Paul Rudd has had an impressive run in the MCU as Ant-Man, one which has come with countless memorable moments throughout the past seven years.
Since making his Marvel debut in 2015's Ant-Man, Rudd has had the opportunity to let his iconic brand of comedy and drama into his role as Marvel Studios' Scott Lang. And while fans still have plenty of exciting material to look forward to with Rudd's hero, namely in next year's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the character already has an extensive catalog of stories from the back half of the Infinity Saga to remember
With two Ant-Man solo movies under his belt, along with a pair of epic team-up outings in Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Endgame, Rudd has grown steadily from being an ex-con to becoming one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes. He even holds a place as the man who formulated the plan to help bring back half of all life in the universe before teaming up with the Avengers to defeat Thanos and keep his world intact.
With all that being said, The Direct now takes the opportunity to look back on 20 Ant-Man quotes that best exemplify Paul Rudd's MCU hero:
1. Scott: “I’m not going to miss my little girl’s birthday party.” (Ant-Man)
Before his place as a criminal or as a superhero, Scott Lang showed what truly meant most to him early in Ant-Man as he crashed his daughter's birthday party. He made sure to give the young Cassie Lang her birthday gift in person, and even though most found it a little creepy, the father and daughter bonded over their mutual love of everything weird.
2. Scott: “My days of breaking into places and stealing shit are done! What do you want me to do?”
Hank: “I want you to break into a place and steal some shit.” (Ant-Man)
This moment was featured heavily in the marketing campaign for Ant-Man, showing how funny Michael Douglas would be as he interacted with Paul Rudd in their roles as Hank Pym and Scott Lang. Sometimes, the best form of humor is repeating what another person said in a short timeframe with a slight variation, and these two brought just that in an otherwise soft-spoken moment.
3. Scott: “I think our first move should be calling the Avengers.” (Ant-Man)
To put this one simply, Scott Lang simply says what the entire viewing audience is thinking, especially after seeing Earth's Mightiest Heroes team up to defeat Ultron so recently before this movie in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Unfortunately, stealing a piece of tech from Hank Pym's old company might be a little bit too small-time for the Avengers, and with Pym's distrust of Tony Stark, that option was nixed almost immediately.
4. Scott: “Wait a minute, I know this guy. I’m gonna call him Ant-thony.” (Ant-Man)
In this moment, Paul Rudd continues to show just how funny he truly is by using the first of many names that include the word "ant." This also becomes even funnier when Anthony Mackie's Sam Wilson comes in later during the story, although fans have to suffer through an emotional moment when Ant-thony is shot to death during the final battle.
5. Scott Lang: “I was hoping I could grab a piece of technology. Just for a few days, I'm gonna return it. I need it to save the world. You know how that is." (Ant-Man)
Negotiating with an actual Avenger is never an easy task for a non-Avenger, even when it's in service of saving the world in the way Scott Lang hopes to do. This would also set up an entertaining relationship with Sam Wilson throughout the rest of their MCU tenure together, which will only evolve further in future movies.
6. Scott: “It’s an honor. I’m shaking your hand too long. Wow, this is awesome! Captain America. I know you too, you’re great. Jeez. Look, I wanna say, I know you know a lot of super-people so... thinks for thanking of me.” (Captain America: Civil War)
This moment is one of the most memorable in MCU history simply due to the fact that Paul Rudd wasn't necessarily acting in this scene as he worked with Chris Evans for the first time. It's hard not to get star-struck by somebody who was in the midst of a successful run playing Captain America, even for an actor as highly accomplished as Rudd was at that time.
7. Scott: “Hey, man.”
Sam Wilson: “What’s up, Tic Tac?”
Scott: “Uh, good to see you. Look, what happened last time-”
Sam Wilson: “It was a great audition, but it’ll... it’ll never happen again.” (Captain America: Civil War)
After their first meeting in Ant-Man, Scott Lang and Sam Wilson had become fairly familiar with one another, especially with Scott having bested Sam in stealing the small piece of Pym tech from the Avengers' facility. Even though they were now on the same team, Sam had to lay down the law to make sure he wouldn't have any more mishaps with the tiny Avenger.
8. Scott Lang: “I got something kinda big. But I can’t hold it very long. On my signal, run like hell. And if I tear myself in half... don’t come back for me.” (Captain America: Civil War)
While Scott had proven his worth in the battle against Team Iron Man, he would steal the show when he turned into Giant-Man after this line of dialogue. He even had his teammates quite worried about him, not having told anybody that he was about to grow to an astonishing 60 feet tall right on the airport tarmac.
9. Scott: “Oh, you’re gonna have to take this into the shop!”
Tony: “Who’s speaking?”
Scott: “It’s... your conscience. We don’t talk a lot these days.” (Captain America: Civil War)
Pulling his own brand of comedy into use against one of the MCU's top Avengers, Scott Lang sent Tony Stark into a mini frenzy when he shrunk down and started taking apart the Iron Man tech from the inside. Hearing his nod to the Disney/Pixar movie Finding Nemo was only the icing on the cake as he hilariously put Tony in a bind, even though he was literally flushed out with fire suppressant moments later.
