It should be said here and now if you haven’t watched both Avengers: Infinity War and Ant-Man and The Wasp, you should turn around now…you’ve been warned.
Reminder: If you scroll post the image, you are going to get spoilers. You have been warned!!
Spoilers start now!!
First, as a reminder in case you somehow blocked it from your memory, Avengers: Infinity War leaves our heroes decimated with half of the population in the known universe cut in half. With Ant-Man only a few months away, most of us had been speculating how in the world it would fit into the MCU or the post-snap timeline.
Ant-Man and the Wasp wisely spends no time on it during the main story, only making mentions to his actions in Captain America: Civil War and how those actions strained his relationship with Hope and Hank Pym. These moments along with Ghost’s story prove to be the only heavier moments or emotionally impactful for the film…until the first post-credits scene.
In case you forgot the mid-credits scene, newly reunited Pym family (Hank, Hope, and Janet) along with Scott are collecting more quantum particles to heal Ghost’s condition. (On a separate note: It’s likely that they were doing this as Janet’s powers or whatever fix she did on Hank and Ghost were only temporary. It makes sense that they may need to do more work to fix Ghost’s condition and also stops Janet from just being a massive plot device). After Scott makes the plunge into the quantum realm and collects the particles, he quickly realizes that none of the team is responding. What he doesn’t know and what we are treated to as the audience are the dusty remains of Hank, Hope, and Janet…leaving Scott stuck in the quantum realm…
Or maybe not. At first glance, I immediately got upset as did several people in the theater about Scott’s unintentional imprisonment in the quantum realm. Though when you stop and think about it, if anyone has a shot of making it out of there solo, it’s Scott Lang. He already did it once out of a necessity in the previous film. It’s not a stretch to say that he could do the same thing again. The only detail I’m not 100% on is whether the usage of the quantum tunnel/gate actually limits where he can come in and out of the realm. Previously, he did it himself when he bypassed the regulator to shrink smaller. But everything in this film showed Hank and Janet needed the ship and a near-perfect alignment to make it back. We should hopefully find out by Avengers 4 since Rudd is slated to appear in the film. However the current rules of the realm suggest there may or may not be some ways back before Hank, Hope, and Janet return from the dead. Scott’s predicament does raise two questions for me though..
- Did Scott avoid the finger snap because he was too small or because he wasn’t selected?
- If Scott survived because of the quantum realm, is there a possibility Captain Marvel resides there as well?
Marvel is definitely trying and succeeding in milking the emotional depth out of Infinity War. Even the final post-credit scene with one of Hank/Scott’s ants playing drums had it’s comedic effect undermined by the gravity of the situation (empty house and streets, with a emergency broadcast signal blaring in the background). Kudos to composer Christophe Beck for playing off the Avengers piano end credits and incorporating that feel into the track Anthropodie played after the mid-credit scene (For the movie score nerds out there, the song you hear before the mid-credit scene is It Ain’t Over Till The Wasp Lady Sings).
I’m still torn of how I feel being reminded of the finger snap. If you didn’t want to be reminded of the finger snap so soon after, I can understand that. Currently though, I’m enjoying how immediately elements of the MCU can remind us of the impending threat or situation elsewhere. By allowing the Ant-Man sequel to stand alone in many ways until the end, this double whammy from both credit scenes will allow Captain Marvel’s film and Avengers 4 to do the bulk of that storytelling without diluting Ant-Man’s main narrative.
How did you feel about the end credit scenes? Have theories about my unresolved questions? Let us know in the comment section!!
Kenneth “Commander” Shipp has had opinions on movies since he was a kid…even if that meant talking to himself. He loves tackling the issues involved with our modern blockbusters while still enjoying the deep dives into the films you may have glossed over. You may still see him comment on his other loves (video games and television) whenever he has time. You can catch all his movie reviews here and listen to him on our weekly podcasts when they start back in August!!
https://www.nerdunion.us/2018/07/03/impressionable-flashing-lights/