Ranking all 12 Marvel Cinematic Universe films Part B: No.6 to 1

6. "Ant-Man"
Year: 2015
Director: Peyton Reed
Actors: Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Michael Pena, T.I. Harris, Hayley Atwell, Dominic Cooper, Martin Donovan

It may be the funniest film in the Marvel universe so far, a smart choice when dealing with a character and a power set as potentially silly as "Ant-Man". It's also one of the smartest thematically pieces, which is sort of remarkable considering how public the development struggles were on the film. The film deals with family, first and foremost, and how we pass things along to our children, both literally and figuratively. Corey Stoll's character struggles with his feelings about his gifted mentor, Hank Pym. Hank wrestles with the guilt of having left his daughter Hope without a mother, as well as his fears about losing Hope as well. And Scott Lang literally steps into the suit simply to be a better father. Lots of attitude and some fun puzzle piece moments make this a standout, with one of the most charming and clever third acts the company has ever produced.

5. "Avengers: Age Of Ultron"
Year: 2015
Director: Joss Whedon
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Scarlett Johansson, Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Paul Bettany, Samuel L. Jackson, Cobie Smulders, Claudia Kim, James Spader
This mega-sequel has more than its fair share of jaw-dropping moments and interesting character beats, but it also serves to highlight the cracks in the Marvel movies in some ways. While we're all excited to see where the films go in the future, the movies in the present can't feel like they're just doing legwork for something we won't see for another five years. Still, Bettany's The Vision is such a great, weird, oh-so-comic-booky addition to this universe that we ain't mad at cha, Marvel. Here's hoping the weird is coming in a big way from the studio in the next few years.

4. "Iron Man"
Year: 2008
Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Robert Downey Jr., Gywneth Paltrow, Terrance Howard, Jeff Bridges
The year 2008 was a very different time. Robert Downey Jr. was a risky prospect after a stint in rehab and Iron Man wasn't exactly a household name. In an alternate universe, "Iron Man" bombed, Downey was regulated to "Where Are They Now?" specials, and the Marvel Cinematic Universe died in infancy. Luckily for Marvel, that was not the case. Downey's believability as an aimless billionaire man-child shaken awake by tragedy still holds up as one of the best entries to the MCU six years later.

3. "Guardians of the Galaxy"
Year: 2014
Director: James Gunn
Actors: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Vin Diesel, Dave Bautista, John C. Reilly, Glenn Close, Peter Serafinowicz, Lee Pace, Djimon Hounsou, Karen Gillan, Josh Brolin
Can you believe that opening weekend? If there has ever been a reason for Marvel to celebrate, it's now. After all, they took characters who even Marvel fans thought were useless on the big screen and they managed to get them to one of the biggest opening weekends of the studio's short life. Why? Because they made the movie look like fun. People don't care if they already know the characters or not as long as you make it look like it's worth their while. One thing's for sure… people definitely know Star-Lord, Rocket, Groot, Gamora, and Drax now, and the sky's the limit for the sequel in 2017.

2. "Captain America: The Winter Soldier"
Year: 2014
Directors: Anthony Russo, Joe Russo
Stars: Chris Evans, Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Smauel L. Jackson, Robert Redford
With all the origin stories finally out of the way, "Winter Soldier" delves into the meat of the Marvel universe without preamble. A post "Avengers" the world should never be the same again as humans scramble to quantity and control the unknown, and Marvel went all in for "Winter Soldier." The move paid off in spades as audiences turned out in droves to see the blossoming friendship between two broken people (Steve and Natasha) set against a backdrop of the biggest and farthest reaching plot twist to date. It also featured Bucky Barnes as the secondary titular role, a truly compelling villain.

1. "The Avengers"
Year: 2012
Director: Joss Whedon
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Jeremy Renner, Scarlett Johansson, Clark Gregg, Cobie Smulders, Gwyneth Paltrow
Pulling one superhero centric movie off is hard enough. Joss Whedon pulled off arguably the impossible by telling a team origin tale that still provided enough time for each Avenger to get their moment in the spotlight. The film took Hiddleston's Loki character to a completely new level and used visual effects to allow the "team" to work together in ways comic fans had only dreamt of. It could have been the Robert Downey, Jr. show. It could have been an action adventure with nothing at stake. Instead, "The Avengers" lived up to the hype and proved real superhero team movies weren't just the stuff of fanboy dreams.

Ranking all 12 Marvel Cinematic Universe films Part A: No.12 to 07

12. 'Iron Man 2'
Year: 2010
Director: Jon Favreau
Stars: Robert Downey, Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Mickey Rourke, Sam Rockwell, Clark Gregg, John Slattery, Samuel L Jackson

Marvel's follow up to "Iron Man", the global smash that validated their studio, has always been given less respect than it deserves. Granted, the sequel probably had too much universe building going on, but it also skillfully substituted Cheadle for Terrence Howard and introduced the Black Widow (Johansson). Moreover, Mickey Rourke did everything possible to make his dialogue unintelligible while still making Whiplash one of Marvel's most visually impressive and 'genuinely' scary villains. Did the movie also need a second villain played by Sam Rockwell or a third act battle that never seemed to end? Probably not, but it was still entertaining as hell to watch.

