Are you out? Venom: The Last Dance your head is spinning, your heart is racing, not sure how to feel? You are welcome to feel like Eddie Brock. And we hear it.
Really, really good ending, all things considered. Writer/director Kelly Marcel even gives fans one last BFF moment between Eddie Brock and Venom (both played by Tom Hardy) set to a sentimental soundtrack. The real Fast and Furious–a stylish moment of reflection on masculinity. But is this really—as the title promises—Eddie and Venom’s last dance?
To follow Poison again Venom: Let There Be CarnageVenom: The Last Dance pits these tough but portable anti-heroes against an array of obstacles and enemies. While on the road on a mission to clear his name from a murder case, Eddie discovers that he and Venom are being chased by a high-level military group, determined to lock them up in Area 51. They are also the key to unlocking an ancient evil in the world, so the target on their backs is now much wider. In between fighting aliens and green soldiers, they must also manage their weirdness while drifting away from a normal family of hippies.
But if the big fight has led to a lot of explosions and deaths, what do we have left to look forward to if there’s going to be another Venom-verse movie? Let’s dig into it.
Obviously, spoilers below.
Venom flies in style.
Credit: Sony Pictures
Is Venom really dead?
In Venom: The Last DanceEddie discovers that because Venom brought him back from the dead in a previous accident, they created a codex. That simple MacGuffin serves as the key to unlocking the ruthless Knull, who once dominated the symbiotes until they imprisoned him and escaped from his prison.
To find this codex/key, Knull (Andy Serkis) sends his version of the hounds – giant, scorpion-like creatures called xenophages – to Earth. These evil monsters can track down the codex, but only when Venom takes over Eddie’s body fully. Of course, as established in Let there be adventures, Poison doesn’t like to be kept in Eddie’s closet!
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However, the codex will be destroyed if Eddie or Venom die, meaning that Knull’s escape plan will fail. For soldier Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), the answer to avoiding alien invasion and global annihilation is simple: assassination.
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At first, Eddie and Venom reject this extermination option, teaming up with hordes of freed symbiotes and scientists to try to fight the xenophages. But in the end, Venom realizes there’s only one way to keep his friend – and the planet he loves – safe. So, using his powers, his glowing slime ropes move all over the invading xenophages, dragging them into what is a shower of melting acid. With Strickland’s help, Venom sacrifices himself to save Eddie. But is he really gone?
The movie would have you think so, ending with Eddie in New York City, where he promised to drink Venom. In a bittersweet moment, he says goodbye to his friend while looking at the Stamp of Freedom, a sign of welcome to foreigners arriving in this storied city. But hey, remember that first sequence in a bar in Mexico?
When you tip the bartender (Ted Lasso‘s Cristo Fernández), Venom slowly threw himself into the frame of money he left behind. When Strickland discovers this “disposal,” the soldier comments that this is his way of life. The sample was then taken to Area 51, where it was placed under the care of Dr. Teddy Payne (Ted LassoTemple of Juno). In the ensuing battle between the symbiotes and the xenophages, it is unclear what happened to the small glass container that held Venom’s waste. But there may be an answer in the post-credits scene.
What is the deal with Dr. Teddy Payne and Agony?
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Juno Temple, and Clark Backo in Columbia Pictures’ “Venom: The Last Dance.”
Credit: Laura Radford / Sony Pictures
It seems that Marcel is mixing some characters in the comics. There, Dr. Thaddeus Paine is a toxic enemy who cannot feel physical pain, but he conducts inhumane research on others who can actually feel it. In The Last DanceTeddy Payne appears to be transgender in character. Or perhaps Teddy’s twin – struck by lightning in their youth – was this case Theodore? In any case, the movie version of Payne doesn’t seem like a villain at all. He is very sensitive to the symbiotes in his care, and eventually joins their ranks.
In the end, Teddy watches his colleagues either get swept away by the symbiotes or volunteer to join them in the fight against the xenophages. But he has something up his sleeve, or, well, in his pocket. When it appears that his assistant nicknamed “Christmas” (Clark Backo) is in danger of dying in an explosion, Teddy breaks a glass container in his pocket, which contains a small, purple symbiote. Quickly passing her body, she seems to become Agony, a symbiote with feminine curves, purple skin, and long flowing hair. Pain has the same enhanced strength, invulnerability, and speed of his brother Venom. Also, this purple symbiote also has the power of lightning, which makes it unique – and goes back to Teddy’s painful past.
Although most of the other symbiotes introduced in the climactic battle are cleared, Agony returns to Teddy at the end of the battle. And we can tell him that his influence remains that Teddy’s left arm, which had been paralyzed since his childhood brush with death and lightning, is now able to move and bend without a problem. What will this mean, there must be a Poison 4? Will Agony and Teddy Payne be Eddie and Venom’s allies? Will they become enemies? Will they fall in love twice?
We are eager to find out.
Is Knull defeated forever?
No. But that’s a mid-credits story.
What happened to Cristo Fernandez’s bartender?
Yes, that’s the story of the post-credits narrator.
Venom: The Last Dance opens exclusively in theaters October 25.