Ant-Man

***Ant-Man*** is a 2015 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics characters of the same name: Scott Lang and Hank Pym. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, it is the twelfth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed byPeyton Reed, with a screenplay by Edgar Wright & Joe Cornish and Adam McKay & Paul Rudd, and stars Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip "T.I." Harris, Anthony Mackie, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, and Michael Douglas. In *Ant-Man*, Lang must help defend Dr. Pym's Ant-Man shrinking technology and plot a heist with worldwide ramifications.

Development of *Ant-Man* began in April 2006, with the hiring of Wright to direct and co-write with Cornish. By April 2011, Wright and Cornish had completed three drafts of the script and Wright shot test footage for the film in July 2012. Pre-production began in October 2013 after being put on hold so that Wright could complete *The World's End*. Casting began in December 2013, with the hiring of Rudd to play Lang. In May 2014, Wright left the project, citing creative differences, though he still received screenplay and story credits with Cornish, as well as an executive producer credit. The following month, Reed was brought in as Wright's replacement, while McKay was hired to contribute to the script with Rudd. Principal photography took place between August and December 2014 in San Francisco and Metro Atlanta.

*Ant-Man* held its world premiere in Los Angeles on June 29, 2015, and was released in North America on July 17, 2015, in 3D and IMAX 3D. Upon its release, the film received positive reviews and has grossed over $384 million worldwide.

## Plot

In 1989, scientist Hank Pym resigns from S.H.I.E.L.D. after discovering their attempt to replicate his Ant-Man shrinking technology. Believing the technology is dangerous, Pym vows to hide it as long as he lives. In the present day, Pym's estranged daughter, Hope van Dyne, and former protégé, Darren Cross, have forced him out of his own company. Cross is close to perfecting a shrinking suit of his own, the Yellowjacket, which horrifies Pym.

Upon his release from prison, well-meaning thief Scott Lang moves in with his old cellmate, Luis. While visiting his daughter Cassie unannounced, Lang is rebuked by his former wife Maggie and her police-detective fiancé, Paxton, for not providing child support. Unable to hold a job because of his criminal record, Lang agrees to join Luis' crew and commit a burglary. Lang breaks into a house and cracks its safe, but only finds what he believes to be an old motorcycle suit, which he takes home. After trying the suit on, Lang accidentally shrinks himself to the size of an insect. Terrified by the experience, he returns the suit to the house, but is arrested on the way out. Pym, the homeowner, visits Lang in jail and smuggles the suit into his cell to help him break out.

At his home, Pym, who manipulated Lang through an unknowing Luis into stealing the suit as a test, wants Lang to become the new Ant-Man to steal the Yellowjacket from Cross. Having been spying on Cross for Pym despite her strained relationship with her father, van Dyne helps Pym train Lang to fight and to control ants. They send him to steal a device from the Avengers' headquarters, where he briefly fights Sam Wilson. While van Dyne harbors resentment towards Pym about her mother Janet's death, he reveals that Janet, known as the Wasp, disappeared into a subatomic quantum realm to disable a Sovietnuclear missile. Pym warns Lang that he could suffer a similar fate if he overrides his suit's regulator.

Cross perfects the Yellowjacket and hosts an unveiling ceremony at his headquarters. Lang, along with his crew and a swarm of flying ants, infiltrates the building during the event, sabotages the company's servers, and plants explosives. When he attempts to steal the Yellowjacket, he, along with Pym and Hope, are captured by Cross, who intends to sell both the Yellowjacket and Ant-Man suits to Hydra, led by former S.H.I.E.L.D officer Mitchell Carson. Lang breaks free and he and Hope dispatch most of the Hydra agents, though Carson is able to flee with a vial of Cross' particles. Lang pursues Cross as he escapes, while the explosives detonate, imploding the building.

Cross dons the Yellowjacket and attacks Lang before Lang is arrested by Paxton. His mind addled by the imperfect shrinking technology, Cross takes Cassie hostage to lure Lang into another fight. Lang overrides the regulator and shrinks to subatomic size to penetrate Cross' suit and sabotage it to shrink uncontrollably, killing Cross. Lang disappears into the quantum realm but manages to reverse the effects and returns to the macroscopic world. In gratitude for Lang's heroism, Paxton covers for Lang to keep him out of prison. Seeing that Lang survived and returned from the quantum realm, Pym wonders if his wife is alive as well. Later, Lang meets up with Luis, who tells him that Wilson is looking for him.