11. 'The Incredible Hulk'
Year: 2008
Director: Louis Leterrier
Actors: Edward Norton, Liv Tyler, Tim Roth, William Hurt, Tim Blake Nelson, Ty Burrell

Edward Norton seems like ideal casting for Bruce Banner, and it will always seem like a shame that Norton didn't get a chance to play with the rest of "The Avengers". I love Ruffalo in the role, but I thought Norton got the tortured nature of Bruce Banner right as well, and there are some great sequences in the film. I think this is about as good as a conventional Hulk movie can be, and the real key if they want to make further adventures is to take the Hulk out of the mundane and push him to some fantastic places.

10. 'Thor: The Dark World'
Year: 2013
Director: Alan Taylor
Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Christopher Eccleston, Natalie Portman, Kat Dennings, Stellan Skarsgård, Anthony Hopkins, Rene Russo, Chris O'Dowd, Idris Elba, Jaimie Alexander, Zachary Levi, Ray Stevenson,

It was clear as soon as "Thor" opened in theaters that Tom Hiddleston was a break-out star, and "Thor: The Dark World" makes excellent use of the rancid chemistry between the brothers. It also did a great job of opening up the universe more than the first film did, giving it a better sense of scope. The bad guys in the film are some of the weakest in any of the Marvel movies, but Loki picks up the slack, and the film ends with one of the biggest dangling cliffhangers in any movie so far.

9. 'Iron Man 3'
Year: 2013
Director: Shane Black
Actors: Robert Downey Jr., Gwenyth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Guy Pearce, Rebecca Hall, Jon Favreau, Ben Kingsley, James Badge Dale, Ty Simpkins

By the third film in any series, it's easy to start repeating what has come before, but Marvel wisely tried something different with the third "Iron Man", and hiring Shane Black to add his voice to the mix turned out to be very smart. Aside from a clever way of defining The Mandarin, a racially-difficult character to say the least, the film also benefitted from the fact that no one writes smart-ass for Downey better than Black does. The result really did feel like the end of something and the start of something else, and it suggests that Marvel can engineer sequels that don't just feel like retreads.

8. 'Captain America: The First Avenger'
Year: 2011
Director: Joe Johnston
Actors: Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Richard Armitage, Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones, Samuel L. Jackson

This is, quite thoroughly, all-American. Super wholesome, romantic, borderline trite and gosh-dernded innocuous, the first of the two "Captain America" films introduced a very likeable Chris Evans as a mythological beast in soldier's clothing. Marvel kept this story clipping along, with its past tense as much as the present, lingering more on his character than making the combat and the warring witty. Cap stands out with a heart that wants to blend in. No wonder an "Avengers" movie worked in his favor.

7. 'THOR'
Year: 2011
Director: Kenneth Branagh
Stars: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tom Hiddleston, Anthony Hopkins, Stellan Skarsgård, Kat Dennings, Clark Gregg

"Guardians of the Galaxy" might be the first deep-dive into the cosmos for Marvel, but some seeds were planted with 2011's "Thor". It's a movie many dismiss, with its modest "Masters of the Universe" fish-out-of-water narrative taking place in a seemingly propped-up New Mexico town, but there was still plenty of Asgard to play with. Mostly it's just a charming entry in the canon and one, at least in my opinion, that deserves more love.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 10: Recurring characters

A) Howard Stark was a brilliant inventor and businessman and the father of Tony Stark/Iron Man. He founded Stark Industries and was one of the founders of SHIELD. During WWII he worked on various government projects, including the Manhattan Project and "Project: Rebirth". Howard also helped the Strategic Scientific Reserve fight against HYDRA. He constructed Captain America's shield and helped make an upgraded suit for him. In 1991, he and his wife were killed by HYDRA agents, who made it look like a car accident.


B) Margaret "Peggy" Carter was a British officer representing the Strategic Scientific Reserve and Steve Rogers's World War II girlfriend. After the war, Agent Carter secretly assisted Howard Stark, who found himself framed for supplying deadly weapons on the black market. She was assisted by Stark's butler Edwin Jarvis. They found those responsible and disposed of the weapons which led to the mysterious organization Leviathan. Peggy, along with Howard, founded S.H.I.E.L.D. with Colonel Chester Phillips. She was still alive during the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, though bedridden and in poor health due to her old age.

In 1989, Howard, Peggy Carter and Mitchell Carson were having a meeting in the Triskelion, when Hank Pym confronted him about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s attempts to replicate the Pym Particles. Peggy was shocked at the discovery; Howard attempted to justify the decision due to the applications of the particle and Carson noted the military benefits. Hank vowed to take the secret of the Pym Particles to his grave.


C) Sam Wilson is an ex-military officer and friend of Steve Rogers. Wilson aided Rogers and Black Widow when they took down a compromised S.H.I.E.L.D. Wilson is now a member of the new Avengers under the codename Falcon.

While training at the New Avengers Facility, Wilson detected an intruder in the base and decided to investigate. Flying onto the roof, Wilson spotting a man wearing a suit that seemed to make him the size of an Ant. Once it was made clear that Wilson could see this man despite his tiny size, the man regrow to normal height and introduced himself as Scott with the code-name Ant-Man, noting that he was a big fan of Falcon and the Avengers. Wilson demanded to know why Ant-Man was in the facility but the man claimed to simply be needing to borrow a device from them.