10. Scott: “Does anyone have any orange slices?” (Captain America: Civil War)
Scott gave every bit of energy that he could when he turned into Giant-Man, but he ended up being taken down The Empire Strikes Back-style before falling on his back and shrinking down to his normal size. With orange slices being a popular choice amongst athletes in terms of recovery strategies, Scott took a page out of that playbook in hilarious fashion as he tapped out of the airport battle.
11. Scott: I do some dumb things, and the people I love the most pay the price.” (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
Even for all of his funny moments, Scott is about as normal as they come in the MCU, as shown by emotional moments like this one with his daughter, Cassie. At the end of the day, while he holds an important place as one of Earth's Mightiest Heroes, his main goal is to keep those he loves safe by any means necessary.
12. Scott: “Hold on, you gave her wings?!”
Hank: “And blasters.”
Scott: “Wings and blasters. So I take it you didn’t have that tech available for me.”
Hank: “No, I did.” (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
While Hank worked closely with Scott to further develop his Ant-Man suit, it's no shock to see him pull out all the stops for his daughter, Hope Van Dyne. Even funnier is how he admitted to purposely not putting that tech in Scott's suit, leaving the future Avenger in complete disbelief at the reveal.
13. Dr. Hank Pym: “Relax. No one’s gonna recognize us.”
Scott Lang: “What, because of hats and sunglasses? It’s not a disguise, Hank. We look like ourselves at a baseball game.” (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
In this unique moment, Scott Lang becomes the only MCU hero to call out one of the most consistent plot holes in franchise history, where heroes disguise themselves by only wearing a baseball hat and sunglasses. Nearly every Marvel hero has used this disguise through the Infinity Saga and/or the Multiverse Saga, and it would surprise nobody if it happened again in future entries.
14. Dr. Hank Pym: “You sent my suit through the MAIL?”
Scott Lang: “Hey, the postal service is very reliable, you know? They do tracking numbers now. Like UPS.” (Ant-Man and the Wasp)
To be perfectly frank, this is a fun moment purely for the prospect of seeing Michael Douglas losing his mind over his prized possession, the Ant-Man suit. And outside of a fun postal service promotion, Scott's argument with Hank continues to show how complicated their relationship is, especially after Scott's time in Germany threw a wrench into his work with Hank.
15. Scott: “Hi! Uh, is anyone home? This is Scott Lang. We met a few years ago, at the airport, in Germany? I got really big.” (Avengers: Endgame)
This moment was the most that fans saw of Scott Lang in the Avengers: Endgame marketing campaign, which was revealed to be shortly after he escaped the Quantum Realm. Thankfully, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff were beyond thrilled to see their former teammate/opponent from Captain America: Civil War, especially once he revealed the information he knew about potentially bringing everybody back to life.
16. Scott: “See, the rules of Quantum Realm aren’t like they are up here. Everything is unpredictable. Is that anybody’s sandwich? I am starving.” (Avengers: Endgame)
Having been off Earth for five years, even though it felt like five hours for him, it was no shock that Scott Lang was a little hungry after walking Captain America and Black Widow through his experience in the Quantum Realm. At least Scarlett Johansson's hero was in too much shock to object to her lunch being stolen.
17. Scott: I know you got a lot on the line. Your wife, your daughter. But I lost someone very important to me. A lot of people did and now, now... we have a chance to bring her back, bring everyone back and you’re telling me you won’t even–
Tony: “That’s right, Scott. I won’t even. I can’t.” (Avengers: Endgame)
Avengers: Endgame was full of heartfelt moments, including Scott Lang's plea to Tony Stark to help the Avengers bring half of the universe as he explained his idea for the Time Heist. Even though Tony wound up helping the team in the end, this moment showed just how tough of a decision it was to go through with the plan as Pepper and his daughter, Morgan, hung in the balance.
18. Scott Lang: “Somebody peed my pants! But I don't know if it was baby-me or old-me...or...just me-me.” (Avengers: Endgame)
To test his time travel theory, Scott Lang offered to be the guinea pig as Bruce Banner worked with the Quantum Van in order to see if his theory would work before bringing half the universe back to life. But this test only pushed Scott through time as he turned into a kid, an old man, and a baby, leading to a hilarious moment where he had to come back down to Earth after such a wild ride.
19. Scott Lang: “So, Back to the Future's a bunch of bullshit?” (Avengers: Endgame)
After teaming up with James Rhodes to name off as many time travel movies as possible, Bruce Banner confirmed that the future wouldn't change if the Avengers went back in time to change the past. And while Back to the Future certainly fits the time-travel-movie criteria, Scott had to face the fact that its rules about the subject were different than those in Avengers: Endgame.
20. Scott: “As far as I’m concerned, that’s America’s ass.” (Avengers: Endgame)
Seeing the 2012 version of Captain America was certainly an experience for Tony Stark, Scott Lang, and 2023 Cap as Tony pointed out his teammate's rear end during the Time Heist. Scott calling it "America's ass" only made for one of the most memorable moments in MCU history, especially once Cap himself agreed verbally with Ant-Man on the matter.
All four MCU movies featuring Paul Rudd as Ant-Man are available to stream on Disney+. He'll reprise the role in Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which premieres in theaters on February 17, 2023.
