today. In essence, Carradine's actions were necessary for Spider-Man to become a hero as Uncle Ben's death is the main reason Peter became a costumed hero and adopted his famous "with great power comes great responsibility" morality.

Navigation