Fridge / Ant-Man and the Wasp

Fridge Brilliance:

• Hope doesn't appear to be able to control ants as Wasp, despite being very formidable with this ability in the first film. Given that her wings lack any visible flight controls, it's possible that similar technology was used on her suit. She might not be able to control the ants because all her brainpower is focused on controlling her wings instead.
• Hank shrinks an office building-sized safehouse, grabs an HVAC assembly on top and pulls it to reveal the whole thing is luggage. This has lots of implications, particularly the architectural equivalent of Required Secondary Powers; how does he keep the furniture in the building from flying around inside when he moves it? How did he install the wheels and handle? Where are the water and power linkages? It would essentially have to be self-contained like an above-ground fallout shelter. But look carefully and you'll realize that the building was sitting on a parking lot, complete with sloped entrances on the sidewalks. It's not a shrinkable building, it's a size-multiplied scale model of one! Hank built the whole thing at N scale, then dropped by the lot one day and put the building there. Talk about being Crazy-Prepared!
  • Confirmed in the film itself; scenes inside the building have a fifteen-foot high Duracell battery in the background that is somehow apparently powering the building.
  • Given that Hope plugs a life size "component" into the quantum contraption, one can surmise that every single, minute piece of equipment and hardware is somehow equipped to grow and shrink with the rest of the lab. One errant bolt could wipe out an entire room if it didn't shrink.
  • Also, individual items within the lab simultaneously exist in different scales at the same time and resize in precise proportion to everything else!
• The funny pages notes how ridiculous it looks that Scott, as Giant-Man, uses a flatbed truck like a scooter when he'd presumably have a much easier time catching up to Burch and his lackeys by just running after them. Then you remember that it takes way more energy to move around in Giant form, to the point that Scott stated he was out for three days after going Giant in Civil War, and it makes a lot more sense that he'd prefer to try coasting by on a truck rather than have to even lightly jog towards Burch & Co. It also reduces collateral damage, and the chances he'll get spotted.
• There are some hints that Ava's father was an agent of HYDRA. Ava claims he was working to reclaim his image that was shattered by Pym, and then died in a subsequent lab accident, while Hank claims Elihas was a spy who tried to steal his research. Unlike Hank, who has Pym particles and a fortune to fund his research, Elihas has no explained way to stock the laboratory we see in the flashback, suggesting that he was working for some other organization. HYDRA was rampant in S.H.I.E.L.D. at the time, and refusing to cure Ava to preserve her as a weapon sounds just like something they'd do. It's also telling that Elihas relocated to Argentina, which was infamously the hiding place for many high-profile Nazi members. HYDRA has historical ties to the Nazis.
• Cassie's present for Scott, a toy trophy titled 'World's Greatest Grandma' seems like just a funny joke because Cassie couldn't find any other trophy at the shop, but it's also a very subtle Foreshadowing for what happens later in the film. When Hank and Hope open the Quantum Gate again, Janet briefly takes control of Scott's body. By this time, Janet is probably old enough to be Cassie's grandmother now, plus Hope - who's Scott's love interest - is her daughter. So in a way, Scott really does become the World's Greatest Grandma!
• Scott being genuinely interested when Hank sarcastically asks if he wants a juice box and string cheese after school while at first is just a funny throwaway line, but he did become Giant-Man in the school's closet, which wears him out, like in Civil War where after being Giant-Man, he needed some orange slices.
• In the first movie, Hank has a distant relationship with his brilliant child, much like Howard. In this film, we learn that he screwed over a scientist in the same field who was doing something shady, whose kid came back to get vengeance.
• Darren Cross and Elihas Starr heavily parallel each other. They're both people who worked for Hank Pym, then got left behind by him for one reason or another, whose efforts to bounce back from that ultimately lead to tragedy for both of them and the people around them. If the speculation that Starr worked for HYDRA is true, they even both went evil if they weren't all along as a result of Hank abandoning them. The main difference between them is that Cross was far more successful as a businessman than Starr was, thus his efforts got much further along.
• Ghost is an obvious foil to Hope; dark costume vs. light, mask and hood vs. proper helmet, blasters and gadgets vs. natural talent and ingenuity and training. But given the hints that her dad may have been working for HYDRA, what other deadly, monochrome-clad assassin do we know who likes to walk toward their targets like the Terminator and is really good at ambushes? Heck, even if she was working for S.H.I.E.L.D. itself, she's still their version of the Soldier.
