CREDITS SPIDER-MAN 2, 2004 dir: Sam Raimi Tobey Maguire Kirsten Dunst Alfred Molina James Franco

“Guy named Otto Octavius winds up with eight limbs. What are the odds?”

Once again, there’s a mix of Los Angeles and the real New York – and even a bit of Chicago. After the success of the first film, the budget allowed for a little more filming in the real Big Apple.

There’s Columbia University again (where Peter Parker bumps into Dr Connors), and Aunt May’s house in Woodhaven, Queens. Harry Osbornís place is still a mix of Tudor City, Manhattan, and the Greystone Mansion, Beverly Hills (and studio sets).

Parker is sacked from his job delivering pizzas for Joe’s Pizza, 233 Bleecker Street at Carmine Street in the West Village.

Spider-Man 2 location: Doc Ock's laboratory: Second Avenue, East Village, New York Photograph: Malcolm Davis

The laboratory, in which Dr Octavius (Alfred Molina) disastrously demonstrates his fusion project and ends up with a permanent set of tentacles, is the old Second Avenue Courthouse building, now the Anthology Film Archive, 32 Second Avenue at Second Street in the East Village. Fittingly, it’s a centre for the preservation and exhibition of film and video.

'Spider-Man 2: The ‘Science Library benefit’: Rose center for Earth and Space, 81st Street Photograph: Nils Reucker

The ‘Science Library benefit’, at which everything seems to go pear-shaped for Peter as MJ announces her engagement and Harry turns ugly, is held at the Rose Center for Earth and Space, 81st Street at Central Park West, part of the American Museum of Natural History, housing the Hayden Planetarium (seen in Woody Allen’s Manhattan).

In LA, the interior of the theatre, where Parker tries unsuccessfully to catch Mary Jane’s performance in The Importance of Being Earnest (the elaborate exterior is a set), is the somewhat plainer Ivar Theatre, 1605 North Ivar Avenue in Hollywood.

Spider-Man 2: 'Doc Ock robs the ‘New York’ bank: 650 Spring Street, downtown Los Angeles

The bank robbed by Doc Ock, as Aunt May tries to get a loan, is 650 Spring Street (seen in David Fincher’s Se7en, among many other films). But when Spidey rescues May from Ock’s clutches, he gently deposits her in front of City Hall, City Hall Park, Broadway at Park Row in Lower Manhattan.

The ‘New York’ el, (the elevated railway) no longer runs through Manhattan, and had to be filmed on the Chicago Loop. After Doc Ock hurls a car through the restaurant window at Astor Place at Lafayette Street, East Village (site of the horrible mishap in Barry Levinson’s Sleepers).

Down on the Lower East Side, you can see Peter Parker’s apartment, where he spends most of his time avoiding the landlord. It’s 187 Chrystie Street, opposite Sara D Roosevelt Park.

Spider-Man 2 location: Chrystie Street, Lower East Side, New York

The church, where Mary Jane is due to get married, is Riverside Church, 490 Riverside Drive between 120th & 122nd Streets, up in Morningside Heights, north of Columbia University.