Discover the winks and references cleverly hidden in “Venom”, the first part of the adventures of Tom Hardy in the skin of Eddie Brock.
Venom is Tom Hardy’s second superhero film following his role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises. This time around, he’s moving to Marvel and not wearing a mask but an entire performance outfit captures to play Eddie Brock and his Spider-Man foe Spider-Man double-parasite Venom.
Find below all the winks, easter eggs and references contained in this feature film by Ruben Fleischer, author of Welcome to Zombieland and Uncharted.
A familiar name
Sony Pictures
The astronaut who “survived” the space shuttle crash at the start of the film and is taken by ambulance is named “Jameson”, known to be the editor of the Daily Bugle J. Jonah Jameson. This is probably his son, John Jameson, who is also an astronaut in the comics and has various aliases ranging from Colonel Jupiter to the Wolfman to Stargod.
Life Foundation
Sony Pictures
We can see on the screen transmitting live from the scene of the crash that the observers are part of the Foundation for Life, a survivalist organization that appeared in the comics in 1963. It will stop at nothing to achieve its ends, including resort to dangerous weapons and experiments pushing the limits of ethics. After this crash scene, the company is directly mentioned during the film.
Venom driven out of the Apple
Sony Pictures / Marvel Comics
In a restaurant, Eddie and Anne mention an “incident” in New York which allegedly forced the Daily Globe reporter to move to San Francisco. It’s a reference to the comic book Venom Lethal Protector, in which Eddie, believing he knows the identity of supervillain Sin-Eater, reveals it in an exclusive article, before Spider-Man proves he was wrong. Forced to resign, Brock changes town and tries to revive in San Francisco.
Lawyers & Associates
Sony Pictures
The name of the law firm that Anne (Michelle Williams) works for is Michelinie & McFarlane, a direct reference to the creators of the character of Venom: David Michelinie and Todd McFarlane.
A hint of Star Wars
Sony Pictures
Still in Anne’s mailbox, we can see that an email was sent to her by a certain “Bodhi”, which recalls the character of the same name in the movie Rogue One, and who was played by Riz Ahmed, who turns out to be the villain of Venom.
Let’s give Randy …
Sony Pictures
Eddie’s building wears a neon “Schueller”, a reference to Randy Schueller, a fan who wrote a letter to Marvel suggesting that Spider-Man get himself in a new costume created by Reed Richards from the Fantastic 4, a black suit, allowing Peter Parker to better adhere to surfaces and wearing a spider symbol on the chest. The idea was bought from him by Marvel for $ 220.
Namedropping
Sony Pictures
Fired from his newspaper, Eddie reactivates his contacts and in particular Barney Bushkin, who, as the comics tell us, works as a photo manager for the Daily Globe, the rival daily of Peter Parker’s Daily Bugle.
Venom and cancer
Sony Pictures
When she awkwardly contacts Eddie at her favorite grocery store, Dr. Dora Skirth (Jenny Slate) recounts that she started working at Life Foundation to cure cancer, which is a reference to the Ultimate Spider-Man comics, in which Venom is a kind of cancerous tumor.
Cult replica
Sony Pictures / Marvel Comics
The line “Eyes, lungs, a pancreas … so much food and so little time!” is from the Amazing Spider-Man comics # 374, published in February 1992, this replica appears in one of the boxes, as Venom confronts Spider-Man.
Familiar face
Sony Pictures
The vigil who crosses the road of Eddie Brock is played by Emilio Rivera, who played a policeman in Spider-Man 3 by Sam Raimi in 2007, a Marvel film in which appeared … Venom, played by Topher Grace.
Ivan the terrible
Sony Pictures / Marvel Comics
In the hospital scene, the symbiote owns a dog, a nod to a similar phenomenon in the comics, in which a dog named Ivan goes through the same thing twice, and ends up dead there. For more information, see the comic book Venom signed by Daniel Way and Francisco Herrera in 2003.
Evil little girl
Sony Pictures / Universal Pictures
The poor little girl possessed by the symbiote in the airport scene goes to Life Foundation to go after Carlton Drake (Ahmed Rice). With his eyes betraying the presence of the parasite, we immediately think of the movie The Village of the Damned, especially the version of
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