Venom: The Last Dance

This topic contains:

• overall comments and recommendations
• details of classification and consumer advice lines for Venom: The Last Dance
• a review of Venom: The Last Dance completed by the Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) on 29 October 2024.

Overall comments and recommendations

About the movie

This section contains details about the movie, including its classification by the Australian Government Classification Board and the associated consumer advice lines. Other classification advice (OC) is provided where the Australian film classification is not available.

ACCM review

This review of the movie contains the following information:

• a synopsis of the story
• themes
• use of violence
• material that may scare or disturb children
• product placement
• sexual references
• nudity and sexual activity
• use of substances
• coarse language
• the movie’s message

A synopsis of the story

Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and his alien symbiote Venom (voice of Tom Hardy) discover they are fugitives, wanted for the murder of detective Mulligan (Stephan Graham), and find themselves on the run in Mexico when they are targeted by military forces as well as alien creatures determined to hunt them down. In a dark corner of the universe, Venom’s creator Knull (Andy Serkis), long ago imprisoned by his symbiote children, employs a merciless alien army to hunt down Eddie and Venom as the pair contain a codex with the power to set him free. Eddie and Venom leave Mexico and head for New York in an effort to start over, all the while trying to evade the United States army, the combined forces of the police, and countless creatures from Hell. Inevitably, they find themselves in need of assistance and come across a hippie family who take them as far as Las Vegas. Eddie is eventually captured and taken to ‘Area 51’, where scientists, led by Dr Teddy Paine (Juno Temple), are studying multiple alien life forms, including numerous symbiotes from Venom’s home planet. When Knull’s alien army track them to this place, the scientists will stop at nothing to help protect their research and, in the process, they join forces with Venom and Eddie as well as the Army to fight off creatures who will not die and who will stop at nothing to open a portal, free their leader and ultimately end the universe.

Alien assault; Murder; Sacrifice; Crime; Moral ambiguity.

There is some violence in this movie, including:

• A character is impaled.
• Fighting dogs are kept in cages.
• Venom says that he will eat every bad guy that gets in “our way”.
• Eddie tells a guy: “I will tear your head off and feed it to your asshole.”
• Eddie begins kicking, smashing and strangling men.
• A man shoots at a dog with a gun.
• Venom, with half of Eddie’s face visible, bites off and eats the heads of four criminals. Their decapitated corpses are clearly displayed.
• A character is electrocuted.
• A horse bucks Eddie into a river where he is swept downstream. Both Eddie and Venom must fight for their lives as the military advances on them. Soldiers have orders to kill Eddie and to capture Venom.
• A guy grabs and strangles Eddie, holding him underwater. Eddie eventually shoots him with his own gun and manages to escape.
• Venom is electrocuted.
• The military shoot at an alien creature who has come to kill Eddie and Venom.
• The alien eats the soldiers and blasts their blood out of its back. All the soldiers are killed.
• Eddie and Venom fight off an alien creature who attacks them as they cling to the side of a plane. Eddie falls off and plummets down to Earth but Venom saves him.
• A character says: “Shoot me in the face.”
• Eddie knocks out a man and steals his clothes.
• Eddie head-butts a security guard.
• Eddie kicks a slot machine and seems to hurt his foot.
• Both the army and aliens attack Eddie and Venom. Eddie is injected with something and Venom is separated from him. They are then taken away.
• A character is eaten by an alien.
• Shots are fired at an alien and Eddie is shot.
• Soldiers are eaten, impaled and shot.
• A security guard is shot and then transformed into an alien.
• A bunch of symbiotes attack the aliens.
• An alien eats some of the symbiotes.
• Machine guns and rocket launchers are used against the aliens, who explode but then quickly regenerate.
• Aliens attack a helicopter. Men scream as they are eaten, attacked and impaled.
• Eddie and Venom use the chopper blades to decapitate an alien.
• A commander is impaled and Eddie is stabbed and about to be eaten when a rocket launcher hits the alien.
• Eddie is badly injured and all the aliens are attacking Venom. Venom lures them into an acid bath and Eddie makes sure the acid dissolves the creatures. A mortally wounded General triggers a massive explosion that kills everything in its path.