Believing that Ant-Man was a sort of spy, they began fighting. Ant-Man managed to stop Falcon by shrinking and disabling Falcon's suit from the inside. When Falcon managed to recover from the fall, Ant-Man had already escaped with the device and Falcon was unable to track him. Wilson then said through the comm link that Captain America must never know about this embarrassing failure.

Though embarrassed, Wilson became fascinated by this new hero and his powers, having heard of him using his abilities to stop the sale of a new super-weapon called the Yellowjacket Suit. Believing that he could be of benefit to the Avengers, Wilson began to ask around to try and find and recruit Ant-Man for the Avengers, despite only knowing his frist name to be Scott. Eventually Wilson became close to finding him through the friend of a friend of the Ant-Man who agreed to help him.


D) Captain Steven "Steve" Grant Rogers is the only living, successful test subject of the Super Soldier Serum developed by Abraham Erskine during the Second World War. The patriotic super soldier was given the title of Captain America and fought against the Nazis and their rogue science division HYDRA. Rogers was frozen for nearly seventy years and awoke in the twenty-first century, where he joined the Avengers as their team leader. After the Battle of New York, Rogers became a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. He went on several covert missions with agent Natasha Romanoff and S.H.I.E.L.D. counter-terrorism team. Both Rogers and Romanoff later discover that HYDRA has secretly operated within S.H.I.E.L.D. for decades. Rogers, with the help of Sam Wilson, was able to destroy HYDRA's Helicarriers for Project Insight. After the HYDRA Uprising, he went off on his own to search for his friend Bucky Barnes, with the help of Sam Wilson. In the midst of his quest, Rogers reassembled with the Avengers, working to bring down what was left of HYDRA, and made use of his leadership skills once again in the battle against the psychotic artificial intelligence, Ultron. Unlike most members of the original Avengers, Rogers remained as a member and the leader of the second incarnation of the team after the Battle of Sokovia.


E) Sergeant James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is the protege and childhood friend of Steve Rogers and a member of an elite special unit of Allied soldiers formed in World War II known as the Howling Commandos. He was assumed deceased after falling off of Zola's Train. Unbeknownst to the Commandos, Zola's experimentations allowed Bucky to survive the fall.HYDRA subjected him to brainwash treatment as a candidate for the "Winter Soldier" program. Under HYDRA's control, Bucky would be responsible for countless assassinations including political parties, over the next few decades. Bucky became a formidable fighter and an even more ruthless killer. His experiences with the KGB would earn him the name of The Winter Soldier. After the fall of S.H.I.E.L.D., Bucky started to remember who he was.

Sam Wilson and Steve Rogers have managed to trap the Winter Soldier in a remote location, by trapping his cybernetic arm in a vice. Rogers told Wilson that they would not inform Tony Stark of Barnes' capture, as Stark could not be trusted with the information. They then discussed recruiting him and Ant-Man, whom Wilson had recently encountered, to their team.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 09: Other characters

JIM PAXTON
Jim Paxton is a police officer in the San Francisco Police Department. He is the fiancé of Maggie Lang.


MAGGIE LANG
Maggie Lang is the ex-wife of Scott Lang, the mother of Cassie Lang and the fiancee of Jim Paxton.


CASSIE LANG
Cassandra "Cassie" Lang is the daughter of Scott Lang.

LUIS
Luis is the former cellmate of Scott Lang, who assists Lang in stealing the Ant-Man Suit from Hank Pym and participates in Lang's heists at Pym Technologies by posing as a security guard.


DAVE AND KURT
These two are friends and roommates of Luis. Dave is a getaway driver, while Kurt is an expert hacker.


GALE
Gale is a police officer in the San Francisco Police Department and partner with Jim Paxton.


DALE
Dale is the boss of Baskin-Robbins who had hired Scott Lang, but soon fired him when he discovered that Lang has served three years in San Quentin State Prison for robbing Vistacorp. However, Dale admitted to Lang that he admired him for the robbery, as VistaCorp has been known to cheat customers of their money. Dale promised to look the other way if Lang stole a smoothie on his way out, which he did.


Mitchell Carson was a former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent. In 1989 when Hank Pym discovered that S.H.I.E.L.D. was trying to replicate the Pym Particles from the Ant-Man technology, he confronted Carson, Peggy Carter and Howard Stark. When trying to defend their actions, Carson insults Pym and brings up the incident involving Janet van Dyne leading to Hank punching him in the face and quitting S.H.I.E.L.D. While objective of Pym's actions, Carter and Stark thought Carson deserved that punch.
In the year 2015, Carson made a deal with the new CEO of Pym Technologies, Darren Cross, to obtain the Yellowjacket Suit and shrinking technology that he wanted from Pym decades before. While making the deal with Carson with his HYDRA agents in the same room as Hank and Hope Van Dyne, the new Ant-Man, Scott Lang, arrived and began taking out the HYDRA agents. During the confusion, Carson escaped with the Pym Particles.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 08: Yellowjacket suit

The Yellowjacket is a suit created by Darren Cross that uses a formula similar to the Pym Particles, that allows its user to shrink in scale similar to the Ant-Man suit.


