48 Fun Facts About Venom

Whose love of Venom helped persuade Tom Hardy to take the role of Eddie Brock?

His son was the fan. Hardy said he felt he had 'done my superhero bit' as Bane, but the chance to play a character his boy thought was cool got him 'really, really excited'.

Venom director Ruben Fleischer made his name with which horror comedy?

Zombieland was his first feature, and it paid off here: its star Woody Harrelson took a tiny part in Venom's mid-credits scene, largely because Fleischer was directing.

What is Eddie Brock's job at the start of Venom?

Investigative journalist, but not for long: he ambushes Carlton Drake with allegations lifted from his fiancée's confidential files, and the stunt gets both of them fired.

In Venom, which corporation's space probe brings the symbiotes to Earth?

Life Foundation: the film makes it a biotech company, but in the comics it is a Cold War survivalist group that builds doomsday bunkers for clients rich enough to pay.

In Venom, in which country does the returning space probe crash after a symbiote escapes on board?

Malaysia: the escaped symbiote spends the next six months working its way from the Borneo crash site to San Francisco, swapping human hosts as it goes.

Who plays the villainous tech boss Carlton Drake in Venom?

Riz Ahmed described Drake as a genius billionaire inventor trying to secure humanity's future, which he believes lies in outer space; that search is how he comes across the symbiotes.

Who plays Anne Weying, Eddie Brock's ex-fiancée, in Venom?

Michelle Williams wrote one of Anne's lines herself: 'I love you, but I love myself more', her way of bringing the feeling of the MeToo movement into a comic-book film.

In Venom, which scientist helps Eddie Brock break into Carlton Drake's lab?

Dora Skirth pays dearly for it: once her boss learns of the betrayal, he shuts her in with the last captive symbiote, and both she and the creature die.

In Venom, who is hosting the symbiote when it jumps to Eddie Brock during the lab break-in?

Maria, a homeless friend he chats to outside his local shop, has been taken as a test subject; when Eddie tries to free her, the symbiote leaves her body for his and she dies.

In Venom, which two weaknesses does Eddie Brock say the symbiote has?

High-pitched noises and fire have been the symbiote's weak spots since the 1980s comics, where Spider-Man finally shook the living costume off with the clanging of a church bell.

In Venom, which machine does Anne use to separate the symbiote from Eddie Brock?

An MRI scanner: her doctor boyfriend has just warned that the alien is eating Eddie's organs, so Anne switches it on, and the freed Eddie walks straight into the hands of Drake's men.

In Venom, which word does the symbiote take as an insult, demanding that Eddie apologise?

Parasite: Eddie uses it to explain himself to a stunned onlooker, then tries to pass it off as 'a term of endearment'. Venom roars at him until he says sorry.

In Venom, how does Anne, briefly bonded as She-Venom, hand the symbiote back to Eddie?

With a kiss: having just bitten the head off Drake's security chief, she plants it on Eddie and the symbiote flows across. The scene earned an MTV Movie & TV Awards nomination for Best Kiss.

Where does the final fight between Venom and Riot take place?

On a rocket launch pad: Venom ends it by tearing open the rocket's fuel tank just after lift-off, and the explosion kills both Riot and the man he is bonded to.

Whom does Eddie Brock interview in Venom's mid-credits scene?

Cletus Kasady, a jailed serial killer, tells Eddie there will be 'carnage' when he gets out: a wink at Carnage, the symbiote villain he becomes in the comics and in the sequel.

Which Veep actor plays Dr. Dan Lewis, Anne's new boyfriend, in Venom?

Reid Scott plays a Dan in both: the ruthless aide Dan Egan in Veep and, here, a rival so decent that he ends up treating his girlfriend's ex.

What plays after the end credits of Venom?

A clip from Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, introduced by the words 'Meanwhile in another universe', tied Tom Hardy's Venom to the animated film's multiverse ten weeks before it opened.

What is Stan Lee's cameo in Venom?

A dog-walker who talks to Eddie: 'Don't give up on her. Either of you,' he says, as if he can tell there are two of them in there.

Tom Hardy compared Eddie and Venom to which cartoon duo?

Ren and Stimpy 'have different sounds', Hardy said, and so do his pair: an everyday, aw-shucks American for Eddie and a growling lounge act for the alien in his head.

Tom Hardy said he based Venom's voice on a 'lounge lizard' version of which singer?

James Brown: Hardy always heard the alien as 'a James Brown lounge lizard'. The voice was then modulated to sound more sinister.

How did Tom Hardy hear Venom's lines while filming the pair's arguments?

His own recordings, through an earpiece: he taped the alien's half of each scene in the morning and heard it played back mid-take, a trick he first used to act opposite himself as both Kray twins in Legend.

On Venom's restaurant set, what did Tom Hardy spot and decide Eddie should climb into?

A lobster tank: it was never built to hold a person, so the crew reinforced it overnight, and the lobsters Eddie bites into are marshmallow with chocolate-syrup blood.

Which comic miniseries, Venom's first solo outing, gave the 2018 film its San Francisco setting?

Lethal Protector moved Venom from New York to San Francisco and turned him from villain into a rough kind of hero.

Which Venom line was lifted word for word from a 1993 Spider-Man comic?

