Ant-Man and the Wasp's Biggest Unanswered Questions

Warning: SPOILERS for Ant-Man and the Wasp!

Ant-Man and the Wasp leaves behind some big unanswered questions. Set in the days before Avengers: Infinity War (though it syncs up with Thanos' universe-altering finger snap during the mid-credits scene), director Peyton Reed's sequel reunites Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) with Dr. Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly) as they attempt to rescue Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfieffer) from her 30 year exile in the Quantum Realm.

The main story of the film involves Scott trying to make it through the final days of his house arrest for violating the Sokovia Accords during Captain America: Civil War. He's recruited by Hank and Hope because he inadvertently knows the coordinates of Janet's location in the Quantum Realm thanks to the brief time he spent lost in that otherworldly dimension in the original Ant-Man. Our heroes are pursued by a mysterious villain called Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), who can phase through objects and seeks Hank's Quantum lab to cure herself of her powers. They also must deal with a nefarious dealer in black market tech named Sonny Birch (Walton Goggins), who wants to profit from Hank's Quantum technology.

A self-contained adventure about the importance of family, Ant-Man and the Wasp has a much smaller scale and is a more straightforward story compared to Avengers: Infinity War. However, the film definitely ties into the greater Marvel Cinematic Universe, and generates some big questions that it doesn't fully address about what will happen going forward. Since fans can't inject the filmmakers with truth serum, the following unanswered questions are left lingering until (some of) the answers hopefully come in Avengers 4.

This Page: Questions About The Quantum Realm
Page 2: Questions About The State Of The MCU

So Many Questions About JANET VAN DYNE

Janet van Dyne Wasp in the Dark Dimension

The most pressing questions from Ant-Man and the Wasp revolve around Janet Van Dyne and her time in the Quantum Realm. The original Wasp was lost in the late 1980s when she went subatomic during a mission for S.H.I.E.L.D.; she was presumed dead for 30 years but somehow survived in the Quantum Realm that whole time - yet how exactly is never dealt with in the film. Janet was wearing her Wasp suit when she was lost in the microverse, but when Hank finally finds her, she is somehow wearing a beige hooded shawl and carries some kind of metallic weapon. Where did she find those items in the Quantum Realm? What did she eat and where did she live for decades? Ant-Man and the Wasp glosses over all of those questions (and more) and never provides any explanations.

Somehow the Realm changed Janet and gave her a new set of unspecified abilities: she was able to "place an antenna" in Scott's mind while he was momentarily lost in the microverse to lead her family to her, and later mind-melded with him via "Quantum entanglement". Janet told Hank that the changes she underwent in the other dimension were partly "adaptation" but more about "evolution". Sadly, with Janet fading to dust along with Hank and Hope at the end of the film, fans might have to wait a long time for the answers to how Janet survived and changed in the Quantum Realm.

WHAT IS THE TIME VORTEX?

While the specifics are unclear, time works strangely in the Quantum Realm. The question of how the Avengers might defeat Thanos in Avengers 4 could have been answered with two simple words uttered by Janet in the mid-credits scene: time vortexes. From what little Janet explains about the Quantum Realm and its layout, we learn there is a vast wasteland called the Void and a tardigrade field inhabited by the microscopic creatures, but she also warns Scott to avoid the "time vortexes". Fans may have already glimpsed the effects of the time vortex when Hank was in the Quantum Realm and was nearly driven mad by the experience: he imagined himself back in his home in the 1980s before Janet found him and healed him.

With Scott trapped at the end of Ant-Man and the Wasp, it's possible that entering a time vortex might be his ticket out of his predicament. It would presumably allow him to exit the Realm by jumping to another point in the past (like how it's been leaked that Ant-Man joins the Battle of New York in the first Avengers film) or in the future to see his daughter Cassie (who has been recast as a 16-year-old in Avengers 4). It's also possible the time vortex is the key to the whereabouts of Captain Marvel.

HOW DO QUANTUM HEALING PARTICLES WORK?

Janet's newfound abilities are tied to the mysterious "healing particles" found in the Quantum Realm. Janet displayed the ability to use the healing particles twice: she cured Hank's madness in the Realm and she was also able to stabilize Ghost's molecules and stop her pain from her constant phasing. However, Janet's abilities seem to only work temporarily; the goal of Team Ant-Man in the mid-credits scene was to send Scott back into the Quantum Realm to collect more healing particles.

How the healing particles actually work and what Scott will do with the canister of the energy he collected before he got trapped in the Quantum Realm is unknown. Could the healing particles be used to revive Vision even without the Mind Stone? Could they somehow bring back someone turned to dust by Thanos' finger snap? Hopefully Avengers 4 will provide some answers.

Page 2 of 2: Questions About The State Of The MCU

WHY IS SCOTT LANG DUMBER THAN HE WAS IN ANT-MAN?

Scott Lang is as lovable as ever in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but the self-described "screw up" doesn't quite seem like the same man fans met in Ant-Man. Scott laments the mistakes he made that led to his house arrest but he admirably throws himself into being a great father to his adoring daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson). However, Scott's smarts and ingenuity are downplayed and he's jarringly dumbed down when he's back in action with Hope and Hank. Partly, this is to emphasize Hope's skills and brains to make her worthy of her co-billing in the film's title, but Ant-Man ends up coming off as not much more than a likable action hero while Hope and Hank are the real brains of the operation.

