"Ant-Man and the Wasp," the latest offering from the Marvel/Disney-industrial complex, opens Friday. Paul Rudd reprises his role from "Ant-Man" (2015) as the micro-Avenger. Evangeline Lilly reprises her role as Hope van Dyne, but this time graduated to Wasp status. It's bug-movie heaven: two of the little guys for the price of one.
Bug movie? Film history doesn't offer a flood, let alone infestation. Still, there have been a few bug and bug-related movies. That's not even counting ones about the other kind of bugs, like "The Conversation" and "All the President's Men."
Wishing upon a (very small) star
There were movie bugs before. There were movie bugs after. Doesn't matter: 1940 was the year that changed everything. The biggest name in the exoskeleton biz — the founding father — remains Jiminy Cricket, from "Pinocchio."
Spoiling the picnic, big time
In "Them!" (1954), nuclear tests in the New Mexican desert have caused ants to mutate — "mutate" being a euphemism for "get humongously large and nasty." That's bad. A colony has made its way to LA. That's a lot worse — and well deserving of an exclamation mark.
Apparently the City of the Angels is also the City of the Insects. Is it a coincidence that one of the great LA novels is "The Day of the Locust" (made into a movie in 1975)? We think not.
Super "Fly"
The closest thing to a bug-movie franchise are the five "Fly" movies: "The Fly" (1958), "The Return of the Fly" (1959), "Curse of the Fly" (1965), "The Fly" (1986)," and "The Fly II" (1989). The closest thing to a bug-movie masterpiece is the 1986 "Fly," directed by David Cronenberg.
A tangled web
Spiders are arachnids. Arachnids different from insects, which are arthropods. Both are bugs, but for some reason spiders have been more popular with filmmakers. Maybe it's the whole web business? Great metaphor, great visuals.
There have been the umpteen "Spider-Man" movies, of course, as well as "Tarantula," (1955), with its self-explanatory title. At least three film masters have made what one might call "honorary" spider movies, since the creatures appear just in the title: Fritz Lang, "The Spiders," in two parts (1919, 1920); Bernardo Bertolucci, "The Spider's Stratagem" (1970); and Cronenberg, "Spider" (2002). Hey, and "Kiss of the Spider Woman" (1985) won William Hurt a best actor Oscar. "The Girl in the Spider's Web," with Claire Foy as Lisbeth Salander , has an October release date.
Hive mentality
"The Swarm" (1978) is a two-fer. It's a bug movie, with lots and lots of African killer bees. It's also a '70s disaster movie, like "The Poseidon Adventure" and "The Towering Inferno," with lots and lots of aging stars (Richard Widmark, Olivia de Havilland, Henry Fonda, Fred MacMurray, José Ferrer). Irwin Allen, who produced "Poseidon" and "Inferno," directed "Swarm." A capsized ocean liner, a burning skyscraper, bees: Which of these doesn't belong?
Neither fish nor fowl
Although "The Hellstrom Chronicle" (1971) won an Oscar for best documentary feature, it's actually a hybrid, mixing fictional elements with real-life footage. Obsessive entomologist Nils Hellstrom (Lawrence Pressman) explains how insects are fated to take over the world. Think of it as a paranoid thriller with antennae.
False pretenses
All right, "June Bug" (2005) is not about insects. But it did get Amy Adams her first Oscar nomination. Neither is "The Green Hornet" (2011) about insects. It didn't get Seth Rogen a nomination for anything.
Jiminy's children
Animators love insects. How could they not, with myriad opportunities for playing with scale, rendering unusual and intricate figures, and having fun with general buzzing around. Hence "Antz" and "A Bug's Life" (both 1998), "The Ant Bully" (2006), "Bee Movie" (2007). Let's not forget a certain famous rabbit. Before there was an Ant-Man there was a Bugs Bunny.
Mark Feeney can be reached at mfeeney@globe.com.