14 Big Questions Left Unanswered By Fantastic Four

Anyone remember seeing this scene in the movie? (20th Century Fox)

So, we have another Fantastic Four with another origin story of Reed Richards, Sue Storm, Johnny Storm, Ben Grimm and Victor von Doom, all gaining individually unique powers from an otherworldly source during a scientific expedition. Four of them become fantastically good (eventually going by the superhero names Mr. Fantastic, Invisible Woman, Human Torch and The Thing), while von Doom becomes as bad as his name foreshadows (and will more easily rename himself Doctor Doom). The basics are familiar to many and also very easy to comprehend for anyone joining Marvel’s First Family for the first time.

But much of this reboot, which is directed by Josh Trank (Chronicle) and co-written by Trank, Simon Kinberg and Jeremy Slater, is confusing. Or maybe just unclear. It’s not muddled a bit, but there does seem to be a lot missing. And therefore a lot of questions are left unanswered thanks to the many narrative gaps and poor character development. It’s a movie that shows that a lot of scientific homework was conducted in order to deliver a story of how the Fantastic Four beginnings would play out in the real world. Unfortunately, its also one that fails to show any work whatsoever done in the way of realistic motivations, choices and relationship dynamics for the people on screen.

Below are the SPOILER heavy questions we had at the end of the new version of Fantastic Four and our attempt to answer where able or at least elaborate on our inquiry. And remember that this is specifically an engagement with the movie, not the comic books the movie is adapted from nor any other external understanding of that source material.

1. Is the Baxter Institute an accredited university? 

After high school students Reed (Miles Teller) and Ben (Jamie Bell) present their obviously too-good-for-a-science-fair though-to-be-teleportation project in a local gym competing against children, the duo are approached by Dr. Franklin Storm and his daughter Sue (Reg E. Cathey and Kate Mara) who either just happen to be there or have been secretly aware of Reed’s efforts. Franklin immediately trusts that what he’s seen is not a magic trick and offers the boy — but sadly not his partner — a full scholarship to the Baxter Institute. Which must be a college, as we see its library and a few other students in there, but does Reed have to take classes or does he just spend all his time in the giant lab working on a larger teleportation project involving inter-dimensional travel? Admittedly, it’s reminiscent of the set up of Real Genius, which doesn’t offer too much classroom footage, but this movie has none. Therefore we get no sense of the place and how it functions. At all.

20th Century Fox

2. Why is Johnny allowed to become such an integral part of the project?

As it’s explained in the movie, reckless Johnny (Michael B. Jordan) smashes his car and is then put to work in his dad’s lab as punishment and to get his wheels back. And that’s a benefit for Franklin, Reed and the rest of the project’s team, because their team is that small that they actually need the hothead to help them weld parts together. Were there no other students at Baxter that could have been used for free labor? Also, if all that Johnny has wanted is to be a part of something, why didn’t his dad and sister just invite him to join them before, as needed?

3. How much time goes by between the science fair and the finishing of the Quantum Gate thing?

There are a few instances in the movie where passage of time is directly addressed. When the Storms meet Reed and Ben, seven years have gone by since the opening scenes set in 2007. Halfway through the movie, we get a “one year later” card indicating the advance of time. But the movie loses us between those instances, and it’s only worth bringing up to also ask how old the characters are. In a viral video promoting the movie, said to be set three years after “Baxter Incident” (the accident that gives the group their powers), Reed and Ben are said to be 24, which makes them 22 at the movie’s end and implies at least three years went by before the Quantum Gate machine was even finished and the incident occurred. The same video puts Johnny’s age now at 20, which means he was only 17 at the time of the incident and we either first meet him street racing at around age 14 or that scene is supposed to occur more recently than it seems. Of course, the guy in the video who says it’s been three years since the incident is Tim Blake Nelson, whose character is killed by von Doom a year after the incident. Unless two years has passed between the “one year later” card and the mission with the second Quantum Gate when they find von Doom. Hopefully the person in charge of continuity on Fantastic Four never works on another movie again.