Patrick Mulligan later known as Toxin is a major character in the 2021 Sony Marvel Universe film Venom: Let There Be Carnage and its 2024 sequel Venom: The Last Dance.
He is a San Francisco Police Department detective who is in deaf with his left ear after an attack by Frances Barrison when they were taking her out of the St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children. Years later, he was in charge of the case of Cletus Kasady and waited on the news from a reporter as he went to interrogate the serial killer. After the battle on Cathedral of Grace he was resurrected by the symbiote Toxin.
He was portrayed by Stephen Graham (who also voiced Toxin) and Sean Delaney (in flashbacks).
History[]
Past[]
Mulligan was an SFPD Officer. During his early days, Mulligan was responsible for taking Frances Barrison out of St. Estes Home for Unwanted Children and transporting her to Ravencroft. While inside the police van, Mulligan was attacked by Barrison's sonic scream which deafened him on one of his ears, in his desperation and struggle Patrick also shot on her right eye, knocking her out which allowed them to successfully take her to Ravencroft, though the cop did not know that and believed he killed her.
Venom: Let There Be Carnage[]
In the present day, Mulligan, now a detective in San Francisco, contacts Eddie Brock to speak to Kasady, a serial killer who refuses to talk to anyone other than Brock.
Kasady's execution fails when a red symbiote emerges and blocks the injection. It introduces himself as Carnage and goes on a violent rampage through the prison, freeing inmates and killing the guards. Kasady and Carnage then make a deal: Carnage will help Kasady break out Barrison from Ravencroft, and Kasady will help him eliminate Venom. Mulligan calls Brock and warns him about the situation.
Mulligan, suspicious of Brock due to his interactions with Kasady before Carnage emerged, takes Brock to the police station. Brock refuses to answer Mulligan's questions and contacts Weying as his lawyer.
Kasady takes Mulligan hostage, and Barrison captures Weying after failing to find Brock. With Kasady and Barrison planning to get married at a cathedral, Venom appears and fights Carnage. Barrison in turn seemingly kills Mulligan with her sonic powers.
While Brock, Venom, Weying, and Dan Lewis escape, umbeknownst to them a still-living Mulligan's eyes flash blue.
Venom: The Last Dance[]
Presumably an unknown symbiote called Toxin spawned during the conflict involving the symbiote known as Carnage, Toxin came to Patrick Mulligan's aid during the battle at Grace Cathedral after he was attacked and hung by Shriek. Taking over Mulligan as his new host so he could survive the assassination attempt, this is which made the detective's eyes glow blue while he whispered the word "monsters".
Carnage's spawn was determined to have either abandoned his host or perished, but as Mulligan had been taken into custody in a secret facility of Area 55, he was given a replacement Symbiote to save his life. The new Symbiote gave cryptic but gradually more clear warnings about Knull, as well as explaining that Knull needed the Codex in Venom, which could be prevented with the death of either Symbiote or host.
When Eddie is taken to Area 55 as a prisoner, he saw Mulligan in an opposite cell and was shocked due to believing the cop had died in the fight against Shriek.
The Xenophage penetrated the facility, so Mulligan transformed into his suited state to hold back the hunter; while the creature killed him, he gave a small window of time that allowed Venom to rally a small defense of Symbiotes to counter the Xenophage.
Appearance[]
His Symbiote had a shiny turquoise colour. Contrary to other Symbiotes, it didn't have legs, but several tendrils that operated as both locomotion and additional arms to hold an enemy.
Personality[]
Patrick Mulligan is a full-fledged police officer: committed to his job, to protecting the innocent, and to bringing peace to the families of murder victims.
He hired the services of Eddie Brock to try to show Cletus Kasady where the bodies of the people he had killed were, although he was not amused that Brock took all the credit for discovering them. Mulligan does not get along with Brock and has the intuition that Brock is hiding something, since he always finds himself in the middle of great massacres without apparently knowing anything. When he orders to stop Brock, he tries to get him to tell him what he knows to prevent Kasady from continuing to kill, and when he meets Brock's lawyer, Anne Weying, he tries to appeal to his humanity so that Brock can speak.
When he sees Kasady and he transforms into Carnage, he attacks him without fear, although because of this, he ends up captured. Mulligan feels remorse that he nearly killed Frances Barrison.
After his resurrection by one of the Area 55 Symbiotes, his human personality appeared to have vanished, as only the Symbiote displayed communication functions.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Possession: Toxin could transfer itself from host to host upon physical contact with them, as it was able to secretly go into Patrick Mulligan’s flesh as if intangible.
Abilities[]
- Expert Marksman: Mulligan shot Frances Barrison in the eye with his pistol.
Equipment[]
- Glock 17: Mulligan carries a pistol as his sidearm.
Quotes[]
Venom: Let There be Carnage[]
| “ | Mulligan: I should’ve known you’d be mixed up in this somehow. Eddie: I’m just a reporter, doing my job. What do you want from me? |
„ |
| ~ Mulligan's first conversation with Eddie |
| “ | Mulligan: You want to tell me why Kasady knew exactly where to go? Or how he managed to tear through maximum security like tissue paper? Eddie: Do I look like I’m helping him?" |
„ |
| ~ Mulligan to Eddie. after Cletus escapes |
| “ | Monsters..... | „ |
| ~ Mulligan setting up his transformation into Toxin. |
Venom: The Last Dance[]
| “ | There is a dark, cold ocean surrounding the universe. He is coming. | „ |
| ~ The Symbiote's ominous description and warning of Knull's power |
| “ | THE DARKNESS... HAS... TEETH!! | „ |
| ~ The Symbiote expressing fear of Knull |
Relationships[]
Allies[]
- Eddie Brock and Venom
- Anne Weying
- Dan Lewis
- Toxin - symbiote and ressurector
- Unknown Area 55 Symbiote
Enemies[]
- Cletus Kasady/Carnage †
- Frances Barrison † - attempted killer
- Xenophage - killer
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- In the comics, Toxin is a symbiote that was an offspring to Carnage. After giving birth to Toxin, he sought to kill it, but instead bonded it to a former New York City Police Department police officer named Patrick Mulligan so he could kill them both, but was saved by Venom. Toxin then became an ally to Venom and Spider-Man.
- In 2018, it was announced that Reid Scott would portray Patrick Mulligan in Venom, but his character was revealed to be Dr. Lewis.
- Tom Hardy posted on his Instagram a photo with the surname of Mulligan, confirming his appearance in Venom: Let There Be Carnage. The post was then quickly deleted.
- Vinny O'Brien and Sam Durrani were stunt doubles for Stephen Graham in the role of Patrick Mulligan.
- Unlike in the comics Toxin reveals to be green rather than either red or orange, especially after fans believe the green symbiote is Lasher who is in Venom: The Last Dance which their only half right when Lasher did appear after all only to possessed Sadie Christmas as a female version.
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 's Spider-Man Universe Heroes
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Venom Venom: Let There Be Carnage Morbius Madame Web Venom: The Last Dance Others See Also | ||