With accurate definitions of a seemingly contradictory nature and complex concepts like entanglement and teleportation, the realm of quantum science can get unusual very quickly. But what is quantum? What can you do with it? Do the movies get it right? We set out to answer some of these questions with quantum physicist Spiros Michalakis, a staff researcher and manager of outreach at the Institute for Quantum Information and Matter at Caltech, a U.S. National Science Foundation Physics Frontiers Center.