In a mid-credits scene, Pym shows van Dyne a new Wasp prototype suit and offers it to her. In a post-credits scene, Wilson and Steve Rogers have Bucky Barnes in their custody. Unable to contact Tony Stark because of "the accords", Wilson mentions that he knows someone who could help.

## Cast

* Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man:

A former systems engineer at VistaCorp and petty criminal who acquires a suit that allows him to shrink in size but increase in strength.[4][5][6][7][8] Regarding Rudd's casting, producer Kevin Feige said, "Look at that origin of the petty crook who comes into contact with a suit and does his best to make good, and then look at someone like Paul Rudd, who can do slightly unsavory things like break into people's houses and still be charming and who you root for and whose redemption you will find satisfaction in."[5] On the character, Peyton Reed said, "He's not used to being a hero. He's more like George Clooney['s character Danny Ocean] in *Ocean's Eleven*. He's a guy trying to create a new life for himself and find redemption." To get in shape for the role, Rudd worked with trainers and cut alcohol, fried foods and carbohydrates out of his diet.[9] Rudd stated that in preparation for his role, he "basically didn't eat anything for about a year ... I took theChris Pratt approach to training for an action movie. Eliminate anything fun for a year and then you can play a hero."[10] Rudd signed a multi-film contract with Marvel, with Feige saying it was "three [films]-plus-plus to appear in other things."[2]
* Evangeline Lilly as Hope van Dyne:

The daughter of Hank Pym and Janet van Dyne and a senior board member of Pym Technologies, who helps Darren Cross take over the company.[11][12][13][14][15]Describing her character, Lilly said, "I was raised by two superheroes. So, I'm a pretty screwed up human being. I am also fairly capable, strong, and kick-ass, which is wonderful to play, but the most fun to play was just how messed up she was from being raised by two superheroes. And the clear message sent by my name is that I'm not a big fan of my father and so I took my mother's name."[16] She added that van Dyne's "arc in the movie is trying to find a relationship" with Pym.[9] Originally cast by Wright, Lilly was reluctant to take the role after he left the project until she read the revised script and got a chance to meet with Reed.[13] Feige said that van Dyne was the more obvious choice to take up the mantle of Ant-Man, being "infinitely more capable of actually being a superhero" than Lang, and that the reason she does not is because of Pym's experience with losing her mother, rather than sexism, which Feige felt would not be a problem for Pym in modern times. Subsequently, Feige stated that the film would hint at van Dyne eventually taking up the identity of Wasp from her mother.[17] Lilly signed a multi-film contract with Marvel.[18]
* Corey Stoll as Darren Cross / Yellowjacket:

A former protégé of Pym's, who takes over his mentor's company and militarizes a similar version of the Ant-Man technology to create the Yellowjacket suit.[12][14][19][20] Describing the suit, Stoll said, "Darren Cross... has a suit that is sort of the next generation of Ant-Man's suit. It can do everything that Ant-Man can do, but more. It's more badass, more militaristic, sleeker... sort of like if Apple had designed a battle suit."[21] As for his character, Stoll said, "He is not a villain in the vein of Thanos or Loki, who are villains that know it. [Cross] is a guy who is not that dissimilar from Michael Douglas' character, Hank Pym. A brilliant scientist, who is not ethically pure. I think a great thing about the whole movie is that everybody in this movie is in those shades of gray a little bit."[22] Unlike Rudd, who wore a practical costume as Ant-Man, Stoll wore a motion capture suit while performing as Yellowjacket. Reed explained that this decision was made early on when creating and filming with a real Yellowjacket costume was found to be impractical.[23]
* Bobby Cannavale as Paxton:

A police officer[15][24][25] who is engaged to Lang's former wife Maggie.[26] Cannavale stated that Rudd and McKay convinced him to join the film, saying, "They sort of pumped [my] part up a bit in [their rewrite] and they both called me and said, 'You've got to do this.' They called me before Marvel called. I really went on good faith because they're so secretive over there about the script. I just trusted them." He also added that the process felt like an indie film instead of a large-scale blockbuster, and that he was able to improvise frequently along with the other actors.[26] Patrick Wilson was originally cast in the role[27] before leaving the film because of scheduling conflicts brought on by the filming delay.[28]
* Michael Peña as Luis:

Lang's former cellmate[24][25][29] and a member of his crew.[30] Peña stated that he modeled Luis' vocal style and positive outlook on life "on a friend of a friend", saying, "That's just the way he talks and the cadence. He's got this grin on the entire time and he doesn't care. He's the kind of guy where you're like 'Hey, what'd you do this weekend?' and he's like 'I went to jail, dawg,' with a smile on his face. Not a lot of people do that. Not a lot of people think of life on those terms."[31] Peña signed a multi-film contract with Marvel for three films.[32]
* Tip "T.I." Harris as Dave:[24][25]

A member of Lang's crew.[30] Harris stated that he had a "blank canvas" for the character, adding that he "hadn't read the entire script" as he was not permitted to. He was "handed scenes as the film [went] along, and when you do that, it's like a blank canvas, 'This is what I'm going to do for this scene,' and you can remember previous performances and remain consistent with that. The energy created by the ensemble you have around you, it contributes to the outlook or the final view of what your character has become, and what he meant to the story."[33]
* Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson / Falcon:

An Avenger who is a pararescueman trained by the military in aerial combat using a specially designed wing pack.[34] On including Falcon, Reed said that it was not done just to include the character, rather "[i]t served a plot point; a purpose in our story" and allowed them to enhance Peña's "tip montages", which were written by production writers Gabriel Ferrari and Andrew Barrer,[35] also adding Falcon "seemed like the right character — not a marquee character like Iron Man or Thor, but the right level of hero."[36] Rudd and McKay decided to include Falcon after watching *Captain America: The Winter Soldier*.[37]
* Wood Harris as Gale:[24][25] A police officer and Paxton's partner.
* Judy Greer as Maggie: Lang's estranged former wife.[24][25][38]
* David Dastmalchian as Kurt:[24][25]

A member of Lang's crew.[30] Dastmalchian worked with actress Isidora Goreshter to learn how to speak in his character's Russian accent. On his character, Dastmalchian said that he "had this idea that Kurt was born and raised in a town even further out than Siberia and he was just an amazing computer wizard who fell in with the wrong people. But he was obsessed with two things: [*Saturday Night Fever*] and Elvis Presley, hence the polyester shirts unbuttoned too far and the hair in that pompadour."[39]
* Michael Douglas as Hank Pym:

A former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent,[40] entomologist, and physicist, who became the original Ant-Man in 1963 after discovering the subatomic particles that make the transformation possible. He later mentors Lang to take over the role.[6][7][19][41] Douglas compared his decision to join a superhero film to his role in *Behind the Candelabra* saying, "Sometimes—like [when] they didn't see you for Liberace—you've got to shake them up a little bit and have some fun."[42] Describing Pym, Douglas said, "He's sort of a Northern California, formal guy. He's lost control of his company. He lives in sort of a time warp. He was always a bit of a tinkerer. He's got a lab, plus a lot of other stuff, in his basement that we find out about. He's certainly bitter about what happened with his company and deeply scared of what the future might hold—because he himself, after having gotten small so many times, it's difficult. He looks and tries to find a guy that he can work with and has the right characteristics, which is [Scott]."[15] Douglas indicated that he would not be wearing the Ant-Man suit, saying, "My costume will be hung up and Paul will be wearing it in good form."[43]
Additionally, John Slattery and Hayley Atwell reprise their roles as Howard Stark and Peggy Carter, respectively, from previous MCU media.[44][45] Slattery stated that his involvement in *Ant-Man* was "not that much more" than his participation in *Iron Man 2*, while Atwell described her appearance as being "more of a cameo".[45][46] Abby Ryder Fortson portrays Cassie, the daughter of Lang and Maggie,[2][17][47] Gregg Turkington appears as Dale, the manager of a Baskin-Robbins store,[25][48][49] and Martin Donovan plays Mitchell Carson, a former member of S.H.I.E.L.D. who works for Hydra and looks to purchase the Yellowjacket technology.[50][51] Garrett Morris, who portrayed Ant-Man in a *Saturday Night Live* sketch, appears as a taxi driver.[52] Ant-Man co-creator Stan Lee makes a cameo appearance in the film as a bartender.[53][54] Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan make uncredited appearances during the post-credits scene as Steve Rogers / Captain America and Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier, respectively.[55] Hayley Lovitt makes a nonspeaking cameo as Janet van Dyne / Wasp.[56] Tom Kenny provides the voice of "Hideous Rabbit", a children's plush toy.[57]