Struggling to balance his home life with his responsibilities as a father while under house arrest, Scott Lang is confronted by Hope van Dyne and Dr. Hank Pym with an urgent new mission. Scott must once again put on the suit and learn to fight alongside The Wasp as the team works together to uncover secrets from their past and rescue a long-lost family member from the depths of the Quantum Realm, all while being hunted by a mysterious phasing adversary known as Ghost.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
July 6, 2018 |
Running time |
118 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Comedy Sci-Fi |
Budget |
$162,000,000 |
Box Office |
$622,674,139 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Peyton Reed |
Produced by |
Kevin Feige Stephen Broussard |
Written by |
Chris McKenna Erik Sommers Paul Rudd Andrew Barrer Gabriel Ferrari |
Music by |
Christophe Beck |
Cinematography |
Dante Spinotti |
Edited by |
Dan Lebental Craig Wood |
Production Co. |
Marvel Studios |
Distributed by |
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #02 in Ant-Man Collection
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The Plot
The Sacrifice of 1987 and the Consequences of Civil War
In 1987, Hank Pym and his wife, Janet van Dyne, are on a mission to stop a Soviet nuclear missile. To disable the weapon, Janet makes the ultimate sacrifice: she shrinks between the molecules of the missile, dismantling it from the inside. However, this act renders her unable to return, leaving her lost in the microscopic Quantum Realm. Devastated, Hank Pym raises their daughter, Hope van Dyne, under the belief that Janet is dead, a tragedy that haunts the family for decades.
In the present day, Scott Lang is serving the final days of a two-year house arrest sentence. This punishment stems from his violation of the Sokovia Accords when he fought alongside Captain America during the Avengers' internal conflict in Germany. Although Lang took a plea bargain to return to the U.S., the consequences were severe: he faces a minimum twenty-year prison sentence if he leaves his home or violates the Accords again. Furthermore, because Pym and Hope provided Lang with the shrinking technology used against the Avengers, the United Nations branded them as accomplices. A warrant was issued for their arrest, forcing father and daughter into a fugitive life, cutting all ties with Lang to protect themselves.
Despite his confinement, Lang tries to maintain normalcy for his daughter, Cassie, and occupies his time learning close-up magic. He also attempts to build a legitimate future by establishing X-Con Security Consultants with his friends Luis, Dave, and Kurt Goreshter. With only three days remaining on his sentence, Lang experiences a vivid, surreal dream. In it, he relives one of Janet’s memories—playing hide-and-seek with a young Hope. Disturbing the silence he has maintained to protect his release, Lang retrieves a hidden burner phone and calls Pym. He leaves an awkward voicemail describing the dream, only to feel foolish, apologize for ruining their lives, and destroy the phone.
A Message from the Microverse
That night, while relaxing in his bath, Lang notices a strange buzzing sound before being rendered unconscious by a tranquilizer dart. He wakes up in a van, having been kidnapped by Hope. She reveals that she replaced him with a programmed, enlarged ant wearing an ankle monitor to fool the FBI and Agent Jimmy Woo. Hope is still furious with Scott for using the Ant-Man suit in Germany without her consent, an action that forced her and her father underground. She explains that the timing of Scott’s dream was no coincidence; it occurred exactly when Pym briefly opened a tunnel to the Quantum Realm.
Interpreting the dream as a message, Pym and Hope believe Janet is still alive and quantumly entangled with Scott. They take him to their new base of operations—a multi-story laboratory building that Pym can shrink down to the size of a suitcase for mobility. Pym, though bitter toward Scott, admits they need him. They are working to build a stable quantum tunnel to send a vehicle in and retrieve Janet, and they believe Scott’s connection to her is the key to locating her coordinates within the infinite realm.
The Black Market Deal and the Phasing Phantom
To complete the tunnel, Hope arranges to purchase a specific component from a black-market technology dealer named Sonny Burch. Meeting at a restaurant, Burch realizes the immense profit potential of Pym’s research and double-crosses Hope, refusing to hand over the part. In response, Hope dons her new Wasp suit—equipped with wings and bio-electric blasters—and effortlessly subdues Burch’s henchmen. However, as she secures the component, a mysterious masked figure, whose body phases in and out of tangible reality, attacks her.
This entity, known as Ghost, proves to be a formidable opponent. Lang attempts to assist Hope using an unfinished prototype suit, but the suit malfunctions due to a faulty regulator. Despite their combined efforts, Ghost manages to escape, stealing Pym’s portable laboratory with the quantum tunnel inside. Desperate to locate the lab, the team decides to visit Pym's estranged former partner, Bill Foster, at the University of California, Berkeley.
Project Goliath and the Elementary School Heist
At the university, Pym and Foster engage in a heated argument about their past differences, specifically a project called "Goliath." Their meeting is nearly compromised when Agent Jimmy Woo arrives at the college following a lead. Foster covers for them, claiming he hasn’t seen Pym in years. Once the coast is clear, Foster suggests that they could track the lab by modifying the diffraction units on one of their old suit regulators. Pym realizes he destroyed the regulators for the new suits, but Scott reveals he kept his original Ant-Man suit hidden as a trophy.