• Bill's impressed reaction to Scott reaching 65 feet after turning Giant was definitely genuine, but there was also a spiteful edge to it aimed at Hank. Having worked with Hank, and perceiving him as a proud, deeply insecure man, Bill knew that he would get jealous of the idea of somebody else mastering his technology far better than he ever could. Bill openly praised Scott right in front of Hank, raising Scott up by putting Hank down.
• All of the gear that the heroes use has an absolutely phenomenal range, to the point that Hank can call upon random ants while speeding through San Francisco and keep a surveillance feed of Scott's house while not even in the city. This seems like a glaring oversight on the part of the writers, but remember that Hank has lived in San Francisco for at least twenty years. Knowing his Crazy-Prepared disposition, he likely spent several of those years planting scaled-down transmitters and signal relays all over town for just such an occasion.
• What are the odds that the snap happens right when Scott was in the Quantum Realm? It was even supposed to be a quick visit. All calculated by Doctor Strange by controlling how long the Titan fight lasts and when he surrenders the Time Stone!
  • The Russos have confirmed that Scott's survival was blind luck, and that he could have disappeared, even in the Quantum Realm. However, if Strange's plan simply involves Scott being in the Quantum Realm, rather than any survival on his part, this still stands.
• Janet's ability to stabilize Ava may seem like a Deus ex Machina, but it actually has a fairly logical explanation. Just moments earlier, Ava had started to leach quantum energy from Janet, which probably left them quantum-entangled much like she had been with Scott earlier. So just as Janet was able to override Scott's body, she could influence Ava's own unstable quantum field. And after thirty years in the Quantum Realm, she was practiced at manipulating quantum energies.
• While Scott's criticism of the sunglasses-and-baseball-cap disguises used at the University is played as a joke, he's actually speaking from experience. As an expert cat burglar he understands how important it is to avoid being recognized or draw attention to yourself. Not only would a hat and sunglasses not hide your identity, they're a dead give away and make people suspicious of you. Sure enough someone on the Campus does end up recognizing them and calling the authorities.
  • It's also what people get wrong about Clark Kenting—Superman doesn't hide by putting on a pair of glasses and a different set of clothes, which wouldn't work at all. He changes his posture, his diction, sometimes even the register of his voice, and becomes The Klutz, to make Clark Kent a completely different person from Superman.
• Scott is obviously (and understandably) miffed when Hank states that the technology to give a person wings and stingers in addition to the ability to shrink was available when Scott's suit was designed, meaning Hank just opted not to give Scott those extras (making Hank look like a total Jerkass), but there are other things to consider. Hank, as the original Ant-Man, also neglected to grant himself (the creator of the tech) these additives; his wife Janet had them thirty years ago. Hank (alongside Bill Foster) spearheaded Project G.O.L.I.A.T.H., designed to tweak Pym particles in order to grant a human the ability to grow many times their normal size, but with the side effect of vastly exhausted stamina and probable long term health defects, not to mention the possibility of being torn in half. In an emergency, Hank was willing to risk his own health and life in that way, but not that of his wife and daughter, so he compensated with the wings and stingers. He neglects to outfit Scott the same way not out of spite, but because he has such faith in his successor's abilities he knows Scott doesn't need them any more than Hank himself did, and he also trusts that Scott has sufficient good judgment to not kill himself with excessive Giant-sizing.
  • There's other things to consider too: The Wasp suit can only shrink and return while Scott's can also grow. Furthermore it appears the Wasp suit lacks the ant controlling ability natively. It's possible that it's missing because Janet just never got the hand of controlling the ants, and when Hank revised the suit for Hope there just wasn't enough room for everything.
  • Not to mention the amount of energy it would take to power the wings and blasters in giant form. Notice how Hope only flies when shrunk.
• We've all heard the expression, "when humanity is gone, all that will be left will be the cockroaches", right? Well, at the end of this film, what with the streets of San Francisco being rendered a virtual Ghost Town due to the Infinity Snap, the only apparent living creature is a giant ant, distant cousin of the mighty cockroach. "Fridge Gag", perhaps?
