Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania (2023)

Scott's daughter Cassie has been working on a way to study the quantum realm, but in doing so sends a signal into it, which panics Janet van Dyne who pulls the plug. But it's too late, and the machine springs back into life and sucks Scott, Hope, Janet, Hank and Cassie into the quantum realm.

Scott and Cassie meet up with a group of rebels fighting against an oppressive ruler and are eventually tracked down and captured. Hope, Janet and Hank meet up with old allies of Janet's from her years down there. But she's betrayed by a former friend and have to escape.

The Langs are imprisoned and meet Kang, who Janet had inadvertently helped years earlier, thinking him to be an innocent explorer trapped like her. She helped him fix his multiversal ship, only to realise the truth, that he was a vicious time traveller, destroying entire timelines, who was exiled to the quantum realm outside of time, being the only place he could be isolated. Using Pym particles she exploded the core of his ship, and he demands Scott restore it so he can escape, threatening Cassie's life.

He does so, in the process splitting into millions of alternate versions of himself as a result of the core's energy, all of whom ultimately band together to help him, in order to save Cassie. Hope swoops in at the last second and they restore the core together.

Janet is captured and Hank is shot down but rescued by hyper-intelligent ants which were sucked into the quantum realm with them and evolved at great speed. Kang has no intention of honouring his deal, but Cassie escapes and reunites with captured rebels, starting an uprising against Kang who's trying to escape the realm. Scott turns giant to damage his ship enough that Kang can't escape, and the super-ants arrive to turn the tide of battle, carrying off Kang.

Janet fixes the core enough for them to return home - Scott is last through the portal and pushes Cassie in as he sees Kang has returned, whose suit and associated technology was destroyed by the ants, leaving him weakened but still physically imposing. Kang brutally beats Scott who refuses to succumb, happy to be stranded in the realm if Cassie is safe and Kang can't escape. Hope returns through the portal and helps Scott force Kang into the damaged core, seemingly killing him, before Scott and Hope return home.

Scott is happy to return to his mostly-normal life, but worries about the potential consequences of Kang's destruction, after ominous references by him to what's coming. During the credits we see thousands of Kang variants meeting to discuss the apparent death of "the exile" and the impact that multiversal exploration might have on them. In another scene, Loki and Mobius see another Kang variant called "Victor Timely" giving a speech about time in the early 20th century.

Jon Sandys ★