Venom: The Last Dance is the latest instalment in the Sony Marvel Universe that has already spawned two earlier Venom movies (2018 and 2021), Morbius (2022) and Madame Web (2024). However, it's really an excuse to let the watchable Tom Hardy strut his stuff as beleaguered journalist Eddie Brock, the unassuming guy who happens to be infected with a sharp-tongued alien parasite that can overtake his body at a moment's notice.
It's a conceit that allows Hardy to run the gamut of emotions from earnest to moderately tortured, but he's at his best in the series when he can fully go off the leash into broad, madcap comedy. Here are the best moments from the series so far to get you primed for Venom: The Last Dance.
1. The lobster tank
Did you know that Tom Hardy improvised the most famous scene in Venom? The symbiote doesn't appear but who needs it when you've got Hardy climbing into a tank full of lobsters? Reports suggest that Hardy saw the set decoration and an opportunity to enliven an otherwise mechanical psychological meltdown scene, hastened by Eddie Brock's knowledge of the alien symbiote living inside his body.
2. Eddie/Venom's first battle
Hardy famously said that his favourite 40 minutes of Venom content were eliminated from the final edit, and based on this scene, one imagines a madder, more raucous and comedically inclined film overall. Hardy ably sells the notion of a bewildered person suddenly blessed (or cursed) with the ability to formulate stringy limbs, in the process obliterating a small army of criminals. It's not so much about the special effects as it is about Hardy's enjoyably frazzled facial expressions, undoubtedly an effective surrogate for a viewer's reaction.
3. Eddie/Venom makes breakfast
In the sequel Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Eddie and Venom are reconciled – sort of. Hardy deploys some enjoyable deadpan reactions in this scene, which is akin to Morecambe and Wise cranked up to 11 as Eddie and his symbiotic alter-ego clash over how to make the ideal breakfast. It showcases a smooth assimilation between on-camera performance and CGI, but then director Andy Serkis is well-versed in this arena having played both Gollum and King Kong.
4. Eddie/Venom in the nightclub
Before long, Venom discovers the ability to go rogue and exist outside of Eddie's body. This leads to the film's best scene in which the symbiote crashes a packed dance floor replete with glow sticks and song requests from the paying punters. We don't get to see Hardy in this scene but as with the earlier breakfast scene, the actor's vocal intonations as the character, audibly reveling in his new-found freedom, allow Hardy to make his mark on the sequence.
5. Eddie/Venom at the beach
What could be more wholesome than two friends enjoying a Hawaiian sunset? The fact that said friends are a human and an alien symbiote exemplifies how wacky the Venom series is. One senses that the two halves of Eddie's body are now fully reconciled.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage ends with Eddie/Venom being transported to another dimension (or so it seems) where they glimpse J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) speaking on the TV. It seems they've transferred from the Sony Marvel Universe into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which makes us keen to see how Venom: The Last Dance will pick up the thread of the story.
'Til death do they part this October. Click the link to book your tickets for Venom: The Last Dance, which opens on October 25th.
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