Morbius ending explained: Vulture, Sinister Six, Spider-Man, and more

So, you’ve seen the Morbius ending and all its bloodsucking action – and now you no doubt have questions.

The superhero movie focuses on Jared Leto’s titular living vampire. While trying to cure himself of a rare and eventually fatal blood disease, he accidentally turns himself into a bloodthirsty creature – who hasn’t? – and must feast on human blood to stay alive, and prevent himself from turning into a monster. 

Matt Smith co-stars as Lucien, AKA Milo, who suffers from the same illness as Morbius, while Adria Arjona plays Dr. Martine Bancroft, Tyrese Gibson is FBI Agent Simon Stroud, Al Madrigal is Agent Rodriguez, and Jared Harris is Dr. Nicholas. Plus, there’s the matter of Michael Keaton’s Vulture cameo, too…

We’ve rounded up every single question you could possibly have on the Morbius ending, from what Vulture is doing in the Sony-verse to the fate of the main characters. So, scroll on for the complete lowdown on the film’s finale. Major spoilers ahead!

Morbius ending explained

Jared Leto in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Morbius sees the titular doctor, Michael Morbius, suffering from a rare blood disease. After going to Costa Rica to find vampire bats while in pursuit of a cure for his condition, he discovers something that could potentially help his affliction. Along with Dr. Martine Bancroft, Morbius heads into choppy international waters, takes the cure, and becomes a blood-sucking vampire with super strength and a bat-radar.

Back on land, Morbius’ childhood friend, Milo, who also has the same disease, sees Morbius’ newfound strength and wants what Morbius has. The doctor refuses as he does not want Milo, real name Lucien, to become a monster like him. 

However, despite Morbius’ best efforts, Milo sneaks into his lab and takes the cure, becoming a super-powered vampire. Milo kills a doctor, but Morbius is arrested for the murder, and when Milo visits Morbius in prison, it becomes clear Milo now has powers as he no longer needs his walking cane – which he purposely leaves behind in Morbius’ cell. This sends Morbius spiraling, and he escapes

Milo later tells Morbius to stop denying his new powers. They can fight and feed on all those who wronged them. Morbius, though, wants to protect people from the monster he has become. They fight in a subway, and Milo kills more people – then Morbius discovers he can fly and manages to escape.

With the help of Dr. Martine Bancroft, Morbius creates an antibody – one that will kill any “vampire” he injects with it. Milo, meanwhile, kills their surrogate father, Nicholas, and then attacks Martine, all in an effort to bait Morbius. Martine seemingly dies, but before she does, she takes a nibble of Morbius’ lip and drinks some of his blood, then he bites her neck. 

Morbius and Milo fight and, eventually, a swarm of bats head Morbius’ call, and hold Milo down so Morbius can administer the antibody. Milo dies – and Martine wakes up a vampire. Also: all this time, FBI agents Stroud and Rodriguez have been hunting Morbius. They arrive at the scene, only for Morbius to fly off into the night.

Then for the Morbius post-credits: the purple rift from Spider-Man: No Way Home dominates the sky and Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes (AKA Vulture) appears in a jail cell. Since he hasn’t done anything wrong in the Sony-verse, he’s soon released. Then, in the second mid-credits scene, Toomes meets with Morbius in full Vulture gear. Toomes says his arrival in the new universe probably has something to do with Spider-Man and that they should team up to do some good. Morbius answers with one word: “Intriguing.” 

What blood disease do Milo and Morbius have?

Jared Leto in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Both Milo and Morbius suffer from a rare blood disease, though it’s given no name in the movie. All we know for certain is that it weakens them, and, as children, they needed regular blood transfusions – “an oil change” – three times a day. Morbius believes the anti-coagulants in vampire bat saliva could help cure the disease – but ends up turning himself into a vampire instead.

Why does Milo want to fight Morbius?

Matt Smith in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Milo turns against his oldest friend after stealing a dose of Morbius’ experimental cure. He, too, turns him into a living vampire. Morbius doesn’t want Milo to become a monster like him, but Milo has no such qualms about becoming a bloodsucker. 

Milo gets frustrated with Morbius for trying to suppress his worst impulses, pointing out that they can finally go anywhere and actually have fun. “Live a little,” Milo tells his friend. As for why Milo has no problem with killing people, he says that, for their whole lives, he and Morbius have lived with death – so others can know how it feels for a change. This is perhaps best expressed in one scene where Milo goes to a bar and someone picks a fight with him, and later Milo kills them. Milo has been bullied his entire life and can now finally fight back.

Why do the bats help Morbius? 

Jared Leto in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

During the final fight with Milo, a swarm of bats comes to Morbius’ aid and holds Milo down. Why did they help him, and not Milo? It’s not directly explained. Earlier in the movie, we see Morbius enter his lab’s enclosure full of bats and say they welcome him like brothers. That’s presumably because the experimental cure uses anticoagulants from bat saliva. Of course, Milo took the cure too, so it’s a mystery why the bats turn against him. Maybe they can sense evil…

What is in the vial Morbius stabs Milo with?

Jared Leto in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Morbius kills Milo with an antibody that he makes after raiding another lab. The antibody, according to Morbius, is deadly to bats and fatal to humans – so for a human enhanced with abilities gained from bats via Morbius’ experimental cure, that’s a very dangerous combination. 

Why doesn’t Morbius use the second vial?

