Yesterday, Marvel premiered the first-ever trailer for Ant-Man, and today we have the breakdown. What plot details and clues did we find sifting through the tiny world of this comic book hero? Lots, plus Paul Rudd's new hero abs!
The trailer opens on a span of the Bay Bridge between Oakland and San Francisco. Oooooook.
Cut to main character Scott Lang with his hands up. Are they on this bridge?
First close-up on out hero Scott Lang (played by Paul Rudd) in the traditional "movie burglar" gear of all black and a stocking cap. Things are not going well for Scott… because he's getting arrested.
Looks like Ant-Man is going to play with the good guy gone bad, who goes back to good, movie trope. That's cool, we like a good guy with a little bad in him (see every Avenger besides Captain America).
Ah, good. This is better. Cue Hank Pym, the first Ant-Man, played by Michael Douglas. He has a voice-over that says, "Scott, I've been watching you for a while now." And if you look at the top screen in his bunker spy room, you can see someone who appears to be getting arrested. So yes, I guess Hank Pym is literally watching Scott Lang in this moment.
Pym continues with his voice-over. Here it is in full:
"Scott, I've been watching you for a while now. You're different. Now don't let anyone tell you that you have nothing to offer. Second chances don't come around all that often. I suggest you take a really close look at it. This is your chance to earn that look in your daughter's eyes. To become the hero that she already thinks you are. It's not about saving our world. It's about saving theirs. Scott. I need you to be the Ant-Man."
Scott Lang is sad, presumably because he's in prison. Or "different," like Pym's voice-over says, we don't know. There are actually a lot of Scott Lang face shots in this trailer where he looks sullen. I love some Paul Rudd face, but even this was a lot for me. A fan.
Scott Lang does the perp walk to freedom. Now, I'm thinking Lang goes to jail and is released all in the same movie, giving him time to prove that he can hold his own amongst the villains in the pen. See those sexy bandages over his eye? That's a hero's wound; he just doesn't know it yet. But also putting Lang in prison kind of proves he can kick ass (if that's what he does "inside").
More San Francisco shots. I think it's now been officially established that this Marvel movie will be set in San Fran. This is good; SF is fairly removed from the current hero mess in New York and Malibu, etc. Could be an interesting angle.
First look at Pym! Looks like he's talking to Scott Lang from inside a police office. Did Pym spring Lang on the condition that he join his one-man Ant-Man cult?
Lang continues to look pensive.
Pym's lab? This is a considerably less high-tech set up than we imagined from the inventor behind the Pym Particles and founder of Pym Technologies. Is he a crazy shut-in? Broke? Or just retired? Probably retired as that is the whole point of the movie (passing the legacy of Ant-Man down to a new person).
Cut to more Lang face and the first look at Scott Lang's daughter (don't worry there's more of her later). Looks like Phase 5 Young Avengers is already getting some groundwork.
Cut to some type of high-tech facility. Totally different from the earlier garage lab we saw Pym in. You can tell it's fancy because all the walls are glass. Fancy places are made of glass. And if you look through the glass, you can see (what I'm assuming is) Darren Cross (Corey Stoll) followed by Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Therefore, I'm inferring that this is Pym Tech, as both of these characters work there in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Pretty stark contrast to Pym's curent lab.
An exterior shot of Pym Tech!
Bad Guy Darren Cross roams the glass halls. This is the character who will eventually become Yellowjacket. But how? In our previous interview with Corey Stoll, he hinted at how Cross would become a very powerful, physical force:
"[Darren Cross] invents this suit that can do everything that the Ant-Man suit can do, plus more. It's more militaristic, it's more advanced, it's armored... and then he is Yellowjacket."
But for now he's just Darren Cross, former protégé of Pym and current runner of Pym's company.
In an interview with Clevver Movies Stoll had this to say about Cross:
"He is not a villain in the vein of Thanos or Loki, who are villains that know it. He 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."
Fancy science room? Perhaps where the people of Pym Tech go to play with Pym Particles?
First good look at Hope Van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Note the Wasp haircut.
More shots of Lang with his kid and thinking and walking and HELLO, Ant-Man suit.
First shot of Paul Rudd in the Ant-Man suit! Standing in a shower, looking a little ridic. Love it, love how low-rent this "test" run is.
Another thing I really like about the new Ant-Man suit is that you can see Lang's eyes through the helmet.
Then he miniaturizes! It's really, really fast but you can see him shrink into little versions of himself, fairly similar to the comics.
And here's Lang, tiny.
Michael Anthony Peña wearing a Pym security card, everyone.
Ant's flying that sound like helicopters when they land! Straight up the Ant world is dusty.
Another shot of Ant-Man's eyes through the helmet.
I believe this was the aforementioned prison fight I was expecting judging from his exiting prison wounds. But let's be serious: what's Paul Rudd going to do in a prison fight? Charm them to death?
A bunch of white coats fly Pym Tech while the cops surround the building.
Dream Boat.
Ant-Man throws someone through a window!
Requisite shirtless Marvel hero abs shot. Jesuuuuuus.
Also, it looks like Hope is the one who finds the wounded abs of Scott Lang, "Oh hello, this is how I normally stand with my abs."
Meanwhile Hope is kicking ass over here.
This is the only shot that totally threw me for a loop. Where is this, what's the symbol? It's a bunch of people in covert ops gear fighting between tanks? What's that obelisk in the center all about (the symbol on top kind of matches the symbol on the wall).
Darren's Mad.
A super blurred shot of Ant-Man riding his ant friend. The VFX on this movie have a long, long ways to go. So I'm assuming this is why we're only seeing quick/blurred shots of the ANt Action. However I'm liking all the blues, and I love that there are ants in it. Hell. Yes.
FLYYYYING!
And finally two Ant-Men, together.
And that's it. Honestly, I thought it would be funnier. I'm sure they're saving that stuff for down the road. I liked a lot of what I saw, but I didn't love the overall feel. Perhaps it was the music? But that being said the Ant suit looks great and Paul Rudd is the best.