In addition to breaking records at the box office, Venom left behind some big unanswered questions. Despite critics' brutal reviews of Sony's spinoff about one of Spider-Man's most popular villains, citing that the film is more akin to a superhero film made 15 years ago, many fans had a blast watching the titular symbiote bond with reporter Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) and cause chaos all over San Francisco. While it's true that Venom is a bit of a mess, it's also a lot of fun to watch.

Director Ruben Fleischer's film draws many influences from Marvel Comics, specifically the "Lethal Protector" storyline, and it also has an eye on becoming a proper franchise by setting up Venom's adversary for the sequel. Venom not only introduces Eddie Brock and Venom (who is also voiced by Tom Hardy), but it also suitably sets up Eddie's supporting cast and villains. This includes other alien symbiotes brought to Earth by billionaire Carlton Drake (Riz Ahmed), who becomes bonded to the Big Bad symbiote called Riot. Venom and Eddie eventually have to foil Riot and Drake's attempt to bring even more symbiotes to Earth so they can invade and conquer the human race.

Related: Every Venom Easter Egg You Missed

Venom does explain the mechanics of how symbiotes bonding with humans works and its deadly after-effects, but the movie nevertheless generates some strange plot holes and inconsistencies. A number of aspects in the film don't quite add up or make sense, especially for moviegoers not fully versed in the Marvel source material. The answers to some of the questions Venom poses can be found in the comics, but let's look at the confusing questions the movie created.

Why Doesn't Carlton Drake Fight Climate Change Instead Of Look For Aliens?

In Venom, the Earth is in danger of becoming uninhabitable for humans thanks to climate change, reflecting urgent issues in the real world. Carlton Drake is well-aware of the crisis facing the planet and he even estimates that the Earth is only one generation away from becoming inhospitable for humans. But Drake also seems to hate humans for wrecking the environment. Nevertheless, Drake's solution is to launch spaceships into space. One encountered a comet containing symbiotes and they ended up bringing four of the aliens to Earth.

Now, Drake didn't know symbiotes existed, but once he acquired them, he planned to bond humans to the symbiotes so that as hybrids, both species can survive the impending environmental catastrophe. This plan is... not great; it begins with Drake needing to kidnap homeless people in San Francisco for lethal experiments of bonding the symbiotes to humans. Ultimately, Drake and Riot opt for a full-on invasion of Earth by symbiotes.

Much like Shane Black's The Predator, the climate change crisis is merely the backdrop to bring alien invaders to Earth to battle gun-toting humans. Neither film is particularly interested in addressing climate change or offering any solutions to the crisis within the context of their movie universes. In Venom, a man with Drake's resources could likely make real progress in dealing with this important issue, but instead, he preferred to be a supervillain.

Related: Venom’s OTHER End-Credits Scene Explained

Why Was Carlton Drake News But The Spaceship Crash Wasn't?

As a prominent TV reporter in San Francisco, Eddie Brock is assigned to do a profile on Carlton Drake. He is essentially asked to do a puff piece on the billionaire, but Brock suspects a man like Drake has to be hiding more than he lets on. By snooping in his lawyer fiancee Anne Weying's (Michelle Williams) email, he finds legal documents suggesting Drake has been subjecting people to experiments against their will. Eddie goes to the Life Foundation with a plan to ambush and expose Drake, but it backfires and it's Eddie who loses both his career and his relationship.

However, Eddie's interview happens after a Life Foundation spaceship crashed in Malaysia, which is the incident that kicks off the film. A space shuttle crash is big news but neither Eddie nor his news organization seemed particularly interested in reporting about it. Granted, the whole thing was supposed to be a puff piece to make Drake look good to help cover up the crash, but if Eddie was going to go off-script to expose Drake and the Life Foundation, the crash seems like a good starting point, especially because it doesn't rely on confidential information.

What Kind of Company Is The Life Foundation, Anyway?

It's also not really clear what kind of a company the Life Foundation is. They're obviously well-funded with a huge laboratory and headquarters in San Francisco Bay. They also employ an army of heavily-armed security personnel who spend much of the movie trying to hunt down Venom and getting slaughtered. But what are their corporate goals? When Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate), one of Carlton Drake's top scientists, clued Eddie Brock in on the Life Foundation's secret human/symbiote experiments, she said they were originally trying to cure cancer. This means the Life Foundation is a pharmaceutical research company of some sort - but one that also has a space program and owns an independent fleet of spaceships, complete with their own launch pad adjacent to their HQ in San Francisco Bay!

The Life Foundation of the comics was a bit simpler; it was a cabal of evil, wealthy people who planned their own Utopian society and created symbiotes spawned from Venom to protect it. In Venom, the Life Foundation, like Oscorp in the Spider-Man movies, just seems to be some sort of evil catch-all multinational corporation that has the resources for whatever the plot requires.

Page 2: Questions About the Symbiotes

Venom Trailer - Venom vs Riot

Riot and Venom Were The Symbiotes' Names BEFORE They Came To Earth?

After he bonds with Eddie Brock, who originally believed he was infected with a parasite, Venom revealed himself to his human host by introducing himself as "Venom." Later, when explaining more about his background and the origins of the symbiotes, Venom told Brock that he was part of a team and that the symbiote team leader was named "Riot". This means "Venom" and "Riot" were the symbiotes names before they came to Earth, bonded with humans, and learned the English language!

