Lorre is hardly the only old-timey movie star that Cage mimics for Reilly’s shenanigans. The most obvious example occurs when Ben has to retrieve his Spider suit from his former apartment, now remodeled and rented to others. Spying a maintenance closet, Ben grabs a mop and a tool box, flips up his hat brim and dons a pair of thick glasses (a la Humphrey Bogart in The Big Sleep), and introduces himself to the occupants as maintenance man Pete. Pitching up his voice and taking on a slight tremble, Cage as Reilly plays Pete like a sweet old man who’s a bit too comfortable sticking his nose into other peoples’ business, a slightly annoying Jimmy Stewart charcter.
In the very next episode, Ben has to get past a nurse to question some injured cops, so he takes on the identity of Officer Batnick of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, who took “a slug 10 years ago” and was saved by the caretakers at the hospital. Here, Cage becomes a tall, dark Edward G. Robinson, replacing his natural drawl with a clipped accent and punctuating his statements with the word, “See?” Sometimes, he’s charming and clever, mirroring Robinson’s insurance investigator from Double Indemnity. Other times, he’s imperious and threatening, just like Robinson in Little Caesar.
Spider-Noir provides an in-universe explanation for Reilly’s impressions. Late in the series, we learn that he felt like he lost his humanity after gaining his spider-powers, and found his way back by watching the movies. The show even gives an example, with Ben going to the theater to see the James Cagney flick Great Guy, mimicking Jimmy’s delivery of the words, “Red hot!”
However, each of these bits feels like part of Cage’s Saturday Night Live reel. Or, more likely, they feel like moments that the director let Cage do whatever he wanted, knowing that the individual scenes could be clipped and shared online, turning the actor’s endless memeability into free advertising for the show.
Thus, the show frequently stops to let Cage just be weird. A late episode reveals that Ben’s secretary Janet (Karen Rodriguez) has always known that he was the Spider because she walked in on him wearing the costume when he was drunk. Cut to a short montage of Cage playing a drunken gumshoe in a superhero suit, babbling with the mask half over his face or giggling while playing with his goggles.
A more earned, but no less weird, scene occurs shortly after the aging Ben has a battle as the Spider, and returns home to rest for a moment. Before collapsing in his chair, Ben has to stretch and crack his joints, giving Cage an excuse to flail his hands and move his body in a staccato shudder.
