Thread:Marvelus/@comment-27496405-20190519011243/@comment-26838855-20190611002353

Ant-Man and the Wasp: The Heroes' Journey notes.


 * "Chapter One": Scott talks to Cassie and thinks about his house arrest.
 * p1 - Cassie is said to be a "ten-year-old", so between July 2017 and Ant-Man and the Wasp.
 * p1 - Cassie is said to be a "ten-year-old".
 * p3 - Scott and Maggie's divorce was "a few years back".
 * p3 - "Now Cassie lived with her mom and stepdad full time, and she visited Scott on weekends." This cements the implication from Ant-Man and the Wasp and makes this a weekend.
 * p4 - Scott had an incident "about a week or so after he was first placed under house arrest" where he forgot about his ankle monitor and stepped out to get the newspaper, then was swarmed by agents when the monitor went off.
 * "Chapter Two": Scott reminisces about Luis telling the art gallery story. He talks to Cassie about Hawkeye, recalling Barton picking him up and taking him to Germany, and how he had worried about Hank and Hope but ultimately decided, poorly, that he didn't have to contact them.
 * p6 - When Luis told Scott the art gallery story, Scott "had just defeated a guy named Darren Cross, saved Cassie, and turned an ant into the size of a large dog". It should really be 4 months later, but there's definitely wiggle room there.
 * Flashback: p6 - Scott recalls Luis telling him the story about the writer and Sam.
 * p7 - In a quote from Ant-Man, it is said that Ignacio met the writer woman at the Spot the night before the art gallery.
 * p9 - Somewhat of a bridging of the gap between Ant-Man and Captain America: Civil War: "Once Scott knew that the Avengers were looking for him, it was only a matter of time before he was tracked down by one of their number - Clint Barton."
 * p9 - Scott recalls how Hawkeye had shown up on his doorstep to take him during Captain America: Civil War.
 * p9 - ""But me? Really?" Scott had asked. "What about Hulk or one of those guys? Wouldn't Captain America want a really strong guy?" Barton had shrugged his shoulders." Bit of a weird moment considering it's supposed to be during Captain America: Civil War but I guess Hulk just doesn't know and Clint is shrugging his shoulders more just about the general "really strong guy" comment.
 * Flashback: p10 - Scott recalls meeting Steve at the airport. Weirdly, Wanda is described as having red hair.
 * p11 - Captain America "had been frozen for seventy years".
 * In a quote from Captain America: Civil War, Tic-Tacs exist in the MCU.
 * Flashback: p11 - Scott recalls that right after meeting Steve, he was nervous about Hank and Hope, but ultimately decided not to worry.
 * "Chapter Three": Hope finds herself tired of spending so much time with Hank. She recalls her lonely childhood when Hank retreated after Janet's "death". She is annoyed at Scott that because of him, they are now criminals.
 * p17 - Hank became Ant-Man and started being away for longer and longer stretches of time, then eventually Janet convinced him she should join and they made the Wasp suit.
 * "Chapter Four": Cassie interrupts Scott telling the Germany story to ask for his story of becoming Ant-Man. He recalls stealing the Ant-Man suit and his first time using it in the bath.
 * Robin Hood stories.
 * p22 - "Scott had been sent to San Quentin for three years".
 * p24 - Talking about Baskin-Robbins (although they don't name it due to there being no product tie-in here, to the point where it slightly ridiculously says, "As Luis told him, Ice cream always finds out"), "The shop had been a brief reprieve in an otherwise unemployed first few months back out on the job scene." This would perhaps imply a few months between his release and the Baskin-Robbins job, but due to WHiH it can't be. However, the line leaves room for him to have continued to try to get a job after the main events of Ant-Man for further months and found nothing.
 * Flashback: p24 - Scott recalls stealing the suit.
 * Flashback: p26 - Scott recalls the bath trial.
 * "Chapter Five": Jimmy Woo calls for a daily check-in. Scott thinks about how he hadn't realised the consequences of his actions when he went to Germany. Woo hangs up and Cassie asks about him fighting superheroes.
 * p28 - Jimmy Woo does a "daily check-in", so every day - but sometimes just by phone.
 * p29 - "Scott had been allowed to return to the United States and serve a two-year sentence under house arrest."
 * "Chapter Six": Hope hits a practice dummy in frustration. She recalls finding out about her mother, then working on the Quantum Tunnel until Scott messed up.
 * Flashback: p35 - Hope recalls finding out the truth about her mother.
 * p36 - In a quote from Ant-Man, it is said that Janet's disappearance was 1987.
 * p37 - In a quote from Ant-Man, it is said that Hank spent the next 10 years researching the Quantum Realm.
