The Venom film is finally out, and regardless of whether you think it did the iconic character
justice or not, fans of the comics are all wondering about what little Easter Eggs and
reference were hidden in the movie.
As with any comic book adaptation, you can bet your butt that there’s a whole lot of
references tucked in there, so today, we’re counting down the top 10 Easter Eggs you missed
in Venom!
We also won’t be mentioning any of the Easter Eggs that we previously discussed in our list
that broke down the Easter Eggs featured in the films trailer, so if you’re curious,
be sure to check that out afterwards, to!
So with that in mind, let’s jump in!
10 Carnage Let’s start off our list with the most obvious
Easter Egg of them all.
The movie has two post credit scenes.
One of which was just an advertisement trailer for the upcoming Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse
animated film, and the other, the first mid credit scene, featuring Woody Harrelson playing
the role we all assumed he would be playing; Cletus Kassidy.
Cletus is being interviewed by Eddie Brock, and he tells him that when he gets out of
prison, which he swears he will, there will be carnage.
Clearly, this is a reference to the fact that Kassidy becomes the host of the Carnage symbiote.
In the comics, Eddie at one point is incarcerated, and ends up sharing his prison cell with Kassidy,
a deranged serial killer.
When Venom, who Eddie believed was no longer with him, turns out to be dormant and re-emerges,
Eddie breaks out of prison, but Venom does something Eddie isn’t aware of.
He drops off one of his seeds, which is how Klyntar pro-create.
The seed ends up becoming a full symbiote and bonds with Kassidy after Eddie is gone,
and this is later revealed to Brock when Carnage goes on a killing spree, creating Venom’s
archnemesis.
We actually did a whole video on our channel explaining what this post credit scene means
and how it may impact the sequel, so definitely go check it out after this video.
Also, side note, he writes in his own blood on his prison wall ‘welcome eddie’, which
is a nice touch, considering Carnage in the comics would always write in blood his name
at the crime scene of his victims during his killing spree after it and Kassidy broke out
of prison.
9 Bench Press In the comics, Eddie Brock is a bit of a muscle
head, and often when we’re in his apartment, you can see that he has weights and a bench
press there.
This is a nice detail that was added into the film; you can note in the background of
various shots that its been included in the set dec of Eddie’s apartment.
8 Ultimate Universe Many fans had questions about how Venom’s
origin story would play out in this film considering that Sony wasn’t allowed to use the Spider-Man
origin that Venom is derived from.
In the comics, Venom technically first appears in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 252, from
1984, in which he’s a black symbiote alien costume that Spider-Man puts on after his
uniform was trashed.
Later, with the help of the Fantastic Four, the costume is removed from Parker.
Venom would then return to bond with Eddie Brock in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 299
in 1988, with his full form being crafted by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, with
the latter’s design being the one used in the movie.
Anywho!
The origin story in this movie matches up a bit with Venom’s origin in a different
part of the Marvel comics; the Ultimates Universe.
Venom, in that universe, wasn’t an alien organism, but rather was a man-made attempt
to cure cancer that then turned to complete chaos.
7 Kryptonite During a conversation between Ann and Eddie,
Ann mentions that sonics are Venom’s kryptonite.
Whoa.
So that means that Superman, in some capacity, likely as a comic book character or pop culture
icon, exists within this Sony Marvel universe.
100% a fictional character though.
Make what you will of that.
6 Mr Belvedere Ann has a cat in the movie, and his name is
Mr Belvedere.
This is actually a reference to a character named Lynn Belvedere, who was the protagonist
of the novel Belvedere.
The book and character were adapted into a handful of movies in the 40s and 50s, and
a sitcom in the 80s.
Mr Belverdere was a butler who worked for an American family, and hilarity ensued.
Also, fun fact, the actor who played the lead role, Christopher Hewett, once sat down on
his balls so hard that they had to stall production because of it.
Luckily, I don’t think Ann’s cat will ever have that problem.
Mr Belvedere has also made many other appearances as a reference in the likes of Futurama and
Family Guy.
5 Ron Lim Herbal If you look closely during the final scene
of the movie, you may spot a sign that reads Ron Lim Herbal on one of the shops in the
background.
