Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.
Certainly a funny road trip family movie here.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a 2023 film, the third in the Marvel Cinematic Universe Guardians of the Galaxy series after Guardians of the Galaxy and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. It is written and directed by James Gunn, and features an ensemble cast including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldaña, Dave Bautista, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Vin Diesel, and Bradley Cooper.

Spoilers for previous MCU entries ahead!

Now headquartered in Knowhere, the Guardians are between jobs, with a depressed Peter Quill spending most of his time drunk to avoid coping with the loss of Gamora. He is forced to sober up quickly when Rocket is almost killed by a gold-skinned flying man, Adam Warlock (Will Poulter).

Normal medical treatment is prevented by a previously unknown security device designed to stop Rocket's heart if his body is tampered with by anyone other than his original creators. This sends the rest of the Guardians on a Race Against the Clock to find the shadowy company that made him, and obtain the control code to allow him to be saved. The mission is especially hard because not only is their main tech guy incapacitated, but the attack turns out to have been ordered by the same company and its founder, the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji), in an attempt to wipe Rocket out.

On the way the Guardians meet several old friends and learn a great deal about Rocket's mysterious back-story.

As before, the soundtrack is based on Quill's music collection, but it turns out his new Zune contains a lot of 90s tracks.

Tropes used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 include:
  • Adult Fear: The High Evolutionary and his mad science schtick may be fiction, but the way he's played as the unholy union of abusive father who blows up for little to no reason and Pointy-Haired Boss who resents more capable underlings while simultaneously trying to squeeze everything out of them is painfully real.
  • Afterlife Antechamber: The High Evolutionary kills off a lot of his experiments (see Complete Monster). Some of them are shown meeting in the Antechamber.
  • Amusing Injuries: One of the results of Kraglin's failed attempts at using Yondu's arrow is him flying it into Nebula's chest. She merely glares at him and pulls it out.
  • Androcles' Lion: Adam is saved from the destruction of the High Evolutionary's spaceship. Shortly afterwards, he helps save Peter from a botched attempt to jump from said spaceship to Knowhere.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: One that is played for drama. The High Evolutionary says there is no god despite the fact their existence should be well known by now thanks to Thor helping in defeating Thanos. It's heavily implied that he is so arrogant that he doesn't think the deities of the MCU fit his criteria of divinity, so he put himself in their place.
  • Arc Words: "It's not a trap, it's a face-off."
  • Body Horror:
    • We get to see Nebula's somewhat Squicky self-repair in action again.
    • The High Evolutionary's experiments include a walrus with wheels grafted onto its body, an otter with clamps for hands, a rabbit with spiderlike metal legs and a metal plate either covering or replacing its lower face, and "Hellspawn" that are crude cyborgs that wouldn't be out of place in Doom.
    • The true state of the High Evolutionary's face.
  • Break the Cutie: Young Rocket.
  • Call Back: Drax gets a little fatherly moment near the end of each Guardians film. In this one, he comforts a couple of cage-loads of frightened kids then gets asked to take care of all of them.
You weren't born to be a destroyer. You were born to be a dad.
—Nebula
  • Cerebus Syndrome: While still a whacky comedy, this installment is decidedly darker than the first two.
  • The Charmer: Quill tries this with Ura. It doesn't work very well.

Quill: Dude, she was totally into me, man!
Ura: I kind of thought you were a douchebag.

  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Yondu's yaka arrow.
    • Early on, Rocket mentions gravity boots.
  • Complete Monster: The High Evolutionary thinks nothing of killing off an entire planet-load of sentient beings when the society he started isn't going the way he wanted. Even his successful experiments tend to get the chop when he's finished with them.
  • Crap Saccharine World: Counter-Earth initially looks like an idyllic pastiche of American suburbia. Then Peter and co drive by a drug deal in progress, followed by a mugging.
  • Creative Sterility: All the rest of the High Evolutionary's creations suffer from this, being able to follow instructions well but unable to innovate. This is why Rocket's being able to think of a solution to a problem that even the High Evolutionary couldn't is so desirable.
  • Die or Fly: We see several times Kraglin screwing up the use of the yaka arrow. Then the High Evolutionary and Hellspawn attack Nowhere, and with everything on the line, he sees a vision of Yondu and finally gets it to work.
  • Expy: The High Evolutionary is basically Doctor Moreau In Space.
  • Fate Worse Than Death: Rocket's creators don't just want to kill him, they want to remove his brain for study.
  • A God Am I: This episode's egomaniac-of-the-week is the High Evolutionary. People who don't think themselves gods don't say things like this:

"There is no god! That's why I stepped in."

  • Heroic Dog: Cosmo features more in this installment.
  • Hey, It's That Guy! / Actor Allusion: Adam is played by Will Poulter, and some of his dialogue is hilariously reminiscent of Eustace Scrubb.
  • In the Back: Adam is first defeated and Drax saved when Nebula shoves a Hot Blade through his back and out the front.
  • Losing Your Head: Groot trying to fight Adam ends up with the former reduced to his head.
  • Never Trust a Trailer: An emotional shot of Nebula carrying an unconscious Peter in the trailers is revealed in the film proper to really be because the man blacked out from drinking too much.
  • Organic Technology: Orgocorp's entire schtick. Their headquarters is built into a giant spacefaring creature and their mooks wear biomechanical suits.
  • Petting Zoo People: What do you expect from a company that made a talking raccoon?
  • Precision F-Strike: Peter drops the F-bomb due to his frustration with Nebula's inability to work the lock of a car door.
  • Purple Is Powerful: The High Evolutionary wears purple and his gravity tech is too.
  • Ragtag Bunch of Misfits: The Guardians. The Ravagers also qualify.
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Rocket gives a short but effective one to the High Evolutionary.
  • Running Gag: "Did that look cool?"
  • Shout-Out: Adam saving Peter is briefly composed like The Creation of Adam.
  • Space Is Cold: Just like in the previous film. Peter freezes in real time when he botches jumping from the High Evolutionary's spaceship to Knowhere. Groot's attempt to grow out branches to pull Peter to safety fail for the same reason.
  • The Stinger:
    • Mid-credits, the Guardians, apparently including Adam and one of the rescued kids, discuss Earth music and defend a town from invading creatures.
    • Post-credits, Quill eats breakfast with his grandfather.
  • Suddenly Always Knew That: Drax turns out to know the children's language, right when it's needed. Partly Played for Laughs (it is Drax after all), but he makes it into a Take That at his friends for always assuming he knows nothing.
  • Tear Jerker: There's a reason Rocket doesn't discuss his past. Even Nebula is horrified.
  • The Worf Effect:
    • While it doesn't rise to the level of an unambiguous Curb Stomp Battle, Adam's first fight with the Guardians has him give them quite the beating.
    • The High Evolutionary shows just why he can be a god to the Sovereigns by using his gravity tech to crush Adam into a wall.
  • A Worldwide Punomenon: The Guardians have a final face-off with the Big Bad. They take it quite literally.
  • You Are Number Six: The High Evolutionary only ever refers to Rocket as 89P13.
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