Trust me, I would have applauded that development over the rat.  I mean, at least that’s fun.  Luckyrat was basically the screenwriter’s faces leaning into the movie and saying, “now this happens.”

The Avengers didn’t do anything active to cause Scott to return from the quantum realm. But for LUCKYRAT, he would not have returned, could not have driven the time machine to Tony, who would not have then “figured out” how to use it for the time heist.

The snap could not have been reversed but for LUCKYRAT. You’re telling me that’s not an “actual thing that matters”? It’s literally the MOST important thing that happens in the entire movie, without it, the movie would have ended 10 minutes later, the Avengers LOSE.

ALIEN INVASION, NY CITY UNDER ATTACK AGAIN, AVENGERS BATTLING SPACE HORDES—

Good point. If Domino, who has never been part of THIS Marvel movie universe up until this point, suddenly showed up and solved the movie, I would be complaining just as hard.

An idiot, eh? Well, since you are displaying such refined manners, I will suggest that you are the idiot who will gladly guzzle whatever contrived jizz these screenwriters chose to shoot down your throat.

Sure, and that’s all well and good, and I’m not arguing that problems can’t be resolved by sheer luck. But when a movie exists solely to answer one question—how will they reverse the snap—having a maybe-plausible deux ex machina as the proximate cause of the solution is consummately unsatisfying from a storytelling…

During the final battle, don’t they employ a SECOND van??

Oh yeah, fully agreed on the Nebula bit. She’s the only Nebula in existence—why would there even be a means for her to communicate with herself?? Are we to understand that her head contains a transmitter that can and will automatically link up with another version of herself across any distance? What would be the…

No matter how you phrase it, the rat was the proximate cause of the snap’s reversal. Without the rat, you would have no solution.

No, but that would have been more fun. I didn’t stop watching, but I did stop caring. I was there to see how the Avengers were going to reverse the snap, not how the snap accidentally came to be reversed because of a magical rat.

There are no “gaps” between the passenger cab and the outside, or the heat wouldn’t work. Maybe there’s a case that the rat got into the van through the air vents, but why would it? There’s no food in there.

Yeah, I always try to avoid people with a difference of opinion, too.  Wanna meet up at the MAGA rally this weekend?

Hey, like I said: if you’re okay with the solution to the snap being pure luck, if you’re okay with the proximate cause of Thanos’ defeat being a deus ex machina, great for you. But none of your examples were the solution to THE CENTRAL PROBLEM facing all of our heroes.

Scott was under house arrest for all of Ant Man 2, that didn’t stop him from dealing with the Ghost.

Yes, but it’s closed and in a storage unit.  So even if the rat got in there with the door open, it’s been closed for a long-ass time.  And it’s not like it’s filled with snacks, it’s housing exclusively scientific equipment.

No, because we know how Captain Marvel got her powers, and how they work. Now, if they suddenly had her turning invisible, that would bring you out of the movie, because there’s no basis for it.  It would be a contrivance.

The distinction between “talking raccoon” and “magic rat that can infiltrate a locked van” is that the talking raccoon has been explained. We know that character exists in this universe, and it makes sense in that regard.

The cab of a van is pretty secure. Birds could build a nest in the HOOD, because you can crawl in there from the bottom of the car. But unless there’s a breach in the van—and the van is pristine at the end of Ant Man—there’s no way a rat would be in there, especially a GIANT rat like that one. Why is it in there?…

That’s probably the most plausible answer I’ve read.