This was supposed to be a big year for Sony’s Spider-Man spin-off universe: Madame Web and her spider-girls, Kraven the Hunter making his big-screen debut, and a trilogy-capping installment for everyone’s favorite man-beast, Venom. All of these movies came out as planned, but the business of Spider-Man Without Spider-Man wound up looking more like a clearance sale, as Madame Web and Kraven the Hunter bombed, leaving Venom: The Last Dance as the company’s only successful superhero outing – meaning the only Sony superhero hit of the year also served as a series finale. Or was it? Now that Venom: The Last Dance is available on digital, let’s clarify how the movie actually ends and where it leaves both Venom and Eddie Brock, his reluctant host human turned best pal.
That turn is really the heart of Venom 3: After two movies consisting largely of feuding and getting acclimated to each other’s presence, Eddie (Tom Hardy) and the alien symbiote Venom (a CG creation voiced by Hardy) are working fairly well together at the outset of Venom: The Last Dance. But the relationship has taken its toll; Brock is suspected of a murder he didn’t commit in the previous film, and wants to clear his name – which is difficult as he and Venom are pursued by Xenophages, creatures sent from Venom’s home planet by the fearsome and mostly unseen Knull (Andy Serkis), who created the symbiotes. Knull and his creatures are after Eddie/Venom because together, they contain a codex that can unlock Knull from where the symbiotes have trapped him. This codex was created when Venom resurrected Eddie in a previous film; to destroy the codex (and keep the universe safe), either Venom or Eddie must die.
So, Does Venom Really Die In The Last Dance? Venom 3: Ending Explained
Honestly, all of that – the movie’s beginning – is much more complicated to explain than its ending, which is largely the same CG-gunk-and-smash you’ve seen in plenty of lower-tier superhero movies. At the about-to-close Area 51, Venom/Eddie leads a group of additional symbiotes bonded to other humans in the fight against the Xenophages. But ultimately, Venom, knowing that he or Eddie must die to destroy the codex, chooses to sacrifice himself. He separates from Eddie again, leads the Xenophages into a trap, and allows himself to be killed alongside them. The creatures are destroyed, and there’s no reason for Knull to send more (at least for now), because the codex is gone. Eddie wakes up in a hospital, realizes his friend is gone, and continues back to his original New York City home, where he gazes at the Statue of Liberty, something the Venom symbiote had wistfully hoped to see when they reached New York. It’s a surprisingly sweet ending for such a loopy series, and of course the sweetness only makes the series seem loopier. Such as the case for symbiotic relationships.
It’s also not precisely the end. It never is, is it? First of all, though the movie encourages us to think of “Venom” as the manifestation of the symbiote once it inhabits Eddie, the film’s climax shows how easily various symbiote samples can possess various humans in various combinations. With Eddie Brock still alive, it’s not unthinkable that he could encounter a symbiote again. Technically, this would not be Venom as we know him. But if Eddie Brock and a symbiote join forces to create a toothy, tongue-laden monster, isn’t that basically Venom in all but name? From the audience’s perspective, it’s Hardy’s Brock who is really the key to Venom, not the particular sample of goop. And hell, with Venom running around all over the country in this movie and previous movies, is that straight-up Venom Goop really in such short supply?
Or was all symbiote goop was destroyed in the big Area 51 blow-out? Let’s fast-forward to the post-credits scene (as opposed to the mid-credits scene; more on that in a minute). In a conclusion to a wan post-credits running gag, the post-credits scene shows the bartender who had previously encountered Venom before and after his exceedingly brief trip to the MCU escaping from the destroyed facility. Good for him! More importantly, the camera pans to reveal a vial containing a smidge of sample symbiote, one that powered Dr. Payne (Juno Temple) in the movie’s climax, that survived the blasts/acid baths. A cockroach skitters over and touches the symbiote, getting a little zap of electricity (this was a component of Dr. Payne’s personal symbiote hybrid… because she was struck by lightning as a child? This is never properly explained in a way that will make sense to anyone). A symbiote really only needs one living creature, even a cockroach, to attach itself and have a better way to steer its destiny, including finding a preferable human host at some point. Will this be Dr. Payne? Eddie? Or the bartender, who is much closer at hand at the moment? Will there be a DCEU/Sony Marvel crossover where Orm (Patrick Wilson) eats said cockroach?? The post-credits scene does not explain. It just leaves the door open for more symbiote shenanigans.
The mid-credits scene leaves another door even wider, probably to be nonetheless ignored forever. We see Knull, still trapped on the symbiote planet, make a bold and Thanos-y pronouncement: “Your champion has fallen, the King in Black is awake. Your world will burn, and you will watch!” So, wait: Knull wanted to capture Eddie/Venom (rather than killing them) so he could obtain the codex that would free him from his prison. Now that Venom foiled that plan and died, killing the codex with him, Knull’s reaction is: “Ha! Venom is dead and I’m here! It’s all over for you suckers!” Something doesn’t quite add up here. Kinda feels like Knull was going to declare victory no matter what, huh? In keeping with this bluster, Knull isn’t some long-standing legendary comics character like Thanos. Knull was introduced in the comics in 2018. He’s barely older than the first Venom movie. They couldn’t tease him in that one because he was just born.
In any event, this is especially funny given that the odds of seeing Knull again seem extraordinarily low, though he was the subject of much what’s-next teasing during the Venom: The Last Dance press rounds. That’s just about the perfect capper to the Sony SpideyLessVerse: Take the one breakout character, Venom, and assure fans that don’t worry, his story might be over, but the villain who barely actually appeared in the third movie is just getting started! In reality, Venom seems likely to appear in some form or another within a few years, whether in some kind of crossover or a rebooted Venom 4. Knull, however, seems likely to remain voided.
Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.
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