Morbius Movie Storyline. At a hospital in Greece, 10-year-old Michael Morbius welcomes his surrogate brother Lucien, whom he renames Milo; they bond over their shared blood illness and desire to be “normal”. Their adoptive father and hospital director Nicholas arranges for Morbius to attend medical school in New York while he focuses on caring for Milo.
25 years later, Morbius publicly declines a Nobel Prize for his work with synthetic blood. His colleague Martine Bancroft discovers he has secretly captured dozens of vampire bats from Costa Rica in the hope of splicing their genes with his own to cure his condition. After informing Nicholas and Milo of his planned illegal experiment, Morbius receives funding from them to outfit a private mercenary vessel in international waters with his equipment.
While the cure works, it transforms Morbius into a vampire, who kills and drains the crew of their blood after they attack him out of fear. Once his bloodlust subsides and he regains his senses, a horrified Morbius erases all CCTV footage of his experiment before contacting the authorities and jumping overboard.
Morbius returns to New York and discovers he now has superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and echolocation, with his vampire bats treating him as a bat. He subsists on his synthetic blood until it gradually ceases to satisfy his needs. FBI agents Simon Stroud and Al Rodriguez investigate Morbius’ victims and deduce his involvement. Milo learns that Morbius is cured, but becomes furious when Morbius refuses to cure him as well.
While checking on a hospitalized Bancroft, Morbius finds a dead nurse, drained of her blood. Believing he was responsible, he attempts to escape before being cornered and arrested. In prison, he is visited by Milo, who offers to use his wealth to free him. Upon realizing Milo took his cure and killed the nurse, Morbius escapes to confront him. An unrepentant Milo confesses to his bloodlust-induced crime and urges Morbius to embrace his powers as he has. Unwilling to hurt his brother, Morbius flees.
Morbius is a 2022 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, produced by Columbia Pictures in association with Marvel. Distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing, it is the third film in Sony’s Spider-Man Universe (SSU). Directed by Daniel Espinosa and written by Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless, it stars Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, alongside Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, and Tyrese Gibson. In the film, Morbius and his surrogate brother Milo become living vampires after curing themselves of a rare blood disease.
After announcing plans for a new shared universe of films inspired by Spider-Man characters beginning with Venom (2018), Sony began developing a film based on Morbius. Sazama and Sharpless had written a script by November 2017, and Leto and Espinosa officially joined in June 2018. Work on the film began at the end of the year with further casting, ahead of production starting in London in February 2019. Filming was confirmed to have been completed by June 2019.
Morbius premiered at the Plaza Carso in Mexico City on March 10, 2022, and was released in the United States on April 1, 2022, after being delayed several times from an initial July 2020 date primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film received negative reviews from critics who criticized its writing, visual effects, and especially its mid-credits scenes, although Smith’s performance was commended. It has grossed over $161.5 million against a $75–83 million budget, making it the eighth highest-grossing film of 2022.
About the Production
One of Marvel’s most compelling and conflicted characters comes to the big screen as Oscar® winner Jared Leto transforms into the enigmatic antihero, Michael Morbius. Dangerously ill with a rare blood disorder, and determined to save others suffering his same fate, Dr. Morbius attempts a desperate gamble. What at first appears to be a radical success soon reveals itself to be a remedy potentially worse than the disease.
Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead. The story in the movie sets up is quite similar to Morbius’ origin in the comics. Plagued by a rare illness of the blood, brilliant scientist Michael Morbius experiments to discover a cure that will save his life. The Morbius character in the movie is seen caring for sick children and speaking at public events. He seems, in general, to be regarded as a well-intentioned expert fighting for a good cause.
Unlike the comics, though, the movie depicts the illness as infecting Morbius from a much earlier age, confining him to crutches and making his body physically frail. A shot of a child in a room of hospital beds playing chess hints at Morbius’ advanced intellect even from an early age, but also shows the sadness that will drive Morbius to such incredible lengths for his experiments. After studying bats in his lab, he travels to a misty land where he waits at the mouth of a cave and opens a wound to attract a swarm of bats. Everyone else on the expedition seems scared — but not Morbius.
Firmly within the superhero tradition, the trailer shows off some of Morbius’ powers. While he was frail and sickly before, after his experiments his body ripples with muscles as he shows off his enhanced strength and speed. Those may be standard powers for the superhero set, but Morbius also shows off his echolocation, sending out vibrations that scan the environment around him.
In addition to those other powers, Morbius wields sharp claws like deadly weapons, climbs along walls very much like the spider foe he is known for fighting and seems, at one point, to bound about in clouds of fog as though teleporting or stepping through the shadows.
Morbius (2022)
Directed by: Daniel Espinosa
Starring: Michael Keaton, Jared Leto, Matt Smith, Adria Arjona, Jared Harris, Al Madrigal, Tyrese Gibson, Gloria Garcia, Archie Renaux, Amanda Perez, Corey Johnson
Screenplay by: Matt Sazama, Burk Sharpless
Production Design by:
Cinematography by: Oliver Wood
Costume Design by: Cindy Evans
Set Decoration by: Madelaine Frezza, Tina Jones
Art Direction by: Nigel Evans
Music by: Jon Ekstrand
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence, some frightening images, and brief strong language.
Distributed by: Sony Pictures Releasing
Release Date: April 1, 2022 (United States)
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