Headscratchers / Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania

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Why did Kang bother keeping Cassie hostage?

• After his ship's core was restored, he had no further use for Ant-Man or his family, so why would he bother keeping Cassie as a hostage? He knows how protective Scott is over his daughter, so he should've known holding Cassie would mean Scott stays a thorn in his side.
  • Maybe he was planning to use her the same way he used Darren and make her a minion too. Another thing to note is that once he obtained the core, he started immediately preparing his journey and probably forgot about her until she started a riot.
  • He probably didn't care and thought "What's the guy who talks to ants gonna do even if he holds a grudge? I've killed Avengers including Thor" or something like that.
  • Kang seems to suffer from a very inflated ego, and treating people like things (to the exception of Janet). So the moment Scott brought him back his reactor core he focused back on leaving the Quantum Realm and spared very little thought to the puny things he used. That, or he thought keeping her hostage would prevent Scott from trying anything against him before he left.
  • He may have also planned to use her as a source of Pym Particles for some future use.

Janet

• What happened to Janet's powers? In Ant-Man and the Wasp, she came back from the Quantum Realm with some energy-based power that she used to heal Ghost. At no point was it used or referred to in the whole of Quantumania. Did she use up all the power in the healing? Or did she lose them because of the Snap?
  • It's presented in a confusing way, but Janet didn't actually have any powers. Her body was just flooded with energies from the Quantum Realm - the same kind Ghost needed, and so much of it that just holding Ghost was enough to stabilize her. Think of it like walking through Chernobyl and coming out radioactive. It seems like it didn't have any other side effects, or else Ghost siphoned it all off.
  • Remember that Ant-Man had to go back into the Quantum Realm to get more of that energy to further stabilize Ghost's condition, meaning that Janet can no longer provide that energy anymore.
  • It may also simply be that her powers would have either been useless here, or, since they were based on the Quantum Realm, they were simply not available while she was back there.

Final Fight

• In the final fight between Kang and Ant-Man, Kang keeps telling Scott that he could have just went with Cassie back to Earth instead of meddling in his affairs, and that's why he is going to die now, and Scott agrees with this statement. Problem is the statement is untrue; Kang brought Scott and Cassie to the Realm, he hunted for and captured them, then he blackmailed him to bring him the core, keeping Cassie as hostage, and when Scott brought him the core he tried to kill him and later ordered Cassie to be killed (because she started a riot), so in conclusion Scott had no chance to just leave Kang alone. So why is he agreeing with him? Or am I remembering something wrong?.
  • It's much simpler than that. Kang was literally just saying that if Scott didn't bother trying to fight at that moment they both could've walked through the portal and ended up in the regular-sized world. But since he did fight, Kang planned on killing him then and there.
  • Except Kang started that fight, keeping Scott from going through the exit. If he had just waited a second he could have followed them out.
  • Kang implies that if Scott didn't see him and pushed Cassie through the portal they wouldn't have fought when he says, "You should've looked the other way." But as soon as Scott saw him, Kang was ready for a fight.

Why didn't Kang just obliterate Scott and Co. with his lazer beams?

• This question should be a no-brainer. We literally see Kang obliterating the Quantum insurgents with lazer beams from his fists. Why didn't he just do the same thing to Scott and his friends/family when he easily had the chance?
  • He might've been angered to the point where that wouldn't be as cathartic for him and he wanted to kill them in a more hands-on way.
  • That or the ants destroyed his suit enough to make him unable to use his powers.
  • There's also a noticeable delay before he's able to fire off his beams or release shockwaves - it's certainly possible that he wasn't able to use them at full power because they were right in his face.
  • It also seems likely, that as powerful as Kang is, he isn't infinitely powerful, and his disintegration beams draw from some unknown power source that needs to recharge. He may have overdid it in his initial rage, as we see shortly after he's firing singular blasts instead of beams. Maybe he ran out of power, and simply doesn't have the energy remaining to instantly disintegrate his opponents, that he had at the outset of his rampage.