Material that may scare or disturb children

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children under the age of five, including the following:

• The opening scene depicts the evil leader Knull in a hellish landscape, surrounded by creepy alien creatures. He is imprisoned and is promising to kill everyone and end the world as soon as he gets what he needs from Eddie and Venom, and that anyone who helps him will be allowed to live.
• Eddie repeatedly transforms into Venom and later, multiple characters transform into creatures like Venom. The image with the distorted black face and menacing teeth is likely to be very frightening for some viewers.
• Numerous characters, specifically alien creatures, are likely to be scary for younger viewers, especially as they follow and track Eddie.
• Venom possesses a horse and transforms the gentle creature into a scary, black version of its former self. Eddie is hoping that the speed they are forcing it to run at won’t kill it.
• Venom also transforms into a fish and a frog.
• A green version of Venom transforms a man into something else. He speaks prophecies to the scientists about Knull being older than the universe, stopping at nothing to get the Codex from Eddie and Venom, and that there is nothing they can do because everything will end.

In addition to the above-mentioned violent scenes and scary visual images, there are some scenes in this movie that could scare or disturb children aged five to eight, including the following:

• Animals are kept in cages, looking scared and traumatised. One dog is later shot at.
• A boy and girl run away from a storm. The boy is struck by lightning and killed, while the girl suffers scarring and loses the use of her arm.
• A family visiting ‘Area 51’ is caught in the crossfire of the alien attack, and first a little boy and then the whole family fall off a building. They are saved by Eddie and the symbiotes. The family is clearly terrified, especially the little boy.

• Nothing further noted.

Product placement

The following products are displayed or used in this movie:

• Abba’s music (Dancing Queen) is used in a dance number.

Sexual references

There are some sexual references in this movie, including:

• A character notes that Eddie should be awarded the ‘People’s sexiest man’.

Nudity and sexual activity

There is some nudity and sexual activity in this movie, including:

• Venom dances with a woman, employing lots of hip thrusts.

Use of substances

There is some use of substances in this movie, including:

• Characters drink martinis in a bar.
• Venom says to Eddie: “We are drunk and also hungover at the same time.”
• Eddie acts as a bartender with the assistance of Venom, grabbing bottles of liquor and tequila and continuing to pour drinks, despite being clearly intoxicated.
• Venom makes Eddie take another drink, even though Eddie complains (repeatedly) of a hangover and asks for water.
• A bartender drinks shots to deal with the shock of witnessing Venom.
• A drunk man urinated on Eddie’s shoes.
• Eddie is injected with something that causes him to lose consciousness.

Coarse language

There is some coarse language in this movie, including:

• Hell
• Shit
• Dick
• Pendejo (the literal meaning is “pubic hair” but it is used as a vulgar Spanish swear word.)
• Mother fucker
• Asses / Asshole
• Bullshit
• Shut up
• Can’t feel my balls
• Pissed
• Shit-faced
• Fickle slut
• No fucking way
• Bitches
• God damn it
• Jesus Christ!

In a nutshell

Venom: The Last Dance is a fast-paced Sci-Fi adventure from Marvel Studios, and is the third and final instalment in the Venom trilogy. The film features solid performances, excellent special effects and more of the coarse humour, typical of Venom films. Due to the general content, this film is not for children but best suited for audiences over the age of 16.

The main messages from this movie are that certain friendships and chance encounters can completely change our lives; and that when those we love move on, they still remain a part of us, even if they are simply carried in our hearts or linger in our memories.

Values in this movie that parents may wish to reinforce with their children include:

• Teamwork
• Self-sacrifice
• Compassion
• Determination
• Trust.

This movie could also give parents the opportunity to discuss with their children attitudes and behaviours, and their real-life consequences, such as:

• Hurting others because we believe them to be bad.
• Doing what we want, regardless of the consequence or the impact on someone else.
• Having flexible morals instead of a true code of values.