Ant-Man Trailer Detailed Analysis

The first teaser trailer for Marvel's Ant-Man launched tonight with the series premiere of Marvel's Agent Carter on ABC.

Very much like the previous, 15-second tease, much was left un-answered.We did get to see some fairly tantalizing stuff, though, and some things that might actually have told us more than we'd think at first glance.

Like what? Read on...

The trailer begins with Scott Lang being apprehended by the police. He's apparently been caught red-handed, but there's a voiceover from Hank Pym, telling him that he's been watching Lang for a long time.

This certainly appears true; when we finally see Pym later, the voiceover is being communicated to Lang from a jail or prison; we also see him watching what appears to be multiple angles of Lang's apprehension on security cameras.

What does that mean? Well, it might suggest that Lang has broken into Pym's company. It would explain not only why Pym has access to multiple angles of the arrest but also why he has the juice to get Lang out of custody (which we're assuming is what he means by the second chance thing).

Virtually every rumor about this film's plot has revolved around Pym being the target of a hostile takeover by Yellowjacket. If Lang managed to get all the way inside, get what he wanted and only be caught on his way out? Well, that seems like a perfect guy to get to steal the Ant-Man suit, doesn't it? Because on the way out, nobody would be able to see you as long as you're wearing it.

That's a good deal of speculation, but...well, it kind of makes sense.

In any event, Pym tells Lang not to let anyone tell him that he doesn't have anything to offer, and that "second chances don't come around all that often; I suggest you take a really close look at it."

This is, of course, the first real look we've gotten at Pym yet. We'd seen the shot of him from behind in the teaser for the teaser, and we'd seen on-set photos of Douglas in the shirt, vest and tie...but here's our Hank Pym, folks.

Next, we cut to Pym in his lab. It's not entirely clear whether this is supposed to be in a flashback or not; he's not noticeably younger, but the sepia quality of the image would be strange if it wasn't a flashback or fantasy of some kind.

Certainly the lab here, as we noted when we got our first glimpse of it earlier this week, looks very analog to be something at a high-tech company. Our guess is that this is his old lab, or his home lab, or someplace he goes to work when he's not on the clock.

Hank opines that this is Lang's chance to earn his daughter's respect and admiration, and to be the hero she already believes him to be. We see his very young daughter, Cassie Lang, who in the comics was a superhero in her own right for a while.

We also get a glimpse at what could prove to be another fairly interesting family dynamic: It looks like Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne's daughter Hope is standing with Darren Cross.

Here are a pair of images:

Here are two images from the trailer. It certainly looks like the same group of people. Why Hope (she's pretty recognizable as that haircut affects her profile even at a distance) isn't with Cross in the bottom shot isn't clear, but from the top image, it certainly appears that she'll be standing with him, at least at some point in the film. Whether she turns out to be the Red Queen or not isn't yet clear...but it's certainly hard to ignore the possibility.

Whatever's going on, though, Pym is still thinking about her, telling Lang that "it's not about saving our world; it's about saving theirs," presumably talking about Hope and Cassie (pairing the father-daughter relationships with the mentor and mentee makes sense, anyway).

Of course, as he's saying that, we see that Cross is making his entry into what looks like the same area Hope was previously walking in/around/past...and it looks like not the place you want the villain to be.

After a fairly reserved "huh" at the revelation that Pym wants him "to be the Ant-Man," we see our first hero shot of Lang in costume.

That's followed more or less immediately by his first use of the powers, which seems to make him vanish from sight, rather than the more gradual shrinking we've seen from characters who do size-changing in animation or even in other live-action movies for the most part.

They also manage to use the weathered, old look of the place to its fullest advantage by showing the cracked-up concrete floor to give a sense of perspective for Lang's size.

There are quick shots of a Pym security guard with an automatic rifle and a police cruiser flying around a corner with its lights on. Then we get Ant-Man, seemingly inside Pym (note the blue lighting and texturing), apparently summoning a flying ant (since it plunks down right in front of him).

We get a brief close-up of Ant-Man in the  mask, and then a look at the prison fight that we saw in the 15-second teaser (it's Ant-Man and an unidentified second prisoner, surrounded by other prisoners, but like the security guard and cop car it seems redundant to post a screenshot).

...And, yes, confirmation that the cops are descending on Pym's company at some point in the film.

...It is a "heist movie," after all. 

And another quick shot of Ant-Man in costume, sans helmet, apparently ready to either say good-bye to Cassie before he goes on his big mission or to greet her after it's done.

On what's presumably the other side of a size change, we see Ant-Man tossing a security guard through a safety glass partition inside of Pym.

We also get confirmation that Paul Rudd sure did work out for this role...

...and that at some point or another, Hope Van Dyne is training with him (that's his ass she was kicking in the 15-second teaser). So...she betrays either the good guys or the bad guys at some point, unless she was far more aggressively following Cross than it looked from her stride.

(Again, there, we get an old, rickety training site. Did they borrow that from Rocky IV? We're guessing this is the same place that has the low-fi lab for Hank to work in.)

We get a glimpse of what's either a SWAT team or some kind of response team of soldiers or mercenaries at some kind of facility. Does it belong to Cross? Unless he's specifically a weapons manufacturer it seems unlikely, but the logo bearing two guns with their butts crossed and a big C on top seems like maybe.

Cross makes the "heist-movie-villain-so-angry-he's-been-robbed" face.

Hope brings a gun to work.

Ant-Man is running through Pym's old house, then a second later he's standing somewhere else bathed in red light. It looks high tech, but it's hard to tell  whether that's actually the case or it's just the lens flares in the shot.

It certainly appears to be during the heist, though, as a second later we see him jump on the back of a flying ant.

Then we return to Pym's observation room -- apparently at his home, or some secondary office, not at the "main" campus, since it does look fairly low-fi by comparison to what we see throughout the ad at Pym and since they seem to be discussing the mission here, which likely involves invading the company.

Here, we get our little bit of a comedic break, along with the reminder that in fact while the shot had wandered away to the rest of the characters and settings, the whole trailer had been framed with this conversation between the two alone in a room.

This movie, from what we can tell, looks fairly insular. No sign of S.H.I.E.L.D. or Stark or anything we know from previous Avengers adventures. Of course, they could be holding that off for later.