The Venture Bros. Movie Ending Explained

Warning: The following contains SPOILERS for The Venture Bros: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart.The biggest mysteries of The Venture Bros. series are explained in the long-awaited movie, The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart. The film picks up roughly three days after the events of The Venture Bros. season 7 finale, with a confused Hank Venture on the run and trying to solve the mystery of his mother’s identity. The only member of the ensemble concerned with Hank’s whereabouts is his twin brother, Dean, who hits the road with two thirds of the Order of the Triad to find him.

The rest of The Venture Bros. cast is focused on the conflict with a new supervillain called Mantilla, whose company, Arch, threatens the delicate balance between the established professional antagonist unions and the super-scientists and costumed heroes they menace. Mantilla’s latest head-hunting efforts focus on The Monarch, who is simultaneously engaged in trying to disprove a blood test which suggests that he is related to his sworn nemesis, Dr. Rusty Venture. With a reality as intricate as the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart has a lot of ground to cover in resolving The Venture Bros’ many mysteries, yet it manages this task with a thrilling conclusion.

How Dean & Hank’s Long-Awaited Mother Reveal Changes The Story

Hank follows the one lead he has to the Caring Hands Second Chance Ranch, which finds homes for animals transformed into “sidekicks and hench-beasts” by supervillains. Hank believes that the ranch’s founder, a retired actress named Bobbie St. Simone, is his mother, based on the somewhat questionable testimony of The Action Man from when the two met in The Venture Bros. season 7 finale. St. Simone happily welcomes Hank to her ranch, but explains that she is not his mother. She does, however, reveal a good bit of history behind Hank and Dean’s birth.

Bobbie St. Simone was briefly involved with Hank’s grandfather, Jonas Venture, who gave her invisibility powers and recruited her as a spy for the US government. She was meant to act as a plant within the costumed villain community, but went rogue after falling in love with Jonas Venture’s archenemy, the supervillain Force Majeure. When Force Majeure was killed by a rival villain, Bobbie went into hiding with their daughter, Debbie, ultimately turning to Jonas’ son, Rusty Venture for help.

The rest of the story is explained later by the villain Mantilla, who is revealed to be Bobbie St. Simone’s daughter. While relating to Dr. Mrs. The Monarch (aka Sheila) how she used to date The Monarch and why she broke up with him, Mantilla discusses her family’s villainous history. Rusty Venture agreed to transfer Bobbie St. Simone’s invisibility powers to her daughter, in exchange for (as Mantilla put it) “stuff I wasn’t planning on using.” This is strongly implied to be the eggs that were used to create the first Hank and Dean clones. Hank and Dean, however, remain completely ignorant of their origins.

Are The Monarch & Rusty Brothers? Venture Bros. Movie Twist Explained

The Venture Bros. season 7 premiere teased a popular fan theory that The Monarch and Rusty Venture were brothers. A flashback established that The Monarch’s parents were having trouble conceiving and approached Jonas Venture for help. It was strongly suggested that Jonas had an affair with The Monarch’s mother or that he used his sperm to artificially inseminate her. In either case, The Venture Bros. series finale ended with the revelation that the two mortal enemies were indeed blood relatives, albeit with a twist.

The question was finally answered in the closing moments of The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, as Rusty Venture gave up his blood to save The Monarch’s life. A more conclusive test proved that the two men were not brothers but clones, much like Ben Reilly and Peter Parker in Marvel Comics. This fact was confirmed by Ben, a geneticist who used to work for Jonas Venture, who said that apart from The Monarch having received “a pinch of baboon DNA” to cure his premature baldness, he and Rusty were the same man. Naturally, this did not disturb The Monarch nearly as much as being his arch-enemy’s brother.

What The Venture Bros. Movie Post-Credits Scene Means

The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart has a post-credit scene, which flashes back to long before the series started. The brief scene shows a young Rusty Venture, apparently fresh from his meeting with Bobbie St. Simone and Debbie, as he is sketching plans for the hover-bikes his sons were seen piloting in the first episode of The Venture Bros. His robot HELPER is shown preparing a twin-size cradle, as Rusty declares the clones are “about done,” revealing himself to be wearing a large artificial womb, bringing Hank and Dean’s story full circle.

The Venture Bros. Movie Changes Nothing & The Story Continues

Despite all the history that unfolds, nothing ultimately changes for any of the characters as a result of the events of The Venture Bros.: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart. While The Monarch briefly considers giving up his life of villainy, he ultimately decides to keep living for spite’s sake and has his currently invisible wife pull down Rusty Venture’s pants, so he can laugh at him mockingly, even as he struggles to stand. The story of Hank and Dean’s mother also goes nowhere, with Rusty Venture dismissing the question as unimportant, saying he never knew who his mother was either.

What Next For The Main Venture Bros. Characters?

It is uncertain what the future holds for The Venture Bros characters. The movie ends with the status quo of the show restored, with the Venture family reunited, their Manhattan skyscraper base planted on the site of the old Venture Industries compound, and The Monarch and his family ready to go to war with them. Unfortunately, with the Venture Bros. cancelation in 2020 and Warner Bros. Discovery’ apparent lack of interest in adult animation, it is unlikely that these characters’ adventures will ever be revived or continued.

What The Venture Bros. Movie Ending Really Means

The Venture Bros. movie encapsulates the chief theme of the show, which was once described by series co-creator Doc Hammer as “beautiful sublime failure.” The characters do not truly change or evolve, and any success they find is accidental and totally at odds with their actual goals. Rusty Venture fails to free himself of his father’s name and continues his legacy of abuse. Hank and Dean fail to find the loving mother of their dreams. The Monarch finds that he is everything he hates and continues to hate. There is no deep meaning in The Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, only a reflection of the absurdity of its world.