VENOM – Trailer Breakdown And Theories

The official trailer for Marvel’s “Venom” came out on April 23 and it has already had over 8 million views on YouTube. The film is directed by Ruben Fleischer and stars Tom Hardy as Eddie Brock and Venom, Michelle Williams as Anne Weying, and Riz Ahmed as Dr. Carlton Drake. The movie hits theaters on October 5.

To put it bluntly, the first VENOM teaser trailer didn’t do its job of building excitement. After all, there’s no point hiding what a monster in a monster movie will look like when everybody knows what they want it to look like. No, instead, a trailer for such a film should entice audiences with the promise of fulfilling the fanbase’s dream. And I am glad to say the official trailer does just that.

Watch Venom Official trailer, theories

Possible Symbiote Appearances in VENOM?

Here’s the man who found the symbiotes. His name is Carlton Drake, and he is the head of the Life Foundation. In the comics, the Life Foundation is the organization behind the breeding of five symbiotes. How many of those symbiotes make an appearance in this film? The number of canisters suggests two. But considering a later scene where Eddie Brock infiltrates (and gets captured by) the Foundation there could be more.

From 1:09 to 1:10, we see a man undergoing some form of test, presumably involving the symbiote. The X-ray shown on the monitors however, belongs to Eddie Brock, receving the same treatment. Again, this suggests more than one symbiote makes an appearance. We don’t know for sure if Brock gets captured before or after he binds with the symbiote though.

In a horror-esque scene, a girl breaks out of the laboratory and attacks Brock. The trailer suggests this is where Brock gets the symbiote. Alternatively, it could be where he raises alarms and gets himself captured, where he then gets the symbiote. Perhaps the biggest theory though is that this screaming woman is actually — wait for it — Scream; a schizophrenic symbiote mercenary working for the Life Foundation, and one of Venom’s nemeses.

VENOM: The Transformation

Much like any human with an alien living inside them, Eddie Brock starts to freak out over changes his body goes through. Later on, he finds he is able to send tendrils of biomass out of his body. Eddie does seem able to commune with his literal inner demon though.

We get our first real glimpse of the Venom symbiote manipulating its biomass as a weapon. By the looks of things, Eddie Brock doesn’t actually control the symbiote as much as he’d like. This is very reminiscent of the 2009 [PROTOTYPE] video game.

It’s unclear what is happening here. An invisible force appears to knock the office workers and their equipment aside. Does the entity responsible possess telekinetic abilities? Or is this just an incomplete scene where symbiote tendrils are supposed to sweep through the room?

And finally, the reveal. There is the violent, amorphous blob we all know and love. This is presumably what happens when Eddie Brock fully accepts the Symbiote as a part of him, or some other deep and meaningful insight the movie will have to share. Most fans think Eddie Brock will only achieve this form close to the end of the film. I beg to differ. See that guy he has his hand wrapped around? He was part of the raiding party that went for Eddie Brock’s house at 1:30. Fingers crossed, we get a full transformation 15 minutes of screen time after Brock’s first exposure.

VENOM: Getting Hyped

So what is VENOM? Looks like it’s part superhero, part horror, and part monster movie. Interestingly enough there was little hype for the film before the trailer came out. When Sony announced an upcoming Venom standalone movie back in 2016, fans took the news with a grain of salt. “Standalone” meant there would be no ties to Spider-Man, Avengers, or the rest of the MCU. And since Venom is most known for being the web-slinger’s archnemesis, this ultimately led to the lack of anticipation for the film.

And then, this trailer came out. You can just imagine Sony’s marketing team patting each other on the back. Hype is up, and rightly so. Compared to Venom’s appearance in Spider-Man 3 (2007), Tom Hardy’s Venom is big, nasty, and as close to comic-book standards as you can get. Not to say there isn’t any more worry over the direction the film is taking, of course. But rest assured, if this movie bombs, it isn’t going to be on Hardy.