Summary
Morbius, the next entry in Sony’s Marvel universe, is little under two hours long and packed with bloodsucking action.
The film centres on Jared Leto’s eponymous living vampire, who accidently transforms himself into a creature that requires blood to survive. Matt Smith co-stars as Morbius’ friend Milo, with Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Tyrese Gibson, and Al Madrigal as Dr. Martine Bancroft, Dr. Nicholas, and FBI Agent Simon Stroud. Additionally, Michael Keaton reprises his MCU role as Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. Vulture.
If you’ve seen the film, you’re probably curious about Morbius’s ending. We’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to the film’s concluding minutes. Significant spoilers coming!
Morbius encounters the titular physician, Michael Morbius, who is afflicted with a rare blood condition. After travelling to Costa Rica in search of vampire bats in order to find a solution for his ailment, he discovers something that may help him. Morbius embarks on perilous international waters with Dr. Martine Bancroft, takes the cure, and transforms into a blood-sucking vampire with incredible strength and a bat-radar.
On land, Morbius’ boyhood buddy Milo, who also suffers from the same sickness, notices Morbius’ sudden power and wishes he had it. The doctor declines, fearful that Milo, true name Lucien, may develop into a monster like him.
Despite Morbius’ best efforts, Milo infiltrates his laboratory and consumes the cure, transforming into a super-powered vampire. Milo murders a doctor, but Morbius is caught for the crime, and when Milo visits Morbius in prison, it is revealed that Milo now possesses supernatural abilities, as he no longer requires his walking cane – which he purposefully leaves in Morbius’ cell. This drives Morbius into a tailspin, from which he escapes.
Milo later instructs Morbius to cease denying his new abilities. They are capable of fighting and feeding on people who have mistreated them. Morbius, on the other hand, wishes to protect the populace from the monster he has evolved into. They fight in a subway, and Milo continues to murder people – until Morbius learns he has the ability to fly and escapes.
Morbius develops an antibody with the assistance of Dr. Martine Bancroft — one that is capable of killing any “vampire” he injects with it. Meanwhile, Milo assassinates their surrogate father, Nicholas, and then attacks Martine, all in the name of baiting Morbius. Martine appears to die, but not before nibbling on Morbius’ lip and drinking some of his blood, at which point he bites her neck.
Morbius and Milo struggle, and a swarm of bats eventually responds to Morbius’ call, immobilising Milo so Morbius may administer the antibodies. Milo is assassinated — and Martine awakens a vampire. Additionally, throughout this time period, FBI agents Stroud and Rodriguez have been on the lookout for Morbius. They arrive on the scene to find Morbius flying away into the night.
The Morbius post-credits sequence features the purple rift from Spider-Man: No Way Home dominating the sky and Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes (AKA Vulture) in a jail cell. Because he has committed no wrongs in the Sony-verse, he is shortly liberated. Then, in the film’s second mid-credits sequence, Toomes sees Morbius dressed as a Vulture. Toomes asserts that his appearance in the new universe is most likely connected to Spider-Man and that the two should collaborate to do good. Morbius responds with a single word: “Interesting.”
Milo and Morbius both have a blood illness.
Milo and Morbius both suffer from a rare blood disorder, albeit the film does not name it. All we know for certain is that it weakens them, and they required regular blood transfusions – “an oil change” – three times daily as children. Morbius believes that the anticoagulants found in vampire bat saliva may help heal the sickness – but instead transforms into a vampire.
After stealing a dosage of Morbius’ experimental treatment, Milo turns against his oldest friend. Additionally, he transforms him into a live vampire. Morbius does not want Milo to become a bloodsucker like him, but Milo has no such reservations.
Milo becomes enraged at Morbius for attempting to control his darkest urges, pointing out that they can now travel anywhere and have fun. Milo advises his friend to “live a little.” Milo’s justification for killing people is that he and Morbius have lived with death their entire lives – so that others can understand how it feels for a change. This is possibly best exemplified in one scene in which Milo walks to a pub and is confronted by someone, who Milo later kills. Milo has been bullied his entire life and is now able to defend himself.
Why are the bats assisting Morbius?
During Morbius’ final fight with Milo, a swarm of bats aids Morbius by immobilising Milo. Why did they assist him rather than Milo? It is not explicitly stated. Earlier in the film, Morbius enters his lab’s bat enclosure and declares that the bats embrace him as brothers. This is most likely due to the experimental cure’s use of anticoagulants derived from bat saliva. Milo, of course, took the treatment as well, so it’s puzzling why the bats turn against him. Perhaps they are capable of sensing evil…
What is contained in the vial Morbius uses to stab Milo?
