Venom (Tom Hardy) isn’t the only symbiote who is getting its groove on in Venom 3, aka Venom: The Last Dance. The movie is a veritable plethora of symbiotes, including classic Marvel Comics characters like Agony, Lasher, Toxin, and more. But given they’re mostly goop, it might be tricky to tell which symbiote is which.
Don’t worry, we’ve got you, fam. Here’s a list of all symbiotes in Venom 3, what actor plays them, and how they differ from their Marvel Comics counterparts. We’ll start with the obvious one, just for completion’s sake.
Oh, and spoilers for Venom: The Last Dance past this point.
Venom / Eddie Brock
You can’t have a Venom movie without Venom, and yes, the titular symbiote appears throughout the film. The whole crux of the plot is that Knull (Andy Serkis), the creator of the symbiotes, needs something called the Codex, a key that was activated when Eddie died in the first Venom movie, to escape the otherwise eternal prison the symbiotes locked him in on their home planet of Klyntar.
Because the Codex is only active when Eddie and Venom are full-on bonded, they spend most of the movie only partially Venom-ing out. At the end of the film, Venom sacrifices itself to stop a group of Xenophages, symbiote hunters sent by Knull, while Eddie is left alive.
Other folks who bond with Venom in the movie include: Sadie Christmas (Clark Backo), a scientist at Area 55 (a secret facility under Area 51) who briefly becomes She-Venom to save Eddie’s life; and earlier on a horse, a fish, and a frog.
Venom has a complex history in the comics. But let’s say he was introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #299, created by David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane, and leave it at that.
Patrick Mulligan / Toxin (?)
Back in Venom: Let There Be Carnage, we met a police detective named Patrick Mulligan (Stephen Graham) who was investigating Eddie Brock and Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson). During the climactic battle at a church, he fell and was impaled. But when we last saw him, his eyes glowed blue indicating he somehow got that symbiote in him.
When things pick up in Venom: The Last Dance, Mulligan is dead and Eddie Brock is on the hook for his murder. Except Mulligan is not dead, he’s in custody in Area 55. What happened to him is a little confusing to follow. But it seems like despite whatever was going on with the glowing blue eyes… Forget about that. Because Dr. Teddy Payne (Juno Temple) infected him with a symbiote to save his life.
That symbiote is… Well, we don’t know. For some reason the symbiote he was infected with in Let There Be Carnage was separated from him. And then Mulligan was infected with a new symbiote. And it seems to be able to swim around in the air with a long, snake-like tail, and deliver a ton of exposition about Knull. He also seems to have some sort of mental power. In fact, each of the symbiotes has like, a neat trick they can do.
Is this Toxin? Uhhh… Maybe. Mulligan didn’t exhibit any symbiote powers in the previous movie, but Mulligan is most associated with Toxin. If you’re excited to see more of Toxin, or whichever symbiote that is? Well, good luck. The second a Xenophage crashes into his cell, it eats Toxin and spews his guts out the vents in its back. RIP, Toxin. Or whoever.
Toxin was first introduced in Venom/Carnage #2, created by Peter Milligan and Clayton Crain. Other than the name (which they never use in the movie), he’s nothing like his big-screen counterpart. Comic book Toxin is the offspring of Carnage is black and red (versus the teal blue-green of the movie Toxin), and is pretty much just another symbiote like Venom. The big differences are that Toxin and Mulligan operate separately, much like how Eddie and Venom do in the movie. And he’s skinny like Carnage normally, but bulks up like Venom when he gets mad.
Dr. Teddy Payne / Agony
Juno Temple’s Dr. Teddy Payne has the most wackadoo origin story I’ve heard in a movie in a long time. When she was younger, she and her twin brother were lying on the beach. He was talking about how much he loved aliens. That’s when a lightning storm started, so they ran for safety. But as Teddy grabbed her brother’s hand, they were hit by lightning. It scarred her arm, while her brother died. In his honor, she decided to study aliens.
…What? Okay. Anyway, one of the symbiotes she studies in Area 55 is pink and blue. When the Xenophages attack she grabs the vial it is in and sticks it in her pocket. Later, Venom is holding back the Xenophages while Rex Strickland (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a soldier who has been trying to capture Eddie and Venom all movie long, helps Venom out. Rex tells Teddy and Sadie to run for it, which they do, while Rex sacrifices himself and Venom by blowing up the Xenophages.