The group contacts Luis, who informs them that the "trophy" isn't at Scott's house; Cassie took it to school for show-and-tell. This forces Scott and Hope to infiltrate the elementary school. During the retrieval, Scott's prototype suit glitches again, causing him to fluctuate uncontrollably between the size of a giant and a child. They manage to recover the regulator and escape just as the situation threatens to draw too much attention.
The Ghost's Origin and the Escape
Using the regulator, the team tracks the lab to a secluded forest hideout. Upon breaking in, they are ambushed and restrained by Ghost, who unmasks herself as Ava Starr. She reveals the tragic history behind her condition: her father, Elihas Starr, was a colleague of Pym who was fired and discredited. In an attempt to restore his reputation, Elihas conducted a dangerous quantum experiment that went wrong, killing him and his wife, and leaving Ava in a state of molecular instability. She is in constant pain and is slowly fading away.
It is revealed that Bill Foster has been helping Ava all along, seeking a cure. Their plan is to extract the quantum energy from Janet van Dyne once she is brought back, a process Pym believes will kill Janet. Refusing to let his wife be sacrificed, Pym fakes a heart attack to create a distraction. In the ensuing chaos, Hope and Scott overcome their captors, regain control of the shrunken lab, and escape.
Quantum Entanglement and the Truth Serum
Safe again, the team powers up the tunnel. Suddenly, Scott enters a trance-like state, channeling Janet van Dyne directly. Through Scott, Janet speaks to her husband and daughter, providing her precise location coordinates in the Quantum Realm. She warns them that due to the shifting nature of the realm, they have a narrow window of only two hours to retrieve her before the location is lost for another century.
Meanwhile, Sonny Burch tracks down Scott’s associates at the X-Con Security office. He administers a "truth serum" to Luis, forcing him to ramble through a long-winded story before eventually revealing Scott's location. Ava Starr, having overheard the interrogation, also heads to the location. Luis manages to warn Scott, but the situation deteriorates rapidly. Scott confesses to Pym and Hope that his friends may have compromised them. Angry and feeling betrayed, Pym and Hope cut ties with Scott again. Fearing a violation of his probation, Scott rushes home just in time to fool Agent Woo during a surprise inspection.
While Scott secures his freedom, Pym and Hope are cornered by the FBI, led by a corrupt agent named Stoltz who is on Burch's payroll. They are arrested, and the lab is confiscated. However, Ghost attacks the FBI convoy, kills Stoltz, and steals the lab once more, intending to begin the extraction process.
The San Francisco Chase
Back at home, Cassie finds her father despondent. She encourages him to help Hope and Pym, telling him he can be a great father and a superhero simultaneously. Inspired, Scott breaks Pym and Hope out of custody. They regroup with Luis at the pier to formulate a plan: Pym will enter the Quantum Realm to get Janet, while Scott and Hope distract their enemies and secure the lab.
The plan descends into a high-speed chaotic chase across the streets of San Francisco. As Pym enters the quantum tunnel, Scott and Hope fight off Sonny Burch’s goons and Ava Starr simultaneously. The lab changes hands multiple times, shrinking and growing amidst the traffic. Luis, Dave, and Kurt help apprehend Burch and his men. Ultimately, Scott—now utilizing his suit's ability to grow into a giant—secures the lab at Pier 39, stopping Burch's escape boat.
Return from the Quantum Realm
Inside the Quantum Realm, Hank Pym navigates the psychedelic landscape and finally reunites with Janet. She has evolved, absorbing the realm's energy to survive. They return to the real world just as Ava Starr and Bill Foster attempt to use the tunnel's energy. Ava tries to sabotage their return, fighting Scott and Hope, but she is subdued. When Janet emerges, she sees Ava's suffering. In an act of compassion, Janet voluntarily places her hands on Ava, transferring some of her quantum energy to temporarily stabilize Ava’s molecules and alleviate her pain.
With the crisis averted, Scott rushes home once more. He arrives just as his house arrest timer hits zero, and Agent Woo releases him, though Woo remains suspicious of Scott's recent activities. Scott is happily reunited with Cassie. Meanwhile, Hank and Janet retreat to a private beach, where Hank enlarges their shrunken family home, finally ready to live a peaceful life together.
The Infinity War: A Tragic Epilogue
Some time later, the team gathers for a new scientific endeavor. Scott Lang, equipped with a new suit, prepares to dive into the Quantum Realm via a smaller, van-mounted tunnel. His mission is to harvest quantum healing particles to help permanently cure Ava Starr. Hank, Janet, and Hope monitor him from the real world, guiding his descent.
Scott successfully collects the particles and radios for extraction. He jokes with the team, waiting for them to pull him back. However, the radio goes dead. Silence follows. In the real world, on the rooftop where the van is parked, Hank, Janet, and Hope have disintegrated into ash—victims of Thanos’s snap, which has wiped out half of all life in the universe. Unaware of the galactic catastrophe, Scott is left stranded alone in the microscopic universe.
In a post-credits scene, the world has fallen into chaos. The emergency broadcast system blares on the television in Scott’s empty house. Amidst the eerie silence, the giant ant that Scott had programmed as his decoy is seen playing the drum kit, oblivious to the apocalypse that has occurred outside.
