CINEMA SCIENCE THE SMALL WONDERS OF ANT-MAN AND THE WASP
Ant-Man and the Wasp (Peyton Reed, 2018) is the twentieth film in the durable Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Coming in the wake of Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) genocidal devastation in Avengers: Infinity War (Anthony & Joe Russo, 2018), this instalment is comparatively lightweight, offering up a fun and frothy film set just prior to the events of the preceding one. That lightness of touch seems appropriate, given that the defining ability of Ant-Man – as played by Paul Rudd in this and Ant-Man (Reed, 2015) – is miniaturisation.
Ant-Man may not be the most prominent hero in the Marvel universe, but given the dominance of his franchise at the box office, you can pretty well guarantee that your average secondary student will be halfway familiar with Rudd’s interpretation of the character. Ant-Man here refers to Scott Lang, an ingenious burglar who becomes a size-shifting superhero when he breaks into an apartment belonging to the ‘original’ Ant-Man, Dr Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Ant-Man and the Wasp reunites Scott with Hank and his daughter, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly), who now has her own super-suit and goes by the alias of Wasp – hence the title.
Like its MCU compatriots, Ant-Man and the Wasp is pure fantasy: popcorn entertainment painted with gags, action-filled set pieces and impossible abilities. But unlike some of the more fantastical Marvel flag-bearers – like Chris Hemsworth’s Thor, granted deific powers, or Benedict Cumberbatch’s magical Doctor Strange – Ant-Man is grounded in the world of science … fiction. Hank’s super-suit inventions are given serious, pseudoscientific explanations, including delving into the so-called ‘quantum realm’. While we don’t quite have the capability to shrink humans down to insect size, the scientific context of Ant-Man and the Wasp does provide inspiration for Science teachers looking to engage their classrooms through contemporary pop culture.
SIZE OF AN ANT
One of the most enduring factoids shared regarding ants is some variation on ‘they can lift up to fifty times their own body weight’. I recall, in
