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Towards the end of Ant-Man,

the Pym Tech building imploded into what seemed like a small red ball.

Why did it implode instead of exploding? Are there other examples of similar implosions in the MCU or in Marvel Comics whose explanations might shed light on this?

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I believe the building didn’t explode, it shrunk.

The explosives are placed alongside the store of faux-Pym particles. We don’t know how Pym particles are stored, but they seem to be inert while in containment. Once the explosives go off, their containers are destroyed, and the Pym particles are spread throughout the building. But they’re out of containment, and so they almost immediately activate and start shrinking the building. This gives the appearance of the building imploding, and explains why there’s no wreckage left.

(I saw the film a week ago and my memory is somewhat sketchy, so details may be inaccurate)

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    I hadn't thought of that, but it seems plausible! I thought maybe they'd used the same explosive that we saw in Agent Carter, since it had a similar effect of causing the building to implode rather than explode, but it looked like regular C4 when it was being placed.
    – Anthony Grist
    Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 7:02
  • This is exactly what I was going to say. The amount of experimentation with Pym Particles done in that buidling means we almost certainly saw the buidling shrink rapidly once the first container was breached, mid explosion.
    – Dr R Dizzle
    Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 7:59
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    Plus, the building is exploding and/or "pancaking" for several seconds before we see it start to shrink and/or implode.
    – Ixrec
    Commented Jul 22, 2015 at 14:41
  • This was my interpretation as well, and I think it was an intentional part of Hank and Hope's plan - with the wreckage of the building being shrunk to a tiny size, it would probably be difficult for Cross or his associates to even locate the shrunken remains of their research, as cleanup efforts would mix the shrunken remains of the building with normal debris on the round.
    – recognizer
    Commented Jul 23, 2015 at 14:40
  • Thank you! Saw the film yesterday and didn't get why it imploded at all! Also, possible sequel plot - finding the shrunken lab?
    – Whelkaholism
    Commented Jul 29, 2015 at 13:57

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