• Janet's reasoning for asking Hank to meet her in that specific area of the Quantum Realm makes more sense in light of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. The technology they used to get into the Quantum Realm would have been perfect for Kang to escape.
• Near the beginning of the film, Scott is watching Animal House... specifically the scene where Pinto and Jennings are high. Their exchange weirdly mirrors the plot of this and Quantumania, specifically the concept of the Quantum Realm:
  Pinto: OK, so that means that our whole solar system could be like one tiny atom in the fingernail of some other giant being Giggle. This is nuts! That means that one tiny atom in my fingernail could be...
  Jennings: ...could be one tiny little universe!
• The antagonists of this film parallel those in Iron Man 2. The Big Bad is someone who is against the film's heroes because the older father figure wronged their father in the past, leading to them having an awful life in the present. The Big Bad Wannabe is just that: a non-powered villain more on the business side who is not treated that seriously but who nevertheless still creates lots of trouble and who, without meaning to, helps the Big Bad get close to accomplishing their plans. In Iron Man 2, Hammer breaking Vanko out leads to everything that happens in the climax, while in this film, if not for Burch's truth serum plan, Ghost would have not found out where the lab was.

Fridge Horror:

• Considering the dialogue in the Stinger, the Snap is a double whammy for Ava, actually. Scott went into the Quantum Realm to get "quantum healing energy for (his) new Ghost friend". He was probably collecting that energy for Janet so she can use it to continue healing Ava. With the energy and Scott trapped in the Quantum realm and Janet gone, even if Ava survives the snap, without treatment, her condition may continue to regress until she fades into the fabric of reality.
  • In light of Avengers: Endgame, Ava being snapped is ironically the better outcome for her as being dead would stop her biological clock. After Thanos is defeated, the Pyms can still save her once they’re all brought back. You’d have to hope she got this fate.
• Sonny's and his henchmen's confessions would almost certainly be inadmissible in a real-life courtroom, since they were under the influence of a Truth Serum injected by two known felons. They might even be set free.
  • Even if their admissions then-and-there are inadmissible, the effects of that serum can only last so long. And since they're definitely going to be arrested for suspicion of the crimes they've listed, time will pass with investigations and eventually they'll be clear-minded again - depending upon deals and such, re-stating what happened after such time could still be admissible in court.
  • Their confessions could still be admissible, as the wombats weren't directly working with the police when the injected Sonny and his crew with truth serum. Had they been directly working with the police and told to inject Sonny and his crew with Truth Serum, it would be inadmissible and Burch would be off on a technicality. Police often use drunken confessions as evidence in court after all. Though, that does bring up additional legal issues, as Sonny could press charges against Luis and co. for drugging him.
  • Assuming, of course, that they survived the Snap. It can't have only taken good guys, after all...
• Ava's suit was created by S.H.I.E.L.D. However, since she was hired by them as an assassin, this means it's more than likely that she was also overseen by undercover HYDRA operatives. This opens up a few skin-crawling possibilities:
  • Since HYDRA cares little for the lives of its subordinates in pursuit of their goal, it's likely that they aggravated or worsened Ava's condition to improve results in her phasing and invisibility powers.
  • Depending on when she officially left S.H.I.E.L.D., her genetics were probably given to Baron von Strucker, who almost certainly would have tried to make one of his miracles with her powers instead. Imagine all the inhumane experiments, tearing people apart at the molecular level just to try and replicate Ghost.
  • She was an assassin for S.H.I.E.L.D. No chance in hell that she didn't know about the Winter Soldier, and she's probably worked with him on some dirty missions back in the day.
• In The Stinger, we see the decoy ant still playing the drums. Is it just stuck following Scott's schedule with nobody to tell it to stop?
• Why are Hank and Hope on the run? Apparently, due to the Sokovia Accords, they're accountable for Scott's actions during Civil War because it's "their tech". This means the UN in the MCU ratified laws allowing governments to, essentially, make scientific progress that threatens them punishable by law. The potential for corruption can't be overstated, and it makes Cap's refusal to sign make even more sense.
