Ok so Venom Let There Be Carnage is out digitally so I thought we'd take a look over the film to
talk about all the easter eggs, hidden details and references to the comics that are in it.
There's some brilliant easter eggs in the movie and lots of things that you missed
which we're gonna be covering for the next 15 mins or so. Full Spoilers ahead so if you
haven't had a chance to check it out then I highly recommend that you check out now.
If you enjoy the video please drop a thumbs up and don't forget to subscribe to become my lobster.
Wait wait Eddie what you doing.
With that out the way thanks for clicking this,
now let's get into our Venom Let There Be Carnage breakdown.
Ok so the post credits scene of the movie was a big talking point as it finally brought Venom
into the MCU. The scene opens on a Tella Novella in which we see two characters arguing about their
relationship which of course reflects the themes of the movie. Eddie brings up that the characters
fell out because they kept an insane secret from each other which makes Venom offer him
a chance to see a fraction of the 80 billion light years that his species has experienced.
Venom also mentions the hive mind and in case you don't know Venom comes from a
species called the Klintar and they worship a god named Null who first created them
as as one branching consciousness. Null had a weapon known as the Necro Sword which potentially
could be the blade that was teased at the end of the Eternals in it's post credits scene.
There's potential that they've changed up the Ebony Blade to encompass this
but just incase they don't Gorr The God Butcher also carried it
and we know that he'll be played by Christian Bale in the upcoming Thor Love And Thunder film.
Klintar also translates to cage and by shifting Universe Eddie is very much breaking out of his.
Just as he gives Eddie a small fraction of what they've experienced the room
warps around them and it changes into it's much brighter MCU counterpart.
It's kinda funny how the MCU is often brought up as being light and colourful
and we watch as even Eddie's backpack changes to something more pleasant looking.
Now if you slow down the footage you can actually
catch a split second where the Daily Bugle logo appears on the TV
and later in the scene it transforms to show the news report being delivered by J Jonah Jameson.
Throughout the film we see as Eddie writes for the Daily Bugle and this carries across the logo and
font from the Raimi Trilogy but for this scene it's changed to it's info wars esque style of
reporting that was teased at during the end of Far From Home. Interestingly the Daily Bugle in this
movie is the West Coast edition and normally in the comics it's just located in New York.
Peter is shown unmasked in his Black and Red Spider-man costume
and this imagery somewhat pulls from the Civil War comic book run in which
he unamsked for the world and was plastered all over news reports.
In the background we can catch a sign that says Penn 1 which is actually outside of Pennysylvania
station. This is where the reveal happened at the end of Far From Home and as always
it's all connected. He might even get unmasked during scene we can
see happening at this station in which people pile on him
like he's just said he knows when the third trailer for No Way Home is dropping.
J Jonah calls him a Spider Menace which is of course a play on him constantly
calling him a menace in the comics and he says that the world is caught in his web
of lies which is a double pun combo that the Punisher would be proud of.
However Web Of Lies is actually the name of a Spider-Man Animated series episode starring J
Jonah Jameson and it's also potentially playing on the name of the PlayStation game Web Of Shadows.
Now we pick up at the St Estes Reform School in 1996 to meet a young Cletus Cassady.
I respect that Sony really tried telling us that Woody Harrelsson was a teenager in the 90s that
was walking around there like How Do You Do Fellow Kids? This location is based on the
ST Estes Home For Boys which is where Cletus was sent to in the comics as a kid. Like most serial
killers Cletus originally started off by torturing animals and he then pushed his
Grandmother down the stairs and killer her. In the comics Cletus electrocuted his mother
and she snapped on him and tried to smash his head in like you should smash that like button.
This backstory is told in animated form and I thought it was pretty
smart how they avoided the R Rating by doing this.
His apparently father caught her doing this and almost beat her to death which led to him being
put in jail but many people believe that it was actually Cletus who was behind the attack.
