This submit incorporates spoilers for Venom: The Final Dance.
The query on the core of Venom: The Final Dance is an easy one: Is that this actually the tip of Venom?
Is that this actually Tom Hardy’s final hurrah as journalist-turned-anti-hero Eddie Brock? Is the best comedian guide film love story — a person standing in entrance of a symbiote asking to be cherished — lastly performed?
Going by the occasions of the film, it’s a sure to all three. However The Final Dance has two post-credits scenes that depart open the smallest risk that this may not be the tip of the alien’s superhero period.
Within the movie, Brock and Venom — the alien symbiote with whom the reporter shares a physique — are hounded by a villain named Knull (CGI actor extraordinaire Andy Serkis). Knull is seemingly some form of terrible, horrible evil — a being draped in shadows with startlingly white hair — that’s trapped in a world of everlasting darkness. The one factor that may free him is a codex (which seems like a bit glowing, swirling gem), which, as a result of that is ostensibly a film about Venom, is definitely a part of Venom’s physique. Knull sends unkillable alien creatures referred to as xenophages after Venom and Eddie, with the intent of killing one or each and bringing again the codex so Knull can unleash destruction and despair upon the universe.
In the meantime, Venom and Brock are on the run after the occasions of Venom: Let There Be Carnage. They’re hiding out in Mexico, however after Venom eats some males, they determine to attempt to construct a brand new life for themselves in New York Metropolis. Venom tells Eddie that he desires to see the Statue of Liberty, largely as a result of Eddie explains how she welcomes anybody who wants America’s shelter and safety. (Sure, Venom: The Final Dance really capabilities as an allegory for immigration reform that includes a literal undocumented alien.)
Due to Knull and his xenophages, in addition to interference from the American navy, the pair by no means make it to New York. As a substitute, they’re caught at Space 51, the place issues look bleak for Venom. Within the symbiote’s final stand, he absorbs Knull’s homicide beasts and douses himself in corrosive acid — the one factor robust sufficient to dissolve the xenophages. Venom’s remaining act is sacrificing himself for Brock and Earth, and as he and his attackers die, so does the codex.
Within the film’s remaining scene — after an prolonged Eddie and Venom montage — Eddie visits New York Metropolis and gazes on the Statue of Liberty. It’s a sight that he is aware of Venom would have cherished. And this of us, is the tip … or is it?
Venom: The Final Dance’s credit scenes depart the door cracked for future symbiotes
The primary of The Final Dance’s credit scenes is a brief one. Knull seems on display screen once more, proclaiming that Venom has died and that he’s coming to take over the universe! Will he? Effectively, Knull’s return will largely rely on how a lot cash this movie makes. If it does rake in some money — Venom motion pictures do significantly effectively abroad — Knull might be again. But when Knull returns, wouldn’t this level to the return of Venom as effectively? You’ll be able to’t have a villain and not using a hero! That’s not how superhero motion pictures work!
These days, the once-solid, surefire success of a superhero film seems extra weak, and studios are scrambling. Marvel’s post-Endgame design has fallen aside, and the studio is banking on bringing again Robert Downey Jr. to assist jump-start the engine. Warner Bros. is headed for a Jame Gunn-led reboot of its DC Comics properties. Sony’s tiny coterie of Marvel-adjacent movies has been a semi-bright spot within the panorama, so if this movie’s a success, they’re liable to discover a technique to convey the franchise again.
The Final Dance’s second credit scene occurs after all of the credit scroll, and it incorporates a have a look at the rubble that continues to be at Space 51 the place Venom perished. It’s all destroyed! All the things is a large number! All this has allowed Brock’s bartender from Mexico, who we see detained by the US navy early within the movie, to interrupt out of his cell, and he wanders throughout the desert.
The necessary half right here is that we see a cockroach strategy remnants of a symbiote. (I absolutely perceive that sentence is foolish, however Venom is foolish.) The gist: If this cockroach — nature’s final image of survival — touches the symbiote, then stated symbiote may presumably dwell. Due to this fact, if any a part of Venom was spared by the acid, it may presumably survive by way of cockroach too.
What this all means is that though the film stated farewell and though it most likely is a goodbye to Hardy, there’s nonetheless a risk that Venom or Venom-affiliated heroes (e.g., different symbiotes) may dwell on. That ambiguity is nice for anybody who loves these motion pictures, or anybody who possesses the odd, delusional fantasy of seeing some form of Sony shared universe the place Madame Internet, Morbius, and Venom all hang around like buddies, or anybody who desires to lastly get the Venom x Tom Holland Spider-Man crossover that’s been relentlessly teased.
Just like the aforementioned Knull credit scene, what is going to finally decide Venom’s future motion pictures would be the field workplace. If a lot of individuals go see this film and it makes tens of millions and tens of millions of {dollars}, this gained’t be Venom’s final dance. Followers of closure be damned.