Morbius assassinates Milo using an antibody he creates during a raid on another facility. According to Morbius, the antibody is lethal to bats and fatal to humans – a particularly dangerous combination for a person boosted with talents received from bats via Morbius’ experimental therapy.
Why is Morbius not using the second vial?
Morbius, however, did not simply create one of those poison bottles. He makes two, which Martine remarks on. The living vampire will soon be unable to survive on artificial blood alone, and it is evident that he want to die before having to drink human blood. However, Morbius does not use the vial – why is unknown, although it appears that he experiences a change of heart at some point.
Why is Milo assassinating Nicholas?
Nicholas literally reared Milo and Morbius, so it’s a shock when Milo turns on him and murders him. The reason the new vampire murders his long-serving caretaker is revealed in Milo’s rant right before the attack. Milo feels Nicholas has always favoured Morbius and that Nicholas had previously pitied him – and is now repelled by him. This is also a means for Milo to draw Morbius out of hiding, exposing Martine.
What becomes of Martine?
Milo uses Martine to entice Morbius out of hiding and into their final confrontation, inflicting a deadly wound on her in the process. Martine bites Morbius’ lip and takes a drop of his blood before she dies, and the devastated vampire attacks her after she dies. At the film’s conclusion, Martine awakens… and discovers that she, too, is a vampire.
That means she’ll almost certainly return in future instalments, but how or whether her state will differ from Morbius’ – given she was altered via bite rather than his experimental remedy – remains to be seen.
What will become of the two FBI agents? What about the metal arm of Stroud?
Stroud and Rodriguez pursue Morbius throughout the film, and are present during his last confrontation with Milo. They stand and watch as Morbius bursts from underground and flies away in a swarm of bats – and that is the last we see of them. They survive the bloodsucking carnage uninjured, and we also catch a peek of Stroud’s comic-book realistic metal arm. It is unknown whether they are still on the hunt for the live vampire, but Tyrese has already announced that he has signed a three-film agreement with Sony.
What will Morbius do now that artificial blood is no longer effective?
There is no answer to this one, as the film ends before we learn what Morbius’s murderous problem will be. Given that he did not use the second vial of antibodies, we may presume he prefers to continue alive – and given that the fake blood continues to work for a short period of time, it is a sufficient short-term solution. Morbius’s long-term plans, on the other hand, will very certainly be addressed in a sequel.
In San Francisco, what is “that thing”?
When Agent Rodriguez discovers Milo’s dead victims in the subway, he remarks that they “haven’t had anything this good since that thing in San Francisco.” That is the setting for Venom and Venom 2, establishing another connection between Tom Hardy’s symbiote and Morbius (along with the living vampire name-checking Venom while he terrifies someone into leaving their lab).
What purpose does Michael Keaton serve in the post-credits scenes? How did he manage to escape the MCU?
Adrian Toomes, a.k.a. Vulture, played by Michael Keaton, appears — as if by magic – in Morbius’ first post-credits sequence. He’s been transferred via the purple gap in the sky as a result of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s multiversal hijinks. After being released from prison – after all, his crimes did not occur in the Sony-verse – he meets up with Morbius and expresses his belief that people like them should band together.
It’s unclear how he ended himself in the Sony-verse. At the conclusion of No Way Home, everyone who entered the MCU via the gap was returned to their original universe. Why Toomes experienced the reversal is left unresolved. It is plausible that he was caught up in the spell and brought to the incorrect location, but even Vulture has no idea how that happened.
Additionally, while Toomes does mention Spider-Man, he is unlikely to recall his true identity, as Doctor Strange’s spell in No Way Home obliterated everyone’s memory of Peter Parker as Spider-Man.
Is Morbius putting together the Sinister Six?
Vulture informs Morbius that he believes people like them should band together in order to “do some good.” Thus, a new super-team is undoubtedly in the works, but whether it will be comprised of villains or anti-heroes remains to be seen. Toomes was a villain in his own realm – but he may be seeking a new beginning in the Sony-verse. Morbius is most emphatically not an outright villain, and neither is their most likely teammate, Venom.
If this is the start of a new Sinister Six, they appear to be a collection of not-quite-villains and not-quite-heroes.
In the Morbius universe, who portrays Spider-Man?
Despite the fact that the Morbius teaser featured some graffiti featuring Spider-Man, the sequence was deleted from the finished film. That is most likely because it alludes to the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home – in which Spider-Man was accused of murdering Mysterio – and Morbius does not take place in the MCU (though the plot may have changed at some point during Morbius’ creation).
This means we have no idea which Spider-Man is currently prowling the Sony-verse. Could this be a Tom Holland knock-off? Or is Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man resurrecting? Or is it someone entirely new? It remains a puzzle – though one that we are likely to solve sooner rather than later.