Cletus burned down the orphanage in the comics which too happens in movie and at the location
we also meet his love Frances Barrison aka Shriek. In the comics the pair teamed
up during the Maximum Carnage run and ended up going on a rampage after escaping prison
which is sort of what we get in this movie. Shriek also talks about her mutations in the movie
possibly hinting towards the X-men coming down the line.
The pair communicate with a piece of string through a wall and Shriek actually holds onto this
piece of String throughout her life, even having it as a ring in the cell when she's an adult.
Frances is escorted out of the home by Detective Mulligan who in the comics becomes infected with
a symbiote called Toxin which this movie may be hinting towards in it's final few scenes.
Toxin comes from Carnage and in some ways he's very much Venom's grandson
making for a really messed up family. As Shriek is taken out we can also see
that the police van has the numbers 1412 scrawled all over it. This could
be a reference to the Marvel comic Ruins Of Ravencroft Caranage issue 1
1412 which dealt with both the villain of this movie and the location that Shriek is taken to.
Mulligan ends up shooting her in the eye which creates a scar that's a nod to her
eye markings in the comics. This becomes even more prominent in the marriage scene later on
in which we can see the scar getting a black lining to it.
At one point in Mulligans office we can see a wanted poster behind him that says E Larson
which is a nod to the comic book writer Erik Larson who not only
founded Image Comics but is also someone who wrote Spider-man and Venom stories.
She's then taken to Ravencroft which is basically an Arkham Asylum in the Marvel universe.
We've already seen an alternate version of this location as it appeared as a laboratory in the
Amazing Spider-Man 2 and it's the place that housed Electro whilst he was experimented on.
Here we also meet Dr. Pazzo, a character from the comics that Carnage took hostage during the
Carnage Unleashed comic books. I absolutely love the sound design in these and if you get a dolby
atmos setup you can really feel as the bass rumbles throughout your entire house as they
put the ear buds in. In fact fam you know what the entire sound design is really well put together on
this film and I think people don't appreciate this kinda stuff enough but we love you guys.
Throughout the movie we get the idea that Carnage is very much part of Cletus' blood and whereas
with Eddie it warped over his head, if you slow down the transformations you can see
that Carnage very much comes out of Cletus' cells. This idea is laced in scenes like it
pushing the lethal injection back up through the tube and also how we can see the symbiote
moving up through his veins. Cletus is obsessed with Blood and he even writes Eddie a postcard
using his blood as ink further tying to this idea. He also crushes a spider which could be
a little meta joke about him Spider-man and Carnage going head to head in the comics.
Cletus' cell is littered with wall carvings including a giant tree that Venom later
reminds Eddie of when they're investigating his crimes. This tree somewhat appears later
on in the movie and we can see there's a heart carved into it which also appears on the drawing.
On the tree is the line 'to thee the strife was given between the suffering.'
This actually pulls from the poem Prometheus and this is of course a character from Greek
Mythology who stole fire from the Gods and gave it the mortals. This is somewhat reflected in
Cletus who steals the symbiote from Eddie and with this he can weild the abilities of a God.
In Eddie's apart when he has a fall out with Venom,
the big guy shoves him into the ceiling which causes a hole in it and if you look
about the apartment you'll also see other holes dotted about showing this has happened before.
Eddie says that they have to be responsible and venom says that responsibility is for the
mediocre, poking fun at Spider-man's saying with great power comes great responsibility.
We learn that Eddie gave him two chickens to eat but he ended up making them his pets
and the symbiote called them Sonny and Cher. Sonny
and Cher were very much a power couple at one point due to their string of hits
however they had a very messy breakup with Sonny taking most of the money they'd made.
In later years the pair ended up reconciling and Cher even read the eulogy at his funeral.
This naming of the chickens I think is very much put in place to reflect the split that
Venom and Eddie go through in the movie before they learn to put their differences to the side.
Venom also plays lets call the whole thing off at one point which is from the musical Shall We
Dance. This was about a couple disagreeing about minute things like calling a potatoes a tomatoes
and stuff...I know its not that stop correcting me in the comments you...and basically they
called the whole thing off. This is of course foreshadowing the divide
between the pair coming to boiling point shortly after this scene.
