What is the plot?

On the alien world called Klyntar, the imprisoned god Knull searches for a single object: the Codex. Knull dispatches vicious hunters known as Xenophages across the cosmos to retrieve that trace of symbiote life that can free him. The narrative then drops to Earth, where Eddie Brock and his symbiote companion Venom drink in a Mexican bar. The pair talk and stagger through the night; while they are there, portals open that yank them back into their home universe, depositing them in the very same bar. As they leave the bartender's establishment, a scrap of Venom is inadvertently left behind in a glass.

Back on the run after the recent Carnage catastrophe, Eddie learns from news reports that the apparent murder of Detective Patrick Mulligan has made international headlines and that Eddie has been singled out as the prime suspect. Pressured to clear his name and desperate to reach New York, Eddie decides they must travel there, even though he is formally banned from the city. Before they depart, Venom supplies a sample of himself at the bar, and strangers who saw them leave provide material evidence later used to track them.

On the road to New York, Eddie and Venom stumble upon a warehouse where thugs keep dogs caged for fights. Four men confront Eddie and menace him; Venom answers by tearing through the criminals. Venom wraps its tendrils around each man's neck and bites through skulls, killing them outright, then rips open crates to free the dogs. The two leave the scene, unaware that a Xenophage has begun to trail them.

Across the country, General Rex Strickland, who heads a covert operation called Imperium based out of a soon-to-be-decommissioned Area 51, receives orders to track Eddie and secure the alien life-forms his men have been containing. Strickland visits the Mexican bar, questions the bartender who witnessed Eddie's departure, and recovers the Venom sample discarded in a glass. Meanwhile, at Area 51, researchers Dr. Teddy Paine and her colleague Sadie "Christmas" examine a captive who survived an encounter with Carnage: Patrick Mulligan, now hosting a symbiote called Toxin. Mulligan, through Toxin, warns Teddy and Sadie about Knull and the Codex; Imperium interrogators pull details from Mulligan that convince Strickland he must bring Venom in.

Eddie and Venom attempt to stow onto the side of a commercial airplane to make the coast-to-coast trip. As they cling to the fuselage, the Xenophage that has tracked the Codex locates them and attacks. Venom rips a wing panel and forces the predator into a jet engine; the creature's limb is shredded as it is sucked through the turbine, but the Xenophage regenerates and pursues them into the Nevada desert. Forced to bail from the aircraft, Eddie parachutes down alone while Venom drops with him. Stranded in the scrub, Eddie and Venom have a tense exchange: Venom explains that Knull created the Xenophages to seek the Codex, which forms whenever a symbiote resurrects a host. Because Venom saved Eddie's life in the past, their bond contains the Codex, making them the Xenophage's target. To move faster across the open country, Venom possesses a wild horse and they ride for shelter.

Strickland dispatches mercenaries to close the net. At a shallow river crossing the hunters corner Eddie, forcing a fight that separates him briefly from Venom. Eddie wrestles two of Strickland's men and in the scuffle he shoots and kills one in self-defense; the act leaves him shaken. Venom returns as a black streak, rescues Eddie, and they plunge over a waterfall together. The Xenophage catches the recovering mercs, lunges, and tears them apart like a living wood chipper; the creature devours and shreds Strickland's soldiers, leaving only wreckage in its wake. Venom and Eddie slip away on the chaos the Xenophage creates.

Eddie wanders into a stretch of roadside where a nomadic family--Martin Moon, his partner Nova, and their children Echo and Leaf--live in a dilapidated van and follow the road to Area 51 as tourists. The Moons give Eddie food, listen to his story, and offer him a ride as far as Las Vegas. During the trip they sing and trade stories; Venom bonds briefly with young Leaf after Eddie reassures the boy there are no monsters nearby.

In Las Vegas Eddie and Venom try to blend into casino life. They are refused entry for improper dress until Venom snatches a drunk's suit and they enter. There Eddie reconnects with an old acquaintance, Mrs. Chen, who gives them privacy and a room to clean up. Venom slips out to dance with Mrs. Chen in the casino; their playful moment triggers the Xenophage's tracking instincts, which lock on to Venom's display. Strickland's men, tipped off by Imperium's surveillance, close in and overwhelm the pair. Guards separate the host from the symbiote; Strickland's operatives capture Venom and render Eddie unconscious.

