 Webb stated that he and the crew wanted to keep the stunts more grounded physically , a challenge for a superhuman character . The stunt performers included the Armstrong family , Vic and Andy , along with Richard Norton who plays a SWAT team member . Andy Armstrong was the stunt coordinator while Vic was the second unit director . To determine how Spider @-@ Man should swing , Andy videotaped an Olympic Games gymnast swinging on a horizontal bar . Andy noted that in the computer @-@ generated swing in the earlier Spider @-@ Man films , " he swings down at the same speed as he swings up , " and this " constant " speed is unlike a real gymnast 's movement where " he 's accelerating until he reaches the bottom , then as he starts to come up , he 's decelerating until he gets to the top of his swing and he actually gets negative gravity , where he 'll go weightless for a second , and then the next swing starts , and it becomes another violent swing again . " Vic felt that Spider @-@ Man 's moves were comparable to those of Tarzan , and he wanted to add that in the film . While filming in New York City , they swung a man through traffic down the street . Then , while the crew built a rig hundreds of feet long over Riverside Drive in Harlem , Andy built a car rig with a series of wires to help with effects which Webb said required an " incredible wealth of acrobatics " . These rigs were over 200 – 300 feet long and demanded months of rehearsals and design . According to Andy , operating the rigs " was a combination of a lot of human skills and mechanical engineering . " The purpose of the rigs was to depict Spider @-@ Man 's swing in a way that wasn 't computer @-@ generated . Garfield was reported to be involved with some of the stunts . Leaked pictures reveal Garfield with a nosebleed that reports claimed was from swinging . Arad explained that " Andrew is not only a brilliant actor but he is a sportsman . This gave us the opportunity to try things with him that were it not so it would have been almost impossible . " 