 * p38 - "After the Yellowjacket affair, Hank and Hope devoted themselves to finding a way to reach the Quantum Realm and return alive - and with Janet in tow. They worked quietly, under the radar, using Hank's resources to fund the project. Based on what they had learned from Scott, they are making progress. They were maybe less than a year away from perfecting the Quantum Tunnel, as Hank had christened it. In less than a year, they would have a way to explore the Quantum Realm safely, to try to find Hope's mother and bring her home. Until Scott ruined everything." This means the opening scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp with Hank and Hope is likely shortly after "It's about damn time", maybe a week or so once Hank has had some time to think.
 * "Chapter Seven": Hope remembers the day of the airport, how annoyed Scott made her, and how Hank had taken them on the run quickly.
 * p41 - "While she and Hank had been toiling in his basement laboratory, trying to perfect the tech needed to make the Quantum Tunnel a reality, Scott had slunk off to Germany without anyone knowing."
 * p41 - "Like almost everyone else on the planet, she and Hank had found out about it on the news."
 * p42 - "In the time since the Yellowjacket affair, Hank had been conducting some research alongside Scott. And one of the things they had discovered was that if a person could use the Pym Particles to shrink and return to their normal size, then they could also use them to grow taller."
 * Flashback: p43 - After the airport fight, Hope and Hank find out from an old S.H.I.E.L.D. contact that authorities are already on the way. They shrink things down and Hank reveals he had prepared the lab for an event like this.
 * p45 - The Raft is "somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean", which affects the timings of Captain America: Civil War.
 * "Chapter Eight": Scott and Cassie play Connect 4. Cassie asks Scott why ants in particular, and Scott discusses with her how they are strong and work together well. Scott thinks about when he learned to communicate with the ants. Luis enters and says they have an urgent business problem.
 * p46 - Connect 4.
 * Flashback: p48 - Scott learns to communicate with the ants and spin a coin.
 * "Chapter Nine": Luis tells one of his fast stories: this time about how his friend Floyd's brother Lester knows a guy who's working for a guy who needs some security because he's doing business with some shady types, whose name is not allowed to be given, but is working with some people who used to work for an old big tech company, who sounds like Pym Technologies. He says that the guy everyone's working for is called "Sonny", no surname.
 * p54 - After Scott got home following Germany, he considered calling Hope but was scared and didn't, but knows he disappointed her.
 * p54 - Catch-22.
 * Scott finding out that Hank and Hope might be working with a man called Sonny doesn't really fit with Ant-Man and the Wasp, when Scott has to ask Hank who Sonny is. However, he doesn't know what Sonny looks like so in the film it would still make sense that he asks who the man is. It's just a bit odd that he doesn't respond that he heard about him, but I guess he's feeling generally very guilty and doesn't want to object.
 * "Chapter Ten": Hope gets a new part from Sonny Burch in a grubby diner (he doesn't address her as Hope, we know he doesn't until Ant-Man and the Wasp because she still thinks he doesn't know who she is). She is assertive to make sure the deal is done fairly and he doesn't cheat them, but is worried about people in the diner potentially listening in.
 * p58 - Hank and Sonny "had crossed paths during Hank's S.H.I.E.L.D. days".
 * p59 - S.H.I.E.L.D. "had fought against [Hydra] for years". Not sure what point that fighting is supposed to have begun - the 1940s or 2014. But it works either way.
 * "Chapter Eleven": Scott and Cassie build a blanket fort. Scott's ankle monitor spontaneously goes off and he accidentally destroys the fort. Scott dashes to get to his phone and let the FBI know he hasn't done anything. Luis interrupts him and says they need to do a presentation. Before Scott can get to his phone, Jimmy Woo arrives at the door.
 * "Chapter Twelve": Jimmy Woo visits, but tells Scott he has done nothing wrong. They replace his ankle monitor, but Scott realises Jimmy is clearly suspicious that he's been in contact with Hank and Hope and checking if anything's happened.
 * "Chapter Thirteen": Cassie says that she wants to be like Ant-Man when she grows up, but when Scott says to keep that secret, she says her other wish is to run an ice cream store. Scott calls Sam Wilson (who is on the run), asking for information about a man called "Sonny".
 * p79 - Sonny "had contact with a couple of people from Pym Technologies in the last couple weeks".
 * "Chapter Fourteen": Hank and Hope work on the Quantum Tunnel. Hank can't even think about the possibility that they don't find Janet. Hope walks out onto the beach they've set up on and thinks, feeling she might actually miss Scott.
 * p83 - It has been "at least six hours" since Hope returned from her meeting with Sonny, it's the same day.
 * p83 - "Hope and Hank had been working on the Quantum Tunnel for at least six hours since she returned from her meeting with Sonny Burch.
 * p84 - The diner was "earlier that day".
 * "Chapter Fifteen": Luis and Cassie ask about Falcon. Scott recalls meeting him.
 * Flashback: p87 - Scott arrives at Howard Stark's old warehouse and finds it's now the New Avengers Facility. He meets Falcon.