Transported to Area 51, Eddie regains consciousness in a sterile containment cell and faces interrogation. Strickland confronts him, insisting that if the Codex cannot be kept safe, it must be destroyed--and that requires killing either Eddie or Venom. Imperium shows Eddie the labs where dozens of other symbiotes are caged and where Mulligan remains under observation, his body housing Toxin. Teddy and Sadie press Mulligan for more information; through Toxin Mulligan reiterates Knull's aim to reclaim the Codex and escape his prison. Strickland tightens security and prepares to execute his order to neutralize Venom.

While Strickland prepares his plan, Sadie, who has been working close to the symbiote enclosures, experiences a sudden bonding: one of the captive symbiotes latches onto her. Venom, still alive, manages to break free of his containment under the chaos of Strickland's operations and leaps to Sadie to protect Eddie during a staged execution attempt. As Venom slides back to Eddie, the Xenophage appears at the perimeter of the base, drawn by the Codex's signal. The creature crashes through labs and corridors in a frenzy, slaughtering personnel and ripping open containment cells. Toxin, inhabiting Patrick Mulligan, rushes forward to hold the Xenophage off long enough for others to react; Toxin engages the predator directly, grappling with it, and is shredded and killed in the struggle--the Xenophage tears Mulligan apart before moving on.

Teddy and Sadie set off the remaining symbiotes trapped in the facility. In the commotion several researchers are latching with symbiotes: Sadie becomes host to the Lasher symbiote, while Teddy is later forced to bond with Agony to survive. The newly bonded hosts assume monstrous forms and fight the Xenophage on the laboratory floor. The Xenophage, however, regenerates rapidly; it slices through one symbiote after another. Laboratories flood with biomass and wire as the creatures clash. The Xenophage kills multiple symbiote hosts and researchers; it decapitates or rips apart those it finds, leaving a trail of bodies and shredded containment suits in its path. The creature's signal reaches deeper into the cosmos: Knull responds by opening portals that pour additional Xenophages through to Earth.

Outside the compound, the Moon family arrives to witness the base under attack. Eddie races to find them and to shepherd them to safety. He scales a service tower when a section collapses; laboring, he reaches the Moons and fights to keep them from falling into the facility's burning wreckage. Back inside, Venom coordinates with the newly freed symbiotes--those hosts willing to fight--to pin the Xenophage down. Sadie, wearing the Lasher symbiote, leads a counterattack, whipping tendrils and striking at the predator's limbs. The Xenophage kills one of the symbiotes when it separates from a host; the autonomous symbiote is torn apart, and the host survives in shock after a rescue. Simultaneously, the Xenophages pouring through the portals increase in number and press the defenders harder.

Strickland watches his men fall and realizes his earlier orders have failed. Compelled by guilt at the slaughter and by his duty to stop the invasion, he switches his objective from capturing Venom to destroying the Xenophages. He and Venom fashion a plan: lure the growing pack of Xenophages into a kill zone where acid containment vats sit above a service catwalk. Venom allows himself to become a magnet for the predators; he draws them into his mass and then forces himself to hold them within his body as Eddie is pushed clear to a safe distance.

Venom wraps the Xenophages into his own form, the creatures thrashing as he becomes a living prison. Eddie, separated from his friend, watches through broken glass as Venom slowly strides under an acid reservoir. Strickland, wounded and drenched in acid spray as the containment system ruptures, climbs to the control panel and triggers explosives to rupture tanks and shower the area with corrosive liquid. The acid pours down onto Venom and the Xenophages; the predators scream as they dissolve, and their regenerative tissue burns away in the tanks. Venom experiences molecular breakdown as the acid eats through him; he pulls together the invading creatures into one bulk and holds them there. While the acid consumes them, Strickland is sprayed as well, mortally wounded by the chemical deluge and the blast. Realizing his own fatal condition, Strickland arms a secondary grenade and detonates it to ensure the facility's destruction takes the Xenophages with it. The explosion collapses the catwalk and engulfs Venom and the creatures in flame and corrosive vapor.

Eddie loses consciousness as the facility explodes around him. The blast and the acid reduce Venom and the Xenophages to viscous remnants within the charred ruins. The impact kills Strickland outright; his body lies among debris and spent ordinance. The Xenophages are destroyed in the acid and explosion. Among those who survive, Teddy activates Agony and uses the symbiote's speed to dive across the wreckage and pull Sadie to safety, preventing her death by delivering them both out of the blast radius seconds before the final detonation. Other hosts and surviving personnel crawl from the smoking rubble; several captive symbiotes perish in the conflagration.

