Now Showing: Particle

 

Particle

Genre: Sci-Fi/Superhero/Drama

Director: Charlie McDowell

Writers: Jimmy Ellis & Dwight Gallo

Cast: George Clooney, Laura Dern, Jeremy Davies

Plot: Hank Pym (George Clooney) sits silently in his robotics lab, deflated. With grief in his eyes, Hank stares off into the distance. As his hands begin shaking, he drops a newspaper with the headline "Eric O'Grady, crimefighter, found dead". His wife Janet (Laura Dern) enters the lab and puts a hand on his shoulder. Hanks confides in Janet that he always hoped that Eric would be able to use his technology in a more heroic fashion than he ever managed. Laura says that she isn’t sure that was the case. Hank stands up, but quickly faints and collapses to the floor of his lab. Laura rushes to his side.

Hank wakes up in a hospital bed with Janet next to him. Alerted that Hank is awake, a doctor enters the room and breaks it to Hank that he has an advanced, untreatable form of Myelofibrosis that has spread to his brain. The doctor begins explaining that it is a form of leukemia, but Hank cuts him off insisting he already knows what it is. Janet is heartbroken and asks how he could have developed such an illness. The doctor says he doesn't know, but Hank comments that it was probably prolonged exposure to highly-concentrated amounts of Pym particles. Hank tries to laugh about his situation being caused by an element he named after himself, but begins coughing instead.

Despite his medical condition, Hank quickly checks himself out of the hospital against his doctor’s wishes and heads home. In his lab, Hank begins tinkering with his old Ant-Man helmet when he suddenly freezes. He hears a distinct voice in his head saying: “Bring me to life, Hank. Become a god. Create a new world.” Hank takes the elevator up from his lab to the modern stilt mansion he shares with Janet. He excitedly tells her that he has an idea. Janet rolls her eyes at Hank and reminds him that the doctors said if he isn’t willing to stay in the hospital, he at the very least needs to take it easy.

Hank sequesters himself away in his lab. He is beginning to build something, tinkering away at pieces of metal and computing parts. He methodically pieces together a series of metal parts on his workbench. Pym smiles before stepping away from the bench. He then begins scanning his own brain to create a neuro-image of it. He can see the cancer in the coding, which distresses him. He transfers the neuro-image of his brain into a computer program.

Hank sets up a camera in a corner of his lab to create a video diary. He presses the record button and takes a deep breath before talking directly into the camera: “The Ultron Project is close to completion.” A knock at the door disrupts Hank’s train of thought. Janet then enters the lab. Hank tries to hide his annoyance at her intrusion. She looks around at the pieces of his latest project before asking him if he has any plans on coming upstairs for dinner or to go to bed with her. Hank tells her that he is so close to completing what will act as his swan song, his legacy. Disappointed, Janet turns to leave the lab. Before she leaves, Hank tells her that once his vision is complete his final time on the planet will be spent with her.

Janet watches through a camera feed of the lab as Hank paces back and forth in a frenzy of thought and invention. His body is starting to look more frail as his beard grows more bushy and unkempt. Janet wipes away a lone tear as she turns off her camera feed.

Sitting at the table for breakfast, Hank stares out the window completely spaced out as Janet tries talking to him. She asks him what is wrong. Finally registering her words, Hank says nothing is wrong - his mind is simply tired from all the work he has been doing. She suggests he take a few days off from his lab to recharge. This suggestion angers Hank. He stands up from the table and says he simply cannot do that. He then takes the elevator back down to his lab.

Hank begins assembling a robotic body for his creation. Janet enters the lab, interrupting Hank, who then starts to scream at her for disrespecting what could very well be his final project. Janet cries, saying she knows he is sick but that is no reason for him to stop living. She takes off her wedding ring and places it on Hank’s desk. She tells him that maybe once he is ready to be with her again she’ll consider putting it back on. Hank grabs her arm. He tells her she is making a poor decision she will surely come to regret as he is on the brink of something extraordinary. Janet pushes him away from her. Hank grimaces and says she should run away from him. Janet does as he says and quickly gets back in the elevator.