Jared Leto and Adria Arjona in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Morbius didn’t just make one of those poison vials, though. He makes two, which Martine notices and comments on. The living vampire soon won’t be able to rely on artificial blood, and it’s clear he wants to destroy himself before he has to drink human blood. But, ultimately, Morbius doesn’t use the vial – why is anyone’s guess, but it seems that, at some point, he has a change of heart.

Why does Milo kill Nicholas?

Morbius

(Image credit: Columbia Pictures)

Nicholas practically raised both Milo and Morbius, so when Milo turns on him and kills him, it’s a shock. The answer to why the new vampire kills his caretaker of so many years lies in Milo’s outburst just before the attack. Milo believes Nicholas always favored Morbius and says that Nicholas pitied him before – and is repulsed by him now. It’s also a way for Milo to get Morbius out of hiding, leaving Martine exposed.

What happens to Martine?

Adria Arjona in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Milo uses Martine to draw Morbius out and into their final conflict, and in the process, she’s fatally wounded. Before she dies, though, Martine bites Morbius’ lip and drinks a drop of his blood – and after she dies, the devastated vampire bites her. At the end of the film, we see Martine wake up… and she’s a vampire herself. 

That means she’ll likely be back in potential future installments, but how or if her condition will differ from Morbius’ – considering she was changed via bite, rather than his experimental cure – remains to be seen. 

What happens to the two FBI Agents? What about Stroud’s metal arm?

Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Agents Stroud and Rodriguez hunt Morbius throughout the film, and are on the scene of his final showdown with Milo. When Morbius bursts out from underground and flies away in a swarm of bats, they stand and watch – and that’s the last we see of them. They emerge unscathed from the bloodsucking carnage, and we also get a tiny glimpse of Stroud’s comic-book accurate metal arm. Whether they’re still in pursuit of the living vampire remains to be seen, but Tyrese has previously confirmed that he’s signed a three-movie deal with Sony. 

What will Morbius do now artificial blood doesn’t work?

Jared Leto in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

There’s no answer for this one, as the film ends before we find out what Morbius decides to do about his bloodthirsty problem. Considering he didn’t use the second vial of antibodies, though, we can assume he chooses to go on living – and since the artificial blood still works for a short while, that’s a good enough short-term solution. What Morbius will do in the long-term, though, will likely be answered in a sequel. 

What is “that thing” in San Francisco? 

Venom 2

(Image credit: Sony)

Upon finding the dead bodies in the subway that Milo left behind, Agent Rodriguez comments that they “haven’t had anything this good since that thing in San Francisco.” That’s where Venom and Venom 2 are set – providing another link between Tom Hardy’s symbiote and Morbius (along with the living vampire name-checking Venom while he terrifies someone into leaving their lab).  

Why is Michael Keaton in the post-credits scenes? How did he leave the MCU?

Michael Keaton in Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Michael Keaton’s Adrian Toomes, AKA Vulture, arrives – as if by magic – in Morbius’ first post-credits scene. He’s been transported via that purple rift in the sky due to the multiversal shenanigans of Spider-Man: No Way Home. After being released from prison – his crimes didn’t occur in the Sony-verse, after all – he meets up with Morbius, and says he thinks people like them should team up. 

How exactly he ended up in the Sony-verse is a mystery. Everyone who came through the rift into the MCU was returned to their correct universe at the end of No Way Home. Why the reverse happened to Toomes is left unanswered. It’s possible he just got swept up in the spell and delivered to the wrong place, but even Vulture has no idea how it happened. 

Plus, while Toomes does namecheck Spider-Man, he likely has no memory of his true identity as Doctor Strange’s spell in No Way Home wiped everyone’s memory of Peter Parker being Spider-Man.

Is Morbius setting up Sinister Six?

Jared Leto as Morbius

(Image credit: Sony Pictures Releasing)

Vulture tells Morbius that he thinks people like them should team-up, because they could “do some good.” A new super-team is definitely on the cards, then, but whether that’s a team of villains or anti-heroes remains to be seen. In his own universe, Toomes was a villain – but in the Sony-verse, he could be seeking a fresh start. Morbius definitely isn’t an outright villain, and their likeliest teammate, Venom, isn’t one either. 

If this is the beginning of a new Sinister Six, then it seems they’ll be a group of not-quite-villains, not-quite-heroes. 

Who plays Spider-Man in the Morbius universe?

Morbius

(Image credit: Sony)

Despite some graffiti starring Spider-Man appearing in the Morbius trailer, the scene was cut from the final movie. That’s most likely because it references the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home – where Spider-Man was accused of killing Mysterio – and Morbius does not actually take place in the MCU (perhaps the plan changed at some stage in Morbius’ development, though that remains unclear).

That means that we don’t actually know which Spider-Man is currently roaming around the Sony-verse. Could it be a Tom Holland variant? Or Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man making a comeback? Or someone new altogether? It remains a mystery – though one we will likely know the answer to sooner rather than later.


Morbius is in UK cinemas from March 31, and US theaters from April 1. If you’re all caught up, check out our ultimate guide to Marvel Phase 4 for everything the MCU has in store – and see our guide to the Morbius post-credits scenes and we answer “is Morbius in the MCU?” You can also read our interviews with director Daniel Espinosa on working with Jared Leto, the film’s horror tone, and Keaton’s cameo, and star Matt Smith on joining the Marvel universe and playing the villain

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