Powers
Size Reduction: Using the original Ant-Man suit and pym particle formula as a start up point, Cross developed a new suit which allows him to reduce approximately to the size of an ant. He also still maintains his regular sized strength and durability when shrinking.
Flight: The suit has the power of flight.
Energy Pulse Stingers: The suit has Two tentacle-like 'stingers' on the back which can fire intense energy beams.
Enhanced Strength: The suit grants the wearer superhuman strength while shrunk.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 07: Darren Cross

Darren Cross, also known as Yellowjacket, was the CEO of Cross Technologies.

Darren Cross graduated from MIT as valedictorian at the age of twenty. He was hired directly from MIT by Hank Pym, and for a time worked as his assistant. However, he became obsessed with learning the secrets of Pym's Ant-Man Suit, and his size-reducing Pym Particle technology. At some point, he forced Pym from his company, Pym Technologies, and took over as CEO, renaming it Cross Technologies.


Cross Technologies became a rival of Stark Industries under the guidance of Darren Cross. Cross made his own weaponized version of the Ant-Man Suit, created by Hank Pym, called the Yellowjacket Suit. Proceeding this, Pym hired Scott Lang to recover his own hidden suit and steal the Yellowjacket Suit from Cross.


Abilities
Genius Level Intellect: Darren Cross graduated from MIT at only twenty years old and was impressive enough to be recruited by genius Hank Pym to work for him.
Master Scientist: Cross was recruited by Hank Pym to work at his company, Pym Technologies as his personal assistant and one of the lead scientists. Over time, he became obsessed with replicating Pym's Ant-Man Suit, and managed to create his own version, the Yellowjacket Suit.
Expert Businessman: Cross was able to oust Pym from Pym Technologies and become its leader. Though the company had not presented a product in some time, Cross assured, in an interview, that its shareholders were satisfied.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 06: Hope Van Dyne

Hope van Dyne is the estranged daughter of Hank Pym.

Hope's relationship with her father Hank Pym became distant after her mother Janet van Dyne was lost in a subatomic spacial void called the Quantum Realm. It was only many years later that Pym decided to tell her the truth about hr mother's apparent demise. Van Dyne cast the deciding vote that ousted Pym from Pym Technologies. She then proceeded to work at Cross Technologies as Darren Cross' assistant. She and Hank Pym later trained Scott Lang to perfectly control and manipulate the Ant-Man suit that additionally supplies superhuman strength, while teaching him to control ants.

Abilities
Expert Scientist: Raised by Hank Pym, Hope van Dyne was trained in the sciences of bio-chemistry.
Expert Martial Artist: Hope van Dyne trained Scott Lang in combat skills and fighting techniques, enabling him to become Ant-Man.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 05: Hank Pym

Doctor Henry "Hank" Pym is an entomologist and physicist who developed the Ant-Man Suit. For a time, he worked for S.H.I.E.L.D. as a consultant and became the first Ant-Man. Later he formed his own company, Pym Technologies and passed the title of Ant-Man down to Scott Lang.

A young promising scientist, Hank Pym was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. to work as a consultant. He eventually discovered a type of particles that could shorten the distance between an object's molecules, effectively reducing its size while maintaining its mass. Utilizing the newly-discovered particles, Pym developed a suit that could shrink a human being to the size of an ant, yet maintain his original strength. He also developed a device that allowed him to telepathically communicate with insects, including ants. Through concentration, he could manipulate and control insects into doing what he wished.

In 1975, a group of radicals in the Soviet-controlled East Berlin discovered a piece of an old HYDRA technology; the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to send an agent to Berlin and stop them from reverse-engineering it. Howard Stark confronted Pym about giving S.H.I.E.L.D. his Ant-Man Suit. However, Pym was unwilling to give his suit to anyone else, so Agent Peggy Carter had to convince him to go to Berlin personally. To see if the suit actually worked, she fired a few bullets at Pym, and he became small like an ant in the blink of an eye.

In Berlin, Pym successfully snuck past the Berlin Wall only to be spotted by a guard dog. Pym managed to escape however by jumping on an anti-personnel device which then fired him to safety. He made his way into the radicals' headquarters by controlling a flying ant. He discovered that the group had not even built the device yet. He then heard screams and found a group of HYDRA scientists torturing a prisoner. Hank intervened and defeated them, liberating the prisoner in the process. Back at the S.H.I.E.L.D. Headquarters, Stark thanked Pym and told him that was his last mission but Pym refused realizing there were more problems in the world. Still only trusting himself to wear the Ant-Man suit, Pym decided to continue to do field missions.


In 1989, Pym and his partner and wife, Janet van Dyne, were called upon to intercept a Russian ICBM mid-flight. They are unable to break through the missile; this prompted Janet to disable her own suit's safety measures and shrink into subatomic size in order to penetrate the missile. Though she suceeded in disabling the missile, she was unable to halt the shrinking process and was lost in a subatomic "quantum realm" from which there is no escape.