I dunno if this is a reach but the movie actually follows the superhero sequel trope in which the
main character loses their powers for a bit before getting them back. This happened in Superman 2,
Spider-man 2 and Deadpool 2 and Venom 2 is definitely following the same sort of plot line.
Now unfortunately due to Stan Lee's death they've not been able to have the classic
cameos that were in almost all of the Marvel movies over the last 20 years.
However the creators behind these projects have got pretty sophisticated in how they've laced
him throughout things. This includes having his birthday on a licence plate in Wandavision
and also having him appear in a wall painting during Loki.
Venom Let There Be Carnage has a great one too and when Eddie enters Mrs Chens we can
see that he pushes back a magazine on a stand that has Stans face on it.
What's this...stand lee...ey...having thata.
Stan of course cameo'd at the end of the previous Venom movie
so it's great to see him back in the movie and a Huge Excelsior to him wherever he is now.
Eddie meets back up with Anne and you might recognise this
restaurant from the first movie as it was the place they had dinner
together. Clearly Eddie thinks they could be getting back together but instead she's here
to confirm their split once more tying into this idea of relationships. Now shoutouts
Erik Voss from New Rockstars for pointing out that in the background
we can catch red lighting whereas in the original movie it was navy blue.
At the beginning of the movie the Ravencroft guards also put in ear buds which blink blue
and we can catch a red light shining on their face further calling back to this imagery.
This very much hints at Carnage coming for him and it's not too long before Cletus bites him
and takes a part of the Symbiote. This scene is a bit different to what happens in the comics
and though Eddie met Cletus in a prison they did change things up quite a lot. Eddie was actually
Cletus' cellmate and then when he escaped prison some of the Symbiote got on him. Here however they
have this interaction and then Cletus busts out of his execution and goes on a rampage.
During this scene Cletus says something wicked this way comes which could be a
nod to Macbeth in which the witches said it when discussing the titular character.
However it was also the title of the Ray Bradbury book Something Wicked This Way Comes.
This was about an evil being that seemed to grant everyone their hearts desires
but instead all it did was suck the life out of them like a parasite. This is somewhat like the
relationship Carnage has with Cletus as it frees him, reunites him with his lost
love and lets them go on a rampage but it's clear it's after it's own things.
Shoutouts to Ryan Arey for pointing that out and also
that just before Eddie meets Cletus that Venom says he wants to eat a prisoner.
Eddie brings up Making A Murderer which was a Netflix documentary that tried to argue that
convicted killer Steven Avery was actually innocent. The rules are that they can only
eat bad guys so Eddie doesn't wanna risk one of the people being in jail for the wrong reasons.
Cletus also brings up that they are kindred spirits as the pair as they both
feel responsible for their mothers deaths and they both had abusive fathers. However
going beyond that they have both lost the woman that they love and in the movie both
have to deal with a new partner coming into their lives through the form of a symbiote.
Cletus says Eddie is going on a magical misery tour which is a play on the beatles album the
magical mystery tour. This was a psychedelic journey with a brightly coloured rainbow
cover and inlay which may or may not be given a nod to in the coming out party venom has later on.
Ey they don't call me reach richards for no reason punk.
From this point Cletus escapes, sticks his tongue down a dudes throat which I've heard
happens a lot in prison and he goes on a merry jig. Cletus is now out of San Quentin and he
actually changes some of the lyrics from Johnny Cash's song San Quentin which had the lyrics
And I'll walk out a wiser weaker man, Mr Congressman you can't understand.
However Cletus changes it up to:
And I'll walk out a wiser stronger man, Mr warden you taste just like ham.
Carnage hacks the internet itself which is a bit...it's a bit weird innit but
this is actually a nod to the comics in which he snuck into people's computers
and waited until they returned home. Serial killers like BTK often used to cut phone lines
and wait in peoples closets until they came in whereas Carnage has somewhat changed this
up so he's now travelling into their homes through the internet in order to lie low.
Carnage breaks shriek free and Mrs Chen becomes Aunty Venom...I said Aunty Venom.
