Out of Phase

I rewatched Antman and the Wasp recently and was struck by a thought I’ve had everytime I’ve seen this trope show up; if Ghost phases through matter, why doesn’t she fall through the ground? Without the suit, she can’t fully control the ability. Especially as a little girl who had to learn any control why didn’t she just slip through the ground? Gravity is pulling us down all the time, the only reason we don’t sink to the core is because the ground is solid.

Now, the obvious answer is it’s a movie and there would be no story if that happened. Fair enough. It’s a fun trope to play with. Being intangible and passing through walls allows for lots of fun visuals. And a bad guy you can’t physically touch makes for a tough opponent.

The episode “The Next Phase” of TNG was a great episode that used this idea. Geordi and Ro got to go places and do things they wouldn’t normally be able to do. They also played with the idea of being actual ghosts.

But it does bother me some that no one, to my knowledge, has ever even tried to address this any time this trope has come up. At least not on screen. I’m sure writers had explanations in their head or original scripts. But that is always left on the cutting room floor. They always go to the trouble of explaining why they can pass through walls, why not add one more line for why they can’t pass through the ground?

For Star Trek, it would be quite easy to come up with a technobabble reason. The gravity is artificial anyway. Some mumbojumbo about being pulled down to the artificial gravity plating but then repelled by the mechanism itself. Maybe show how their feet are just slightly passing through the floor.

It’s much harder to come up with a reason for Ghost. When it started, she had no control and didn’t know what was happening to her. You could do it. Something about the ground where the shift occurred being stable and she has to stay there until she learns to control it. But you can’t really do it quickly so I can see why they didn’t even try. But I would expect Scott to ask that question and be dismissed with something that boils down to “quantum, complicated, blah blah, isn’t it obvious?”

Ironically, the other handwaved part of being out of phase that Next Phase never explained is not an issue for Ghost. How do they breathe? Ro and Geordi are completely out of phase with normal matter. They can’t eat. They can’t touch anything or anyone. So how do they breathe?

Ghost doesn’t have that problem. She’s shifting in and out of phase. She’s solid plenty of the time so can eat and breathe. That’s actually more of a problem for Hope’s mom, trapped in the Quantum Realm for 30years. She aged but what did she breathe and eat? She even had you standard loner raggedy cloak, which she clearly was not wearing when she shrunk.

Anyways, that’s enough nitpicking. I love the phase trope. Hat’s off to any writer who manages to explain these plotholes in their work that does not hamper the story.