Journalist Eddie Brock acquires the powers of a symbiote after exposure to an alien lifeform brought to Earth by the Life Foundation, a corporation that explores space in search of new habitable worlds. The foundation's CEO, Carlton Drake, believes that the symbiotes are the key to human survival in an increasingly inhospitable Earth. Following a scandal that ruins his career, Eddie's investigation leads him to break into the Life Foundation's research facility, seeking evidence of the company's unethical experiments with the symbiotes on humans.

During Eddie's covert search, he is inadvertently bonded with a symbiote named Venom, who has a violent and unpredictable nature. As a result, Eddie finds himself endowed with superhuman strength and abilities. Initially struggling with the symbiote's influence, Eddie must come to terms with his new alter-ego while plunging into a dangerous conflict with Drake, who has ambitions of his own for the symbiotes. Eddie's life is thrown into chaos as he copes with the internal battle for control, and the external threat posed by Drake's relentless pursuit to capture the symbiote within him.