This is actually a shout out to one of the artists who worked on a Venom storyline in
the comics, the 1993 Venom Lethal Protector, which is where a lot of the symbiote characters
were pulled from for the movie, including Riot.
It’s where those symbiotes originate, despite not having a name outside of it’s original
host at the time, Trevor Cole.
Riot, along with those other symbiotes, wouldn’t be given a name until Carnage USA issue 2
when it was bonded with Howard Ogden, and that was because of a fan name it was given
thanks to its official toy line installment.
The toy was named Riot, and it stuck!
Anywho, Ron Lim has also worked on a ton of Marvel properties, including volume 3 of Silver
Surfer and the famous Infinity Gauntlet with Jim Starlin, the movie that largely inspired
Avengers Infinity War.
4 Dog Host In the mid 2000s Venom run, Venom possesses
a dog when trying to escape captivity in the arctic.
This is something the movie borrowed as well, having Venom also possess a dog to escape
from the captivity of the Life Foundation.
It’s also worth noting that the comic may have been inspired by John Carpenter’s The
Thing in that sense, which begins with a wolf escaping and running on to the character’s
facility after its been possessed by The Thing.
Side note, that’s not the only time that symbiotes have proven to bond with animals.
During the Deadpool vs Carnage series, Hybrid, which is an amalgamation of many of the symbiotes
you got a glimpse of in the movie, including Riot, bonded with a dog that Deadpool let
run free by the end of the series.
3 Stan Lee Of course Stan Lee has a cameo in this movie!
It’s a tradition, really, regardless of whether it’s aMCU film, a Fox film or a
Sony one.
Stan’s cameo this time has him walking dog, pausing to give Tom Hardy’s Eddie Brock
some advice on his relationship with Michelle Williams’ Anne Weying after he gets a glimpse
of the couple in public.
Good ol Stan.
And Venom’s reaction to Stan?
“Who’s that guy?”
Something that definitely got a lot of laughs in theatres.
2 SHE-VENOM In the comics, Eddie Brock’s significant
other Anne Weying bonds with the Venom symbiote to become She-Venom At the time, she’s his
ex-wife, and ends up getting caught in a battle between Venom and Spider-Man.
When she’s injured, the symbiote transfers to her in order to heal her from a gun shot
wound.
And it happens in the film!
When Eddie is separated from Venom thanks to an MRI machine, Venom bonds with Anne in
an attempt to stop the Life Foundation from murdering him.
There’s even a moment where she kisses Eddie in a very gross sloppy way in order to transform
Venom back to Brock.
According to director Ruben Fleisher, She-Venom may potentially appear again in later Venom
movies, saying that she would be, I quote, “fun to explore within the body of a Venom
movie and then there’s also the possibility of, who knows, a She-Venom stand alone movie.”
Later on in the comics, the second time Anne bonds with Venom, she ends up committing suicide
afterwards because the trauma of bonding with the symbiote and seeing and feeling everything
Venom had experienced drives her over the edge.
1 John Jameson This one is pretty cool.
So in the comics, J Jonah Jameson, the publisher of the Daily Bugle, has a son named John,
who first appeared in The Amazing Spider-Man issue 1 in 1963.
He’s an astronaut, but would later on become Man-Wolf years later, removing himself from
just being the newspaper tyrant’s kid.
While details like the Daily Bugle’s name being changed to the Daily Globe in the movie
to be removed from the MCU Marvel Universe, John Jameson is still an astronaut, mentioned
as one of the astronauts killed when the Life Foundation’s space shuttle crash landed
back on the planet.
According to director Ruben Fleischer, it’s in fact the John Jameson character from the
comics, saying, I quote, “We tried to weave in little things here and there that just
felt like an easy fan acknowledgment, like if you’re going to have an astronaut, he
should be J Jonah Jameson the 3rd.
There we have it friends!
What are your thoughts on the Venom film?
Are you excited for a sequel that will feature Carnage?
As I mentioned before, we have a video that we released yesterday that breaks down exactly
what that post credit scene implies for Venom’s future, so be sure to subscribe to our channel
and head on over there to check it out!
If you dug this video, spread the love!
Hit that like button.
And be sure to take a look at the playlist we currently have flashing on your screen
to see more videos about Venom and your other favourite Marvel characters.
In the meantime, thanks for watching everyone!
I’ll catch you all in the next video!