Ant-Man 3's Most Confusing Moments Explained

not even the most brilliant scientists in the Multiverse can explain what's going on with the quantum realm but does it matter uh not really here's everything audiences have been scratching their heads about in Ant-Man and the WASP Quantum Mania quantumania kicks off with a brief flashback that takes place in the quantum realm Janet is hiding out for her safety in a place that she later describes as subatomica she sees a ship crash in the distance and on her way to approach it she deftly fends off some dangerous looking creatures but this isn't Tank's Voyage to fetch her from the hidden universe and Ant-Man and the WASP which led to their reunion instead moments later a distraught King reaches out for help you cannot trust him hey refresher Janet got trapped in the quantum realm in approximately 1987 when she turned off her regulator and went subatomic to stop a missile from killing thousands she put an antenna in Scott's head during his momentary visit to the quantum realm in 2015 and was rescued by Hank in 2018 meaning she spent about 31 years there while the present timeline within quantumania in which Cassie's device sucks the pims and Langs into the subatomic universe takes place in 2025 this flashback takes place sometime between 1987 and 2018. probably much closer to her arrival than her departure after their falling out Kang had time to conquer the native population and build his Citadel but then again time works a little differently for him so who knows how long that would take generally speaking the film's main action seems to run concurrently with most of phase 4 which is largely set in 2025. throughout the film Cassie alludes to the fact that she's had to take care of herself and has gotten pretty good at it this isn't a reference to Scott's years in The Slammer or his days under house arrest when Thanos snapped his fingers and wiped half of the population out of existence including Hank Janet and hope it had a profound impact on Cassie's upbringing in the mid-credits Stinger of Ant-Man and the WASP viewers saw that Hank Janet and hope all disappeared into dust as they were experimenting with a small mobile version of their Quantum tunnel Scott had just traveled back to the quantum realm via that tunnel to gather particles in an effort to heal ghosts of her disequilibrium Scott wasn't blipped but he might as well have been he couldn't come back from the subatomic world without the help of Hank Janet and hope Manning the machine on the other side nobody even knew he was down there and he only re-emerged because a rat inadvertently activated Hank's machine regardless Cassie was without a father for five years it's also possible she was without a mother and stepfather too Maggie and Jim don't appear in Avengers end game and there's a fan theory that the blip is the reason why they aren't in quantumania either and Cassie's bitterness over having had defend for herself suggests the fan Theory might be true the Marvel Cinematic Universe has never taken great pains to explain the way science or sometimes magic or religion Works in its version of our world the Time Heist in Avengers end game is just one example the whole plot goes down smoother if the audience doesn't think too much about it the goal isn't to teach the audience how to travel through time and space it's to make something like Hank pym's technology seem plausible by using science jargon and creating comparisons to Tech that already exists Here and Now on Earth that's what quantumania does with Cassie's invention to Scott and Janet's dismay Hank and hope have been encouraging the budding engineer to Tinker around the lab she's been working on what Hank calls a subatomic Hubble telescope in the basement it's basically a satellite that compiles signals from the quantum realm into Data that can be read as a 3D map need a map and then we can study and explore the entire Quantum Realm never even have to go trying to take pictures of a hidden universe is one thing but communicating is another and Janet realizes that someone like Kang or as it turns out Modoc could be intercepting or even responding to Cassie's signals that's exactly what happens in the inciting incident of quantumania sure it seems like if teenage Cassie would have been able to Fashion such a device Hank probably would have been able to as well to ascertain Janet's whereabouts but the invention's true purpose isn't to map the mini Universe it's to get the main characters from point A to point B in the story the act of going subatomic looms as a threat in the first and second Ant-Man movies the reason being the super suits and the pimtech they rely upon aren't able to return the wearer to their normal size after a certain point the horrifying concept of Janet going subatomic and Ant-Man flashbacks was derived from the notion of her getting infinitely smaller and smaller without any means of control franchise fans know that Hank and hope made advancements to their research and improvements to their suits between 2015's Ant-Man and 2018's Ant-Man and the wasp and it can be assumed they've continued to refine their suits into 2025. still it's odd that once in the quantum realm pimtech functions exactly as it's supposed to on Earth's surface the quantum realm is still a pretty perilous place to be but not because of the limitations of Hank's gear Scott hope and Cassie all use their suits to shrink and grow at will in quantumania and characters use Hank's throwable discs to make various objects larger and smaller too it's funny to think that when ant-man's the size of a Kaiju in his fight against saying he's actually only a handful of subatomic particles tall but white doesn't getting bigger Propel anyone from the quantum realm this time is it possible to go sub subatomic and would that be just as dangerous the real answer is that Marvel Studios wanted Ant-Man to retain his trademark superpower in this Fantastical new setting I suppose the human mind just can't comprehend the experience who remains at his word he was the king who defeated his counterparts so he could restore order to the timeline that version of the villain warned Sylvie and Loki that if they struck him down the power vacuum caused by his death would be filled by a plethora of Kings even more villainous so why are there so many Kang variants in the first place and why are they all so formidable Loki's Kang explained it this way he was once a scientist named Nathaniel Richards from an alternate 31st Century who discovered the Multiverse the other universes Kang variants were making the same Discovery at the same time at first this led only to self-congratulation but it wasn't long before some Kings showed their true colors the Multiverse erupted into Kings at war with one another as far as anyone knows he who remains is truly dead but before he was dispatched he told Loki and Sylvia of a conqueror