venom: the last dance official movie poster — 2024
🏆 Rank #11 — Best of 2024 Kelly Marcel

Venom: The Last Dance

2024 1h 49m PG-13 Kelly Marcel
Action Sci-Fi Adventure
6.0 /10

IMDb Rating

32K+

IMDb Votes

39%

Rotten Tomatoes

$476M

Box Office

Synopsis & Review

Eddie and Venom are on the run, hunted by both Earth's authorities and the Xenophages — alien hunters dispatched by the symbiote homeworld's ancient overlord, Knull, to retrieve a powerful key fused to their body. As military forces led by General Strickland close in and the alien threat escalates toward a full-scale invasion, Eddie and Venom must outrun everyone while confronting the reality that their unlikely partnership may be approaching its final act.

Closing out Sony's Venom trilogy, The Last Dance arrives with the unmistakable shape of a contractual obligation rather than a story with anywhere urgent to go, recycling road-trip structure and government-pursuit beats from the prior two films while introducing cosmic stakes — alien Xenophage hunters, the symbiote god Knull, Area 51 — that the film has neither the time nor the inclination to develop with any real weight. Writer-director Kelly Marcel, making her feature directorial debut after co-writing the previous two entries, understands what made this franchise work in the first place: Tom Hardy's gleefully unhinged commitment to playing both halves of Eddie and Venom's bickering, codependent relationship, and the film leans on that chemistry whenever the plot threatens to collapse under its own narrative debt. A handful of genuinely funny bits coexist uneasily with action sequences that feel obligatory rather than essential, and the emotional farewell the title promises lands with more sentiment than earned weight. It's a serviceable, if unambitious, send-off for a franchise that always worked better as a showcase for Hardy's performance than as a coherent piece of world-building.

Why Watch This Movie?

Tom Hardy's Full Commitment to Eddie and Venom's Codependent Bond

Across three films, Hardy's dual performance as both halves of this bickering, oddly tender relationship remains the franchise's single most reliable pleasure, and this final entry leans on it harder than ever.

A Genuinely Memorable Las Vegas Set Piece

The film's centerpiece detour through a Vegas casino, complete with a dancing Venom, delivers exactly the unhinged comic energy that made the original film a sleeper hit.

Closure for a Trilogy That Knows What It Is

Whatever its narrative shortcomings, The Last Dance offers a clear emotional ending point for Eddie and Venom's relationship, giving longtime fans of the duo a definitive send-off.

Higher Cosmic Stakes for Symbiote Lore Fans

The introduction of Knull and the Xenophages, while underdeveloped here, expands the symbiote mythology in ways that comic readers have anticipated seeing on screen.

Cast & Crew

Director

Kelly Marcel

Studio

Sony Pictures

Eddie Brock / Venom

Tom Hardy

General Strickland

Chiwetel Ejiofor

Dr. Teddy Payne

Juno Temple

Detective Mulligan

Stephen Graham

Original Score

Dan Deacon

Official Trailer

© Sony Pictures. Trailer embedded via YouTube.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need to watch the previous Venom films first?

Yes, fairly strongly recommended. The film picks up directly from plot threads in Venom: Let There Be Carnage and assumes familiarity with Eddie and Venom's established relationship, prior symbiote lore, and supporting characters like Mrs. Chen and Detective Mulligan.

Is this really the last Venom movie?

The title strongly suggests a definitive ending, and the film is structured as a conclusion to Eddie and Venom's specific story arc. However, Sony has not ruled out further symbiote-related projects within its broader Spider-Man universe continuity going forward.

Who or what is Knull, and will he appear in future Sony films?

Knull is the ancient, god-like creator of the symbiotes in Marvel Comics lore, introduced in this film as the unseen force commanding the alien Xenophage hunters. The film sets up his presence without fully resolving his threat, leaving the door open for future projects within Sony's Spider-Man universe.

Does Venom: The Last Dance connect to the mainline Spider-Man or MCU films?

Loosely. Sony's Spider-Man Universe films exist in a separate but occasionally overlapping continuity from the MCU, with prior post-credits sequences hinting at crossover potential, though this film itself remains focused on Eddie and Venom's self-contained story.

If you loved Venom: The Last Dance, these films belong on your watchlist.