Kang Needs Scott?

• Are we ever given a reason Kang can't just take the Pym particles and use them himself? Is there anything actually special about Scott?
  • Just like Scott himself said in the first movie, he's expendable. Kang doesn't seem like someone who can control his possibilities. So he figured Scott wouldn't either. But if Scott died it was no real loss to Kang's plans. Cassie still had a suit with Pym particles, so he could send her if her dad failed.
  • Along with this, Kang has seen all his possibilities and knows what he's like in the multiverse. We see that one of Scott's variants is just him still working at Baskin Robbins, so everyone isn't just the possibilities of this one Scott Lang. Kang can't risk fighting all the other versions of himself. And even if it was branching versions of this Kang, he knows himself without any illusions to know he can't trust copies of him.
  • Consider that Scott had trouble at first with his doppelgängers, before they formed that human chain that allowed him to reach the core. If it were Kang, being what he is, there would have been a massive fight over who was the "real" Kang, and no way for any of them to sacrifice themselves for one of them to reach the core alone.

The Quantum Realm

• How do people breathe in the quantum realm, given that they themselves should be smaller than oxygen molecules? In previous instances of people entering the realm, aside from Janet who it was always a mystery how she survived there for so long, they were wearing suits that likely had their own supply of oxygen that shrank with them.
  • It's likely that there are oxygen molecules there, just not our oxygen molecules. It's all a matter of relativity and perspective. The Quantum Realm is its own universe with its own molecules. Otherwise, nothing would have its own atomic structures. We see people, creatures, and liquids that all have similar physics to Earth within their own system. It's just that the way to travel to it is to get so small that you pass through a dimensional barrier. You might visualize it better by reducing it down to a 2D person moving three-dimensionally to a different 2D universe.
  • Time may work differently in the quantum realm, but what about geography and distance? The quantum realm should be unimaginably vast, larger than our entire universe. Cassie's signal couldn't have permeated the entire realm, so is it just a coincidence that in a realm that should be infinitely vast Cassie's signal just happened to be detected in Kang's kingdom?
  • That can probably be explained by Kang's technology. If he has the technology to receive signals from the entire macro universe while macro size, then that wouldn't be enough to cover the entire Quantum Realm while quantum size, but it would still be an appreciable chunk of it.

Does the MCU have their own version of Kang?

• Every universe has a Kang, right? If the Kang in this movie isn't *their* Kang, where is their version of the villain?
  • Not born yet, he is from the future. Also with the way the multiverse works maybe this version of Kang won't be evil or will die at childbirth...etc. or finally maybe he does exist, but he is conquering another universe.
  • Now that they're introducing the Young Avengers, it's probably that the MCU's Kang is the future Iron Lad.
  • The MCU version of Kang is He Who Remains. He destroyed every universe except his own to prevent other Kangs from existing.

Was the time loop thing a bluff?

• It's probably irrelevant anyway, since he was clearly more than able to kill Cassie if he wanted, but just hypothetically would Kang's threat of making sure Scott is Forced to Watch a time loop of her dying over and over again actually be possible given his situation? We're led to believe his chair/ship is how he traverses spacetime, which he needed help to even get working again. Furthermore, while we've seen his He Who Remains variant demonstrate that such a degree of time manipulation is in fact possible for some versions of him, this particular one never shows that he has access to it (if he did, he probably would've used it at some point during the big fight).
  • Some of his combat powers are time manipulation. He freezes Janet at one point, and his portals might be another. It seems to be implied that Kang had some natural time powers, his armor enhances them to be combat-capable, and his ship enhances them even further to the point that he can escape the Quantum Realm. So yeah, it probably wasn't a bluff, but also probably not something that would be practical in combat.

Kang and the Multiverse?