However, there is a possible explanation for this: among the symbiotes' powers are telepathic abilities and extra-sensory perception. For example, Venom exhibits a version of Spider-Man's Spider-Sense where he's aware of danger and informs Eddie before it happens. Once they bond with humans, the symbiotes can read their minds and learn everything about them, including learn languages. So the most likely scenario is that "Venom" and "Riot" are the English translations of their alien names. But the way it plays in the movie, it simply comes off as strange that the symbiotes already have names that sound suspiciously like comic book supervillain codenames.

Related: Venom Symbiotes Explained: Powers, Home Planet & Names

How Did Riot Know To Go To San Francisco?

After their shuttle crashed in Malaysia, the Life Foundation recovered three symbiotes and brought them back to Carlton Drake. The fourth symbiote, Riot, spent six months infecting and murdering multiple people across Malaysia until he boarded an airplane and flew to San Francisco. Never mind the trail of bodies Riot left behind, but how did Riot know to go to San Francisco specifically to find Carlton Drake? At what point did Riot ultimately plan to bond with Drake and then use Drake's ship to go into space to bring back more symbiotes?

The answer to Riot's awareness of his surroundings and goals have to lie in who the symbiote possessed en route. Most of the people Riot took over and eventually killed were just common people he encountered in Malaysia, but tracing his body-snatching back to its original source, Riot initially possessed the spaceship's pilot, John Jameson. It must have been through reading Jameson's mind that Riot learned about Drake, the Life Foundation, and that they are based in San Francisco. Riot then methodically made his way across the world to find the billionaire. Riot also somehow didn't murder people on the airplanes he was riding on while possessing the body of a little girl. Riot also stayed in that girl's body upon landing in SF and making it all the way to confronting Drake inside the Life Foundation.

Page 3: Questions About Venom's Future and the MCU

Why Was Anne Fine After Bonding With Venom?

Venom does get gruesome in depicting the effects of a symbiote bonding with a human. The symbiote needs to feed so it attacks the human's organs unless the human can supply it with raw meat (later, Venom is able to substitute tater tots and chocolate to control his desire for human flesh). The moments of an out-of-control Eddie gorging himself on old chicken from a trash bin and sitting in a restaurant lobster tank eating live lobsters are some of the most memorably hilarious in the film.

After Eddie has separated from Venom thanks to his "Kryptonite," sonic attacks, Brock is captured by the Life Foundation. Venom then bonds with Anne Weying and together they go rescue Eddie as She-Venom. Yet despite everyone fans saw suffering grotesquely from being bonded with a symbiote, including Eddie himself, Anne seemed perfectly fine and showed no after-effects from her time possessed by Venom. The symbiote didn't attack her organs or end up killing her. Maybe en route to saving Eddie, Anne was able to feed Venom to keep him satisfied while they were together. Or maybe, Venom didn't brutalize his temporary host because admitted he "likes" Anne.

Related: Venom's Post-Credits Scene Explained

How Can Eddie Brock Have A Secret Identity?

Eddie Brock peers out from within the Venom symbiote in Venom.

Eddie and Venom formed a pact at the end of the film: they'd stay together as a team but Venom can't kill humans (unless they're really bad people). This means occasional murder will be part of their method of operation as "lethal protector" of San Francisco. But how can Eddie maintain a secret identity at all?

All throughout Venom, Eddie was seen in public leading car chases and morphing into Venom in full view of people - who all have smartphones and must have recorded the spectacle of a monster on the city streets. Eddie was also spotted by his security guard friend trying to break into their TV news building. Not to mention that Venom left a pile of dead bodies in Eddie's apartment when the Life Foundation attacked them - with Eddie's musician next door neighbor as a witness to the carnage. This is all compounded by the fact that Eddie was already a locally famous news personality even before he became part-monster. Not only should it be impossible for Eddie/Venom to maintain a secret identity, but Brock should also be in jail, not back working as a reporter as if nothing ever happened.

Is Venom Part Of The MCU Or Spider-Verse, After All?

Venom MCU shared universe

The big question for the Venom franchise is whether it will be part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Venom is very much a standalone movie that sets up its own sequels in the mid-credits scene, which introduces Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson), who will become infected with a symbiote and become Carnage. However, Venom was also careful not to contradict anything in the MCU, keeping the possibility open that the film could be folded into the MCU at some point in the future. If that were to eventually become the case, it's possible Venom could share the city with the San Francisco-based Ant-Man and the events of the film may have happened before Thanos' finger snap.

While there is no mention of Spider-Man in Venom (despite pre-release rumors of a Tom Holland cameo), the film does include John Jameson, who is the son of J. Jonah Jameson. It also mentions the Daily Globe, which is a reference to the New York newspaper Eddie Brock once worked for in the comics. Neither J. Jonah Jameson nor the Daily Globe have been mentioned in the MCU but Jameson is in the Sam Raimi Spider-Man movies. Astronaut John Jameson (Daniel Gillies) was J. Jonah Jameson's (J.K. Simmons) son and the boyfriend of Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst) in Spider-Man 2. While it's very unlikely Venom is set in the universe of Sam Raimi's trilogy, it currently has more ties to those films than it does to the MCU.

Next: Is Venom In The MCU? Marvel/Sony Rights Explained

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