Venom: What That Final Scene Really Means

WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for Sony's Venom , in theaters now.

There’s a lot going on in Venom, especially for a movie that’s nominally a pretty straightforward film about Venom trying to stop another symbiote. With the massive tonal shifts that hit the narrative, it can be understandable to lose track of certain things.

Here’s how the movie ends things for the symbiotes, leaving the door open for a return to romance between Eddie and Annie and setting up future Venom stories.

The Death Of The Life Foundation

Things don’t really work out for anyone who directly works for the Life Foundation. Dr. Dora Skirth, who tries to leak knowledge about the symbiotes to the world via Eddie Brock, ends up killed by a forced attempt to bond with a symbiote. The attempt also kills the symbiote. In fact, of the three symbiotes Drake recovered, only Venom survives. That is until Riot shows up, bonds with Drake, and sets up a rocket to take them to space so they can bring the rest of the symbiotes to Earth.

After murdering most of his command staff while preventing a mission abort, Riot tries to climb into the rocket but ends up fighting Venom. The battle ends when Venom rips open the fuel tanks to the shuttle just as it’s trying to take off. Riot (and Drake) are killed in the explosion, although it's hinted that a piece of Riot could still exist in Venom after the two briefly combined into a single symbiote.

This means that there’s only one symbiote on Earth currently, although that could change if/when Venom spawns Carnage.

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Eddie & Annie

Eddie survives the explosion thanks to the intervention of the Venom symbiote. But the fire seemingly overwhelms the alien, and it is believed killed. Eddie visits his ex, Annie, and the two speak about the experience. Annie is still thinking about the power she got when she became She-Venom for a moment, and asks Eddie if it’s really gone.

He lies, telling Annie the symbiote is truly gone and that he’s gotten a new journalist position. He mentions that it’s a return to the written word, suggesting he’s leaving online videos and moving back into traditional press. This could be an easy way to bring Eddie to somewhere like the Daily Bugle, but it’s left unclear in the film as to who it is that has hired him.

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While the two don’t get back together and Annie is still with her new boyfriend, Doug the doctor (who has actually proven to be a pretty reliable and understanding guy throughout this whole endeavor), they do leave on much better terms then when they first split up.

There’s even a hint that she might still have feelings for Eddie, considering the kiss she gave him to transfer the symbiote over to him. She denies this though, and says it was Venom’s idea to kiss Eddie, which just opens up a whole different can of worms. The subtext here is clear, with the film deliberately leaving the possibility of the two of them getting back together if there’s ever a follow-up to the character.

The scene ends with the required Stan Lee cameo, who tells Eddie that the two of them can make it work. It’s unknown if he’s speaking about Eddie and Annie, or (given the revelation in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 that he’s affiliated with the Watchers) if he knows about Eddie and Venom.

Lethal Protector

The film closes with Eddie walking down the street, having a conversation with the symbiote. While everyone else he walks by looks at him like a crazy person, he casually ignores them and lays out some ground rules for Venom. If the pair are to be together, Venom can only ever kill and/or eat bad people. He stresses this to the symbiote, who agrees to the rule, thus firmly establishing the basic principals for the sequel to focus on the Lethal Protector version of the character.

While the two are in their local bodega trying to find some food, the kindly shopkeeper Mrs. Chen is threatened for protection money (which also happened earlier, before Eddie had bonded with the symbiote). This time, Eddie stands up, breaks the man’s arm, and transforms into Venom. It initially looks like Venom is going to let the crook go with a warning to leave San Francisco and never return, but it ultimately decides to chew down on the man instead.

Mrs. Chen stares in horror as Venom turns back to Eddie, who walks out of the store saying he’s got a parasite. The movie ends with Eddie and the symbiote bickering over whether calling the symbiote a parasite is an insult, or a term of endearment. While played for laughs, it sets up the character dynamic for the pair going forward, indicating that Venom will become something of a hero, despite the movie's marketing suggesting otherwise.

In theaters now, Venom is directed by Ruben Fleischer and stars Tom Hardy, Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed, Scott Haze, Reid Scott, Jenny Slate,Woody Harrelson, Sope Aluko, Scott Deckert, Marcella Bragio, and Michelle Lee.