‘Venom’ Movies Recap: Things To Know Before ‘The Last Dance’

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Even a decade ago, when superhero movies were slowly taking up the movie biz, comic-book readers would have had a hard time accepting a Venom movie without Spider-Man’s involvement or a Joker movie without Batman’s presence, given the fact that both the anti-hero and the supervillain are intrinsically tied with their heroic foils. However, respecting continuity or making sense isn’t a major issue when cashing in on a popular IP is an option, which is why the weird strategy was followed through in the respective origin movies of these characters, even followed by lackluster sequels. The disastrous response to the recently released sequel to Joker has ensured any further attempt at doing so will be discouraged, and Sony is yet to learn the lesson as the third and final entry to their Venom movie series, Venom: The Last Dance, is about to release later this week. The first two Venom movies weren’t memorable to begin with, which is all the more reason to catch up with the major events of the previous two films to get a proper idea of what to expect in the final movie of the trilogy.

Spoilers Ahead


Venom (2018)

Carlton Drake, CEO of a high-end R&D conglomerate, Life Foundation, gets his hands on three alien parasitic symbiotes after the company’s space probe comes into contact with a comet carrying a huge number of symbiotic organisms looking for a suitable host. With a motivation that mimics that of Dr. Curt Connors from The Amazing Spider-Man, Carlton wants to use the symbiotes to bond with human beings to eradicate human imperfections and begins human trials by testing them on homeless people without taking into account the risks it might entail. Unable to bond with the symbiotes, a number of test subjects lose their lives, resulting in the company’s shady trial policy coming onto the radar of the investigative journalist Eddie Brock, a happy-go-lucky, hard-headed fellow who is having a tough time in both his professional and personal life due to his righteous zeal. Eddie’s attorney girlfriend, Anne, used to work for Life Foundation, and unbeknownst to her, Eddie took intel on the company at her disposal to directly confront Drake about his shady practices. As a result, Eddie ended up losing his job, and Anne was fired by Drake as well, which prompted her to break up with Eddie. 

Six months later, Eddie is once again drawn into Life Foundation’s secretive conspiracies as one of the scientists of the company, Dora Skirth, ends up exposing Drake’s actions to him. While venturing into one of the facilities where test subjects are held captive, Eddie gets exposed to one of the symbiotes, who later introduces himself as Venom, and Eddie becomes the first host to survive being bonded with one of the symbiotes. Venom takes over Eddie’s physical and psychological attributes, and a struggle for dominance begins as Venom becomes the ‘Other’ to Eddie’s own ‘Self’. Venom shares the true motive of the symbiotes of taking over a habitable world and forces Eddie to comply with his commands while imbuing him with supernatural physical capabilities—with a strong aversion to high-pitched noise and fire. Venom’s craving for human brains creates a problem as Eddie goes through a tough time while his symbiote alter ego occasionally feeds on bad guys. Eddie manages to take on Drake’s henchmen and an entire SWAT unit is sent to obtain the symbiote, but as he begins to enter a physically and mentally regressive state without finding a balance with Venom’s existence, he goes to Anne, and her present boyfriend, Dan, assists Eddie to get rid of the symbiote from his system. Eddie gets taken by Drake’s men, and in the meantime, a deadlier symbiote, Riot, manages to bond with Drake. Riot forces Drake to bring the rest of the symbiotes from the comet by imploring him to launch a rocket in the comet’s direction. Knowing that Eddie is in trouble, Anne becomes host to Venom and rescues him, and Venom eventually reconciles with Eddie, connecting over the fact that both of them are outcasts. Venom decides to square off with Riot after learning about his and Drake’s plan, as he wants to stop any more of his symbiote comrades from arriving on Earth. In the climactic battle, Eddie/Venom battles with Riot/Drake, and both Drake and Riot perish after getting caught in a rocket explosion. Venom is thought to have met his end during the explosion as well, but Eddie has formed a partnership with him in secret as the duo decides to take a heroic turn and continue fighting the good fight. In the final moments of Venom, the big bad of the upcoming installment, the psychopathic serial killer, Cletus Kasady, aka Carnage, is teased as Eddie arrives at a prison to take an interview with the maniac. 


Let There Be Carnage (2021)

In the second installment, the serial killer Cletus Kasady and his fatal attraction for his longtime lover, Frances Barrison, come into focus, which acts as a unique foil to Venom and Eddie’s love/hate relationship with each other. A sonic-scream-powered mutant, Shriek was separated from her lover Cletus as she was taken to the Ravencroft Institute for superhuman criminals at a young age, escorted by guard Patrick Mulligan. Unable to control her powers, Shriek ends up creating a ruckus during a prison transfer, resulting in Mulligan shooting her in the eye. Decades later, now a vicious serial killer, Kasady is imprisoned and decides to take journalist Eddie Brock’s help to share his story with the world, intending to send a message to Shriek, who is getting experimented on in Ravencroft. With Venom’s help, Eddie finds clues in Kasady’s cell, which leads him to uncover details about more of Kasady’s victims, which results in Kasady getting a death sentence while Eddie’s career sees a facelift. 