• So Loki established that there was only one variant of Kang anywhere, that being He Who Remains who was keeping the Sacred Timeline flowing and safe from other versions of himself. His death is what causes the universe to revert back to the multiverse, and with it comes the other Kangs. So how did Janet encounter a clearly different version of Kang in the Quantum Realm several decades before the multiverse returned? Did she not originally in the Sacred Timeline, but then her Kang was incidentally banished to her universe's Quantum Realm? And since HWR died in a place removed from the regular flow of time, it was instantaneous and stopped her original experiences from ever happening in the first place?
  • When HWR died, the entire multiverse retroactively always existed. Time travel means that stuff like that can happen.
  • It also has to be recognized that regardless which Kang wins, a war throughout time still occurs. HWR still spent a period of time meeting and fighting his variants before pruning their branches. He may have had to fight some variants while doing it, or it's why he set up the TVA the way it is so other Kangs won't notice. The fact the change is instantaneous to use doesn't change that Kang could have waged a war for centuries. The whole fight could always play out the same way, but HWR took himself out of the equation. This Kang could be a constant that will always be the one that gets banished, but the greater events change whether Janet gets rescued or dies preventing him from escaping.

Are Xolum, Veb and Quaz based on anybody from the comics?

• When I look them up, I can only find references for the MCU. I know Jentorra is based on a minor Hulk character.
  • According to the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, they're based on characters from Micronauts (Psyklop, Bug, and Arcturus Rann respectively), but with names and designs changed because Hasbro owns the rights to those characters.

Why not use a time loop?

• Kang outright mentions he has the power to alter time for specific objects when he threatens to make Scott watch him kill Cassie for eternity, and he demonstrates that when he freezes Janet in time when she tries to run. If he can do that, why does he need Scott to fix the literal Timey-Wimey Ball when he could just reverse it in time himself to when it wasn't wrecked?
  • Kang could have been bluffing as to the extent of his powers, as we never see him doing any time manipulation aside from freezing Janet, and even that might have just been telekinesis. Also, given the nature of his reactor core, it is possible that reversing time around it is not doable.

"Cheap" pizza

• Hank uses Pym tech to turn a small pizza into a family size and boasts "I just saved us eight bucks". But since Pym Particles are so rare and worldchanging, they can't be easy to make, so wouldn't this actually push the pizza's price tag at least into the hundreds of millions?
  • The Pym particles seem to be very hard to replicate, but given how liberally Hank has been using them they probably are not that costly to make. Also, he was clearly showing off for the sake of a joke here.

Did the manager at Baskin Robins take Scott back?

• Was the manager cameo at the beginning just a flashback? If Scott wasn't hired back, why? It is public knowledge that Lang helped save the universe. His criminal record wasn't that bad compared to the level of evil in the MCU. Having a super hero working at the store would attract more customers and a lot more attention. His business would be booming. I would be thrilled to have Spider-man, or Hawkeye, working in my store.
  • Scott openly says that he's largely retired from superheroics, and that the only job he wants is being Cassie's dad.
  • He didn't take Scott back because Scott didn't want the job.
  • I'm pretty sure the idea was Scott leveraged his superhero status to force the manager to give him that "Employee of the Century" award out of spite for firing him.
  • Scott isn't a very spiteful guy; I took it as the manager trying to capitalize on Scott's fame by advertising that he used to work there.

The Quantum Realm existing out of time

• If the Quantum Realm exists out of time, how could a nexus event happen there to trigger "What If... Zombies?!"? For that matter, wouldn't there have been numerous Janets in there?

What actually happened to the core?

• I'm very confused about what Janet actually did. It looked like it was blown up while simultaneously expanding to a huge size... but then the actual thing is super tiny in the center of the thing, because Scott has to shrink way down to get to it... then he shrinks the tiny thing in the center, which undoes the explosion and puts the whole thing back in one piece and at normal size? I can't figure out what happened, can anyone explain it?
  • Think of it like a clock; it wasn't really blown up, just massively expanded with its parts at such disproportionate sizes that it doesn't work anymore. The "core" of it is like the spring that keeps a wound-up clock running. It might seem small, but it directs the motion of all the other parts. By shrinking it, they're actually returning it to its normal size, so all the mechanisms fit together and work normally again.