which is the same word gentura and Janet used to describe the Kang stuck in the quantum realm this is long before he ever shouts out his own name King the Conqueror is one of the characters most iconic forms in the comics Ant-Man and the WASP quantumania Nails his facial markings which are depicted as scars as well as his blue face shield and unsettling come until he's not authoritarian demeanor while it remains unknown if this Kang is prime King it's clear that he's bad news there aren't many beings in the Multiverse capable of contending with Kang as he nonchalantly brags to Ant-Man he's made short work of the Avengers before you're an Avenger have I killed you before what Janet realizes that he's not some poor stranded Voyager but instead a banished despot when she makes contact with the energy core bound to his mind which Powers his ship she has a vision of interdimensional cosmic chaos caused by Kang in which whole timelines and universes were destroyed so that he could stay in power presumably he was exiled for exactly this but who decided and forced his sentence King the Conqueror alludes to the fact that others like him are responsible for his predicament but he doesn't see himself as a villain not unlike he who remains this King thinks his indiscriminately cruel rule is necessary for the survival of the Multiverse itself and he tries to convince Scott that he's the Lesser evil years earlier Janet didn't believe him and stopped cooperating with his efforts to escape immediately the rebels led by gentura and quas would agree they describe a Kang who lays waste to every civilization that stands in his way which supports the idea that other more benevolent Kings sent the Conqueror to the practically inescapable Quantum realm to try to contain this most monstrous variant the quantum realm is practically inescapable so Kang is elated when Scott pops up with his daughter Cassie kidnapping Cassie gives King away to restart his ship as well as something to hang over Scott's head so he'll go through with it it makes emotional sense to put Scott and Cassie in this position but that king would really need their help strains believe especially for those who are familiar with the character's backstory King's human form Nathaniel Richards comes from an alternate 31st Century in which there never were Dark Ages that halted scientific and cultural progress even before he became Kang he still possessed vast in-depth knowledge that would have been unimaginable in the 21st century on Earth 616 it stands to reason that as brilliant as Hank Pym is his Tech couldn't hold a candle to whatever Nathaniel would have been working on if Scott was able to bust out of the quantum realm with one of Hank's discs and Cassie was able to invent a way to communicate and map the hidden Universe it seems highly unlikely that a being as smart and Powerful as Kang wouldn't have been able to solve this problem on his own quantumania concludes as Scott takes stock of his almost too good to be true life then he remembers something King said the powerful conqueror claimed that if he didn't break free from the quantum realm life as Scott knows it could cease to exist suddenly Scott finds himself wondering if he did the right thing by Conquering the Conqueror so What's it gonna be Ant-Man the film cuts to Black and whether the world was saved or doomed by Scott's decision to defeat Kang is left an open question this depends on which if any Kings you choose to trust so far he who remains seems to have been telling the truth in Loki when he fell the timeline did branch and more kangs became part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe no one knows if King the Conqueror was being honest when he elicited Scott's help or if his warped point of view was merely a justification for his horrendous actions it's also unknown if he's truly dead the first post-credits scene makes it seem as though news has spread of King the conqueror's demise but what impact Scott and Hope's actions will have on the rest of the MCU remain to be seen in the first post-credits scene an arena full of Kang variants has gathered this hearkens to a panel in The Avengers issue number 292 where the Council of cross-time Kings has gathered though in quantumania this is the Council of Kings part of a mind-bending Arc from issues number 267-269 in which the Multiverse permutations of can convene the group is led by Prime Kang with the stated purpose of pruning problem variants from existence three kings get more attention than the others and the identity of two of them seems clear since Kang has the power to Traverse time and multiverses this otherwise normal flesh and blood human likes to mix things up by say becoming an Egyptian pharaoh for a while or occupying limbo and ordering around the timekeepers one of these Kings is Rama Tut a variant who sent himself back to 2960 BC and used his boundless knowledge to rule over ancient Egypt he eventually turns himself into a Godlike figure and a super villain who butts heads with konshu from Moon Knight another is immortus a futuristic variant a third figure doesn't bear as obvious the resemblance to King's comic book appearances he could be Scarlet Centurion or iron lad a composite of such can characters or a new variant created for the MCU a final title card promises that Kang will return expect to see more of him in Phase 5 and 6 leading up to Avengers the Kang Dynasty King is poised to become the primary antagonist of the Marvel Cinematic Universe after quantumania but he made his debut on TV so it seems only appropriate that a quantumania end credit scene brings a king back into Loki's orbit setting up a likely plot line for his returning Disney Plus show a man not so coincidentally played by Jonathan Majors is on a small stage presenting a Contraption to an audience judging from the clothes the hairstyles and the decor this all takes place around the turn of the century Loki turns to show his face to the camera followed shortly thereafter by Mobius it's clear that they've been on the trail of this Kang for a while though Mobius doesn't understand why the unassuming Gentleman on stage is such a big deal this variant goes by the name Victor timely he's a disguised Kang who travels to a small town in Wisconsin in 1901 and uses his genius and inventions to wow the locals eventually he becomes mayor and sews the seeds for a broader and more permanent takeover Victor timely could very well be the villain of Loki season 2 or perhaps the god of Mischief turned TVA agent and his partner may be in pursuit of multiple Kings of which timely is merely one either way it seems likely that the series will pick up where this teaser leaves off when it premieres later this year foreign [Music]

Channel: Looper

Views: 65,328

Keywords: looper, ant man 3, the wasp, marvel, confusing

Id: 02a6dtapBoo

Length: 12min 56sec (776 seconds)

Published: Sat Feb 18 2023