 * "Chapter Sixteen": Scott recalls his fight with Falcon.
 * Flashback: p92 - Scott fights Falcon at the New Avengers Facility.
 * "Chapter Seventeen": Hope is approached by a man on the beach. He addresses her as Hope and she realises something is wrong and tackles him. He explains he was in the diner earlier, and she recognises him. He says he can help them and is from a group of Hank's old friends, not S.H.I.E.L.D., but Hope is terrified that they've been sloppy and knocks him out and runs.
 * "Chapter Eighteen": Hope tells Hank they need to go. They pack up fast and shrink the lab, but as they rush to leave, they find the man back up and with a weapon. They regrow the lab, taking him by surprise, and take him down. As they get away, his weapon goes off with some sort of electricity beam.
 * p102 - They obtained the vial from Sonny "earlier that day".
 * "Chapter Nineteen": Sam gets back to Scott to let him know that the man he's looking for is Sonny Burch, and that he's dangerous. Luis plays hide and seek with Cassie, and Scott considers putting on the Ant-Man suit to try to help Hank and Hope out. He retrieves the World's Greatest Grandma trophy, but comes across Cassie as she hides and changes his mind, putting the suit back in the base.
 * OK, this is a problem. Scott now knows Sonny's surname, yet in Ant-Man and the Wasp he asks "Who's Burch?" when "Burch" is mentioned by Hank and Hope. I guess you can assume he's just caught up in the moment and not thinking straight, or he's asking to check what's happening in hopes that they won't confirm his fears. That would also fit in with him then later asking who the man is that Hope is talking to - he's worried it's Sonny Burch.
 * "Chapter Twenty": Maggie picks up Cassie. Once they've gone, Scott calls Jimmy Woo to let them know about Sonny Burch, hoping that the FBI will stop him, therefore helping Hank and Hope get out of danger.
 * Maggie picking up Cassie should make it Sunday.
 * p114 - It's afternoon.
 * p115 - Scott will see Cassie again "next weekend".
 * p115 - Woo mentions Scott has now contacted him three times today.
 * "Chapter Twenty-One": Hope drives her and Hank away. She says they might need help, and cautiously mentions Scott, but Hank immediately refuses. Hope recalls first meeting Scott. She snaps back to attention and Hank has fallen asleep.
 * p119 - They've been "on the road for hours". Everything so far all takes place on 1 day, Sunday.
 * p119 - They've been "on the road for hours".
 * Flashback: p121 - Hope meets Scott when he wakes on the bed surrounded by ants. She then went downstairs and Scott got down soon after.
 * p124 - It's dark.
 * "Chapter Twenty-Two": Scott wakes from a dream that he can't remember strongly, but reminded him of the Quantum Realm, and he thinks there might have been a voice. He considers phoning Hank and Hope, but realises he needs someone to dissuade him. He calls Maggie and she manages to talk him down, but says he will do the right thing. He goes to sleep again and wakes up this time sure that he hadn't had just a dream, having had the same feeling as if he had actually been in the Quantum Realm. He wonders how long he can putt off making the call.
 * I've gone into more detail here than other chapters because it's important for how it fits with Ant-Man and the Wasp. In Ant-Man and the Wasp they say that they activated the Quantum Tunnel for the first time and then 5 minutes later Scott called, and they think that opening the Tunnel triggered the message in his head. But here he's having a dream before they've finished the Tunnel. However, it's not as clear or strong, so perhaps it's just the alignment of the Quantum Realm that Janet talks about in the film is meaning the link is becoming stronger, and then they open the Tunnel and he later has the much clearer dream.
 * p129 - By the end, the sun is coming up, so it should be Monday now.
 * "Chapter Twenty-Three": Scott thinks about whether to contact them. He eventually decides to call. Hope, meanwhile, is tired of driving. Hank looks at his phone and sees who is calling. Scott wonders if that was the smartest thing or the dumbest thing he could have done.
 * p131 - "It had been a long night, and Hope was tired of driving. She was tired of running. Just plain tired. Of everything." This implies it's the same night, but not necessarily.
 * There is the possibility of a break in time between Chapter Twenty-Two and Chapter Twenty-Three, and this is just essentially an adaptation of the scene of Scott deciding to call them in Ant-Man and the Wasp, a week after the rest of the book. The quote about Hope mentioned above could just mean that this is another night of driving, it doesn't have to refer to the same night. We know Scott called 5 minutes after they tried the Quantum Tunnel and it stopped working, but maybe they've just got back into the van after it failed, to start driving again.
 * "Epilogue": Sitting at a table, Hank plays Hope the voicemail. Hope realises this is the beginning of something.
 * It would've worked for this to be between Scott calling them and Hope sedating him in Ant-Man and the Wasp, but the message doesn't line up enough:

Ant-Man and the Wasp: The Heroes' Journey

Hey Hank... it's been a while. Not sure if this number even works anymore. And I know you probably don't want to hear from me anyway, but... Well, I just had a really weird dream. I guess that's not an emergency, except it felt very real. I was back in the Quantum Realm. And... I think I saw your wife. And there was a little girl. I'm pretty sure it was Hope. Your wife's very pretty, by the way, great hands. Okay, hearing this out loud, definitely not an emergency, sorry I bothered you. I'm sorry for a lot of things.

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Hey, Hank... it's been a while. Umm... I don't even know if this is your number... anymore. And I'm, I'm probably the last person you wanna hear from, but... I just had a really weird dream. And I know that doesn't sound like an emergency or anything, but it just felt... very real. I was back in the Quantum Realm. And... I think I saw your wife. And then I was your wife. I mean not, yanno, not in a weird way, or... anything. You know... hearing this out loud, I'm thinking, err, it's not an emergency, I'm sorry to bother you. I'm sorry for a lot of things.


 * They're too different to find a way to make them be the same message, but pretty similar which makes it tough to believe that they're two distinct messages some time apart. I'm willing to believe, however, that Scott had these first two unclear dreams as the Quantum Realm lined up, and braved calling them - allowing it to be the same morning as Chapter Twenty-Two which does feel more natural and no assumptions need to be made about having not just been driving and instead opening the Quantum Tunnel - then a week later, when he has the more explicit dream, he calls again because this was a stronger vision so he believes it's worth trying again (only to again feel like he's just being annoying), wording it similarly as he thinks the last message didn't get through. Hank and Hope don't follow up on the first message because they think it probably means nothing, it just makes them start to think about potentially reaching out to him - then when he calls 5 minutes after they open the Quantum Tunnel, it gives them reason to believe this is really something. Honestly, with the Sonny thing and this, I would be on the cusp of saying it contradicts canon. I imagine that just like the novelisations, it was based off the original script and so just doesn't quite align with the final shooting script. But the front specifically says "ROAD TO ANT-MAN AND THE WASP", the back specifically says "READ THE NEW ORIGINAL STORY THAT KICKS OFF: ANT-MAN AND THE WASP", and things like the World's Greatest Grandma trophy and the preparing a presentation for potential buyers, as well as the numerous callbacks to so much MCU canon and lining up in most regards and the fact it was promoted alongside the film as a new original story to be read before the film - with the official logo and licensing and everything - it really feels like it should be hard to throw out. I think it's just enough to keep it in.
 * The fact that Scott's dreams are starting, that they're starting to prepare the presentation for Karapetyan (though the company isn't named), and that the back says "READ THE NEW ORIGINAL STORY THAT KICKS OFF: ANT-MAN AND THE WASP", makes it definitely feel to me like this can be placed on the Sunday and Monday prior to Ant-Man and the Wasp.

So, Sunday and Monday the week before the film, and I also need to move that opening scene of Ant-Man and the Wasp to August 11, 2015. Will write the events of the book onto the 2018 page soon-ish.