Venom (2018 film)

Venom is a 2018 monster superhero film featuring Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock/Venom. It is the first film in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, followed by a sequel, Let There Be Carnage, in October 2021. Another film, Morbius, is set to release in January 2022; all films feature characters related to Spider-Man.

A space ship crashes on Malaysia on return, killing almost all the crew. Said ship was carrying blob-like alien lifeforms who were captured on canisters. While trying to heal the sole survivor, a doctor is attacked by one of the aliens who hid himself inside said surviving astronaut, and he uses her to escape from her co-workers with an unclear objective in mind.

Meanwhile, in the United States, Eddie Brock is an investigative journalist with a rebellious attitude. His latest assignment is an interview with billionaire Carlton Drake, owner of a Mega Corp who recently launched the space ship referred above. He is about to launch another rocket and wants an interview with Brock to try to rehabilitate his public image. Brock openly dislikes him, and his girlfriend works for a law firm that works for Drake. So of course Brock investigates her laptop while she is sleeping to find compromising information about Drake, but confronting Drake about dead test subjects only leads to him and his girlfriend being both fired, and she leaving him because of the break of trust.

Six months later, Eddie is a jobless journalist desperately trying to get some job to pay for his debts, and Drake has began to experiment on human subjects, and manifests no sympathy when one of them dies, to the disgust of Dora Skirth, one of his scientists. She contacts Eddie so he can uncover Drake's crimes.

The film got a mixed to negative reception with praise for Hardy's performance and criticism of the lack of connections to Spider-Man, similarly to how 2004's Catwoman had a lack of connections to Batman. Regardless, it made nearly a billion dollars at the box office.

Directed by Ruben Fleischer, that also directed Zombieland. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing.

Tropes used in Venom (2018 film) include:

Arc Words: Life. Both Carlton, Eddie's boss Jack, and Ms. Chen in rapid succession mention life while talking to Brock. There is also the Life Foundation.
Adaptational Heroism: Thanks to the Spider-Man portion of their origin story being excluded out, none of Brock's past as a scummy reporter or Venom's corrupting influence of his host are present on this movie, though at the start Venom is working on his species' plan to conquer Earth.
Big Bad Duumvirate: Carlton Drake and Riot. Both of them desire to use symbiotes to conquer Earth.
Berserk Button: Venom hates it when someone calls him a parasite.
The Cameo: Stan Lee appears at the end as a dog walker. This was his last cameo released during his lifetime.
Canon Foreigner: Most of the minor characters, such as Dr. Dora Skirth, are original to this film.
Dark Is Not Evil: In stark contrast to his villainous self from comics, Venom becomes a good guy despite being a dark blob which gives his host long tongues and shark teeth.
Evil Brit: Carlton Drake is American, but both of his parents are British and he behaves like a stereotypical evil British: polite on the outside, condescendingly elitist on the inside.
Ironic Echo: Carlton Drake usually says "Have a nice life". By the end, Venom says it to Riot.
Mythology Gag: Venom says this line to a thug, which is a word-for-word quote from the comics:

Eyes, lungs, pancreas. So many snacks, so little time...

Positive Discrimination: Implied to be invoked in-universe. The child Carlton uses to make himself look good early in the movie just so happens to be female and black.
Punch Clock Villain: At the start, Venom tries to make Eddie go along the symbiotes' evil plan, but quickly changes sides without much convincing needed.
Sequel Hook: The mid-credits scene shows our first look at Woody Harrelson as Cletus Kassady, the villain of Let There Be Carnage.
Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer
- Venom the symbiote was absent from the teaser trailer.
- Riot was absent of any pre-release material despite being one of the main villains.
The Stinger:
- Eddie Brock visits Cletus Kassady in prison.
- The post-credits scene is a clip for the then-upcoming Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
Take Over the World: Drake and Riot are moved simply by the desire of more power.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Eddie and Venom's relationship starts this way thanks to Eddie not knowing Venom was inside him in first place and Venom's less-than-holy intentions for Earth.
Token Good Teammate: Venom gains pretty quickly a liking for Earth, lamenting that the actual state of things would be ruined by his species' invasion.
Trademark Favorite Food: Venom not only likes eating brains, but also tater tots and chocolate.
Truer to the Text: Compared to Spider-Man 3, the film had a more faithful depiction of Venom, lacking only the Phlebotinum Dependence aspect of symbiotes. The film also seems entirely disconnected from Spider-Man; that said, Venom and Eddie do appear in the MCU at the end of the sequel.
Voice of the Legion: As in the comics, Venom mostly refers to himself as "we".