After the soul-rending gut-punch of Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp is like an afternoon
trip to Baskin-Robbins.
It's colorful, splashy, and fun, without too much emotional weight.
"Hiya champ, how was school today?"
(laughs)
Still, that definitely isn't to say that everything got a neat resolution at the end of the movie.
True to form for Marvel films, Ant-Man and the Wasp ends on a slippery slope covered
in cliffhangers and unanswered questions.
Well, grab some orange slices and watch out for tardigrades, because we're diving deep
into the Quantum Realm to clear up some of the nagging questions you might have had after
seeing Ant-Man and the Wasp - obviously, spoilers ahead.
Wasp evolution
Clearly, the Quantum Realm is a crazy place.
We first saw how bonkers it is in the first Ant-Man, when Scott Lang nearly got lost after
shrinking between the molecules of Yellowjacket's suit.
It gets even worse when Hank Pym takes his Innerspace bus into the Quantum Realm in Ant-Man
and the Wasp.
Here's a rough reenactment:
"Here we go!"
Once Hank's in there, he almost immediately starts losing his mind.
Thankfully, Janet shows up just in time to fix him with her new quantum powers.
So… what was up with that?
As Janet briefly explained, the three decades she spent in the Realm forced her to evolve
in some strange ways to deal with the madness of the Quantum Realm.
Part of that evolution apparently gave her the ability to influence quantum particles.
When Hank got lost in his own mind, she basically guided him back to sanity.
Quantum healing
Most of the story arc involving Ghost, a.k.a. Ava Starr, deals with her search for a way
to cure her quantum phase-shifting condition.
Her powers made for some visually amazing fight scenes, but her character is also in
constant pain and inching closer to the grave with every moment.
So that part's not good.
To end her suffering, Ava concocts a plan to ambush Janet Van Dyne on her way out of
the Quantum Realm and siphon Janet's stored quantum energy.
To do so, she uses a sleep chamber built to help stave off the effects of her condition,
although nobody ever explains exactly what it is.
By all appearances, it's designed to focus or manipulate quantum particles.
In a pinch, though, it can apparently draw particles into itself.
It turns out that there was no need to fight about it though, because Janet is more than
happy to cure Ava.
Infinity fallout
In case you still haven't seen Avengers: Infinity War, fair warning: We're about to get into
some tiny spoilers here.
By the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp, everything's been patched up in the Ant-Man universe.
And then like a punch to the face, the mid-credits scene came along to remind us that this happy
little Ant-Man universe actually exists within the big, mean MCU, where Thanos beat the Avengers
and dusted half the universe.
As the first mid-credits scene shows for an instant, Hank, Hope, and Janet are now on
the list of finger-snap casualties.
Shrinking timeline
With that major connection to Infinity War, it's worth taking a moment to clarify the
timeline of everything that happened in Ant-Man and the Wasp.
Despite being released after Infinity War, Ant-Man and the Wasp takes place before the
events of that film.
Right before it, by all accounts.
The movie doesn't mention how much time has passed between the main film and the mid-credits
scenes, but however long it was, that time gap essentially contained Infinity War.
When Scott jumps into the quantum tunnel, Thanos is presumably finishing up his gauntlet
over in Wakanda, putting the ending of both movies at just about the same moment, chronologically.
But this connection also leads to some interesting new developments for Infinity War.
Marvel mastermind Kevin Feige has been pretty up front about that.
"Ant-Man and the Wasp also connects directly to Avengers 4.
These characters are gonna be very important going forward."
If that's the case, then there's a good chance that all the fallen heroes in Infinity War
will make a comeback.
It could be that Hope, Hank, and Janet - along with the rest of the casualties of Thanos'
finger snap - weren't destroyed outright, but instead transferred into the Quantum Realm.
And speaking of that place...
Lost in the quantum realm
Ant-Man and the Wasp certainly left one of its heroes in a big cliffhanger.
When the Van Dynes disintegrated while Scott was in the Quantum Realm, he apparently got
stuck there.
Not only are the people who know how to get him out gone, but they're probably also the
only people who even know he's in there.
That opens up an interesting possibility: After spending a long time in the Quantum
Realm, Janet Van Dyne learned how to manipulate quantum particles.
If Scott spends enough time sandwiched between realities, he could feasibly develop the same
ability.
That would give him a definite upper hand against Thanos in the future, especially if,
as fans have speculated, the Infinity Stones are somehow tied into the Quantum Realm.
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