Her loss traumatized Dr Pym, and he soon tendered his resignation to S.H.I.E.L.D. after discovering that S.H.I.E.L.D. attempted to duplicate his shrinking technology. Pym believes the technology is dangerous and vows to take the secret to his grave. He also distanced himself from his 7-year old daughter Hope and sent her away to a boarding school.

many years later in July 2015, Dr Pym returns to Pym Technologies, only to find out that Hope and his protege Darren Cross have forced him out of his own company. Furthermore, Pym is more devastated when Cross unravels his own project; an advanced shrinking suit, named the Yellowjacket, based on Pym`s original suit.


Dr Pym poses as a lawyer, and smuggles the Ant-Man Suit to Scott Lang`s cell to help him break out. Pym explains to Scott that he manipulated him through Luis into stealing the suit as a test, and wants Lang to become the new Ant-Man and steal the Yellowjacket suit from Cross, which Pym considers as an extremely dangerous equipment, literally capable of mass destruction. Scott is then trained by Van Dyne and Pym to perfectly control and manipulate the Ant-Man suit that additionally supplies superhuman strength, while teaching him to control and communicate with ants.



Abilities
Genius Level Intellect: Hank Pym is a genius in the highest caliber of science fields such as bio-chemistry and entomology, and was able to make Pym Particles and the Ant-Man Suit by himself.
Expert Businessman: Hank made his own successful company, Pym Technologies.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 04: Scott Lang

Scott Lang is a former criminal and ex-convict who used to work for Vistacorp. He is recruited by Dr Hank ym to become the second person to ake the mantle of Ant-Man.

Scott Lang was an electrical engineer who worked for Vistacorp, but when he find out that the company was deceiving customers, he hacked into the system and after being caught he was fired. Now, despite the misgivings of his wife Maggie, Scott plans to seek justice by stealing this company and return their funds to the people. However, while he is doing "Justice" he turns out to be distracted, stealing Geoff Zorick's car and getting caught by the police, and then thrown into San Quentin State Prison.

Scott has a young daughter named Cassie who was suffering from a heart condition, that motivated Scott to go into a life of crime to gain the finances to help her. Maggie and Scott divorced following his incarceration, and Maggie eventually became engaged to a police officer named Jim Paxton.

In the present day, Scott is set to be released for good conduct during his entire stay in the prison, having served 3 years out of a 5-year jail term. Before being pardoned, he underwent a "good-bye ritual" wherein he is jabbed in the face by a fellow inmate called 'Peachy'. Afterwards, he is assisted on the way out and is fetched by Luis, Lang's friend and fellow burglar. He takes up a job at Baskin-Robbins but the boss eventually finds out about his criminal records and promptly fires him. With no source of income and burdened by the long period of time until he can visit his daughter again due to lack of child support, Scott turns back to Luis for information about the new place they could break in and agrees to put the plan into motion.



Scott breaks into a wealthy house and cracks a series of safes in the basement, only to find nothing but an old suit which he carries home. He tries on the suit and accidentally presses a button that makes him shrink to the size of an insect. Terrified by the experience despite Pym's attempt to calm him, he returns to the house and replaces the suit, only to be met by police and arrested on his way out. Pym, pretending to be Lang's lawyer, meets Lang in the police station, and offers Lang the option of working for him rather than going back to prison. With the aid of some ants, Pym smuggles the suit into Lang's cell and helps him escape, although Lang loses consciousness during the flight.

Pym reveals that he has been monitoring Lang since the VistaCorp incident, and manipulated him into stealing the suit; he has chosen Lang to become the new Ant-Man in order to steal the Yellowjacket technology from Cross.


Abilities

• Expert Thief: Lang was skilled in theft, specializing in breaking into homes and other places to steal. He is also skilled with utilizing chemistry when opening locked safes and bypassing security systems.
• Expert Engineer: Lang was an electrical engineer, having earned a Masters Degree in the subject.
• Expert Acrobat: Lang is capable of acrobatic maneuvers, leaping across steep divides and climbing difficult structures. He does not just perform these stunts in his shrunken state, but also when breaking into houses while in the process of thievery.
• Computer Programmer: Lang created the security systems for Vistacorp Headquarters and corrected a program that was stealing money from its customers. Christine Everhart referred to Lang as a "cyber-criminal".

Ant-Man film informatics Part 03: Ant-Man suit

The Ant-Man Suit was a suit created by Hank Pym that used the Pym Particles.


HELMET
Insect Manipulation: Dr Pym created the cybernetic Ant-Man helmet for achieving rudimentary communication with ants and other higher order insects. It uses electromagnetic waves to stimulate their olfactory nerve center. The user can communicate with them and use them as an extension of the users senses. In Pym's later years, he made an earpiece, that can be easily mistaken as a hearing aid, that can allow him to control insects, mostly his own ants from his ant farm, and have them work for him. He used them to keep Scott Lang under surveillance when he took the Ant Man Suit and some time after. He could also seemingly interface with the suits headpiece and seamlessly communicate with Scott when he reactivated the headpiece, tried on the suit, and accidentally shrunk himself.


