When Does the Film "Ant-Man" (2015) Take Place?
"Ant-Man" is a comedy science fiction film written by Edgar Wright with Joe Cornish, Adam McKay, Paul Rudd, and Eric Pearson [adapting "Marvel Premiere" #47 (1979) by David Michelinie] that released July 14th, 2015. So when is "Ant-Man" set?
It takes place on the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline in the year:
We know this because there's a bottle of Hank Pym’s medicine visible with a label displaying an expiration date of "17/05/16" (for May 17th, 2016) and a character like Hank is extremely unlikely to have expired medicine around. Furthermore, when he is speaking with Scott Lang about the Avengers, Hank says, "dropping a city out of the sky?" referring to the events of "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015), which take place in the summertime during 2015 AD. So it must be during or after mid-2015 AD but before May of 2016 AD. The story's climax takes place in October and, since October of the next year would be after May 2016 AD and October of the previous year would be before summer 2015 AD, it's definitely late-2015 AD.
2015 AD
We know this because there's a bottle of Hank Pym’s medicine visible with a label displaying an expiration date of "17/05/16" (for May 17th, 2016) and a character like Hank is extremely unlikely to have expired medicine around. Furthermore, when he is speaking with Scott Lang about the Avengers, Hank says, "dropping a city out of the sky?" referring to the events of "The Avengers: Age of Ultron" (2015), which take place in the summertime during 2015 AD. So it must be during or after mid-2015 AD but before May of 2016 AD. The story's climax takes place in October and, since October of the next year would be after May 2016 AD and October of the previous year would be before summer 2015 AD, it's definitely late-2015 AD.
More specifically, an iPhone lock-screen is visible near the end of the narrative that clearly reads, "Friday 9 October" so we know it's October. To bring it all home, October 9th, 2015 AD was a Friday in the real world. (It was a Thursday in 2014 AD and a Sunday in 2016 AD.)
Additionally, there's a prologue that includes a title card reading simply "1989" over the footage.
Later, there's also a flashback .
This Geekritique article and video examines its exact setting.
It is a midway chronological film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline. It can be watched at its timeline point.
