"Venom: Let There Be Carnage" features plenty of instantly quotable lines that
mean much more than you might pick up on the first time you see the film.
These are the most important ones you may have missed.
This line is delivered by Frances Barrison (aka Shriek) in the film's opening flashback,
as she informs her demented boyfriend at St. Estes Reform School that she's being transferred to
Ravencroft Institute for the Criminally Insane. Of course, that boyfriend is Cletus Kasady,
and the line signifies the realization that she'll likely spend the rest of her days
there being poked, prodded, and otherwise "rehabilitated" with no end in sight.
Sure enough, the film picks up decades later, with Shriek residing in a Hannibal
Lecter-meets-Magneto glass prison cell. To get anywhere near her, hospital aides
must wear specially made ear protection, and even then she still terrifies them.
In the comics, Ravencroft provides an environment where Shriek is indeed surrounded by others like
her — including Cletus, who breaks her out. In "Let There Be Carnage," however,
this line begins more than 40 years of painful solitude — so it's no wonder that when Carnage
comes to bust her out, Shriek is all too ready to take a revenge-fueled road trip.
For much of the first "Venom" movie, we saw Eddie Brock fighting the symbiote
for control of the body they shared. In one pivotal moment of the sequel,
the audience sees how effective the two can be when they work together.
After visiting Cletus Kasady behind bars, Eddie begins thinking there might be some
clues amongst all the nonsensical scribblings on his cell wall. It is then that Venom unleashes a
new power — telling Eddie to put a Sharpie in each hand, and then surrender control.
Seconds later, Eddie is drawing a perfect replication of everything on those walls,
and Venom even uses his fingers to do an internet search that turns up the
location of some bodies Cletus was hiding from the police. Like most of the movie,
a lot of the sequence is played for laughs — but the bottom line is that with Eddie's
body and Venom's mind, there isn't much the two can't accomplish when they work together.
When Eddie Brock catches up with Anne, his long-suffering ex,
it isn't surprising that she still wants nothing to do with him. After all, she's a beautiful,
successful woman, and he seems to still spend every scene sweating through a new t-shirt.
But with this funny line, Michelle Williams reminds the audience that her character
has more going for her than your average comic book love interest. Like Eddie,
she has actually been Venom. She had a front row seat for the adventure that almost killed Eddie,
and try as she might to ignore them, she does still have some feelings for him.
At first, Anne seems to believe Eddie when he insists that Venom is no longer with him.
But Anne knows Eddie, so she is soon speaking to Venom just as often as she's speaking to her ex.
Showing off a big engagement ring, Anne explains that she's getting married to Dr.
Dan, and the scene is worth the price of admission just for Venom's running commentary.
In some ways, Venom is the ultimate wingman. He seems determined to always have Eddie's back,
because they're the best of friends ... or, perhaps, something more?
This is usually none of our business, but the movie does bring it up, so… is Venom gay?
In the club scene, which clearly has an LGBTQ angle to it, Venom turns down the advances of
a woman, then appears onstage talking about getting over Eddie as if he's a
bad ex-boyfriend. Who ever thought Venom could have a side hustle as a motivational speaker?
Considering Venom is a functionally gender-fluid character who reproduces
through non-sexual means, does any of this really matter?
Outside of what it means for Venom's newfound confidence, no, it doesn't matter at all.
In a domestic dispute between Eddie and Venom, this line is the straw that breaks the camel's
back. During their spat, Venom and Eddie wrestle, break things, and say some things
they seem to immediately regret. But it's this one line Eddie throws at Venom, diminishing
his ability to live or work independently, that finally pushes Venom over the edge.
"Those two need some serious couples counseling."
Within seconds, Venom is packing his stuff and heading out into the city alone.
Could Venom really manage to lead a life of his own,
being a responsible Earthling with a steady nine-to-five? Well, probably not, but Eddie's
real point is one that's come up in domestic spats for decades: Without me, you're nothing!
Venom's immediate thoughts as he and Eddie visit Cletus at San Quentin State Prison
are that the place is an "all-you-can-eat buffet.
In the symbiote's mind, everyone in the prison is the lowest of the low,
bad people who won't be missed if Venom has a light snack. It's been a while since he's been
able to chomp down on a yummy human, and chickens and chocolate just aren't cutting it any more.
Of course, Eddie disagrees, as evidenced by the "Rules: No eating people" sign he made for
Venom in their apartment. The killer symbiote is now on a diet of chocolate and chickens,
and as much as he would like to chow down on Mrs. Chen — or any of the inmates at
San Quentin — he's trying in his own freaky way to honor Eddie's wishes.
"I have tasted blood before, and that is not it."
This is Cletus Kasady's reaction when he takes a bite out of Eddie Brock. It feels
like Cletus has suspected for some time, likely all the way back to the end of the first film,
that something supernatural is going on with Eddie. The bite
itself seems like a desperate attempt to uncover that secret before he dies.
It works, because whatever Cletus tastes contains some tiny particle of Venom,
creating a spawn of the symbiote that takes over the serial killer's body
when that lethal injection opens up his bloodstream.
Not only does the line hint at Cletus being smart enough to sense all this in Eddie the
first time they met, but Woody Harrelson's line readings at times like this also go a long way.
