Venom 3: Who Dies in The Last Dance?

Venom: The Last Dance‘s title always implied that there would be some kind of finality to the saga of Eddie Brock/Venom (Tom Hardy), and with finality often comes death. But in a comic book movie about Marvel’s symbiote race and their god, Knull (Andy Serkis), death can mean a lot of things – so doesn’t make it out of Venom: The Last Dance alive – or at least, kind of alive?

MILD SPOILERS: In Venom: The Last Dance, Eddie and Venom get a massive target on their back when Knull awakens. Eddie and Venom’s deep bond creates the kind of “Codex” that Knull needs as the key to his galactic prison. The entire movie sees Eddie on the run from Knull’s horde of symbiote beasts (Xenophages), unable to tap into Venom’s full powers, lest he become an instant homing beacon for Knull to follow. The chase ends at the mysterious Area 55 facility outside Las Vegas, where Eddie and Venom must make a last stand.

Who Dies in Venom: The Last Dance?

Throughout Venom: The Last Dance it’s teased that the death of either Eddie or Venom will destroy the codex and end the threat of Knull getting loose. During the Battle of Area 55, The alien-hunting Imperium group has to set their captive symbiotes free to bond with some science and security personnel. Even with the added muscle, Venom and Co. are quickly overwhelmed by Knull’s beasts and get pinned down. Venom and Eddie decide to make the ultimate sacrifice – but the symbiote spares Eddie from that tragic ending…

In the end, only two major characters die in Venom 3, as the Venom symbiote and Imperium’s General Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor) both sacrifice themselves to destroy Knull’s pack of Xenophages.

An early plot point reveals that The Imperium’s Area 55 base is actually built underneath Area 51, and that the latter is being decommissioned, with all its facilities and equipment being melted down in a giant acid bath. The Venom symbiote bonds with all the Xenophages at once, and drags them into the basin where the acid is poured; Strickland’s facial recognition is needed to activate the bath, and after already being critically wounded by a Xenophage, Strickland doesn’t flinch away from repeatedly activating the bath, even though the thrashing symbiotes splatter him with acid repeatedly. If that wasn’t a horrible enough death, a stabbed and melted Strickland decides to seal the deal by pulling his own hand grenade and blowing up the whole place.

Other than that, the people who die in Venom: The Last Dance are just secondary characters. Almost every one of the Imperium employees who become symbiotes are slaughtered by the Xenophages, along with numerous soldiers and security.

In the Venom 3 post-credits scene, it’s hinted that not even the Venom symbiote is truly dead, as we get an Inception-style tease that it’s now bonded to a cockroach that escape Area 55. So really, it’s just General Strickland who suffers a very slow, agonizing, death.

Venom: The Last Dance is now playing in theaters.