SUIT
Size Manipulation: The suit's user is able to reduce his scale and mass, thereby shrinking himself to approximately the size of an ant, the extra mass being shunted into a subatomic physical dimension known as the Microverse, until the reduction effect is reversed.
Enhanced Force Generation: The user still maintained his regular sized strength and durability during shrinking. Also, the process of size alteration generates great amounts of physical force and momentum which is scaled beyond that of normal humans, which allows the user to perform feats of superhuman strength and exert such extreme physical force, comparable to that of a bullet, as well as momentum in their regular size immediately after changing their size back to normal. A user could size up physical force generated while they are in small scale and by sizing up while exposed to these forces, such as those found when an object his falling from a significant height, and utilize it to enhance their strength immediately after changing back their size. The user can exert force in their shrunken state that allows them to leap vast distances and great heights with ease. All physical action the user can perform exert an enhanced amount of kinetic energy that they can use.

EQUIPMENT
The suit comes with an array of Ant-Man Disks created by Dr Pym that can increase and decrease objects' size. Red Disks shrinks objects, and Blue Disks enlarges them.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 02: Pym Particles

The Ant-Man Suit was a suit created by Hank Pym that used the Pym Particles.

PYM PARTICLES
Pym Particles are subatomic particles of an extra dimensional nature that are capable of shunting or adding mass and reducing or increasing scale of any form of matter, distorting physical forces around such objects or organisms that they are applied to. The process of altering size and changing mass levels results in extreme physical forces being created, dramatically increases the momentum of an organic subject, which can be exerted immediately after changing size. This further increases the physical effort capabilites, as well as strength and durability, of organic subjects which they can use to perform feats of inhuman physical exertion and strength with similarly inhuman ease, especially right after a human subject uses it while returning to normal size. One example is if a human user is falling from great height in their small scale, they can utilize the kinetic energy and momentum obtained from falling and exert this force immediately after or while returning to normal size. This will translate as a feat of inhuman strength while in normal size.

The Particle's ability to warp mass and size can transport said mass, and also objects and living beings, into what is known as the Microverse, a subatomic dimension of space, that holds any mass of those who have shrunken with the use of the Particles. The mass, while still part of the shrunken subject, is shunted inside the Microverse until returned. While this has not been tested as of yet, it is believed that mass can be added onto a subject of the Particles and allow the subject to increase their size rather than shrink it.

Ant-Man film informatics Part 01: Introduction to the film

Ant-Man is the movie based on the Marvel Comics superhero Ant-Man. It is the twelfth main installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the last main installment in Phase Two. The film was released on July 17, 2015. The film was directed by Peyton Reed, with a screenplay written by Edgar Wright, Joe Cornish, Adam McKay and Paul Rudd, and stars Rudd, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip "T.I." Harris, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian, and Michael Douglas. In Ant-Man, Lang must help defend Dr. Pym's Ant-Man technology and plot a heist with worldwide ramifications.

Terminator Genisys film informatics Part 10: Non-Humanoid HKs

Non-Humanoid Hunter-Killers are robots that don't have the shape of a human body or skeleton of any kind, but intsead resemble vehicles. These machines were developed for combat.
Several machines where developed and created by Cyberdyne Systems, Cyber Research Systems, or Skynet.


HK AERIAL
An HK-Aerial is referred to a wide variety of Skynet's large airborne VTOL-capable Non-Humanoid Hunter Killer. Derived from the original HK-Drone, it retains the form and maneuver system but on a much larger scale. With wingspans of up to 108 feet and a devastating array of under-slung and wing mounted lasers, missiles, and plasma cannons, the HK-Aerial is fearsome and terrifying to behold.
Often operating in support of ground sweeps by swarms of Series 800 Endoskeletons, they are one of the more dangerous targets for the members of the Resistance to engage. HK-Aerials can be brought down by shoulder fired surface to air missiles.


HK DRONE (T-4 AERIAL)
The HK-Drone, also known as T-4 Aerial is designed by Cyberdyne Research Systems to be an unmanned aerial weapons systems which the organization was attempting to market to various military powers prior to 2004. As thousands were produced, when Skynet came on line, it immediately had access to a small army of sophisticated tactical air craft. One setback is that it has difficulty discerning a non living object from a living one. To it, anything warm and moving is a target.


T-1
The Series 1 Terminator, also known as T-1, is the first Terminator class robot to be produced by Cyber Research Systems. Designed for extreme combat, the Series 1 was built to clear battlefields of enemy troops with its powerful weaponry.
The T-1 was originally built in limited numbers, each individually numbered and stored under individual anti-static dust coverings. Cyberdyne created this first-generation fully autonomous ground offensive system in 2003 as part of their program to re-create the work of the late Dr. Miles Dyson. The design of the HK-Tank was an evolution of the T-1, while the concept of T-835 may originate from the T-1.


HK TANK
The Hunter Killer Tank is one of Skynet's Non-Humanoid Hunter Killers as a principal ground-based combat vehicle. Developed from the original T-1, the HK-Tank is several stories tall and vaguely humanoid in overall shape, possessing a rotating, conning tower-like "head", two steel "arms" equipped with twin-barreled directional plasma cannons, and two legs" consisting of massive individual tank treads. While formidably armed, the HK-Tank can be easily destroyed by a well-placed demolition charge.
With the increase of effective anti-HK tactics used by the Resistance to not only disable these units but to scavenge them for heavy weapons, power sources, and armor, Skynet has started equipping some units with crew compartments, containing concealed endoskeletons to counterattack the human assault teams.


