The Ending Of Morbius Explained

There are major spoilers ahead for the movie "Morbius."

Sony's latest Marvel movie adaptation, "Morbius," introduces the antihero Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto), a physician who's dedicated his life to finding a cure for his rare blood disease. With the financial backing of his best friend Milo (Matt Smith) and the assistance of fellow doctor Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona), Morbius' latest experiments have focused on using DNA from vampire bats to heal himself. Even though the science is dicey at best, he and Martine take to international waters and Martine injects him with a serum he created — and almost immediately it turns him into a blood-mad killing machine.

After coming to his senses, Morbius realizes he's murdered multiple people, which makes him unwilling to give the cure to Milo, who suffers from the same disease. As Morbius deals with the reality that he must constantly drink blood to maintain his cure, Milo steals a vial of his serum and turns himself into a vampire as well. Yet, unlike Morbius, Milo has no qualms about killing humans in order to drink their blood — after all, he reasons, for years they looked down on him for his physical condition, why shouldn't he now do the same? Morbius knows he needs to stop his former friend and has developed an antidote with deadly side effects to do so, but as the film's third act begins, it's Milo who forces their final showdown.

Ever since Morbius and Milo were children, Dr. Emil Nikols (Jared Harris) has been responsible for administering the treatments that keep them alive. And although both men have since moved to New York City from the Greek hospital where they met, Dr. Nikols has moved there too, and continues to care for Milo. Now that Milo has transformed into a vampire, however, he no longer needs Dr. Nikols, and apparently he doesn't feel all that grateful to him either.

When Nikols arrives at Milo's lavish apartment to give him his latest treatment, he quickly sizes up the state of his patient. It's clear Milo no longer needs his assistance, and for a moment it seems like Milo will just let him leave. But then Milo lashes out, tearing at Nikols' throat and slashing him across the abdomen. Instead of drinking his blood though, Milo leaves Nikols bleeding out on the floor of his apartment, with the intention of Morbius finding him.

With the little life he has left, Nikols calls Morbius, who immediately comes to help. Morbius is way too late, though. He arrives just in time for Nikols to weakly ask him to stop Milo and then breathe his final breath. Morbius is saddened and astonished by what's happened, but he doesn't have time to dwell on it, because his echolocation powers quickly alert him to the fact that Milo has taken Martine hostage.

Michael frantically uses his newfound ability to fly to reach Martine who Milo has left on the roof of a skyscraper. Unfortunately, Milo has already mortally wounded Martine and left the scene. And just like he did with Nikols, Milo's left Martine just alive enough to allow her to utter her last words to Morbius before she dies.

Morbius, whose relationship with Martine has recently evolved from a platonic friendship to a brand-new romance, is devastated by Martine's physical state and leans over her as she instructs him to make her death count. Just before she passes away, Morbius kisses her and a drop of his blood falls into her mouth. Martine's eyes then close for the last time, and in a fit of rage and grief, Morbius drinks her blood. Until this point he, had resisted the urge to drink human blood, instead doing his best to subsist on the synthetic blood he'd invented ... but Morbius' resolve breaks with Martine's death.

As Morbius gives into to his primal urge for real human blood, Milo appears on the roof and applauds his actions. Morbius isn't feeling nearly as positively, however, and lunges at his friend. They both morph into their vampire faces, and use their special powers to wrestle across the rooftops of tall buildings. They smash through windows and fall and fly from place to place in a knock-down-drag-out fight. Finally, Milo, who seems to have the upper hand, pushes Morbius off the rooftop of a skyscraper and follows him down. The pair land in a subterranean pit, with Milo on the ground and Morbius hanging from a pipe above.

Milo uses this pause in their battle to give Morbius a pep talk about their vampiric condition, once again doing his best to convince Morbius that their evolved state isn't a curse. In response, Morbius shouts, drops from the pipe, and lands unconscious in a shallow pool of water below. While Morbius' shout could be taken as frustration at Milo repeating the same arguments he made earlier, it was apparently a call to the bats living in a nearby cave. As Milo approaches his body, a swarm of thousands of the animals fly to Morbius' aid and together hold his unconscious body upright.

In response to the appearance of Morbius' bat allies, Milo grabs a pole from a wall opposite Morbius and the bats and starts to charge toward his friend with it. As he gets close, he leaps high into the air and aims the pole like a spear. Milo obviously has deadly intentions, but Morbius is now awake and seems to direct the bats to hold Milo off and immobilize him. 

Morbius goes to Milo and stabs him with the antidote he created. While the antidote will cure Milo of his vampirism, it will also rob him of life and Milo seems to know it intuitively. As he lays there, he tells Morbius he can't kill him, reminding him Morbius gave him his name. Finally, just before his life ends, Milo apologizes. In an inversion of a scene from early in the movie, where a young Morbius saved an unconscious Milo's life, after Milo dies, Morbius calls Milo's name — and then, when he gets no response, he calls his real name, Julian. Milo remains quiet as sirens sound in the distance.

The authorities, including the FBI agents on Morbius' case (Tyrese Gibson and Al Madrigal), arrive at the pit where Morbius and Milo had their final showdown — but Morbius is nowhere to be found. Then, just as the FBI agents look over the edge of the pit, the swarm of bats emerges with Morbius flying in the middle. Those bats really seem to dig Morbius.

Morbius had made a second dose of the antidote that he gave to Milo and indicated he intended to use it on himself. However, he hasn't taken it and it doesn't seem like he will. Instead he's confidently flying with his bats and seems to be fully in control of his vampire powers for the first time.

Before the credits roll, Martine opens her eyes, indicating that when Morbius' blood dripped into her mouth earlier, it turned her into a vampire. So apparently, along with his various other supernatural powers, Morbius also has the power to create other vampires.

In the first mid-credits scene, Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton), aka the Vulture, appears out of nowhere in an empty jail cell, apparently as a result of Doctor Strange's multiverse collapsing spell from "Spider-Man: No Way Home." Toomes examines himself in the mirror, looking slightly surprised.

The scene cuts to a news report that says his appearing in the cell could lead to Toomes' immediate release. This seems to indicate that Toomes has found himself in a universe other than his own, and one where he's not a known criminal.

The second mid-credits scene starts with an alive and robust-looking Morbius driving in the middle of nowhere. He stops by a nondescript field and gets out of the car. The wind blows around him and then Toomes arrives wearing a very elaborate Vulture suit. Toomes proposes a team up and Morbius seems to be considering it as the scene — and movie — officially ends.

Apparently, Toomes is enjoying his freedom in this new universe and has decided to get a gang together of similarly antiheroic individuals, starting with Morbius. Does this mean that a "Sinister Six" movie will finally happen? Only time will tell.