Every superhero has special powers. Hope this brings a tear to your eye and a smile to your face

Original Source: Rochester Democrat & Chronicle, A Gannett Corp.

SUPER MOMENT FOR A SPIDER FAN

Greece man lives out his dream as an extra on set of ‘Amazing Spider-Man 2’

Justin Presciutti, 21, in his Greece home Sunday, has surrounded his entire life with the Spider-Man character. His passion for the superhero won him a spot as an extra at The Amazing Spider-Man 2 that is filming in Rochester. MARIE DE JESUS/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Tiffany Lankes

Staff writer

Every superhero has special powers.

One of Spider-Man’s is a certain strength that allows him to scale the sides of buildings.

Justin Presciutti has strength of a different sort: The kind that helps you overcome a lifetime of challenges. At 21, Justin cannot walk. He is developmentally delayed, and severe brain damage causes him to have daily seizures. But the ability Justin lacks in real life, he makes up for by escaping into a fantasy world where even a young man confined to a wheel chair can swing from the city’s tallest buildings. And last week, Justin got a chance to experience that fantasy world like never before, if only for a few hours. The die hard Spider-Man fan got to be an extra on the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2, part of which is being filmed in Rochester.

“Because of his disability and his limits, he sees Spider-Man and would love to be able to do all of the things he does,” said Ralph Presciutti, Justin’s father.

“He lives his life through Spider-Man.”

Justin Presciutti was welcomed onto the set of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 as an extra last week. PROVIDED PHOTO

Caught in the web

Justin wishes he could swing like Spider-Man.

He’d love to have super strength and the ability to climb buildings, shooting webs from his hands to stop the bad guys. His parents’ ambitions for their son are far simpler: They wish Justin could walk, and stop suffering daily seizures.

Born two months premature, Justin suffered a massive brain hemorrhage that destroyed much of his brain tissue. The hemorrhage also blocked the pathways through which fluid drains from the brain, causing it to accumulate and cause further damage, a condition commonly known as water on the brain.

Doctors told his parents to let him go. They could operate, but Justin would likely spend his life in a vegetative state. They told them to think of his life’s quality. “They told us you just need to let him go,” Ralph Presciutti said. “We were like ‘We have to do whatever we can do. We have to try.’ ” Justin may not be able to swing from buildings, but he has already accomplished far more than his doctors ever expected.

He learned to walk as a child, but ultimately time chipped away at his strength and confined him to a wheelchair. He has won two medals in the state Special Olympics.

Sure, things since then haven’t always been easy for the family. While most people his age are getting ready to graduate from college, Justin Presciutti is finishing his last year at the Board of Cooperative Educational Services, where he learns vocational skills and has a job. His parents are trying to get him into a program next year so he can continue his education, but space is limited and there’s no guarantee he will get a spot. But Justin doesn’t allow himself to wallow in his shortcomings or feelings of inadequacy like those that dogged his favorite super hero’s original alter ego.

Instead, he dreams of putting on a super hero’s mask and swinging.

A Spidey sense

Justin’s wardrobe is so Spider-Man centric that when someone from the production crew called and said he could be in the film, but couldn’t wear any red or blue clothes, his dad had to go out and buy him a new set of outfits for the filming.

His room is covered with Spider-Man memorabilia. He has memorized the words and actions of every Spider-Man flick. Each year his family makes a trip to Universal Studios in Orlando to see his idol. When Ralph Presciutti learned part of the movie would be filmed in town he set out to try to get his son a spot as an extra. He set up a Facebook page promoting his son as The Amazing Spider-Fan. The page now has more than 1,000 likes. But just a few days before production was set to start they had heard nothing.

Then late one Friday night before shooting was set to take place the phone rang. Justin and his parents were invited to be extras for the movie.

“As parents, you always want the best for your kids,” Ralph Presciutti said.

“Obviously we can’t give him the ability to walk and not have seizures. Next to those two things there’s nothing more we could have wished for Justin. We could never give him anything better than this.”

Their part was simple: Walk down the street and then react to the enormous crash scene happening in front of them.

The film’s cast and crew welcomed the family on the set, giving Justin trinkets to remember the experience.

Justin hoped to meet Spider-Man, but super heroes tend to stay to the shadows. As the week came to a close, Justin still had not met his hero.

On Friday, coming down from the excitement of the week, Justin sat in his wheel chair fidgeting his leg and getting his last glimpses of the set before the weekend.

Then, he looked up and walking down the street toward him was the Amazing Spider-Man coming to meet his Amazing Spider-Fan.

“They want you to meet somebody Justin,” Ralph Presciutti said.

The hero crouches down next to his wheelchair, reaching over to give Justin a hug. Justin leans in to give Spider-Man a gentle peck on the cheek, actions more appropriate for a small child than a 21-year-old.

“We talk about economic development and how it’s helping the area, but these are the things you can’t measure or calculate that still matter to the community,” said Cassie Harvey, a spokesperson for Empire State Development, upon hearing the story.

**A YouTube video of the meeting had nearly10,000 views by Sunday.

The meeting even caught the attention of the film’s director, Marc Webb, who on Saturday Tw eeted a photo of the pair with the text “Your friendly neighborhood Spider-Fan.”

“Justin is a great reminder of what Spider-Man is all about,” Webb said in response to a request for a comment for this story.

“We’re all honored to have him on the set.”

“He can do anything,” Justin said of his hero. “I like him because he swings from vines and he has special powers … I don’t have any special powers.”

But what if some special powers are measured by more than scaling buildings?

TLANKES Twitter.com/TiffanyLankes

Justin Presciutti of Greece on set of filming for The Amazing Spider-Man 2. PROVIDED PHOTO