When Eddie awakens, he finds himself in a government hospital bed guarded by military personnel. A federal official informs him that because of his actions--luring the Xenophages and assisting imperiled civilians--his criminal record will be formally expunged. The official also warns him that the events at Area 51 are classified and that Eddie must never speak of them. Eddie receives confirmation that Patrick Mulligan is dead; his body was torn apart by the Xenophage during the containment breach. Strickland lies dead among the ruins; his attempt to stop the invasion cost him his life. Venom, the official states, did not survive the acid and explosion.

Eddie travels to New York City to settle his affairs and to fulfill a promise to Venom. He takes a quiet moment at the Statue of Liberty, seated on a bench, and looks across the harbor while remembering the time he spent with his symbiote. He speaks aloud to the empty air as if to his friend, thinking back to the companionship and the final sacrifice. The city skyline glitters as he sits; Eddie appears at peace despite the loss.

In a mid-credits moment, Knull's voice reverberates across space. The imprisoned god declares that the universe is no longer safe now that Venom has fallen, promising retribution. In the film's final seconds, after the base fire grows cold, the bartender who once encountered Eddie and Venom escapes the ruins of Area 51. He stumbles through soot and rubble until he collapses outside. Near his boot, a small, black cockroach crawls over a broken vial containing a particle of symbiote biomass. The residue adheres to the insect's shell, and the cockroach scuttles out into the night, carrying a sliver of life that once belonged to Venom. The scene freezes on the tiny crawling creature as the credits begin to roll.

What is the ending?

We don't know. The movie Venom: The Last Dance has not been released yet, and specific plot details about its ending are not publicly available. While the film is scheduled for release in October 2024, the precise narrative conclusion remains unknown at this time.

What is the nature and significance of the Codex within Eddie and Venom?

The Codex is a mysterious element carried by Eddie and Venom, which the alien hunters called Xenophages are tracking. It is crucial because it holds the key to breaking the celestial prison of the dark god Knull. The Codex can only be destroyed if either Eddie or Venom dies, making it central to the conflict and the ultimate sacrifice in the story.

Who are the Xenophages and what role do they play in the story?

The Xenophages are symbiote-hunting monsters sent by Knull to capture Eddie and Venom because of the Codex they carry. They relentlessly pursue the duo, leading to intense battles, including a major confrontation at Area 51 where symbiote-infected hosts fight against waves of Xenophages. Their presence drives much of the plot's tension and action.

How does the relationship between Eddie Brock and Venom evolve throughout the movie?

Eddie and Venom's bond is tested repeatedly as they flee from alien hunters and military forces. The film explores Venom's emotional depth and Eddie's growing reliance on his symbiotic partner, highlighted during their time hiding in a Las Vegas casino. Ultimately, Venom makes a selfless sacrifice to save Eddie and destroy the Codex, underscoring the strength and complexity of their partnership.

What is the role of the military agency Imperium and General Strickland in the story?

Imperium, led by General Rex Strickland, is a secretive military agency that captures Eddie and Venom and separates them. Strickland is determined to obtain the Codex and stop Knull's freedom. He oversees operations at Area 51, where symbiotes are studied and used to fight the Xenophages. His actions escalate the conflict and lead to key battles in the film.

What happens during the major battle at Area 51?

At Area 51, symbiote-infected hosts, including Patrick Mulligan and Dr. Teddy Payne, join Venom to fight off waves of Xenophages. The battle is intense and costly, with Mulligan killed in combat. Venom ultimately sacrifices himself by leading the Xenophages into acid tanks, destroying them and the Codex, preventing Knull's release. This battle is the climax of the film's conflict.

Is this family friendly?

Venom: The Last Dance is likely to be rated PG-13 and may contain intense action violence and some scary creature/symbiote scenes that could be disturbing for younger children. While specific details aren't fully confirmed, Venom movies typically include:

  • Intense action sequences with violent confrontations
  • Graphic body transformation scenes
  • Potentially frightening symbiote creature imagery
  • Some mild language
  • Potentially intense/scary monster-like visual effects

Parents of younger children or sensitive viewers might want to review the specific rating and content warnings closer to the film's release date. The movie is generally aimed at teens and adults rather than young children.

Is the movie funny?

We don't know. As of now, detailed reviews about the comedic tone of "Venom: The Last Dance" are not available since the movie has not yet been released. Previous Venom movies starring Tom Hardy have had comedic elements, with Hardy's portrayal of Eddie Brock often including humorous interactions with the Venom symbiote, but the specific humor in this upcoming film cannot be confirmed at this time.