In the original film, Scott was an ex-con just out of prison but there's a reason by Hank chose him to be Ant-Man. Scott has a Master's degree in electrical engineering and is also a supremely talented burglar. He's a very smart guy in his own right. Then in Ant-Man and the Wasp, Scott often complains that Hank, Hope, and Dr. Bill Foster's (Laurence Fishburne) debates about Quantum mechanics go over his head (there's even a slight retcon where Hank describes meeting Scott as Scott "breaking into" his house instead of what really happened: it was all a test set up by Hank to audition Scott and evaluate his skills to be Ant-Man - which he passed with flying colors). Scott Lang is much brighter and more competent than Ant-Man and the Wasp gives him credit for. Why does the film downplay Scott's overall brains and talents?

HOW CAN SCOTT WORK FOR X-CON WHILE UNDER HOUSE ARREST?

For violating the Sokovia Accords by fighting in Berlin alongside Team Cap, who were fugitives, Scott was briefly imprisoned in the Raft. The plea bargain he struck with Department of Homeland Security and the German government sentenced Scott to two years under house arrest in San Francisco so he could be with Cassie. One of the reasons Scott avoided being permanently locked up in the Raft was because he admitted that the Ant-Man tech belonged to Dr. Hank Pym; Hank never registered his Pym Particle technology in violation of the Accords, which resulted in himself and Hope forced to live on the run as fugitives.

But why is Scott allowed to be part of X-Con Security - a company owned and operated by ex-cons like his friend Luis (Michael Pena)? As a condition of his house arrest, Scott is forbidden to associate with any known criminals, which includes the Pym family. But not only does Scott operate a business (literally called X-Con) with former criminals, Luis seems to live in Scott's house (he comes into the living room wearing pajamas in one scene). The regular monitoring by FBI Agent Jimmy Woo (Randall Park) bizarrely allows these flagrant violations and Woo only seems interested in busting Scott for being Ant-Man again. It seems like Scott somehow arranged the most lenient plea bargain in the short history of the Sokovia Accords.

WHO ARE SONNY BIRCH'S BUYERS?

Sonny Birch is a mysterious dealer in black market technology and also a restauranteur (who has committed numerous and shocking health code violations). His more violent criminal background makes him somewhat similar to the Vulture (Michael Keaton) in Spider-Man: Homecoming. However, Birch has ties to unnamed buyers who want to profit from Hank's Quantum technology. Fans don't learn much more about Birch, but his criminal ties create a world of speculation. Who does Birch do business with? Underworld organizations introduced in the MCU include the Ten Rings, the Hand, and of course, Hydra, but is Birch connected to groups fans haven't met yet, like the Maggia or even the MCU's version of Norman Osborn (if the Thunderbolts join Phase 4)? Hopefully, Sonny Birch will reappear in a future film so fans can find out more.

WAS GHOST AN AGENT OF HYDRA?

Ava Starr is a tragic villain. When she was a child, her father Elihas Starr died along with her mother when he tried to replicate Hank Pym's Quantum experiments. The accident left Ava with unstable molecules, causing her constant pain and threatening to phase her out of existence. She came under the care of Dr. Bill Foster and S.H.I.E.L.D., who built her a containment suit to help her manage her condition, but S.H.I.E.L.D. also weaponized Ava and forced her to become a black ops assassin. When S.H.I.E.L.D. collapsed in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, it was discovered Hydra was operating from within the spy organization since its inception. Many Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. revealed their loyalties to Hydra all along - was Ghost one of them? Was she S.H.I.E.L.D./Hydra's version of the Winter Soldier? What prominent figures have Ghost assassinated before she went rogue? There is a great deal fans don't know about Ava Starr, but perhaps one day, some answers about her past as a hired killer will materialize.

WHY DOESN'T TEAM ANT-MAN ACKNOWLEDGE AVENGERS: INFINITY WAR?

Ant-Man and the Wasp's shocking mid-credits scene directly connects to Avengers: Infinity War, taking place during Avengers 3's climax. While Team Ant-Man sends Scott back to the Quantum Realm to collect healing particles, Thanos arrived in Wakanda, collected the Mind Stone to complete the Infinity Gauntlet, and snapped his fingers to wipe out half of all life in the universe. The mid-credits scene is designed to hide this reveal from the audience to create maximum surprise when Hank, Hope, and Janet all fade to dust, unbeknownst to Scott, who is trapped in the microverse.

However, once the purpose of shock value is taken into account, the mid-credits scene itself is strange. By this point, our heroes would have known that New York City was attacked by aliens and that Tony Stark among others disappeared into outer space - it was global news. Not only does this seem like a strange time to conduct a Quantum Realm experiment, but Team Ant-Man are all unusually calm and unconcerned about the alien invasion. It's particularly odd that Scott is his usual jovial self and doesn't seem worried about his friends in the Avengers. However, only a few moments later, Ant-Man has his own gigantic problem to deal with: how will he escape the Quantum Realm?