Shrinking and growing in the Quantum Realm

• The previous movies established that you can only access the Quantum Realm by going subatomic, which means Hank's shrinking tech logically shouldn't be able to work when it's in the Quantum Realm. But then how were Scott, Cassie and Hope able to use their suits to change size while they were in there?
  • The Quantum Realm seems to be its own pocket universe; you can only reach it by shrinking very, very small, but once you've crossed that barrier, size has nothing to do with it anymore. All the normal rules of physics apply within that separate universe.
  • To enlarge on this: in Marvel comics, shrink small enough (below the Planck length), and you’re shunted into another universe, one with a different value for Planck’s constant. The Quantum Realm is one of many “worlds besides worlds.”

Cassie's age

• How old is Cassie supposed to be? The fact that she's now played by a woman in her mid-20s would lead one to assume she's a grown adult, but the movie implies she's still a teenager. If that's the case, why didn't they just keep the actress from Avengers: Endgame, who's several years younger?
  • According to Word of God, she’s 18.

The heroes being pulled into the quantum realm

• How was MODOK able to pull the heroes into the Quantum Realm? He had Cassie's signal to locate them but if he had the Pym Particles needed to shrink them down (possibly from the Yellowjacket armour) why not just use those to escape?
  • It's implied that MODOK hijacked the device somehow. Janet turns the machine off, and then it turns itself back on before it starts sucking things in. Cassie herself is surprised that the machine can do this, and she build it (along with Hank), so the implication is that MODOK did something to it. There is very little information about that scene in the movie itself.

Why not just unshrink?

• In the first Ant-Man Scott was able to leave the subatomic realm just by fixing his regulator and returning to normal size. Why didn't they immediately head straight back the moment they started to shrink? Couldn't they have just unshrunk the moment they started getting pulled in, especially if they weren't yet small enough to get sucked into an alternate timeline or something?
  • Not all of them had suits and therefore the option to unshrink. Even if it would work, and even if he had time to pull it off— it happened very quickly and suddenly— Scott isn't going to escape alone while the people he cares about, especially Cassie, are sucked into an unknown situation. As far as he knows, she doesn't have a way out, so he's not going to abandon her. He has no idea if he would be able to rescue her if he unshrunk to escape; if he lets himself be pulled down with her, at least he'll be able to protect her wherever they end up.

The Wasp can only shrink

• Why doesn't Hope's suit seem to have the ability to grow to giant size the same way Scott's and Cassie's do?
  • What if... Zombies! shows her as a giant, so presumably she can grow, but her fighting style emphasizes the use of her wings, which she can't use even at regular size, so it seems she prefers just to shrink.

Planning to take on an army of yourself

• What makes this Kang think he can conquer the Council of Kangs? He would be no match for them. Imagine trying to fight an army of yourself who are just as intelligent and powerful as you.
  • Maybe that was the reason for his universal conquests: Control enough resources, manpower and technology to overpower each and everyone of the Kangs.
  • He Who Remains was able to conquer all other Kangs by manipulating the timeline so that they never even existed. Maybe this Kang somehow found out what He Who Remains had done, and he's planning to do something similar so that he will be the only Kang in existence.

Cassie’s suit

• Why did Cassie wait so long to deploy her suit after their arrival in the Quantum Realm? She’d already told her father she had one.

Five hours

• Before "Endgame", Scott spent five years in the Quantum Realm, which for him felt like five hours. Yet he acts as if everything there were completely and utterly new to him! Granted, five hours isn't much, but he must have gone somewhere, seen something, and met someone (given how tightly populated the place apparently is). In "Ant-Man and the Wasp", Hank Pym spent only a real-world fifteen minutes in the Quantum Realm and made it all the way to the wasteland where Janet was.
  • Presumably, he spent those five hours floating around, since he had nowhere else to go.