Ill Bet You Missed the Animal House Easter Egg in This MCU Movie

The Big Picture

• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania connects to Animal House through a recycled audio clip, hinting at the confusing quantum dynamics.
• The film takes place almost entirely in the Quantum Realm, creating a psychedelic and unique world within the MCU.
• Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could have benefited from incorporating some of Animal House 's goofier humor, as it took a darker direction than previous installments.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe is now in the completely unexpected position of being an “underdog,” a fact that seems completely shocking when considering that it was only five years prior when Avengers: Endgame briefly became the highest grossing film of-all time. The fourth phase of the franchise, which was the first to take place within the “Multiverse saga,” was met with far less enthusiastic responses than any of its predecessors. Although Ant-Man: and the Wasp: Quantumania hoped to kickstart interest in the MCU through the reintroduction of Kang (Jonathan Majors) after his scene-stealing role in Loki, the film became a massive critical and financial disappointment for Marvel Studios. Given that the film was essential within debates over whether “superhero fatigue” was a real thing, it may have been easy to overlook the reference to Animal House that is included early on in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Loosely based on the real experiences that National Lampoon writers Harold Ramis and Chris Miller had while they were in college, Animal House is regarded as one of the most influential comedies of the 1970s. Set in the fictional Faber College, Animal House follows the freshman Larry "Pinto" Kroger (Tom Hulce) and Kent Dorfman (Stephen Furst) as they attempt to gain admittance to the wild Delta Tau Chi fraternity, which consists of many wacky members that attempt to cause chaos on campus. With its overt sexuality, comic mayhem, and frequent drug content, Animal House laid the groundwork for an entirely new generation of R-Rated comedies. Even if they seemed geared at completely different audiences from wildly distinct generations, a recycled audio clip from Animal House helps explain one of the most confusing aspects of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Ant-Man & the Wasp: Quantumania

Scott Lang and Hope Van Dyne are dragged into the Quantum Realm, along with Hope's parents and Scott's daughter Cassie. Together they must find a way to escape, but what secrets is Hope's mother hiding? And who is the mysterious Kang?

How Does 'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' Connect to 'Animal House'?

While the previous two entries in the Ant-Man series had gone to the subatomic side of the MCU, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania was the first film in the series that took place almost entirely within the Quantum Realm. After learning that his mother-in-law, Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), has been attempting to bridge a connection to the Quantum Realm, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) decides to help her with her experiment. Unfortunately, the test goes awry, leading Scott, his girlfriend Hope (Evangeline Lily), his daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton), Janet, and her husband Hank (Michael Douglas) into the Quantum Realm, which is under Kang’s strict control. After meeting some of the native inhabitants, the Lang and Pym families discover that Kang is intent on spreading his control across all levels of the multiverse.

Although it initially seemed that Kang was being set up to be the next “big bad” of the MCU as the franchise lacked a consistent antagonist in the aftermath of Thanos' (Josh Brolin) death in Avengers: Endgame, a lot of the quantum dynamics in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania got very confusing, even for comic book buffs. In order to explain the Quantum Realm’s scope when compared to the “normal” scenes on Earth, director Peyton Reed included a brief audio clip from Animal House. The clip is taken from a scene in which Boon (Peter Riegert), Katy (Karen Allen), and Pinto are all smoking marijuana with their professor, Dave Jennings (Donald Sutherland).

The Animal House scene features Pinto’s hilarious conversations after smoking for the first time. Unaware of the effects that the drug has on him, Pinto begins engaging in deep conversations about the possibility of an entire universe existing in his thumb. Ironically, these are the actual stakes of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Even though it's one of the more action-packed installments in the MCU thus far, all of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania takes place in a small dimension that’s almost completely removed from the rest of the universe.

‘Quantumania’ Is the Most Psychedelic Installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe

Although a family-friendly Marvel film produced by Walt Disney Studios is unlikely to include any direct references to marijuana, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is certainly the trippiest film in the MCU thus far. Reed was able to create an entirely unique world within the Quantum Realm, with bizarre visuals that evoke comparison with the classic adventure stories of Jules Verne. Narratively, it's also one of the blandest MCU films thus far, but Reed does deserve credit for incorporating some psychedelic imagery into the film’s aesthetic.

While the inclusion of the Animal House clip suggests that Reed is aware of how inherently confusing the film’s premise is, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania suffers from an overreliance on visual effects, and particularly the use of “the volume” technology. In a film that is almost entirely shot on sound stages with green screen, it’s very hard to determine how large certain locations, characters, and events are supposed to be proportioned to each other. The underwhelming response that the film received suggested that using the more simplistic logic of Animal House might have been in the film’s favor.

'Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania' Stunk — Literally!

Paul Rudd smells manure in the Quantum Realm.

‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ Could Have Been More Comedic

Perhaps the most jarring blunder within the development of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is the decision to take the series in a much darker direction than it had previously been. Both Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp were relatively small-scale heist adventure films that had very low stakes. Comparatively, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania could have used some of the goofier humor of Animal House to reflect the roots of the series.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania also wasted many talented comedic actors, as Rudd and Bill Murray in particular were best known for their comedic work before joining the MCU. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been a wild frat comedy like Animal House, but there certainly wasn’t anyone asking for a “dark and gritty” Ant-Man movie, something DC is often criticized for.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is streaming on Disney+ in the U.S.

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