Peter Parker is fifteen years old and he just fought Captain America. Now he's back in Queens, filming everything on his phone, waiting for his next Avengers call-up that... never comes. Happy Hogan stops returning his texts. Tony Stark is busy. Peter is benched, and it's killing him.
So he takes matters into his own hands. By day, he's a sophomore at Midtown School of Science and Technology, navigating Academic Decathlon practice and his massive crush on senior Liz Allan. By night, he's the "friendly neighborhood Spider-Man," stopping bike thieves and giving directions to old ladies. He wants more.
He gets it when he stumbles onto Adrian Toomes and his crew selling alien-tech weapons salvaged from the Battle of New York and the Sokovia cleanup. Toomes was a salvage contractor who lost everything when Tony Stark's Damage Control swooped in and took over the cleanup operations. Eight years of resentment later, he's the Vulture, running an illegal arms business and providing for his family the only way he knows how.
Toomes is not trying to conquer the world. He is a blue-collar contractor who was financially ruined by the system and decided to retaliate. Michael Keaton plays him with quiet menace—a man who will kill if necessary but takes no pleasure in it. When he figures out Peter's secret identity during a tense car ride to homecoming, the confrontation becomes deeply threatening.
Peter's arc is about learning that being a hero is not about the suit or the Avengers. When Tony takes the Spider-Man suit away after Peter nearly sinks a ferry full of people, Peter has to decide who he is without the tech. Trapped under a collapsed building, alone and terrified, Peter summons the strength to lift the rubble himself. "Come on, Spider-Man."
The final battle on a plane full of Stark tech ends with Peter saving Toomes's life—even after Toomes tried to kill him. That mercy matters. In prison, Toomes protects Peter's identity from Mac Gargan, setting up future complications.
The supporting cast includes Ned Leeds as Peter's best friend and "guy in the chair," MJ (Zendaya) as an observant outsider who is notably intelligent, Flash Thompson as a debate-team antagonist rather than a physical bully, and Aunt May, who discovers Peter's secret in the film's final shot: "What the f—"
Homecoming establishes Spider-Man as the MCU's heart—a kid from Queens just trying to do the right thing. Tony Stark offers him Avengers membership at the end, and Peter turns it down. He's not ready. He knows it now. He's going to stay close to the ground, help the little guy. The friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.