As that happens, Teddy and Sadie are running through an area very much like a beach. Chunks of firey wreckage fall towards them, very much like lightning. Sadie trips and falls, and tells Teddy to get out of there. Instead, she pulls out the vial with the symbiote, crunches it in her hand, and becomes… Agony, the lightning-powered, super-speed symbiote! She saves Sadie, by the way. And in an end credits scene possibly a cockroach becomes Agony as well, but unclear.
Like Toxin, both Juno Temple’s character and Agony have nothing to do with their comic book counterpart… Except in this case the general look of the symbiote. Dr. Thaddeus Paine is a sadist who can’t feel anything. At one point he experiments on Eddie Brock and Venom. Other than the Venom connection and having gone to medical school (presumably), there’s nothing that connects the gender-flipped version with her comic book origin.
Agony first appeared in Venom: Lethal Protector #4, and was created by David Michelinie and Ron Lim. She was first introduced in a team of symbiotes along with Riot, Lasher, Phage, and Scream. And like Toxin, in the comics, she’s basically just a symbiote, though she can also spit acid. So, no super-speed, no lightning crackles. She is sometimes purple, but not reddish and bluish like she is in the movie.
Sadie Christmas / Lasher
Okay, so you’re not going to believe this one, so get ready. Sadie Christmas is an original character for the movie, she doesn’t exist in Marvel Comics. She wears an enormous Christmas pin on her shirt because it meant something to her mother, which Rex thinks is weird. She also spends the whole film gazing fondly at symbiotes, clearly wanting to bond with one. So when the Xenophages attack Area 55, she gladly accepts a symbiote, Lasher, which seems to be able to create big, sharp weapons with its arms. She also survives the attack (see above), though Lasher is eaten by one of the Xenophages.
Like Agony, Lasher was part of that symbiote team introduced in Venom: Lethal Protector #4, and was called Lasher because it created tendrils on its back that it would lash people with, like a whip. It was also, notably, red and green.
The thing you weren’t going to believe? Since none of the characters who have become Lasher in the comics are even remotely named Sadie Christmas, I think it’s a fair guess that the character is named Sadie Christmas, and loves her Christmas tree pin, because Lasher is colored red and green in the comics. Like Christmas. That’s it. What a weird, roundabout way to explain the colors of a symbiote, if so.
…And Several More Symbiotes
So, full disclosure here. Given the massive deviations from the comic books, and the fact that nobody says their names (we don’t even get someone saying Lasher, Toxin, or Agony, but that’s definitely who they are)… Well, it’s up for debate who the rest of the symbiotes are. During the Xenophage attack, a number of the symbiotes that were being held in stasis bond with hosts, and they all have different powers.
A soldier gets taken over by a brown symbiote, who looks drippy and mud-like. He dies when Rex blows him up with a rocket launcher in an attempt to kill one of the Xenophages (it doesn’t work).
There’s a female scientist who briefly talked to Sadie Christmas in an earlier scene who becomes a symbiote (I believe this was her) with a sort of fire power. And we get two people who get hit with a green symbiote, who then become a two-headed symbiote monstrosity. They all die during the fight with the Xenophages, as well.
I can tell you who they’re not. They’re not any of the symbiotes above or Carnage. They’re also not Riot, who was part of that Lethal Protector crew, as Riz Ahmed became Riot, the villain of the first Venom movie.
It’s distinctly possible one of them is Phage, though Phage’s unique power in the comics is making bladed weapons from his arms — which if you’ll recall was the power the movie gave to Lasher. Instead of, you know, lashing things. He’s brown, so perhaps the muddy guy is supposed to be Phage.
And the red and yellow one who dies getting eaten by a Xenophage and has fire-power is likely Scream because she’s also A) a she, and B) red and yellow. But she does not have fire powers in the comics because one of the two major weaknesses of a symbiote is fire, so how would that make any sense???
The two-headed guy, though, you’re on your own.
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The whole movie was a mess.
That wasn’t Toxin, toxin separated from him before he gets taken to area 55, the one who joins him is an unknown symbiote.