Ant-Man and the Wasp (film)

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Title

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Aliases

Ant-Man 2
Cherry Blue (working title)

Release Date(s)

July 4, 2018
July 6, 2018 (USA)

Film Details

Musicians

Christophe Beck

Cinematographers

Dante Spinotti

Editors

Dan Lebental; Craig Wood

Distributors

Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

Production Companies

Marvel Studios

Running Time

118 minutes

Rating

MPAA: PG-13 for sci-fi action violence and brief suggestive material

Budget

$130 million

Previous and Next Films
Previous	Next
Ant-Man (July 14, 2015) Captain America: Civil War (April 27, 2016)	Avengers: Endgame (April 24, 2019) Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (February 15, 2023) Thunderbolts (May 5, 2025)

Appearances

Featured Characters:

⏴ Wasp / "Susan" (Hope Van Dyne) ⏵ (First appearance as Wasp) (Main story and flashback) (Death)
⏴ Ant-Man (Scott Lang) ⏵ (Main story and flashback)

Supporting Characters:

⏴ Dr. Hank Pym ⏵ (Main story and flashback) (As Ant-Man in flashback only) (Death)
⏴ Janet Van Dyne ⏵ (First full appearance) (Revealed to be alive) (Main story and flashback) (As the Wasp in flashback only) (Death)
⏴ Cassie Lang ⏵ (Main story and flashback)
X-Con Security Consultants (First appearance)
- ⏴ Luis (Main story and flashback)
- ⏴ Dave
- ⏴ Kurt
Ant-Man's Ants
- Ulysses S. Gr-Ant (First appearance)
- Ant-tonio Banderas (First appearance; dies)
- Numerous unnamed ants

Antagonists:

F.B.I.
- Agent Jimmy Woo ⏵ (First appearance)
- Agent Burleigh (First appearance)
- Agent Stoltz (First appearance) (First appearance; dies)
- Agent Pearson (First appearance) (First appearance)
- Numerous unnamed agents
Ghost (Ava Starr) (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Sonny Burch (First appearance)
Uzman (First appearance)
Knox (First appearance)
Anitolov (First appearance)
Dr. Bill Foster (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)

Other Characters:

Rose (First appearance) (Only in flashback)
S.H.I.E.L.D. (Only in flashback)
Captain America (Steve Rogers) (Mentioned)
⏴ Maggie Lang
⏴ Jim Paxton
Avengers (Mentioned)
Hydra (Mentioned)
Elihas Starr (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
Catherine Starr (First appearance; dies) (Only in flashback)
George Washington (Mentioned)
George Jefferson (Mentioned)
MI6 (Mentioned)
Captain Daniel Gooobler (First appearance)
Stan Lee
SFPD

Races and Species:

Humans (Main story and flashback)
Ants (Main story and flashback)
Tardigrades (First appearance)

Locations:

Earth-199999 (Main story and flashback)
- Earth (Main story and flashback)
  - United States of America (Main story and flashback)
    - California (Main story and flashback)
      - San Francisco (Main story and flashback)
        Brookemont Elementary School
        
        San Quentin Prison (Only in flashback)
        
        Fisherman's Wharf
        
        San Francisco Bay
    - Minnesota (Mentioned)
  - Germany (Mentioned)
  - Argentina (Only in flashback)
- Quantum Realm

Items:

Sokovia Accords (Mentioned)
Ant-Men's Suits and Helmets (Main story and flashback)
Wasps' Suits and Bio-Synthetic Wings (Main story and flashback)
Pym Particles
Pym Discs
Hank Pym's Portable Lab (First appearance)
Ghost's Suit (First appearance) (Main story and flashback)
Quantum Tunnel (First appearance)

Vehicles:

