Director Sam Raimi's Spider-Man still holds up today. Most of the 2002 film looks great, largely due to an emphasis on practical effects over the often-questionable CGI of the era. For example, although the Green Goblin's costume looks goofy, it possesses an innate charm because it was real suit worn by actor Willem Dafoe. That's in contrast to the CGI version seen in the latest trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home. Yet out of all the practical elements in Spider-Man, the cafeteria scene truly stands the test of time.
Shortly after Tobey Maguire's Peter Parker is bitten by the radioactive spider, he returns to Midtown High. As a result of the spider bite, Peter begin to experience weird changes to his body. As he sits alone in the cafeteria, Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst) starts to walk toward him. Realizing she isn't heading to his table, Peter looks down until his emerging spider-sense warns him of potential danger: He realizes Mary Jane is about to slip on a spilled drink, and springs into action. He catches Mary Jane with one hand and then her lunch tray with the other. Most impressively, Peter then flawlessly catches each item.
While it's a fun scene on its own, what makes it more impressive is that none of it is CGI: Maguire actually caught all the food himself, but it was no simple feat. Special effects artist John Dykstra noted in the film's DVD commentary, "This next gag here, where he catches all the stuff, he actually did that. Pretty good. Take 156."
Describing it as "pretty good" sounds like a vast understatement. Not only did the actors and crew have to put up with filming a scene 156 times, the sequence required a 16-hour day to complete. That's a lot of commitment for a scene that lasts less than a minute, let alone a shot that's finished in 10 seconds, but it shows the dedication everyone had to the movie's practical effects.
Further in the commentary, Dunst confirmed the practical effect, saying, "Pretty impressive. They used sticky glue stuff to stick his hand to the tray." So with a tray glued to his hand, Maguire had to perfectly catch food flying up in the air.
While this scene could have been easily been created using CGI, or even cut, everyone was committed to making the movie feel authentic. It's another good reason to re-watch 2002's Spider-Man, and appreciate Raimi's dedication to practical effects and to the wall-crawler.