Venom: The Last Dance, Ending Explained (2025)

Editor's Note: The following article contains spoilers for Venom: The Last Dance

Venom: The Last Dance is officially in theaters and it marks the end of an era. Venom 3 is both the end of the symbiote saga in the Sonyverse as well as the end of Tom Hardy playing Eddie Brock in that universe. The ads for the film have shown that Sony is trying to make this movie the biggest of the bunch. Closing with a bang with several other stars and the big bad of the Marvel universe making an appearance.

Between the star-studded cast as well as the arrival of Knull. The villain that calls himself “the king in black” is trying to get out of his cage and this particular flick does indeed show how Eddie and Venom and that bunch of stars go to work trying to keep him locked away.

What Is Venom: The Last Dance About

In the final installment of the Venom trilogy, the movie opens right where the cutscenes from Venom: Let There Be Carnage left off. Eddie/Venom are in Mexico at a bar drinking away their sorrows while on the run for the supposed killing of San Francisco detective Mulligan (who was actually impaled by Carnage).

While initially setting off for New York City (which hinted about that long-awaited Spider-Man crossover) they are sidetracked when one of Knull’s Xenophages finds them hanging on the side of passenger jet. The Xenophage was sent by Knull to find the Codex, which is a key that could let him out of his prison formed when a symbiote fully bonds with its host by bringing that host back to life.

With Eddie/Venom on the run from the Xenophage, they run into a family that is headed to Area 51 in New Mexico because the government is decommissioning the site, as is demonstrated by the government agencies melting every trace of the installation that is there using something called hyperacid which is shown eating through anything.

On his attempted trek from Mexico to the East Coast Eddie also runs afoul from the general who is heading up the security of Area 51 and the general sends out his troops to try and retrieve the Venom symbiote and potentially kill Eddie. There is one battle where it looks as though the general’s troops might win the battle, but the Xenophage shows up and decimates the troops, allowing Eddie and Venom to escape.

Eventually, all of the characters introduced to the audience throughout the movie take various roads the Area 51, and Eddie is captured and imprisoned in the same cell where the previously thought dead Detective Mulligan is being stored after having been forcibly merged with a different symbiote. It’s here where the humans that man the lab, including the general hell-bent on shutting down research on the symbiotes find that Knull’s minions are on the way.

How does Venom: The Last Dance End?

With all of the main characters gathered at the lab, the Xenophage arrives and calls for reinforcements and Knull sends more of his minions to try and retrieve the Codex. Knowing that Venom is in over his head trying to fight multiple monsters on his own (especially since it’s shown early on they are almost entirely unkillable) Mulligan’s symbiote convinces several of the doctors to merge with other symbiotes who have been stored in the lab for research.

Soon a full-on war breaks out between the Xenophages and the other symbiotes with the intent being to save as many lives as possible and also stop Knull from getting his hands on the Codex. Eventually, the battle leaves the lab and involves the entire compound, including the family that has snuck onto the grounds of Area 51 through a completely unguarded hole in the fence, despite the sensitive material contained at the base.

The final blow to Knull’s forces comes when Eddie is badly injured and Venom realizes that he must sacrifice himself in order to save everyone and do away with the Codex, sealing Knull on his prison planet. He heals Eddie one more time, and then separates from him, instead joining with one Xenohage after another until Venom is turned into a Xenophage/symbiote monster.

He then communicates to the general - who is mortally wounded- that he needs to turn on the hyperacid dispenser and then forces the Xenophage monster to stand under it while the acid dissolves Venom and the monsters. As a final blow, the general sets off several explosives he was carrying, killing the general, Venom and the Xenophages once and for all.

The final scenes show Eddie waking up in a hospital area with a military man telling him that he’s been let off the hook for the murder of Sullivan and will be set free as long as he agrees never to tell anyone what happened at Area 51.

Eddie eventually gets to New York City and Venom: The Last Dance ends with Brock staring out over the water at the Statue of Liberty, which his old friend symbiote had told him he wanted to see.

Venom: The Last Dance