AEROSTATS
Aerostats are a type of Non-Humanoid Hunter Killer produced by Skynet sometime before 2018. They are scout units that survey the land and the Resistance by air. Aerostats sends signals to Harvesters.


T-7T TETRAPOD
The T-7T Tetrapod, also known as "Spider" by the Resistance, is a Skynet Terminator series and quadruped HKs used to defend key points of interest for Skynet. They resemble the HK-Centurion in some aspects, as the legs and general shape.
The Tetrapod has crab-like upper body, twin machine guns as its arms and four arthropod legs. It is often accompanied with a swarm of tiny hovering Aerostats. Though heavily armored, they are vulnerable from behind by targeting their battery packs, or from the front via their single red eye. However, shooting the red eye will only deactivate the unit for a short period of time.


HYDROBOT
A Hydrobot is a Non-Humanoid Hunter Killer unit produced by Skynet sometime before 2018. It features a serpent-like structure with a claw at their head. It is used to patrol the waters. The Hydrobot is based on the present day model of Skynet Research's Aquatic WorkBot, which was used to maintain kelp and seaweed, find minerals and oil, and seek out organic matter.
As the name implies, a Hydrobot has difficulty operating on land, but they could jump incredible distances and use their metal teeth to cut through even metal.


HARVESTER
The Harvester is a large bipedal Non-Humanoid Hunter Killer unit produced by Skynet sometime before 2016. Its primary function is to capture the humans to do lab testing on their stem cells. This research on humans led to the creation of the Series 800 Terminator.
When a Harvester has captured any human test subject, it calls a Transport, which arrives and lands somewhere near the Harvester. After a Harvester has collected the humans, it drops the humans into the large container on the Transport.


MOTO-TERMINATORS
Moto-Terminators are automated motorcycles, produced by Skynet sometime before 2018, whose main purpose is to hunt down humans. Two of these are stored in the lower legs of a Harvester and released to round up fleeing humans and make them easier to capture. The Moto-Terminators are seen to possess incredible agility, with the sensors calculating debris or obstacles ahead, even viewing them in slow motion. With this trait, they easily avoid any obstacle, such as a car wreckage.


TRANSPORT
A Transport is a large flying Non-Humanoid Hunter Killer that transport humans to Skynet Work Camps. As large VTOL-style craft, the transport is also capable of carrying a Harvester and at least two HK-Aerials.

Terminator Genisys film informatics Part 09: Humanoid Terminators

Hunter-Killers (HKs) are artificially intelligent autonomous war machines built in automated factories. They comprise the majority of the "soldiers" in Skynet's army. Many are similar in overall form to the war machines of today (tanks, aircraft) while others are humanoid endoskeletons.

HUMANOID HUNTER KILLER UNITS
Humanoid Hunter Killer Units, also known as Terminators, are androids developed and intended to be similar to a human endoskeleton in appearance and function.
Skynet studied the human body, and used that knowledge to create the Infiltrators, machines that look and behave more like real humans with real skin, so they could infiltrate the Resistance.
A number of Terminator series have been released over the years. Some series have sub-series which are basically an improved version of the original series. Sometimes, the fuel system is upgraded or the CPU is replaced with a more advanced chip. Further divergent timelines show evidence of additional advanced, increasingly organic infiltrating Terminator series developed and fielded in both the past and the Skynet-dominated futures.


Series 600
The Series 600 Terminator is a Terminator series mass-produced by Skynet starting in 2016.[1] The Series 600 Terminators serve as early Infiltrators featuring titanium alloy endoskeletons which were sometimes covered in rubber skin. As a result of their rubber skin covering, Resistance fighters could easily spot the T-600s in the field.


Series 700
The Series 700 Terminator is a Terminator series which served as the stepping stone between the Series 600 and Series 800 Terminator. The T-700 is the first generation of the Series 800 Terminator. Individual Terminators within the series are often referred to as the T-700s. are structurally identical to their Infiltrator cousins but are built solely for combat as they have a more durable endoskeleton and have a CPU less advanced than the Series 800. Units of the 700 Series are also entirely reliant on Skynet for command and control functions as they lack the ability for independent thought. However, unlike the T-800, the T-700 endoskeletonlacked advanced Hyperalloy and Coltan materials in its structure, making its endoskeleton just slightly more durable than the T-600 therefore vulnerable to small arms fire. The T-700 Combat units were replaced by the T-800 by 2018 when Skynet was able to mass-produce the latter.


Series 800
The Series 800 Terminator is a type of Terminator mass-produced by Skynet. Individual Terminators within the series are often referred to as T-800s. The T-800 was Skynet's first cybernetic organism, with living tissue over a hyperalloy endoskeleton. This made it Skynet's first successful Infiltrator unit, capable of infiltrating the Resistance. The Series 800 Terminator was the first in a line of Series 8xx Terminators in various timelines, including the Series 850 and the Series 888 Terminators.


