“Morbius,”Sony’s latest Spider-Man-adjacent Marvel movie has just hit theaters nationwide. Jared Leto stars in Dr. Michael Morbius as a mad scientist genius with a rare genetic disorder. In true mad scientist fashion, he decides to try and cure himself using vampire bat DNA and is healed… but also turns into a freakish monster with a thirst for human blood.
But what happens when the latest superhero adventure ends? Will you be left wanting more, just like Morbius?
Major spoilers “Morbius” follow!
Bad Milo
One of the most important ideas is “Morbius”The good doctor forms a bond as a child with a young boy he calls Milo. They meet in a children’s hospital and he says that the last kid who occupied his bed was named Milo, and he died, so he’s going to name this new kid Milo. He is actually Lucien. Milo then grows up (he’s played in adulthood by Matt Smith), for some reason allowing everyone to still call him Milo, still suffering from the same debilitating genetic disorder as Morbius. Milo is also very, very rich and swans around his Manhattan penthouse, desperate for a cure (he’s even employed one of the doctors from the children’s hospital where they grew up, thanklessly played by Jared Harris, as his personal MD).
Morbius captures South American vampire bats and keeps them in a huge cylindrical tank in his office at Horizon’s medical center. (The bat tube is one of the movie’s more baffling elements. It’s hard to believe that he was able to bring the bats into this country. The bats are not seen eating or sleeping. They aren’t sharks. But…) Determined to do his experiments in the most morally questionable setting possible, Morbius charters a tanker in international waters and gets his cute girlfriend, who is also a doctor (Adria Arjona) to run the unproven test on him. (It worked with a mouse!
As expected, he becomes a vampire and eats all the mercenaries aboard. Morbius returns home to New York determined to find the serum and not to ruthlessly kill anyone else. (Tyrese and Al Madrigal are two of the bumbling FBI agents who are following him. Morbius has a history of fake blood. He uses this to sustain himself, then he takes human blood. He keeps track of all his freak-outs and when they happen, as well as how vampire-like he becomes.
Milo finds out that Morbius is feeling much better, and asks for the sweet, sweet serum. He accepts it and becomes another vampire. He is able to understand the assignment better than Leto and begins to dance around his apartment murdering people. (The murders are first pinned on Morbius as a weirdo scientist and he is briefly jailed). Morbius must do something. If he wants to be a hero, he’s got to take down the villain.
Duel to Death
It’s through fighting with Milo that Morbius discovers some of his powers, which include (but are not limited to) echolocation and the ability to, if not fly exactly, then careen on currents of air. Director Daniel Espinosa imagines the scene with the character streaking ink behind him. It looks like a comic-book panel, and it’s very cool. But still, Morbius knows that Milo needs to die, especially after Milo murders Jared Harris’ character, their old friend.
Morbius hires Martine, his girlfriend, to assist him. He creates a serum to cure and kill Milo. But it’s the only way.
After killing Harris’ character, Milo kills Martine. Morbius rushes for her help and feels her dying. He also takes in her food, making him super-powered (more about that later). Morbius, devastated, stands over her, and allows a droplet from his blood to fall into her mouth. This is the classic vampire legend, which has been popularized by modern culture. “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”) where, in order to make a vampire, the vampire has to drain the person and then this new vampire has to drink the vampire’s blood.
Still, Morbius’ gamble doesn’t pay off. His blood does not do any good. She is still dead. Milo must be killed.
The battle between the vampires is more chaotic and CGI-embroidered chaos. Eventually they make their way underneath New York City and Morbius shows that he’s got more tricks up his sleeve: he calls on his army of bats to hold onto Milo, stabilizing him so that Morbius can deliver his antidote. It works but also kills Milo. Milo dies in Morbius’ arms, thanking him for giving him his name which honestly still seems pretty condescending to me and I cannot believe he kept letting people call him that.
Morbius takes flight, flying high above New York City on the leather wings his bat-friends gave him. Now he is Morbius, the vampire hero of New York. It’s left open-ended as to whether or not he’ll still keep his office hours or regularly see patients.
What’s Next?
End credits sequences are available, but it is obvious that Morbius has taken off and will return to continue his adventures. Also, there’s one additional twist before the very cool, Nicolas Winding Refn-indebted end credits roll: Martine opens her eyes! She’s alive! She’s also a vampire. So there’s that.
Also, it’s established earlier in the movie, both by one of the bumbling cops and by Morbius telling a thug that he’s actually Venom, that Venom exists in the same universe. We could see Tom Hardy’s gooey SOB show up sooner rather than later.
Or, in other words: “Morbius 2”You’re going to be nuts.