Venom: The Last Dance is finally here, and with it comes the final chapter in Eddie Brock and Venom's story—or at least, this iteration of it.
The Last Dance wastes no time, picking up the story from the moment audiences last saw him: getting booted from the MCU. Now, following his big bout with Carnage in Let There Be Carnage, the hero is a fugitive on the run—both from the law and Knull, The King in Black.
Venom: The Last Dance Introduces Knull
The movie begins with a quick introduction to Knull, played by Andy Serkis (and not Norman Reedus), in a motion capture performance.
The movie only shows the big bad hunched over his throne, with long hair covering his face. In his hand is the Necrosword, Knull’s iconic weapon.
It’s revealed that the Symbiotes rebelled against Knull and imprisoned him on Klyntar. To get out, he needs a Codex—something Venom and Eddy have managed to create.
While he hasn’t found it yet, he starts sending his Xenophages (think generic giant monsters) to find the one with the codex. Conveniently, they can all summon big Doctor Strange-esque portals to get wherever they want across the universe.
Catching Up With Tom Hardy's Eddie Brock (and Venom)
Then the movie gets back to Eddie, who is in the Marvel Cinematic Universe complaining about the idea of a purple alien snapping away half the universe. It doesn’t take long for him to be sucked back to his own universe (as previously seen).
When he gets back, he’s still in Mexico, and Cristo Fernandez’s bartender is waiting—though this universe’s is a bit worse for wear.
Eddy and Venom soon realize that they are still fugitives, being hunted internationally now. While they’re running around the Mexican countryside, they still find ways to be Lethal Protectors—such as stopping a dog fighting ring and eating the heads of those running it.
The two decide they want to head to New York City, where Eddie knows someone they can blackmail to help clear their name.
Area 51: New Home For Lost Symbiotes
Now, the movie takes a moment to set up Area 51, which is being decommissioned. However, that’s irrelevant because, as they make very clear, the real alien monitoring and research center is underneath everything, safe and sound.
This is where Chiwetel Ejiofor’s Rex Strickland and Juno Temple’s Dr. Payne are introduced. Strickland is a no-nonsense military man, while Payne is a determined scientist haunted by the death of her brother (who was struck by lightning) while she was young.
These fine folks discovered a handful of new symbiotes that crash-landed on Earth and claimed to be seeking refuge from something (Knull).
Stephen Graham’s Detective Mulligan is then reintroduced to the story. Inexplicably, the Toxin symbiote that was subtly set up in Let There Be Carnage left him offscreen, leaving him to die.
Instead, Rex and Dr. Payne let a new symbiote bond to him. It seems like this entity is supposed to resemble Lasher, but no proper name is ever given.
He serves as a living exposition machine for Rex and Dr. Payne, keeping them up to date with the incoming threat and how Knull is looking for the Codex.
Eddie Meets His First Xenophage
Back with Venom and Eddy, they come across the Xenophage for the first time while riding alongside an airliner jet. While the encounter is short, they end up falling to the ground while it gets sucked into the engine—possibly dooming the whole plane in the meantime, but viewers never learn.
As Eddie drifts down to the ground with his symbiote parachute, Venom explains what that creature was. Knull’s hunters have found them and, more importantly, the Codex.
The Codex was created the moment Eddie died in the first movie and has been with them ever since. It will remain in existence as long as both are alive—it’ll be destroyed the moment one of the duo dies.
The hunters can only see the Codex when Venom is in true form. So his floating head is safe, as are the various venomizations seen throughout.
After wandering through the desert, they eventually get ambushed by Rex Strickland’s men. Since Venom can’t fully transform, this leaves Eddie vulnerable.
In the struggle, Eddie kills one of the soldiers in self-defense.
Eventually, Venom has to transform fully to save Eddie from dying via waterfall. In doing so, it alerts the Xenophage to their spot, which rips through the soldiers—allowing Eddie and Venom a moment to escape.
Eddie and Venom Spend Time With a Family, Visit Las Vegas
As they continue their journey across the country, they run across Rhys Ifans’ character (who has no affiliation with Kurt Connors) and his family. The group lives on the road, hoping to stop by Area 51 one last time to see an alien.
They offer to give Eddie a ride, which gives Venom time to think about how nice it would have been to have a family with his symbiotic counterpart.
They drop Eddie off in Las Vegas, where, as fate would have it, he runs into Peggy Lu’s Mrs. Chen. They go back to her room to clean up, and it’s there where the two feature in a dance scene that gives Spider-Man 3 a run for its money.
In order to dance with Mrs. Chen, however, Venom transforms fully into himself—immediately alerting the Xenophage to their location. As for why he did it in the first place, who knows?
Changing into Eddie confuses it, leading it to jump away after crashing into the penthouse. However, they don’t get a break as Strickland and his men promptly crash in and kidnap Eddie, separating him from Venom.
Venom and the Symbiotes Team Up Again Knull's Hunters
Eddie wakes up in Area 51, in a cell next to Detective Mulligan, whose new Symbiote tells Eddie that Knull is looking for them.
Strickland comes in hot, frustrated, and ready to pry the facility away from Dr. Payne. He shoots Eddie, but Venom has snuck his way to the scientist beside his friend, saving him just in time.
Not much time is given before the Xenophage crashes into the facility. Mulligan’s symbiote tries to slow it down, but both are unceremoniously killed.
Most of the last act sees a handful of unnamed Symbiotes attach to similarly unnamed lab workers and employees as they throw themselves at the Xenophages, who are growing in number. One of the key employees that gets their own Symbiote is Christmas Pin, who becomes green and red when they partner with their own alien friend (she even sticks around the longest).
It’s also worth noting that the incredibly dull-witted hippie family decided to sneak into the decommissioned Area 51 site just in time to get caught up in the big climatic finale.
Despite their best efforts, Eddie and the Symbiotes don’t make a dent against the Xenophages, who can regenerate from next to anything. Venom convinces Eddie that the only way to stop them is for one of them to die, destroying the codex.
Venom then lures them all to the acid tanks (previously shown at the beginning of the movie), where Strickland activates the acid on them all—killing both them and Eddie’s best bud.
In this chaos, June Temple’s Dr. Payne also gets her own Symbiote, which helps save someone’s life. Visually, the design is clearly going after the iconic Scream character—however, she’s purple and blue instead and is, somehow, a speedster.
Those After Credit Teases
In the final scene of the movie, Eddie Brock walks around New York, reminiscing and mourning the loss of Venom. He sees the Statue of Liberty in honor of his alien partner.
Following that, the mid-after-credits scene sees Knull ranting and raving like a lunatic in his chair about how he will kill everyone. That might be hard since he still doesn’t have his codex (but he sure does act like it).
The final after-credits scene sees the return of Cristo Fernandez’s bartender, who is fleeing the remains of the secret alien facility that now looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There’s a brief shot of a broken Symbiote container, alluding to the fact that one remains—either attached to the bartender or the cockroach about to enter the veil.
Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters. Be sure to check out what critics are thinking so far!
