Biochemist Michael Morbius tries to cure himself of a rare blood disease, but he inadvertently infects himself with a form of vampirism instead.
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.
Suffering from a rare genetic blood disorder, Nobel Prize-winning scientist Dr Michael Morbius knows he is living on borrowed time. And after years of fruitless attempts to find a cure, Morbius is now running out of options. But this fatal condition has been plaguing him since childhood, and he can't afford to stop now. As desperate Morbius decides to risk his life to achieve results, an unstable and highly experimental serum offers a solution to the problem. However, what happens if the cure is worse than the disease?—Nick Riganas
Throughout his childhood, Dr. Michael Morbius has struggled to live with a rare, but deadly blood illness. Therefore, he goes on a worldwide search for a cure that could hopefully help both him and other patients currently suffering from similar ailments. However, as he searches on and on, he comes across a solution in the form of vampire bat DNA. With the help of his assistant, Martine, Michael manages to introduce the DNA to his own bloodstream. The solution itself begins to reveal its benefits, but soon, terrible side effects begin to arise. With these new symptoms on the rise, Michael must find a way to combat his urges for human blood, while also discovering new abilities that come with it.—Affan Jamsari
At a hospital in Greece, 10-year-old Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) welcomes his surrogate brother Lucien, whom he renames Milo (Matt Smith); they bond over their shared blood illness (caused due to a missing piece of their DNA) and desire to be "normal". Morbius can only walk with the help of crutches, same as Milo. Dr. Emil Nicholas (Jared Harris) is a mentor and father figure for Michael and Milo who runs a facility that looks after people with incurable illnesses.Hospital director Nicholas arranges for Morbius to attend medical school for gifted children in New York (Since Morbius is a gifted student and can fix complex machines with the simplest of ease) while he focuses on caring for Milo. Morbius and Milo require blood transfusions 3 times a day to stay alive, till the time the DNA fix required is identified and implemented. Morbius leaves but promises Milo that one day he will find a cure for their condition.
25 years later, Morbius publicly declines a Nobel Prize for his work with artificial blood (which has saved more lives than penicillin). Morbius rejects the award as he says that artificial blood was the result of a failed experiment and thus not praiseworthy. His colleague Martine Bancroft (Adria Arjona) 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. Bats drink blood and have special anti-coagulants to help digest it. Vampire bats have the ability to bring down predators which are 10 times their own size.By ingesting bat DNA into his own, Morbius hopes to develop the same anti-coagulants in his body and cure his condition. Morbius tests the DNA splicing on mice, and it survives.
After informing Milo of his planned illegal experiment, Morbius receives funding from him 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. Martine was on the ship with Morbius and watches his transformation into a Vampire and his resultant blood-lust. Only the sight of Martine brings some restraint to Morbius, but she is knocked unconscious in the attack by the security personnel.Once his blood-lust subsides and he regains his senses, a horrified Morbius erases all CCTV footage of his experiment, and the resulting attack and blood-lust, before contacting the authorities and jumping overboard with the 2 remaining vials of his serum.
Morbius returns to New York and discovers he now has superhuman strength, speed, reflexes, and Echolocation, with his vampire bats treating him as one of their own. To control his blood lust, he subsists on his artificial blood as it gradually ceases to satisfy his needs. Artificial blood keeps Morbius stable for 6 hours, but the window is getting shorter and shorter. Morbius also realizes that if he starves himself of blood, his vitals drop dangerously, and his only choice is to drink blood or die.FBI agents Simon Stroud (Tyrese Gibson) and Al Rodriguez (Al Madrigal) investigate Morbius' victims and deduce his involvement (since Morbius has been working on a cure for his condition his entire life and now appears suddenly "robust").Milo learns that Morbius is cured but becomes furious when Morbius refuses to cure him as well. Milo knows that the secret to Morbius's cure is his Vampire DNA and his blood lust, and he has seen Morbius as a vampire himself, but wants the cure regardless.
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 by Stroud. Morbius knows that artificial blood will stop working for him in a matter of days. 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 prison to confront him. An unrepentant Milo confesses to his blood-lust-induced crime and urges Morbius to embrace his powers as he has. Unwilling to hurt his brother, Morbius flees (in the process he discovers that he can also fly).
Milo starts to keep an eye on Bancroft as he knows that Morbius will make an attempt to contact her. Bancroft senses this and evades both Milo and the detectives to meet Morbius. Morbius is down to 4 hours and 22 minutes of stability with each ingestion of artificial blood.Morbius meets Bancroft to explain what Milo has done before acquiring a new lab and developing an antibody against Vampirism to stop and kill Milo; he also plans to use it on himself since he will become unable to resist his blood-lust. Morbius and Bancroft fall in love with each other.
Stroud and Rodriguez find footage of one of Milo's attacks and, believing Morbius' Vampirism to be spreading, release it to the media. Nicholas recognizes Milo on TV and pleads with him to stop. Angered by Nicholas' perceived preference for Morbius, Milo wounds and forces him to call Morbius, who arrives too late to save him while Milo also mortally wounds Bancroft. Morbius returns to Bancroft, but she dies in his arms (but before that she kisses Morbius and ingests some of his blood), forcing him to drink her blood (as the effects of artificial blood are gone and he is hungry for human blood, without control).
Morbius confronts Milo and summons an army of bats to restrain him and inject the antibody. Milo dies peacefully and Morbius flies off with the bats, mourning his loved ones and embracing his identity as a vampire while coming to terms with the fact he is now on the run from the authorities. Unbeknownst to him, a still-alive Bancroft reawakens with glowing red eyes elsewhere, having ingested a drop of Morbius' blood whilst he was feeding on her.
In two mid-credits scenes, Adrian Toomes / Vulture (Michael Keaton) finds himself transported to Morbius' universe. Having deduced that his transportation involved Spider-Man, Toomes approaches the fugitive Morbius and suggests that they form a team.
