# Surviving the Quantum realm (Ant man and the Wasp) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 26, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880 "2019-09-26T21:54:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/1 "2019-09-26T21:54:16Z")
Got around to finally watching AM&tW. Was it ever explained, or even hinted at, how Janet survives 30 years without eating, drinking or breathing? Yes, of course, you can just add “quantum” to the beginning of a word and it explains everything. 🙂 But is there an explanation? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/2 "2019-09-26T22:11:48Z")
Nope. Comic Book Physics (and Biology). 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/3 "2019-09-26T22:12:58Z")
According to the director, [there’s food down there](http://collider.com/ant-man-and-the-wasp-quantum-realm-explained-peyton-reed/). > [@director Peyton Reed](#): > > There’s definitely a specific backstory to what Janet Van Dyne has been doing the past thirty years… There’s some great food down there, guys. The food scene in the Quantum Realm is not to be believed (laughs). For the breathing, Janet makes the point that her time down there has not just been adaptation. It’s also been evolution, and maybe she’s evolved as a being. So when she’s first down there, it’s easy to imagine she survived from her suit, but perhaps things have happened from her time down there where she’s adapted and possibly even evolved. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/4 "2019-09-26T22:14:35Z")
Well, in _Avengers: Endgame_, we are told that time moves differently in the quantum realm. 5 years pass on Earth, but he only experiences a few hours. Their later time-travel jaunts kind of imply that you can tinker with the timeflow. My personal opinion is that Janet spent 30 years helping the Micronauts fight Baron Karza. But Marvel no longer owns the rights to those characters, so they are not allowed to show it. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/5 "2019-09-26T22:32:22Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Got around to finally watching AM&tW. > > Was it ever explained, or even hinted at, how Janet survives 30 years without eating, drinking or breathing? Yes, of course, you can just add “quantum” to the beginning of a word and it explains everything. 🙂 > > But is there an explanation? Not an explicit one, but if you pay attention to the background imagery while they’re in the quantum realm, there’s [what appears to be a domed city in one shot.](https://i.redd.it/zrh25o1oewq11.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2019, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/6 "2019-09-26T23:23:49Z")
> [@Miller](#): > > Not an explicit one, but if you pay attention to the background imagery while they’re in the quantum realm, there’s [what appears to be a domed city in one shot.](https://i.redd.it/zrh25o1oewq11.jpg) Veddy intaresting! > [@mbh](#): > > Well, in _Avengers: Endgame_, we are told that time moves differently in the quantum realm. 5 years pass on Earth, but he only experiences a few hours. Their later time-travel jaunts kind of imply that you can tinker with the timeflow. > > My personal opinion is that Janet spent 30 years helping the Micronauts fight Baron Karza. But Marvel no longer owns the rights to those characters, so they are not allowed to show it. Can’t say time runs at a different rate. because she is 30 years older. As for your other point, she has that spear thing and a jaunty cape covering, so she must have been doing something in all that time rather than just waiting. I guess she was breathing quantum air, and drinking quantum water. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/7 "2019-09-27T00:54:03Z")
If you’re going to get into that, then how does “pulling time through Scott” to turn him into an old man or a baby not starve him, too? Really, for the Ant-Man movies, you have to just accept that they work using cartoon physics, and not ask such questions. And the overall tone and visuals of the two Ant-Man movies were silly enough that that worked (I think that they even deliberately made the special effects a little bit crude, to contribute to the cartoony feel). But then they made the same nonsensical science critical to _Avengers: Endgame_, except that it was not at all a silly movie, and so it didn’t work at all. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/8 "2019-09-27T01:51:19Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > If you’re going to get into that, then how does “pulling time through Scott” to turn him into an old man or a baby not starve him, too? > > Really, for the Ant-Man movies, you have to just accept that they work using cartoon physics, and not ask such questions. And the overall tone and visuals of the two Ant-Man movies were silly enough that that worked (I think that they even deliberately made the special effects a little bit crude, to contribute to the cartoony feel). But then they made the same nonsensical science critical to _Avengers: Endgame_, except that it was not at all a silly movie, and so it didn’t work at all. I don’t mind cartoon physics in general. Doubletalk field generators and applied encarbulation are fine if they at least make an effort. But shrinking someone below the size of a quark, let alone an oxygen molecule, and no mention of how they are breathing? please! My opinion is that the Antman movies are created for pre teens. There’s less violence, more humor, more emphasis on family. The stories are simpler (but still clever!). ---
**Author:** ![AlsoNamedBort](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alsonamedbort/32/3213_2.png) [@AlsoNamedBort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AlsoNamedBort)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/9 "2019-09-27T14:37:14Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > My opinion is that the Antman movies are created for pre teens. There’s less violence, more humor, more emphasis on family. The stories are simpler (but still clever!). If anything, I think of them for an older crowd. I appreciate Ant-Man a lot more now that I’m a dad. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/10 "2019-09-27T17:55:52Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > But then they made the same nonsensical science critical to _Avengers: Endgame_, except that it was not at all a silly movie, and so it didn’t work at all. Once you have the Hulk in a film, it’s all silly science. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 8:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/11 "2019-09-27T20:14:13Z")
Actually, they’ve (mostly) been doing a pretty good job on the science (even as they casually shove it into the background). ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2019, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/12 "2019-09-27T20:19:58Z")
Saying Endgame didn’t work at all is a bit of an outlier opinion. ---
**Author:** ![Grestarian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grestarian/32/3227_2.png) [@Grestarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grestarian)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2019, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/surviving-the-quantum-realm-ant-man-and-the-wasp/840880/13 "2019-09-28T00:26:24Z")
Yeah, and I think they were somewhat clever in saying, “Y’know, all the time-travel stuff from other time-travel movies is really not the way things work.” and yet they still don’t go too deep into the details of how it really works. The discussion between Hulk/Banner and Sorcerer Supreme was coarse enough for us to get an idea of the basic difficulties and caveats, but still didn’t get deep into the supertechnicalifragilisticities. The mere fact that the Avengers’ engineering department was playing with invent-in-an-instant nano-tech armor for himself and the kid from Brooklyn gave us the leverage to just assume he could also slow down a bit and engineer controlled entry/exit from the Quantum Realm as well as carefully manipulate time-travel, as well. –G!