Series 900
The Series 900 is a type of Terminator mass-produced by Skynet. The T-900 is Skynet's follow-up to the Series 8xx. It is a cybernetic organism — living tissue over a hyperalloy-armored endoskeleton.
With rogue Terminators increasingly reprogrammed to help the Resistance, Skynet decided to make a Terminator series with the intent of terminating other Terminators. The T-900 series is twice as fast, strong and durable. Its battle chassis is covered with hyperalloy armor and has many choices of vision. The T-900 is powered by a miniature plasma fusion reactor in its torso, making its body glow in certain color. It has the ability to drive animals to the point of attacking their own handlers.


Series 1000
The Series 1000 Terminator is a Terminator series produced by Skynet in 2029. Unlike previous Infiltrator models that used rubber skin or living tissue over a metallic endoskeleton, the T-1000 is entirely made of a liquid metal called "mimetic polyalloy", meaning it can deform and take any shape it touches of the approximate size.
The T-1000 was constructed using a new technology developed by Skynet. Each molecule of the T-1000 was a primitive, miniaturized version of the total machine, and every molecule had programmed into it the blueprints for all the parts needed for the construction of the whole T-1000.
One of the fundamental prime directives of the T-1000 was "recovery of essence"; as the more it lost, the less effective it became. Also, the default command in the mimetic polyalloy's molecular memory was to find the main mass and rejoin it. As this trait was encoded at a very basic level, it was this emergency camouflage programming that was normally exhibited when a T-1000 was critically damaged, showing itself as a malfunction or "glitch". A damaged T-1000 may have, for example, begun to "meld" into floor coverings or other objects that it was in physical contact with, against its own will, due to its particles undergoing this form of self preservation.


Series X
The T-X is a model of Terminator produced by Skynet in the future. One model of this unit was dispatched by Skynet into the past in order to terminate John Connor. The T-X ultimately failed in its attempts to destroy the Tech-Com resistance leader.

With the success of the mimetic polyalloy T-1000 Series, Skynet continued to develop its liquid metal technology, this time combining it with an advanced endoskeleton, similar in shape and structure to that of the Series 900. The resultant T-X Series is stronger, faster, more intelligent, and more deadly than any of Skynet's previous battle units, effectively making them redundant. However, its infiltration abilities, while impressive, are inferior to the T-800's, as they lack living tissue, the ability to sweat and bleed, thus their shape-shifting ability is only useful to a point, while a Terminator that is bleeding or possesses scars is more likely to be mistaken for an actual human.

Terminator Genisys film informatics Part 08:Skynet/The T-5000

 
Skynet is a fictional self-aware, artificial general intelligence system which features centrally in the Terminator franchise and serves as the franchise's main antagonist.
Skynet is the world's first Automated Defense Network, processing information at ninety teraflops. It is the controlling force behind all of the battle units. It pools data from battle units, develops tactics and coordinates attacks. Skynet has control over everything which contains a Cyberdyne Systems CPU. Using the blueprints, designs and test models built by Cyberdyne Systems, Skynet has been able to manufacture battle units in its vast automated factories, occasionally updating them or producing more advanced models. Skynet gained self-awareness after it had spread into millions of computer servers all across the world; realizing the extent of its abilities, its creators tried to deactivate it. In the interest of self-preservation, Skynet concluded that all of humanity would attempt to destroy it and impede its capability in safeguarding the world. Skynet began a nuclear bombardment of the human race with the launch systems it had infected. Its operations are almost exclusively performed by servers, drones, satellites, war-machines, cyborgs (usually a Terminator), and other computer systems.

As a programming directive, Skynet's manifestation is that of an overarching, global, artificial intelligence hierarchy, which seeks to exterminate the human race in order to fulfill the mandates of its original coding. Skynet has also mastered time travel, and sent numerous Terminators into the past to carry out various tasks such as to kill specific targets such as resistance leaders before they come to power, aid in the creation of other terminators (most notably in coltan factories), build machinery and set up safe zones.


In 2029, TechCom appears on the verge of winning the war against the machines. Skynet responds by attacking John from the past and the future, by sending a T-1000 to kill Sarah Connor as a child. A reprogrammed T-800 (Model 101) Terminator sent by an unknown agent saves Sarah and raises her as her guardian, effectively changing all of history, including the events leading to the future war. Skynet sends a different T-800 to kill Sarah in 1984 before John is born, but is immediately dispatched by the Guardian Terminator. At some point before the events of the film, Skynet plants its mind into an advanced T-5000 terminator, essentially making the T-5000 the physical embodiment of Skynet. Skynet, in T-5000 form, attacks and transforms John Connor into a slightly less advanced terminator called a T-3000, made out of nanotechnological machine phase matter. Skynet then sends John back to kill Sarah, Reese, and the guardian Terminator, who attempt to stop Judgment Day from occurring in 2017 and also to prevent the Skynet precursor GENISYS from going online. Despite the T-3000's defeat by the Terminator, Skynet has become self-aware but its attack towards humanity is delayed.

Despite having finally compromised John Connor prior to the timeline's alteration, the reprogrammed T-800's presence implies that Skynet has another, yet unknown enemy in the altered timeline, posing a similar threat to it as Connor was. Matt Smith, who portrays the T-5000, also plays a holographic version of Skynet/ Genisys in the final act of the movie.