Question: As I always understood Ant-Man, he always retained the same mass, regardless of his physical size. When he reduces his size, he still retains about 160 lbs of mass, which makes him more formidable, like a 160 lb grain of sand. When he enlarges, even to gigantic size, he is still only 160 lbs. So, how can he kick vehicles around in the airport scene?
Charles Austin Miller
12th Jul 2017
Captain America: Civil War (2016)
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Chosen answer: We never get a specific explanation to what happens to him when he enlarges. Hank Pym explains to him that when he shrinks, it's the result of reducing the distance between atoms which is why he retains his original mass. However, being a giant with a mass and strength of only 160lbs would not be very advantageous in a fight, so they must have found a way for him to grow in size and strength in this situation. Ultimately, we just don't know - the movies and comics differ in a great many respects, so there's just not enough information to work with. Might technically qualify as a mistake, but it's something which could easy be solved with an in-universe answer, however scientifically dubious.
Phaneron ★