It feels like it took forever, but we’re finally here. It’s the end of the Tomy HardyVenommovies and for many, it’s a sad moment to see the pair go. Whilst the films themselves weren’t particularly memorable, they were a better attempt at a live-action Venom than what we got before. Sorry Topher Grace, you were awful.

But for Tom’s “last outing” it seems audiences weren’t pleased. Across the board we’ve got a Google Audience rating of four out of five from 2836 reviews. 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes from 183 reviews, six out of ten from 30 thousand reviews on IMDB, and a Critics Score of 41 from 46 reviews over on Metacritic. So it’s not doing great. But we’re going to run down the ending to show how this chaotic mess of goopy aliens finally fits together with the ending of Venom: The Last Dance, explained.

Venom: The Last Dance - Venom watching the sky for a xenophage attack.

Note: Venom: The Last Dance was made on a budget of 120 million, but returned 317 million. Whilst it’s a box office success, the review scores don’t paint a pretty picture. Plus, we don’t know what was spent on marketing.

Warning: Spoilers For The Ending Of Venom: The Last Dance Are Below.

Venom: The Last Dance - The introduction of the special forces symbiote hunters.

Venom: The Last Dance Ending, Explained

So,we’re now three films inand from the outside without watching the movie you would assume that having “The Last Dance” in the title seems pretty final. But you would be wrong as by the lookswe still have at least one or two movies left in the tank. However, we’re getting ahead of ourselves, here’s the rundown.

Venom: The Last Dance hasthe gruesome twosome on the run. Fresh off of taking downCarnage and Cleetus Cassidy,the pair are in Mexico hidingfrom Symbiote Hunting Aliens, the FBI, the American Army and a special task force that’s been set up to neutralize and contain symbiotes. Quite the odds.

Venom: The Last Dance - The Symbiotes and humans working together.

It allculminates in a final showdownof Venom, rescued Symbiotes, and the human military against the Symbiote-hunting aliens known as Xenophages.

The symbiotes come fromthe Imperium Projectand the Xenophages are following venom for his Codex. As the battle rages onthe Xenophages slowly kill all of the Symbiotesone by one as they’re much more aggressive and durable than them. Plus, they have two overpowered abilities in the form of anorganic blender for a mouth, and extremely rapid regeneration.

Venom: The Last Dance - Venom dragging xenophages into an acid bath.

The Codex isa small organic device created when a symbiote and host’s life force mixafter a host is resurrected by its symbiote. Knull needs it tobreak out of his prison, and it’s our ‘Magical MacGuffin’ for the movie.

As the Symbiotes are whittled down it ends up just beingEddie and Venomhiding out in a crashed helicopter. The two havea little touching moment togetherbefore they walk out and lure in the Xenophage that are massing around them.

Venom: The Last Dance - A cataclysmic detonation at the abandoned Area 51 base.

The creatures get close and suddenlyVenom lashes out with his tentacles. Grabbing them and slowly absorbing them into a big gelatinous black mass above Eddie. The two then march toward an industrial bath with “Hyper Acidic” written on it.

However,Eddie is ejected by Venomat the last few steps. Brock then just just sits there as Venom sacrifices himself to destroy the Codex that the Xenophages are hunting.

Venom: The Last Dance - Brock waking up in hospital to a military reception.

Venom, with help from Rex Strickland,bathes in acidas he and the Xenophages melt away into nothing. Strickland then pops a grenade for his owncherry-on-top self-sacrifice sceneand the whole area explodes violently. Eddie survives all of this bylying under a big iron doorthat’s vaguely covering him as Hyper Acid and fire bathes the entire area.

The Codex is destroyed along with Venom, and we seeKnull inside his prison outside of our galaxy having a fitas he’s sealed away once more. We then jump ahead a bit after the big explosive spectacle where we seeEddie laying unconcious with a broken leg, to find Brock waking up in a hospital bed. There he’s told by a military officer that Venoms gone.

Venom: The Last Dance - Venom drooling at the camera.

Eddies record has also been expunged forthe services to the nationthat the two of them provided in neutralizing the alien threat. Essentiallywiping the slate clean and allowing Brock to start freshand regain the life that he lost at the start of the franchise.

We’re then presented with an attempt atan emotional montage of Eddie and Venom togetherthroughout all the films before we cut to the credits. If you’ve watched every film back-to-back by now, including The Last Dance, this scene doesn’t particularly hit hard.

Venom: The Last Dance - A venom controlled octopus in the final credits of the film.

They’vebaited Venom’s death at least once in every movieand by that point you’re already just sitting waiting for the reveal that he’s fine. Which they of course do once more, albeit ina post-credits sceneafter a final tease for another film.

Venom: The Last Dance Post Credits Scene, Explained

So to rip the bandaid off quickly,no Venom is not dead. Whilst it seems like he’s gone for good in the ending, once again he is still alive. Plus, there’sa few signs in the last back chunk of the moviethat pretty much confirm we’re getting another movie at some point.

For example, we still have Agony kicking around. She’sa purple symbiote that was released by Doctor Payneand possesses super speed on the level of The Flash. There’s also Venom’s last words to Eddie which are:“It’s only bye for now”. Implying that he’s coming back.

Venom: The Last Dance - Knull awake inside his dark prison.

Finally, in a post-credits scene we seea black cockroach leaving the devastated Area 51. Which is a final nod to the audience that Venom is still alive and kicking. Which you may think is not that subtle, but inanother post-credits scene before thiswe see Knull threatening that he’s coming to Earth soon.

We also seeconcept art of Venom having fun in various animals, potentially making his way back to Eddie in the future for another film. So it seems like they’re trying to set up a big, and not as satisfying,Thanos-style showdownat some point in the future.

Potentially a big fight between Knull, Venom, Agony, and any other Symbiote they might decide to introduce. This would beaccurate to the comics after all. Or, there could be additional unknown Symbiote survivors fromthe absolute massacre conducted by the Xenophageswhen they raided Area 55.

With how well the movie performed at the box office,despite the middling scores, the smart money is on them making one last run. They could see it asa good financial decision, so we’re not done with the Lethal Protector just yet it seems.

There’s also a bit of a void with competent or entertaining superhero movies of late. In a Post-Marvel burnout world,the Venom movies are in the perfect positionto try and go out on a high note.