Spoiler alert! This article contains spoilers to the movies „Ant-Man and the Wasp” and „Avengers: Infinity War”. If you haven’t seen these movies yet, we should warn you that within the text we reveal important issues concerning their plot. Also we refer to the leaks from the set of future productions.
Recently, I have read some opinions saying that „Ant-Man and the Wasp” gave nothing new as far as our knowledge of Quantum Realm is concerned. It is said, that it only revealed just a small part of that strange world. However, I would rather claim that such opinions result from not paying enough attention to what was going on the screen. Personally, after watching it two Times, I’m sure that the movie has revealed a lot of secrets, maybe even more than their producers would like it to… Yet, before I present my theory, let me remind you of some facts.
First of all, both Kevin Feige and Benedict Cumberbatch mentioned, that various realms shown in „Doctor Strange” will play important role in Marvel’s future shows.
Secondly, there are six Infinity Stones, which are remnants of the former world. Space Stone, which turned out to be Tesseract, Reality Stone (Aether), Mind Stone, that was once a part of Loki’s scepter, Powet Stone known as Orb (due to its container, made for safety reasons, since no human could ever survive even the smallest contact with Power Stone), Time Stone in the Eye of Agamotto and Soul Stone hidden on Vormir. Story of the Collector tells us that the Stones are just remnants of the former world, which were preserved in the new one and now are considered source of a great might. Their owner can do literally anything – the fact we actually observed in the latest „Avengers” movie.
Another important issue is the story of Doctor Strange. If we take a closer look of a sequence when our protagonist makes his first time-and-space travel with the help of Ancient One, we can notice something interesting. Some places resemble Quantum Realm.
Now let’s take a look at Quantum Realm itself. What else can we tell about it basing on the new „Ant-Man”? The place definitely has no permanent location in time in space referring to our reality. We can tell it basing on the fact that Janet van Dyne has vanished in the rocket fallen into the ocean, yet she was reachable from literally any place on Earth, providing one had coordinates. Thus, we can’t speak of neverending miniaturization, rather a quantum jump appearing in some moment.
Also the first „Avengers” movie, precisely: Tony Stark’s short text on Selvig who might have discovered the way to stabilise quantum tunnelling in the context of Tesseract, mentions quantum theory. As we have already learnt, this stone can create portals to other parts of the world.
In Quantum Realm, everything changes. Time goes differently – in some places it freezes, in the other ones stops working like in our world. We can see strange shapes, which resemble parts of something bigger and more complex, like the remnants of something which had been destroyed. The reality is completely different there, and without exact coordinates we cannot reach our destination. This, however, can also be relocated. Hence, in Quantum Realm time and space are not similar to those known from our world.
However, the most interesting things appear in two scenes. In the first one, Janet reaches Scott’s mind and in the other one, she feels Ghost’s pain and tries to help her. Are you with me yet? What if the quantum realm is actually a remnant of the past world, and the Infinity Stones work as transmitters basing on its power? As you should already notice, in quantum realm we can see all six kinds of energy that could be observed also in the Infinity Stones: Time, Space, Power (part of which has been given to Ghost), Reality (which cannot get eventually shaped; such as Aether who cannot get into the solid form) and Mind (contact with Lang) or Soul (feeling someone’s pain). Janet van Dyne spent so much time in this place that she absorbed a big portion of energy and now she is able to use it properly.
Nevertheless, why I mentioned Strange here? The reason is simple and hides in „Avengers: Infinity War”. As we know, the protagonist has analysed a lot of possible variants of the future. Only one of them results in Avengers’ success. Therefore, since he knew what was going to happen, he surely have prepared himself for it. He also knew who would play the main role in the upcoming events. The rumours are that Ant-Man will work together with Captain, Stark and some other characters, he should have returned from the Realm. All of you, who have watched the post-credits scene, know that Ant-Man took the miniaturized tunnel to quantum realm for the healing energy for Ghost. Yet, as soon as Hank and the other had to call him back, they turned into dust due to Thanos’s snap. There are two ways, there. Either Dr Strange himself manipulated with time and thus returned Ant-Man, either he left instructions to somebody else (to Ghost? Or maybe to Bill Foster?) how to make it, because he knew Ant-Man would be necessary for Stark to get interested in quantum realm. And how can we be sure that Dr Strange did anything? Movie’s producers have revealed that in the „Infinity War” one protagonist gets the most time onscreen, but the most important will be the other one…
There were rumours on the Internet, that in „Avengers 4” Stark will make his own Infinity Gauntlet. If it happens, he will need something to provide energy for the Gauntlet – which makes place for the transmitters theory. They will not necessary be Stones themselves. Inspired by Scott’s stories and supported by Hank Pym’s plans, Tony can invent his own technology to provide the energy from quantum realm and, therefore, receive the power which can theoritically turn the tide.
Here we should recall the first shoots from the set and strange equipment on characters’ hands. Were it new quantum energy transmitters? That’s what we would probably learn only from the movie.
Another important element is the scene that many of you could probably not pay much attention to, mainly: Bill Foster’s (former colleague of Hank Pym) lecture. The protagonists hear a part of it when they visit him at the University. Foster tells that quantum realm is common for various Universes. It can therefore turn out a way to alternative realities – for example the one, in which Thanos’s snap turned into dust the other half of Avengers. Then the characters from both universes can unite to defeat their opponent. There is also a chance that Quantum Realm will turn out to be the key to time-travelling. Any of these options can explain strange costumes which can be seen on the photos from „Avengers 4” set.
Foster’s lecture seems important because it can confirm that Quantum Realm is actually the source, from which our world was created. Moreover, his words mean that in the past there was one common reality, the destruction of which lead to the creation of the infinity amount of various dimensions. Quantum Energy is present more or less in any of them. The more energy they have, the more life they can produce and the more they can develop. Those of them, in which there is only a little energy, like Dormamm, need to absorb the others, more developed universes.
Who knows, maybe Quantum Realm is the explanation of many events that we’ve already observed on the screen. Doctor Strange’s travels on one hand, things like Bifrost on the other. Certainly, it enables travelling in space, but also in time, which can be observed in „Thor. Ragnarok”, when Loki and Thor leave Bifrost within a short period, yet on Sakaar there flew a lot of time between the coming of both of them.
Adam Gotan Kmieciak
Translated by Joanna Krystyna Radosz