Kasady’s troubling childhood comes to light as he asks Eddie to pay him a final visit, and by provoking him to get close, he takes a bite off of Eddie’s hand. Kasady’s blood mixed with a portion of Venom’s symbiote creates a hybrid crimson symbiote, Carnage, which bonds with Kasady in secret and protects him from getting executed. Meanwhile, Eddie and Venom have a fallout, as Eddie’s refusal to either allow Venom his own freedom or acknowledge the symbiote’s contribution in his life prompts Venom to leave him. Anne had revealed to Eddie about the news of her upcoming engagement with Dan, which acts as a catalyst in Eddie and Venom’s separation as well. On the other hand, after forming a bond with Carnage, Kasady goes on a rampage, and after massacring the guards, he breaks out of prison and makes a deal with his symbiote to destroy Eddie and Venom in exchange for finding Shriek. Given Eddie’s connection with Kasady, Mulligan, who is a detective at present, decides to seek his help in tracking Kasady, and Eddie learns about his relationship with Shriek. In hopes of luring Kasady to them, Mulligan holds Eddie captive, who contacts Anne for help. After going through multiple hosts to assuage the pain of separation from Eddie, Venom has settled with Mrs. Chen, Eddie’s neighborhood convenience store owner. After learning about this, Anne manages to convince Venom to forgive Eddie and reunite with him to take on Carnage and Kasady. As Anne transports Venom to Eddie by once again temporarily acting as its host, Eddie acknowledges his mistakes, prompting Venom to make amends with his old pal. 

Kasady breaks out Shriek from Ravencroft, and the duo burn down the orphanage where they met each other for the first time. However, Shriek’s sonic powers create discomfort for Carnage, who continues to dominate her, much to Kasady’s dismay. Carnage wants to end Venom, while Kasady and Shriek have a score to settle, respectively with Eddie and Mulligan, and the villain trio end up abducting Anne and Mulligan. As Kasady and Shriek decide to have a wedding at a cathedral to celebrate their revenge, Eddie and Venom engage in a final showdown with them, with Dan’s help, that is. Shriek presumably kills Mulligan before meeting her end by falling to her death, and as Carnage and Kasady get separated, Venom devours both the symbiote and its host. However, it is shown that Mulligan survives after all and seemingly gets infected with a new hybrid symbiote. 

In the final moments, the overarching connection with the MCU is shown as Eddie and Venom are shown to be transported to the prime earth timeline following the effect of Doctor Strange’s botched spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home. However, the duo get sent to their own universe once again after Strange fixes the rupture in the multiverse in Spiderman: No Way Home. 


Did Patrick Mulligan Become Toxin?

In the final moments of Let There Be Carnage, Detective Patrick Mulligan is shown to have gained some sort of power as he survives a near-death situation and is hinted to have a major role to play in the future. In comics, Mulligan becomes host to Carnage’s offspring symbiote, Toxin, and it seems that in the movie too, during the climactic battle with Shriek and Carnage, Mulligan was infected with symbiote offspring. In the upcoming Venom: The Last Dance, Mulligan is shown to have been taken into captivity and is probably going to be used by the government as a deterrent against Venom, and Eddie and his symbiote are fugitives at the present. 


Who Is Knull?

The final entry of the Venom movie series will bring the storyline full circle, as Venom and the symbiotes’ true origin will be highlighted with the introduction of the big bad of the overarching narrative, Knull, the god of symbiotes. Known as the King in Black, Knull is a primordial fallen deity who created the Necrosword—All Black—and created the symbiotes from a celestial’s remains. As shown in the trailer of The Last Dance Knull was the reason the symbiotes were fleeing from their planet in the first place, and now he is coming after all of them, including Venom, who seemingly possesses something the god of symbiotes desires. It is heavily hinted that the final part of the trilogy might be the last rodeo of Eddie and Venom; at least in Sony’s iteration of it led by actor Tom Hardy, as there is a strong possibility that the duo won’t make it to the end. Knull’s presence in the MCU was already hinted at in Thor: Love and Thunder with Gorr the god butcher’s Necrosword; it will be interesting to see whether that connection is further explored in the upcoming movie as well. Knull’s story arc needs to be integrated better to allow MCU to explore the character in live-action played by none other than Andy Serkis, and who knows, we might get to see Venom with a new host in the form of Mac Gargan or the creation of Anti-Venom in the near future. 


Siddhartha Das
Siddhartha Das
An avid fan and voracious reader of comic book literature, Siddhartha thinks the ideals accentuated in the superhero genre should be taken as lessons in real life also. A sucker for everything horror and different art styles, Siddhartha likes to spend his time reading subjects. He's always eager to learn more about world fauna, history, geography, crime fiction, sports, and cultures. He also wishes to abolish human egocentrism, which can make the world a better place.


 

 

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