Wires run from Hank’s computer mainframe to the metallic robotic body he has assembled. The screen soon shows: Transfer Complete. The eyes on the robot head begin to glow red and its arm reaches out and places a hand on Hank’s shoulder. Pym looks at his creation in astonishment. He then asks his creation (voiced by Jeremy Davies) what it would like to be called. The robot responds, “Ultron. Ultron Pym.” Hank smiles at his creation choosing to take his name, showing that it views him as a father or creator figure.

Hank sits opposite Ultron and begins asking his creation questions to pick its brain, which is based on his very own. He asks Ultron about the Pym particles to see truly how much of his own knowledge has found its way into the mind of his creation. Ultron charismatically answers the questions. Hank places a hand on Ultron, calling him his greatest creation. Hank begins to feel an intense pain in his head. He clutches his head and falls out of his seat and onto his knees. He crawls across the floor to Ultron, who helps his “father” up. Hank rifles through a drawer until he finds a syringe. He injects the substance into his neck and the pain quickly subsides.

Ultron looks at Hank as curious as a robot could possibly be. Hank tells Ultron that the injection contained a microscopic and highly condensed version of his Pym particles.While the particles surely caused the cancer in the first place, in small, concentrated doses they can help with the crippling symptoms his affliction has caused. Ultron begins asking several questions of his creator, akin to a young child asking their parents questions. Finally he gets to the big question, asking why Hank decided to create him in the first place. Hank thinks long and hard. He then explains to Ultron that he has long had a vision of creating a robotic life form that doesn’t just simulate emotions, but can truly feel them and achieve emotional growth. Ultron ponders his creator’s answer for a moment. Ultron then asks Hank if he is the robotic life form he always dreamed of creating. Hank says he is and that he believes Ultron can continue his work long after he succumbs to his disease.

Hank tries to convince Janet to come down to his lab to share his creation with her, but she rejects his invitation. Hank cries, realizing he threw away his marriage due to his obsession with finishing Ultron before the cancer takes him. Ultron looks at Hank with pity and asks if all humans are so emotionally weak. Hank looks at Ultron, tears still in his eyes. Ultron repeats his question. Hank refuses to dignify the question with an answer. Ultron moves on to another question, asking if he can leave the lab. Hank regretfully tells Ultron that the outside world would not understand. Ultron tells Hank that he feels pity for Hank and the other humans as humanity seems so miserable. Hank tells Ultron that he finally realizes that humans need to love and be loved in order to thrive and that a human cannot truly be happy without either of those things. Ultron questions Hank, asking if Janet is his love. Hank nods. Ultron asks Hank why he simply doesn’t go and retrieve her. Hank says it is not that simple and that Janet clearly needs space or rather he needed space to create Ultron.

Waking up, Hank finds Ultron in the lab creating more robotic bodies. Hank asks him what he is doing. Ultron insists he is simply following the natural instincts instilled in him from his artificial intelligence. Hank asks what that instinct is exactly. Ultron says it is to create. Hank begins asking Ultron questions about what he is creating, but Ultron becomes annoyed much as Hank did when Janet would interrupt him. Hank tries to stop the creating, but Ultron effortlessly pushes Hank to the ground to stop his interference. Hank begins coughing uncontrollably while trying to get back up. Ultron expresses regret for shoving him and offers to help him back up to his feet. Hank realizes he hit his head in the process of falling and wipes away blood that begins dripping down his forehead. Ultron apologizes to his creator, promising to make it up to him. Ultron then shrinks down to a microscopic size and flies out of the lab through a small crack between the door and the bottom of the floor.

Janet has left the house and is now staying at their vacation home in the mountains. He tearfully looks at a picture of herself and Hank on their wedding day. Suddenly Ultron emerges in front of her. Janet jumps back in fear and asks what he is. Ultron calls Janet “mother” and insists it is time she returns to “father”. Janet tries to run away and get to a safe room where some of her old crime-fighting Wasp equipment is kept. Ultron blasts a Pym particle at her, shrinking her down to the size of an ant. Janet then picks her up and places her into a small glass jar he finds in the kitchen. Carrying the jar, Ultron flies away from the house, admiring the scenery around him.

