We’re 15 years into the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and through 31 films and 20 TV series, there has been no single greater 30 seconds than the time that Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas slapped their chests and screamed “ants!” over and over.
While Ant-Man himself has grown (and shrunk) and changed since the first film, with Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas now reprising their roles for a third Ant-Man movie, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, now in cinemas across the Middle East, the simple pleasures of the man who once slapped the bass slapping his chest are unmatched.
Seriously, watch it here, in all its glory:
To celebrate, Paul Rudd and I sat down for an oral history of this truly historic moment.
“First of all, thank you, because no one has ever asked about this,” Rudd began.
Then, with a smile on his face, he regaled me with the story.
“We had to do a day for the first movie where we were just doing these promos,” Rudd continued.
“I’ve never done anything like this where you have to deal with these little sketches they’d written out or whatever.”
Rudd wasn’t sure about the material they were being given.
“Some of them just seemed so ridiculous, so Michael and I were standing around and I just thought like, let’s just say ‘ants’ bunch of times,” adds Rudd.
“I don’t even know exactly remember exactly how it came out. We liked the idea that it was just stupid. It was just dumb. I didn’t imagine that it was going to actually be a thing,” he continues.
Rudd then fulfilled my greatest wish: he started slapping his legs and chest in rhythm, recreating the iconic moment.
“But it was just like this. ‘Ants!’ and ‘ANTS!'”
Rudd then ceased the slapping.
“I love it that Michael went with it too. He sold it,” Paul said, deferring credit to his Hollywood elder.
“I don’t know. It was just strange. And in the end, I’m with you. It’s like, ‘wow, that’s so weird. Maybe it’ll work. And here we are. Here we are. Eight years later talking about it,” Rudd says.
“Look at us,” I said.
Paul smirks.
‘Who’d have thought,” Paul added.
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania is now in cinemas across the Middle East