Selena Tan
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 the planet
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 (Marvel's)
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 complain
-ing about the idea of a purple
alien snapping away half the
universe. It doesn’t take long
for him to be sucked back into
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 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 country
-side, they still find ways to be
Lethal Protectors—such as stop
-ping 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 trans
-form 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
Against 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 hand
-ful 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 buddy.
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
Agony character—however,
she’s now, 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.
WESTFIELD VUE
box ticket 7.99£,
Book online, 6.99£.
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