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At the start of Spider-Man: Far From Home May throws a banana at Peter which he fails to notice coming which hits him. She then states that his "Peter Tingle", Spidey sense, was not working.

This continues to be a theme through the film until the final battle in London. I don't remember much of an explanation given for why it wasn't working and why it all of a sudden started to work again. He does have a brief conversation with Happy but I believe that just amounts to him saying "yeah it works again".

So, why was his "Peter Tingle" not working and how did it start working again?

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    The Peter tingle senses danger. Aunt May wasn’t a threat so it obviously didn’t sense it. Secondly, since peter trusted Beck, he never thought he was a threat until the London battle. So that’s the time it worked and not before that.
    – Shreedhar
    Commented Jul 4, 2019 at 8:07
  • @Shreedhar I think you're forgetting about the whole part after Peter learns about Beck and when he goes to Paris to talk to "Fury". His "Peter Tingle" doesn't work then even when he knows he is in danger.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Jul 4, 2019 at 8:11
  • yes but the difference between the fight at Berlin and London is that, in Berlin, Peter doesn’t know what to believe (what’s real and what’s not).. that could have blinded his spider-sense. But in London, you see that he’s saying to himself all the time “this isn’t real, this isn’t real”.. I guess that also counts. Just a hunch though.
    – Shreedhar
    Commented Jul 4, 2019 at 8:32
  • @Shreedhar Potentially but I'd guess that, that would kind of defeat the purpose of the "Peter tingle" somewhat.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Jul 4, 2019 at 8:34
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    Yeah. I guess something similar was in the animated series and also in the comics. Spidey couldn’t sense Mysterio’s illusions until he realized them to be just illusions and nothing real. If I find the exact issue, I’ll post it as an answer
    – Shreedhar
    Commented Jul 4, 2019 at 8:42

4 Answers 4

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After thinking this through a bit I think this is a combination of two things, Peter not being able to move on from post Endgame and Tony's death and the fact that he had given up on super hero life to a point.

He needed to move on

This is probably the main reasoning behind why it wasn't working well. Throughout the film Peter clearly has some issues with how things went down in Infinity War/Endgame and is struggling to cope with them. The main thing is that he is in mourning for Tony and this impacts him quite a lot during the film's events. It is only after talking to Happy and getting those feelings out in the open with someone who had equal, if not greater, feelings for Tony is he able to move on.

At the end of this conversation with Happy Peter feels like his "Peter Tingle" is going to work again. He is coping with Tony's death better and he also appears to believe in himself again which is a massive factor.

He needed to believe again

For the most part of the film Peter is just trying to be a normal kid again, he's trying to distance himself from the super hero lifestyle. He's given up on himself and doesn't want to be a part of it anymore. He goes so far as to ghost and refuse "Fury" for quite a while until he is given no choice.

After the conversation with Happy and that he realises what a threat Mysterio is he decides he needs to do something about it. He jumps back into the super hero lifestyle and accepts who he is and awakens his "Peter Tingle" again. This is probably helped by jumping into his work for designing and building a new suit using Tony's tech on the plane.

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Peter's "Peter Tingle" has been known to work inconsistently in the comics at times. Honestly, I think the best answer here is probably "plot", but for those looking for a more satisfying answer...

Peter's spider-sense sometimes doesn't go off when he doesn't think he's in danger:

Spider-Sense does not go off to those that Spider-Sense does not believe to be a threat.

Meaning that if Peter didn't think Mysterio was a threat, his spider sense might not go off. However, at the end of the movie, he does think Mysterio is a threat, meaning that his spider senses probably would work.

As to why it doesn't go off for May:

It will not go off for Aunt May or Mary Jane Watson

Yeah, there's a spider-sense clause for that.

Over all, besides plot reasons, I think Peter's problems with his spider-sense are purely psychological. His arc for this movie was pretty much about him trying to fill certain shoes and about him feeling inferior. The whole point the movie was him overcoming these obstacles, and it sort of makes sense that his spider-sense would be part of that.

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    "Meaning that if Peter didn't think Mysterio was a threat, his spider sense might not go off. However, at the end of the movie, he does think Mysterio is a threat, meaning that his spider senses probably would work." There is a gap in the film where Peter knows Mysterio is a threat before his "Peter Tingle" starts working again though.
    – TheLethalCarrot ♦
    Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 15:36
  • That's true. Good point.
    – user112668
    Commented Jul 3, 2019 at 15:37
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Re: Chipster's answer above, I think I'm going to elaborate on this.

The Spider-Sense may not be a form of ESP at all, but simply a shortcut between Peter's concious and unconscious mind. It happens in the real world; most people experienced this sometimes: on the surface, you are convinced that everything is OK, but somewhere deep in your subconscious something goes off because of a tiny detail your conscious mind didn't notice. You feel uneasy, but you don't know why.

The Spider-Sense is just a bridge between the conscious and the unconscious that allows the latter to send a brief message (the "tingle") to the former saying, "Here is where the danger's at!" in a way non-mutated brains can't - fast enough to dodge a point-blank bullet to the head.

This means Beck was that good at fooling Peter. Hell, he fooled Skrulls!

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    He probably wouldn't have fooled the real Fury, though. At least, I'd like to think so...
    – user112668
    Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 22:11
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I can think of a number of reasons. Firstly, being a man of science he would find it hard to trust something that is more like magic since it can warn him of things that he can't actually see.

Secondly, as other have said, he has been going through a lot recently and it could be messing him up inside.

Finally, even if it is working correctly, it could be giving him confusing information about the elementals since they aren't actually real. He might not be getting any danger warnings at all since the fights are all an act and he isn't in any actual danger.

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