X-Con Security Van

Plot

After Scott Lang manages to enter and return from the quantum realm, Herny and Hope begin working to repeat this feat, believing they can find Janet still alive. Scott and Hope also begin a romantic relationship and train to fight together as Ant-Man and the Wasp, until Lang decides to help Captain America during the Avengers clash by violating the "Sokovia Accords". Lang is sentenced to two years of house arrest, while Pym and Hope, wanted because they are considered his accomplices, are forced to flee and cut ties with Lang. Two years later, Pym and Hope manage to open a tunnel to the quantum realm and at the same time Scott receives a mental message from Janet and although there are only a few days left until the end of house arrest, he decides to call Pym. Shortly thereafter Scott is kidnapped by Hope and since the message is confirmation that Janet is alive, father and daughter work to create a stable tunnel so they can cross the quantum realm in a spaceship and retrieve Janet. Hope must purchase a necessary part for the tunnel from black market trader Sonny Burch, but the latter realizes the potential profit that can be gained from Pym's research and betrays them. Hope fights Burch and his men, until at one point she is attacked by a masked woman, who walks through walls. Lang tries to help fight this "ghost", but the latter manages to escape with Pym's portable laboratory. The latter visits his former colleague Bill Foster, who helps them locate the laboratory. When Scott, Hope and Pym arrive, they discover that the Ghost is Ava Starr. Her father Elihas, another former colleague of Pym, died along with his wife during his quantum experiment which also caused Ava's molecular instability. Foster reveals to them that he helped Ava her, and that he plans to cure her using Janet's quantum energy. Believing that this will kill his wife, Pym refuses to help them and the trio manages to escape. Pym and Hope manage to contact Janet, who gives them a precise location on her where to find her, but she also warns them that they only have two hours before the unstable nature of the quantum realm separates them for a century. Meanwhile Burch acquires their location from Luis, Dave and Kurt, Scott's business partners, and informs a contact about him at the FBI. Luis manages to warn Scott, who rushes home before James Woo the officer in charge of his surveillance can see him breaking house arrest, but this way Pym and Hope are arrested and their portable laboratory is taken away by Ava. Scott luckily manages to get Pym and Hope to escape, and find the lab. Lang and Hope distract Ava while Pym enters the quantum realm to retrieve his wife, but the two end up fighting Burch and his men, which allows Ava to begin taking Janet's energy. Luis, Dave and Kurt help capture Burch, and thanks to this Scott and Hope manage to stop Ava. Pym and Janet return safely from the quantum realm, and Janet willingly gives some of her energy to Ava to temporarily stabilize her. Scott returns home once again, just in time for Jimmy Woo to release him, while Ava and Foster flee and disappear.

Later Scott, with the help of the Pym family, enters the quantum realm to gather energy in order to help Ava and heal her completely, but just before he can recover it, Hank, Hope and Janet they dissolve into nothingness as a result of Thanos' snap, thus leaving Scott trapped in the quantum realm...

Cast

Paul Rudd as Ant-Man / Scott Lang^[1]

Evangeline Lilly as The Wasp / Hope Van Dyne^[1]
- Madeleine McGraw portrays young Hope

Michael Peña as Luis^[2]

Walton Goggins as Sonny Burch^[3]^[4]

Hannah John-Kamen as Ghost^[5]^[6]
- RaeLynn Bratten potrays young Ava

David Dastmalchian as Kurt^[7]

Tip "T.I." Harris as Dave^[8]

Judy Greer as Maggie Lang^[9]

Bobby Cannavale as Jim Paxton^[10]

Randall Park as Agent Jimmy Woo^[11]

Abby Ryder Fortson as Cassie Lang^[10]

Michelle Pfeiffer as Janet Van Dyne^[6]
- Hayley Lovitt portrays young Janet

Laurence Fishburne as Dr. Bill Foster ^[6]
- His son Langston Fishburne portrays young Bill

Michael Douglas as Dr. Hank Pym^[12]
- Dax Griffin portrays young Hank

Additionally, Divian Ladwa, Goran Kostić and Rob Archer portray Uzman, Anitolov, and Knox, respectively.^[13] Sean Kleier, Benjamin Byron Davis, and Suehyla El-Attar appear as FBI agents Stoltz, Burleigh, and Pearson, respectively. Michael Cerveris and Riann Steele portray Elihas and Catherine Starr, respectively. Tim Heidecker makes a cameo as Captain Daniel Gooobler. Stan Lee makes a cameo as a pedestrian whose car is shrunk. Julia Vera-Andrews portrays Luis' grandmother. Darcy Shean appears as Rose the nanny. Brian Huskey cameos as Cassie's teacher. The Best Show hosts Tom Scharpling and Jon Wurster make cameos as Burch's SUV drivers.

Notes

Ant-Man co-writer Adam McKay stated he would have a contribution to the film in some sort of capacity.^[14]
Filming for this film began on August 1, 2017, and wrapped on November 19, 2017.^[15]^[16]
The film takes place two years after Captain America: Civil War.^[17]

Trivia

Marvel Studios announced Ant-Man and the Wasp on October 8, 2015, almost a year after the original slate of Phase 3 films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe was first announced.^[18]
Early on, the film included a flashback scene of Hank Pym and Bill Foster's younger years working together, in which audiences would've been able to actually see Foster growing in size. The idea was scrapped, according to director Peyton Reed, because it was from a narrative perspective "too much of a left turn."^[19]
Writers Chris McKenna and Erik Sommers were told at one point to add a piece of dialogue about Hope Van Dyne losing her cat, which would have had ramifications in Avengers: Endgame. McKenna believes it's possible that instead of a rat, Hope's cat would have been responsible for setting up the Quantum Tunnel to free Ant-Man from the Quantum Realm.^[20]