***Spoiler Alert: This article includes spoilers for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.***
The world as depicted by modern science presents a bit of a conundrum. At the same time that science seeks to explain away all that puzzles us about the physical world—from how the universe was created to how new diseases form to how life survives on the bottom of the ocean—it simultaneously enlarges the horizon of the unknown. Now, for instance, we believe that our bodies are made up of trillions of cells invisible to the naked eye, and within these cells are even smaller organelles, and these (and everything else in known creation) are made up of octillions of atoms that require an entirely different type of microscope to even be glimpsed. The more we learn, the more we realize we have more to learn.
The world of the unseen spiritual realm is as real and powerful as the Quantum Realm of Quantumania, and it is best to start recognizing it today.
And yet we all like to feel as though we understand the world we live in and have some sort of security and control there. Feeling secure, at least, certainly appears to be the preference of Scott Lang, a.k.a. Ant-Man. In the beginning of Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released in February, we find Scott just trying to maintain a fairly normal existence in a reality that is admittedly even more complex than ours. In a universe where thousands of other galaxies are teeming with intelligent life and alternate dimensions are available to be accessed, Scott is taking some well-earned time off from helping protect his planet Earth and is instead visiting his local coffee and ice cream shops, speaking at his local library, and eating dinner at the table with his family. Oh, and he is working hard to ignore the existence of the subatomic world of the Quantum Realm. Having already been stranded there for years, Scott would rather leave that unknown world, well, still unknown.
Try as Scott might to be satisfied with the world that he can see, his daughter, Cassie; his significant other, Hope van Dyne (a.k.a. the Wasp); and his “father-in-law” figure, Hank Pym; are not as able to leave well enough alone. While Scott has been sipping coffee and taking pictures with admirers, Cassie, Hope, and Hank have been developing a tool to send a signal down to explore the Quantum Realm. And here is a revelatory admission by Marvel Studios: even in the universe of Ant-Man, with as much discovery and adventure as has already been made and taken place, people are prone to recognize that there is always more at work than meets the eye, and we have a natural appetite (we might say God-given) to explore that which we do not yet understand. Quite unknowingly, Marvel provides us as Christians with a startling biblical parallel of the spiritual realm. Uncomfortable as it may be for us to admit it, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania reveals our culture’s continued belief that some sort of unseen world exists—and a world where changes have drastic repercussions for our own, no less.
From “Small” Beginnings
It turns out that, in Quantumania, sending a signal to a subatomic universe is actually a bad idea. There are people living in the Quantum Realm, and not all of them are friendly. In fact, a few of them have a personal vendetta against Janet van Dyne—Hope’s mother, who, like Scott, has been to the Quantum Realm before—and they all have a distrust for intruders from “above.” When Scott, Cassie, Hope, Hank, and Janet get sucked into the Quantum Realm, they discover an entire society full of people, animals, and technologies vastly different from their own. It seems that in this world, too, a war has been raging, and no one on Earth knows anything about it. Small as it may seem, Scott and family soon discover that this unknown war has the power to destroy life not only on Earth, but life in all the galaxies in all the dimensions.
Fittingly “hidden” here within the plot of Quantumania are several striking biblical parallels, perhaps the most striking of which comes in the form of Scott’s resemblance to modern Christians. Scott is reluctant even to think about the Quantum Realm—which he discovers to be a beautiful, if somewhat terrifying, world in which the people not only look different from his own, but sound different, too, speaking languages that he initially cannot understand. In many ways, Christians are similarly reluctant to acknowledge the spiritual realm in their everyday lives, the realm that Scripture tells them exists, where angelic and demonic powers are waging battles of epic proportions and where there also exist languages different from our own (1 Corinthians 13:1). Just as Scott initially chooses not to participate in the unknown battles of the Quantum Realm but instead to return to the comfort of what is familiar, we as Christians are often guilty of ignoring the repercussions that the wars of the spiritual realm have for our lives and the lives of those we love.
If the Quantum Realm is a fitting metaphor for the spiritual realm, then the main antagonist of the film—Kang, a tyrannical ruler who has conquered most of the subatomic peoples—might also be said to be very similar to Christians’ concepts of the devil. We could easily imagine his oppressed subjects echoing the derisive words of the biblical prophet referencing Satan: “How you have fallen from heaven, O Day Star, son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low!” (Isaiah 14:12). After all, we learn that Kang was originally exiled to the Quantum Realm as a punishment, banished by a group of powerful beings from “above” that were seeking to control his conquering ways. Now he searches the Quantum Realm, striving to enslave any people groups that would resist his rule and to remove any threats to his kingdom, particularly threats like Scott and family.
The “Big” Picture
According to scripture, “[W]e do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12). Perhaps we should take Quantumania, then, as a timely warning. Had Cassie, Hope, and Hank not asked questions, not acknowledged the unknown, Kang may have eventually escaped the Quantum Realm. So, too, we as Christians need to remind ourselves that the world we cannot see—the spiritual—is where our greatest battles are taking place, whether we realize it or not. To ignore the spiritual world is to ignore an enemy that is lurking around, seeking to devour us and to keep our loved ones and friends blinded to the only way, Jesus Christ, to be saved from the coming destruction (1 Peter 5:8, John 14:6).
The good news, though, is that people are ready to believe in an unseen world. The success of Marvel’s Quantumania reveals this generation’s infatuation with seeking answers to questions that our science cannot explain, try as it might. Let us allow Quantumania to shake us up from our routines of coffee and small talk. Those things are not bad of course, but there are bigger—or should we say smaller?—fish to fry. Matthew 24:38-39 reminds us that “in those days before the flood [people] were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away…” The world of the unseen spiritual realm is as real and powerful as the Quantum Realm of Quantumania, and it is best to start recognizing it today. Where Ant-Man and the Wasp have shrinking suits and ant armies, the weapons we have are scripture and prayer (Ephesians 6:17-18), and these “have divine power to destroy strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). By defeating Kang, Scott and family overcome an evil of epic proportions. Surely the family of Jesus Christ can overcome the accuser and deceiver of our brothers (Romans 8:14-15, Revelation 12:10-11). We simply need to open our eyes.