Venom also has a coming out party in which he's finally breaking free of Eddie. Here we
meet the rapper Little Simz who had a song called Venom actually go viral earlier in the year. When
Venom grabbed the mic did anyone else hope that someone would shout 'do a rap' or was it just me.
Go on venom, do a rap.
Eddie is arrested and then Anne breaks him out using Venom which
makes her turn into the She Venom form like how she was in the first film.
After she's captured all the characters come together at a Churh/Cathedral which
is also where the maximum carnage game had it's final level at. In the comics Churches
are very important as it's where Venom was typically created at. Eddie Brock went there
in Spider-man 3 to pray to God that he kills all other Movie Youtubers...sorry Peter Parker.
There's lots of religious imagery in this scene and the title Let There Be Carnage
is actually a play on the phrase Let There Be Light from the Bible.
The Blood Of Christ idea could tie back to the Blood Of Eddie creating a higher
power within Cletus and it brings this religious imagery altogether.
Carnage also goes into a crucifixion pose at one point
and Serkis stated that this is a meant to be a nod to Leonardos Vetruvian man.
Leonardo created this in order to show that there was some intelligent design to humans
due to the ratios within the human body all fitting together perfectly.
It's clear Carnage views himself as a God and I love how this motif is carried throughout it.
During this scene Eddie is wearing a Detroit Lions Jacket over a Mumford T-shirt
which is actually a nod to Eddie Murphy who wore the same thing in Beverly Hills Cop.
I wanted to see if there was something deeper than that but both Tom Hardy and
Andy Serkis said it was literally just because he was called Eddie.
Sometimes they're not that deep mate, keep telling you.
The battle escalates with Carnage turning on Shriek
which juxtaposes how Eddie and Venom both care for Anne.
There's a falling scene and this could be a nod to the death of Gwen Stacy
which is framed in a similar light within a church.
This motif is shown with Anne falling in the reflection of Venoms eyes
which was not only used in The Amazing Spider-man 2 but it also
popped up in the first spider-man movie when Green Goblin dropped MJ.
It also seems like it's getting referenced in Spider-Man No Way Home as MJ falls off
the statue of Liberty at one point and Peter has to dive after her to save her.
Gwen died and though Venom saves Anne, Shriek somewhat suffers the same fate as her.
Carnage and Cletus just aren't a good match and this is a nod to the Warren Ellis story Mindbomb
in which this revelation was discussed quite a lot.
Venom bites Cletus' head off and then decides to head off which is when he
starts to embrace the lethal protector role. The Lethal Protector storyline actually involved Venom
teaming up with Spider-man to become somewhat of anti-hero. It was his first ever limited series
and I',m putting money on it right now that it'll be the tagline of Venom 3.
Eddie quotes Don Xiote and says the mantra facts are the enemy of truth which very much
symbolises this ending as though Eddie has stopped Carnage he's now seen as an outlaw.
The fact is that Eddie saved the city and stopped a criminal rampage
but all that people will wanna see is that he's a dangerous alien and they'll
no doubt hunt him as well. The pair end up on a beach together withVenom's toes in the sand
calling back to Venoms dream of doing this earlier in the movie.
We can here a cover of the song love will tear us apart in the background
and it very much hints towards their relationship being a rocky one in the future.
Though they are on the run they won't be for much longer as the pair are
transported to an alternate universe in the post credits scene which closes out the movie.
And that's all the easter eggs, hidden details and secret meanings that we found in the film.
Obviously I'd love to hear your thoughts and if
there's any we missed then make sure you comment below and let me know.
We're running a competition right now and giving away 3 copies of the Zack Snyder's DC Trilogy on
the 30th Of November. All you have to do to be in with a chance of winning is like the video,
make sure you subscribe with notifications on and drop a comment below with your thoughts on
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If you want something else to watch then make sure you check out our breakdown of
all the TV spots for Spider-Man No Way Home which will be linked on screen right now.
There's some amazing easter eggs in it so definitely go watch it right after this.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video,
I’ve been Paul and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace