Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania Reveals the Most Practical Use of Pym Particles

One of the quiet pleasures of superhero stories comes in the way the hero's newfound powers affect their day-to-day lives. The notion of food, for example, plays an oddly prominent role in certain figures' backstories. The original Flash TV series uses effects shots to show Barry Allen devouring a dozen pizzas in moments to keep up his metabolism, while X-Men: Days of Future Past reveals Quicksilver's similar trick of keeping an entire wall full of Twinkie boxes.

Promotional material for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania takes that notion in a new direction as Hank Pym uses his Pym Particles to "super-size" a personal pizza. It comes in the service of a joke of the kind the Ant-Man films revel in. But it also shows the applicability of the technology and the very down-to-earth ways it could legitimately change the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

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Quantumania Shows Hank Pym Stretching His Dollar With Pym Particles

In anticipation of Quantumania, Marvel Studios has released a brief featurette on Scott Lang's importance to the saga. MCU guru Kevin Feige praises Ant-Man as "the most underestimated" character in the franchise, which is partially why he was chosen to kick off the central dilemma of Phase Five. That stems in part from his everyman status, which the featurette links to his mentor Hank Pym in an unusual way. In one key moment, Hank uses his creation to expand the size of a pizza from personal to extra large to feed everyone. "I just saved eight bucks," he grins as dinner is served. "God, I admire you," Scott replies.

It's a cute moment and reflects an Ant-Man movie tradition of finding unusual uses for its big MacGuffin. Ant-Man and the Wasp, for instance, showed the team's use of a Hot Wheels carrier to easily carry a whole fleet of shrunken automobiles. This time, in Quantumania, it's applied to something even more mundane: turning a small meal into a large one. The practicality is notable, especially since Hank is well-off enough not to have to pinch pennies on his food budget. Scott is charmed by it, turning the moment into a quiet bonding between the two Ant-Men in the process.

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The Implications Speak to Hank Pym's Ambitions

Hank Pym is one of the MCU's "mad scientists," whose well-meaning inventions don't always go as planned. But the Quantumania moment demonstrates one of the proposed benefits of Pym Particles on a wide scale. Super-sizing food of any sort can instantly solve the world's hunger crisis: creating enough to feed an army with a single meal and using space saved on farmland to restore the environment. It's a utopic vision, but the mere existence of Pym Particles proves it can be accomplished as long as a stable means of replicating them can be found.

That also connects Quantumania's gag with the pizza to something much darker. Kang the Conqueror is an object demonstration of how technology intended for good purposes can go wrong. His variant, He Who Remains, explained as much in Loki Season 1, Episode 6, "For All Time. Always." which is partly why the instantly outclassed Scott Lang was selected to be the hero here. Advanced technology used frivolously -- say, to make a small pizza big -- is a ready way of pointing out how easily good intentions can go wrong.

Mostly, it serves as a joke, along with a fun bit of character-building that cements Scott's credentials as the MCU's ordinary joe. But the extrapolation that goes along with it is a big part of what makes the MCU something special, as filmmakers regularly take its fantastic concepts to logical (and sometimes absurd) extremes. The pizza gag points out just how much technology like Pym Particles can change the world, as well as quietly punctuating the tragedy of misuse when something goes wrong.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania opens in theaters everywhere on Feb. 17.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the upcoming third installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe's Ant-Man franchise. The film is set to explore the concept of Pym particles, which are a fictional substance that allows the user to shrink or grow in size.

The most practical use of Pym particles in the film appears to be in the realm of transportation. In the previous Ant-Man films, we have seen the characters use Pym particles to shrink down to the size of an ant and infiltrate tight spaces or escape from dangerous situations. This ability to shrink down to a tiny size makes Pym particles a valuable tool for espionage and infiltration.

Another practical use of Pym particles is in the field of construction. By shrinking down to a small size, construction crews could easily access tight spaces and work on building and infrastructure projects that would otherwise be impossible to reach. This would greatly increase efficiency and safety in construction projects.

In addition, Pym particles could also be used in the field of medicine. By shrinking down to a small size, doctors and surgeons could easily access and operate on difficult-to-reach areas of the body, potentially revolutionizing modern medicine.

Another potential use of Pym particles is in the field of space exploration. By shrinking down to a small size, spacecraft and their crews could easily navigate through tight spaces and reach areas of the universe that would otherwise be impossible to access.

In Quantumania, the new villain Kang the Conqueror, also uses Pym Particles for time travel, which is another practical application of Pym Particles.

Overall, the Ant-Man franchise has shown that Pym particles have a wide range of potential uses, from espionage and infiltration to construction and medicine. The possibilities are endless, and it will be exciting to see how the characters in Quantumania utilize the technology in new and creative ways.

It is worth to mention that Pym Particles are still fictional, and as such, we cannot know for sure what kind of practical uses they could have, but it serves as a fun and creative way to explore the possibilities of science and technology in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.