"So many snacks, so little time" caps a menu of 'eyes, lungs, pancreas' as Venom sizes up a victim. In The Amazing Spider-Man #374 he says it to Spider-Man himself.

What rating did the film end up with after Sony backed away from an R?

Executives feared an R would complicate crossovers with the family-friendly Spider-Man.

Who played Eddie Brock, the man who becomes Venom, in 2007's Spider-Man 3?

Topher Grace got to play Venom only because producer Avi Arad pushed for a villain fans loved; director Sam Raimi had objected to the character's 'lack of humanity'.

Which director left Sony's Venom project and went on to make the first Hunger Games film?

Gary Ross was lined up in 2009 to rewrite and direct, planning to make Venom less a villain than an antihero: the very approach Tom Hardy's film took nine years later.

In Venom, where does the space probe find the symbiotes it carries back to Earth?

On a comet, and not by chance: Venom later admits it is roaming space in search of worlds whose inhabitants the symbiotes can possess and devour.

Which co-financier reportedly covered about a third of Venom's production budget?

Tencent Pictures is credited as a co-producer, and Deadline reported before release that it was covering 33% of the roughly $100 million cost, which cut Sony's own risk to about two-thirds.

What was the main complaint about Venom's first teaser trailer in 2018?

It did not show Venom at all. The director defended it as 'truly a teaser' that left fans wanting more, then admitted the real reason: 'the VFX weren't ready.'

How did Jenny Slate pronounce 'symbiote' in a Venom trailer, setting off an online row?

SIM-bye-oht sent dictionary lookups soaring, and Merriam-Webster ruled it acceptable. In the finished film she says it the expected way: the trailer's editors had picked a take from before she was corrected on set.

Most of Venom's San Francisco street scenes were actually shot in which city?

Atlanta doubled for it, so the effects team spent a good deal of time erasing giant Coca-Cola signs and CNN logos, both hometown giveaways. Only key moments of the bike chase used real San Francisco hills.

Whose eyes did the effects supervisor compare Venom's to?

A killer whale's, said supervisor Paul Franklin: they wrap around the skull with no pupils, so his animators had to push the eye shapes much harder to show where Venom was looking.

Which two actors inspired the way Venom talks through clenched teeth?

Jack Palance and Clint Eastwood were the models. Venom's huge teeth got in the way of dialogue, so the animators borrowed the two stars' habit of growling lines without opening their jaws.

Why does the film's Venom have no white spider on his chest?

His origin is not tied to the web-slinger in this telling, so a spider 'makes no sense', the director said. The faint white veins across his chest are there so an all-black character shows up at night.

Who composed Venom's score, his second Marvel film of 2018 after Black Panther?

Ludwig Göransson had just said he would love more superhero work, 'one of the things you dream of' as a young film composer, when Venom came along weeks later. His Black Panther score went on to win the Oscar.

Which rapper released a tie-in single called "Venom"?

Eminem teased it with a clip of the film's title flipping its E backwards into his own logo, then released it hours later as the closing track of his surprise album Kamikaze.

Which box-office record did Venom's opening weekend set in 2018?

Biggest October launch of all time: its $80 million beat the record Gravity had held for five years by almost half. Joker took the title just twelve months later.

Made for about $100 million and panned by critics, Venom grossed roughly how much worldwide?

About $856 million, more than eight times its budget: the bad reviews barely dented it, and it finished 2018 as the seventh-biggest film in the world.

Which country was by far Venom's biggest market outside the United States and Canada?

China added more than $260 million after a November release, outgrossing the film's whole North American run, and regulators granted it a rare extension in cinemas.

In Venom, how does the symbiote say he was seen back on his home planet?

As something of a loser, much like Eddie. That, Venom admits, is why he switches sides: on Earth he has no rivals of his own kind, and his misfit host has grown on him.

What name did fans give to the romantic pairing of Eddie and Venom?

SymBrock blends 'symbiote' with Eddie's surname, and Sony leaned in: the home release was sold with a spoof trailer recutting the whole film as a holiday rom-com about the two of them.

Who directed Venom's 2021 sequel, Let There Be Carnage?

Andy Serkis, famous for playing Gollum through performance capture, got the job partly because of that expertise with digital characters, which the sequel's two symbiotes depended on.

What is the title of the third Venom film, released in 2024?

Venom: The Last Dance began shooting in Spain in June 2023 and was halted within weeks by the actors' strike; filming resumed that November once the strike ended.

Which effects house, Oscar winners for Inception and Interstellar, created Venom and Riot?

DNEG's team under Paul Franklin studied slime moulds, jellyfish and time-lapse films of amoebas so that the shapeless symbiotes would still feel 'predatory and threatening'.

Mrs. Chen, a regular in all three Venom films, runs what kind of business?

A convenience store: a thug has been squeezing her for protection money, and the first film ends with Eddie letting Venom bite his head off between the shelves.

Which cinematographer shot both Venom and A Star Is Born, which opened on the same day?

Matthew Libatique earned an Oscar nomination for one of them, and not this one: a Boston Globe critic marvelled that one man had shot one of the season's best-looking films and one of its 'dingiest'.

In Venom, Riot reaches San Francisco inside which unlikely host before taking over Carlton Drake?

A little girl: Riot passes from a paramedic to an old woman to a child flying home to America, who walks into the lab on her own and hands the symbiote on to its boss.