Ultron returns to Hank, who has stitched and bandaged his head wound. Hank demands to know where Ultron went. Ultron reminds Hank that humans need love in order to survive, so he brought his love back to him. He then hands Hank the glass jar with the shrunken Janet inside. Hank angrily demands Ultron return her to normal size. Ultron is puzzled, having assumed that having Janet back would make his creator happy. Hank begins coughing up blood. Ultron hands Hank a rag to cough into. Hank pleads with Ultron to return Janet back to her normal size. Ultron obliges. Hank tries to apologize to Janet, but she begins hitting him in anger. Ultron looks at them with disgust. Janet asks Hank how to turn his “great creation” off. Ultron becomes angry at the mere suggestion. Ultron grabs Janet by the neck. He looks at her and tells her that he will not be turned off. Janet begs for Hank to help her. Ultron says that Janet has no usefulness if she cannot make his father happy anymore. Ultron then throws Janet across the room. Ultron stands over the weak Hank and asks why humans are so weak. Hank tells Ultron that he used to think that humans feel too much and it was a weakness, but he is finally beginning to understand that it is actually a strength. Ultron says he sees no strength, he sees a dying man. Janet gets up and tries to hit Ultron in the head with a large wrench. Ultron swings his arm out and hits her away, sending her through a window in the process. Hank hurries over to the window and looks down to Janet’s body laying still on the ground some 20 feet below. Hank goes over to his computer and begins the process of shutting Ultron down. Ultron grabs Hank’s hand, breaking his bones in the process. Hank holds his hand in pain. Ultron tells his father that he will be leaving now. Ultron then activates three of the robots he was building. The four robots fly out the window and off into the distance.

After much struggle, Hank manages to make it outside to the fallen Janet. The fall has broken her back and she is unable to move. Hank tearfully apologizes for what happened and promises to finish things. Hank calls for an ambulance to take Janet to the hospital. As the ambulance pulls away, Hank weakly walks into a secret room in his house. Inside there are rows and rows of mechanical super suits - variations on Ant-Man, Giant-Man, Yellowjacket and Goliath - from his early crime fighting days. He finally gets to the end of the line where there is a Yellowjacket armored super suit that is far more advanced than the others. He says to himself that he is sad that Eric never got to test out the latest suit he made for him. Hank suits up in the Yellowjacket armor. He shrinks down and flies away.

Following a tracking device built into Ultron, Hank flies all the way up to the icy arctic where he finds that Ultron has already begun building his own lab. When Ultron sees Hank coming toward him, Ultron almost smiles. Hank tells Ultron that every action has a consequence. Ultron corrects Hank, instead saying that every action has a reaction, not necessarily a consequence. Hank throws a snowball at Ultron. As the icy ball is in the air, Hank hits it with a Pym particle, making it roughly the size of a semi-truck. Ultron moves out of the way, but the giant piece of ice hits the building, destroying it and Ultron’s robots inside. Ultron quickly flies right up to Hank and grabs him by the throat. Ultron asks him why a creator is trying to destroy creations. Hank says he’s trying to correct a mistake and should have never created Ultron in the first place. Hank activates an explosive charge on his Yellowjacket suit, causing an explosion to send himself and Ultron hurtling in opposite directions. Barely alive, Hank pulls himself along the ice toward Ultron, who is laying flat on the ice. As he gets close, Ultron stands up. He looks at Hank and says that Hank’s attempt to kill him hurt. Hank reminds Ultron that he cannot feel pain as a robot. Ultron elaborates, saying that it hurt his feelings. Hank begins weakly coughing. Ultron watches until the coughing stops and Hank is no longer moving at all. Ultron realizes that his creator has died from a combination of his disease and self-inflicted wounds. Ultron quietly tells himself that his father was right all along. Ultron picks up his creator’s body and holds his lifeless body. Ultron activates his body’s own self-destruct sequence. The sequence counts down from ten. When it gets to zero, Ultron is enveloped in a massive explosion, completely disintegrating his body as well as the lifeless body of Hank.

Out of the hospital, Janet returns home confined to a wheelchair. She goes to Hank’s old lab and looks at the destruction caused by the skirmish with Ultron. She then wheels her way over to Hank’s supercomputer. She wonders aloud if Ultron is inside of it somewhere. Janet then leaves the lab. The computer screen lights up.