The film "Ant-Man" is another welcome addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film has a charismatic lead, entertaining action, creative fight scenes, and great performances from Paul Rudd and Micheal Douglas. These are all quality elements that made the film good, but I was expecting most of these things. Marvel is usually very good at making quality films that entertain. However, what I wasn't expecting was how one of the major plot points in the film actually says a lot about the life of a former convict in the United States. I bet you are wondering how a film that has Paul Rudd fighting crime in a tight red shrinking suit could have that much depth. Sit back and let me explain how "Ant-Man" brought attention to an important issue.

The film centers around master thief Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). We are introduced to Scott on his last day in prison. We learn that Scott is a master thief who has made a name for himself by stealing from billionaires. His friend Luis (Michael Pena) says their is another heist job available for him, but Scott declines. Scott wants to make an honest living now, so he can earn visitation rights to see his young daughter Cassie (Abby Ryder Fortson). Scott tells Luis that he has a "masters degree in electrical engineering, I'll be fine". We then cut to Scott working behind the counter at a Baskin Robbins (anyone who's graduated college knows how that scene is all too real). Scott is later brought to the manager's office and after a funny back-and-forth between him and the manager (Gregg Turkington) Scott is informed that he has been fired.

Scott is let go due to the manager finding out the he is an ex-con and says that they don't hire ex-cons. Scott pleads to the manager to let him keep his job, but Scott is still let go (he does get ice cream though). We later see Scott writing down numbers on a piece of cardboard and we see that Scott is unable to afford the child support needed for him to earn visitation rights to see Cassie. This desperation leads to Scott accepting Luis' heist job, which leads to Scott finding the Ant-Man suit and the former Ant-Man, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). Scott is then recruited by Hank to become the new Ant-Man and fight a new villain named Yellow Jacket/Darren Cross (Corey Stoll).

What initially hit me about the moments I just described was how they perfectly portray the struggles of being an ex-con and the American Criminal Justice System's failure to address them. We see how Scott tries to make an honest living, but the biases put on him for being an ex-con ultimately force him to return to a life of crime. It's no secret that the United States has a mass incarceration problem. According to Vice News, "Today, more than one out of every 100 Americans is behind bars, and the US has the largest prison population in the world, both in terms of the actual number of inmates and as a percentage of the total population." We see how Scott, who committed a non-violent crime, has been forced to live with that mistake for the rest of his life. The Justice System didn't help him secure work, he had to find it himself and he had to lie about his ex-con status just to be considered for the job.

In the film we also see how incarceration can keep people in a constant state of poverty and crime. Scott's inability to hold a job, due to the biases against him, is what makes him desperate enough to go back into crime. It displays the weaknesses of the prison system. Prisons appear to just be used to lock criminals away instead of actively attempting to rehabilitate them. The prison system seems to guarantee that once you commit a crime you will have to stay a criminal just to get by. Scott embodies the struggles that many ex-cons face in their lives. Many, who are non-violent criminals, see their mistake and want to make things right, but the world won't give them that chance. These are all things that I never thought I would find in a film about colorful superheroes fighting crime.