In the 2007 film *Spider-Man 3*, the characters’ fates are deeply divided between those who find spiritual or moral redemption and those who suffer total physical or professional ruin.
### **Who Ends Up Better?**
* **Peter Parker (Spider-Man):** While he suffers immense loss, Peter ends the film as a more mature and emotionally healthy person.
* **Emotional Growth:** He finally achieves closure regarding Uncle Ben’s death after learning the truth about Flint Marko and choosing to forgive him.
* **Moral Clarity:** He successfully rejects the influence of the symbiote, learning that "it's the choices that make us who we are."
* **Career:** After exposing Eddie Brock’s fraud, Peter wins the staff photographer competition at the *Daily Bugle*, providing him with more professional stability than he had at the start.
* **Harry Osborn (New Goblin):** Ironically, Harry ends up "better" in a spiritual sense despite the most tragic outcome.
* **Redemption:** At the start of the film, he is consumed by a murderous vendetta. By the end, he learns the truth about his father’s death, reconciles with Peter and Mary Jane, and dies a hero saving his friends. He dies with a clear conscience, no longer haunted by his father's ghost.
* **Ursula Ditkovich:** As the landlord's daughter who harbored a crush on Peter, she is one of the few characters whose life remains consistently pleasant. She provides Peter with emotional support (and cookies) during his "dark" phase and remains a kind, stable friend throughout his transition back to his normal self.
### **Who Ends Up Worse?**
* **Mary Jane Watson (MJ):** Professionally and emotionally, MJ ends the film at a significant low.
* **Career Failure:** At the start, she is a Broadway star. By the middle, she is fired and forced to work as a singing waitress in a jazz club, a job she feels humiliated by.
* **Trauma:** She is manipulated by Harry, dumped by Peter in a public and cruel manner, and later physically assaulted by Peter during his symbiote-fueled rage at the jazz club.
* **Relationship Status:** Though she and Peter share a silent dance at the end, their relationship is "on life support," and the ending is somber rather than celebratory.
* **Eddie Brock (Venom):** Brock suffers a total downward spiral.
* **Total Ruin:** He begins as a competitive photographer and ends as a disgraced fraud. After being fired and publicly humiliated by Peter, he bonds with the symbiote and is eventually killed by one of Peter’s pumpkin bombs.
* **J. Jonah Jameson:** The bombastic editor-in-chief is left in a state of professional and personal frustration.
* **Public Humiliation:** He is forced to print a massive retraction for the first time in his career after the Eddie Brock scandal.
* **Personal Loss:** During the final battle, he is seen being "scammed" by a small child who charges him $100 for a camera that has no film.
* **Flint Marko (Sandman):** Legally and personally, his situation is grim.
* **Fugitive Status:** Although Peter forgives him, Flint remains a fugitive from the law and a "monster" made of sand.
* **Unresolved Motivation:** The film ends without confirming if his daughter, Penny, ever receives the medical treatment he was stealing to fund. He drifts away as sand, emotionally at peace but physically and legally worse off than when the movie began.
### **Summary Table**
| Character | Status at End | Specific Detail |
| :--- | :--- | :--- |
| **Peter Parker** | Better (Spiritually) | Learns forgiveness, gains a staff job, but loses his best friend. |
| **Harry Osborn** | Better (Morally) | Dies, but dies redeemed and at peace with his father's legacy. |
| **Mary Jane** | Worse | Career in tatters, relationship strained, victim of trauma. |
| **Eddie Brock** | Worse | Dead; reputation destroyed prior to death. |
| **Flint Marko** | Worse (Physically) | Remains a fugitive with an uncertain future for his sick daughter. |
| **J.J. Jameson** | Worse | Forced into a public retraction; loses both lead photographers. |