  • That's probably not what the governments want. Rather they want a legal way of strong-arming people like Pym into developing technology specifically for the government. S.H.I.E.L.D. wanted the Pym particles, but Hank was able to refuse in the past; now he would either have to turn it over or face imprisonment for most likely the rest of his life. Their decision to run rather than fight the charges in court shows the two likely knew those were the only real outcomes. Also remember that Ross, who imposed the Accords, is the same man who was seeking Bruce Banner purely to gain his Hulk power for himself.
    • Or, in a less "The UN is corrupt" route, they were effectively keeping under wraps not only very useful technology that could revolutionize the world just as much as Wakanda's tech could, but easily 'weaponizable' technology. It's not "If your scientific advancement could be a threat it belongs to us" it's "If you keep potential WMDs (we saw the damage Scott did at the airport, if a bad guy went giant they could easily be just as damaging as an IED, if not worse) hidden from use we have to wonder, why?"
    • Alternatively, is it specifically because of the tech, or is it that they supplied this tech to Scott, who then used it to commit crimes?
    • Same rationale as imprisoning someone who shoots someone with an illegally-purchased firearm, then going after the guy who sold it for illegally selling firearms.
    • Not quite the same, considering that said tech was made and given to Scott before the Sokovia Accords would have outlawed such actions.
• Hope and Hank's mission to save Janet would only benefit the two of them, realistically, and the escapades they engage in to create the Quantum Tunnel and then retrieve it from Ava and Sonny cause several car crashes and wipes out a large part of the dock area. In other words, the events of this movie are exactly the kind of thing that the Sokovia Accords were drafted to prevent from happening, making the fact that the pair broke Scott out of house arrest (which he was under for having violated those very accords) even more ironic and morally grey.
  • The crimes committed were only necessary due to the Sokovia Accords. If they hadn't been forced to go underground, Hank and Hope would have been able to legally acquire the components rather than dealing with the shady Burch, which led to a majority of the damage. At no point did Hank, Hope, or Scott engage in vigilantism, but instead focused on defending themselves and ensuring their technology was not stolen.
  • That's not really true. Sonny Burch is specifically referred to as a dealer in black market technology and Hope's initial deals with him had her using a fake identity. A fake identity she could have used with any legitimate dealer, if one existed. Hank and Hope were dealing with a criminal because what they wanted was itself illegal. And given how previous attempts to build a quantum tunnel had gone, a massive explosion, it's not hard to see why.
    • Burch may not have cared (or, rather, Hank and Hope assumed he wouldn't care) about verifying his customer's identities. A legitimate dealer in potentially dangerous tech would probably be required to do so (if not for each individual item, there may be combinations that'd raise flags). If they hadn't been hiding from the authorities, it's possible they'd have been questioned about what they wanted the tech for, and had restrictions placed on how and where they could use it, without actually being legally prevented from doing so.
• Ghost's interest in Scott is creepy to begin with, but it takes a darker turn when you think about it. Ghost spent most of her life being trained as an thief, saboteur, and assassin and sent on such missions, probably kept in near isolation to keep her existence from being known, she's in constant pain, and her powers make it dangerous for her to even touch someone outside her suit. Foster aside, Ghost probably doesn't have a clue how to interact with other human beings at all, while the nature of her abilities likely means she can't safely have sex. No wonder she's so awkward about expressing attraction towards Scott, she has no reason to know how!
• It was established in the first film that exposure to the Pym Particles can mess with your head; it had already messed with Darren Cross' head and Hank implies that wearing the suit (which features a helmet that is apparently supposed to protect the user) for a long time did the same to him. Over the course of the film, through the use of the shrinking cars, etc., Scott, Hope and Hank expose at least themselves, Luis and, at the end, Cassie, to the Particles. Yeah, Scott exposed his own daughter to a substance that messes with your head. Great parenting, Scott!
  • In the school, Scott spends a few minutes overly large and then overly small without the helmet on. Hopefully the short duration avoids a bit of brain alteration.
  • Given that Hope did not seem especially concerned about being in a shrunken car for too long after kidnapping Scott at the beginning, and that Hank's upgraded his shrinking tech, it's highly likely that the shrinking cars and lab have some form of radiation shielding not dependent on a helmet, in addition to the other Required Secondary Powers listed on the first film's Fridge page that would be needed to function while shrunk.
• The more one thinks about it, the more frightening the ability to control ants becomes, since they are ubiquitous and can do unnatural things for their controller, and that's before they shrink or grow.

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