Harrelson has been harnessing his "aw, shucks" twang since his days on "Cheers,"
that mischievous twinkle in his eye since "White Men Can't Jump," and a darker,
homicidal side since "Natural Born Killers."
The role of Cletus Kasady seems to bring all three together in a way that puts lines like
this on a tee for this beloved actor, who is more than ready to knock it out of the park.
"Once I kill that thing that made me, I'll be indestructible." This line,
spoken by Carnage, sums up the creature's motivation.
Carnage wants Venom invited to the so-called "Red Wedding" between Cletus and Shriek because
the red symbiote smartly realizes that the only being that can approach him in power is Venom.
Venom also seems to realize that Carnage could likely take him down,
because when he first lays eyes on Carnage he retreats back into Eddie in fear.
But ultimately, Venom seems to realize that he and Eddie are the only ones who can stop
this thing — setting up an inevitable final smackdown between father and son.
After Cletus infiltrates Ravencroft and re-introduces himself to the woman he
pledged his love to, Shriek's unusual reaction is to be pretty turned on.
In the scene, Cletus at first seems almost apologetic. He has changed substantially,
and needs to explain his new alien friend to the woman he loves.
After asking her not to freak out, Cletus tells Shriek "I want you to meet Carnage",
sounding like a proud Southern boy who's just brought home a puppy.
"Well, ain't that somethin' else?"
Instead of freaking out about the truly insane addition to Cletus' anatomy,
Shriek simply replies, "That is so hot."
In no time, the two of them are off on a killing spree, just two crazy kids in love.
The message is that she accepts Cletus just as he is, in a world where no one else will.
Shriek's most prominent superpower is the ability to emit piercing, brain-scrambling auditory
attacks — not exactly the thing you want around a symbiote sensitive to nothing but fire and sound.
As this becomes clear, Cletus seems to make a choice: Carnage over Shriek. Although he does
still go through with the Red Wedding, watch those scenes again and you might notice Cletus
slowly retreating from Shriek, much like the way his physical body is retreating inside Carnage.
By screaming at Shriek, telling her not to kill his new friend,
Cletus sacrifices the one person in the world who loved him for what he was.
By the time she meets her death, Cletus barely seems to care.
A lot was made out of poor Kirsten Dunst's perpetual status in the Sam Raimi "Spider-Man"
movies as a plot-driving object to be bound, gagged, and dangled off some high perch by an
evil villain. But that was more than a decade ago, right? We've all come so far, and Michelle
Williams is an Oscar-winning actor who surely wouldn't sign up for such a thing, right?
Nope. In one of the few disappointments in the film, Williams' Anne is reduced to helpless status
in the third act. When Shriek says hello to her and says she's just incapacitated her boyfriend,
it indicates the pivotal moment when Anne goes from a complex, confident character who has twice
been imbued with the power of She-Venom to just another damsel in distress waiting to be rescued.
In the comic books, Carnage has a tendency to call
Venom his "daddy." It's kind of weird, but he has a point.
"Let There Be Carnage" pays tribute to that (and reminds the audience of the stakes) by
including this line in the scene when Venom and Carnage finally go toe-to-toe in the church.
He calls Venom "father" several times during this scene, to the extent that
you half-expect them to call the whole thing off and settle their differences with a catch.
"Dad? You wanna have a catch?"
"OH YEAH!"
Unfortunately, the way symbiotes work is that every generation is considerably more powerful
than the one before it. As impressive as Venom may have been in the first movie,
his bizarre little offspring is the latest model of iPhone, versus Venom's iPod shuffle.
In other words, calling Venom "father" is not some mere family reunion. It's also a none-too-subtle
message to Venom that the time has come for a new generation to rise and replace the old.
This line is delivered by Cletus Kasady during his final moments in the film,
revealing an extra dimension of complexity to his character. All Cletus wanted to be,
it seems, is Eddie's friend. But Eddie wants a story, not a drinking buddy,
so he has tried his best to keep Kasady at arm's length.
So when Cletus gets Eddie to snap in prison, perhaps he's comparing
their violent histories and body counts not to drive Eddie crazy, but to find common ground.
When he decided to give the reporter all those interviews, perhaps it was to
create a biographer-type bond, like writer Truman Capote and the killer Perry Smith,
rather than simply wanting to destroy Eddie and Venom?
"Venom" fans will likely never get more of an answer to these questions. Responding to him
and the way he's treated Eddie, Venom dispatches him with three simple words: "Fuck this guy."
So where does it all go from here? Well, the mid-credits scene gives you some idea
of the "Carnage" connection across universes to the MCU and Spider-Man,
and other clues might even possibly allude to the upcoming third movie
in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, "Morbius, the Living Vampire."
But the line "Together, we are the lethal protector" says quite a bit
about where things are going as well. At the end of the "Venom" sequel, Eddie Brock and
Venom are finally on the same page to discuss their potential together as crime-fighters.
It's an explicit shout-out to the comic book series "Venom: Lethal Protector," the 1993
comics storyline that considerably deepened the lore behind Venom as a character and anti-hero.
Finally at peace, the two discuss where they'll go from here. When Venom wonders if they'll
need a cape and mask, Eddie replies, "No, I think you've got that covered."
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