Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is a 2017 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics superhero team Guardians of the Galaxy, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to 2014's Guardians of the Galaxy and the fifteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). Written and directed by James Gunn, the film stars an ensemble cast featuring Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, Chris Sullivan, Sean Gunn, Sylvester Stallone, and Kurt Russell. In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the Guardians travel throughout the cosmos as they help Peter Quill learn more about his mysterious parentage.
Plot[]
In 2014, Peter Quill, Gamora, Drax, Rocket, and Baby Groot are renowned as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Ayesha, leader of the Sovereign race, has the Guardians protect valuable batteries from an inter-dimensional monster in exchange for Gamora's estranged sister Nebula, who was caught attempting to steal the batteries. After Rocket steals some for himself, the Sovereign attacks the Guardians' ship with a fleet of drones. These are destroyed by a mysterious figure, and the Guardians crash-land on a nearby planet. There, this figure reveals himself as Quill's father, Ego, and invites Quill, Gamora, and Drax to his home planet. Rocket and Groot remain behind to repair the ship and guard Nebula.
Ayesha hires Yondu Udonta and his crew, who have been exiled from the greater Ravager community for child trafficking, to recapture the Guardians. They capture Rocket, but when Yondu hesitates to turn over Quill, whom he raised, his lieutenant Taserface leads a mutiny with help from Nebula. Taserface imprisons Rocket and Yondu aboard the latter's ship and executes his loyalists by releasing them into space. Nebula leaves to find and kill Gamora, whom she blames for the torture inflicted on her by their father, Thanos. While imprisoned, Rocket and Yondu bond. Groot and Kraglin, a remaining Yondu loyalist, free Rocket and Yondu, and they destroy the ship and its crew as they escape, though not before Taserface warns the Sovereign.
Ego, a god-like Celestial that manipulated the matter around its consciousness to form this "home" planet, explains that it projected a humanoid guise to travel the universe and discover a purpose, eventually falling in love with Quill's mother Meredith. Ego hired Yondu to collect the young Quill after Meredith's death, but the boy was never delivered and Ego has been searching for him ever since. He teaches Quill to manipulate Celestial power. Nebula arrives at Ego's planet and tries to kill Gamora, but the pair reach an uneasy alliance when they discover a cavern filled with skeletal remains. Ego reveals to Quill that in his travels, he planted seedlings on thousands of worlds which can terraform them into new extensions of himself, but they can only be activated by the power of two Celestials. To that end, he impregnated countless women and hired Yondu to collect the children, but killed them all when they failed to access the Celestial power. Under Ego's influence, Quill helps him activate the seedlings, which begin to consume every world, but Quill fights back when Ego reveals that he gave Meredith the tumour that killed her due to the distraction she posed.
Mantis, Ego's naïve empath servant, grows close to Drax and warns him of Ego's plan. Gamora and Nebula also learn of the plan as Rocket, Yondu, Groot, and Kraglin arrive. As they come under attack from the Sovereign's drones, the reunited Guardians find Ego's brain at the planet's core. Rocket makes a bomb using the stolen batteries, which Groot plants on the brain. Quill fights Ego with his newfound Celestial powers to distract him long enough for the other Guardians and Mantis to escape. The bomb explodes, killing Ego and disintegrating the planet. Yondu sacrifices himself to save Quill, who realizes that the reason Yondu kept him was to spare him from the fate of Ego's other progeny, and that Yondu was Quill's true "daddy". Having reconciled with Gamora, Nebula still chooses to leave and resume her quest to kill Thanos by herself. The Guardians hold a funeral for Yondu, which is attended by Kraglin and dozens of Ravager ships, acknowledging Yondu's sacrifice and accepting him as a Ravager again.
In a series of mid- and post-credit scenes, Kraglin takes up Yondu's telekinetic arrow and control-fin; Ravager leader Stakar Ogord reunites with his ex-teammates; Groot has grown into a teenager;[N 1] Ayesha creates a new artificial being with whom she plans to destroy the Guardians, naming him Adam;[N 2] and a group of uninterested Watchers abandon their informant, who is discussing his experiences on Earth.
Cast[]
- Chris Pratt as Peter Quill/Star-Lord
- Zoe Saldana as Gamora
- Dave Bautista as Drax the Destroyer
- Vin Diesel as Baby Groot (voice)
- Bradley Cooper as Rocket Raccoon (voice)
- Pom Klementieff as Mantis
- Michael Rooker as Yondu Udonta
- Karen Gillan as Nebula
- Sean Gunn as Kraglin Obfonteri / Rocket Raccoon (motion capture)
- Kurt Russell as Ego
- Elizabeth Debicki as Ayesha
- Chris Sullivan as Taserface
- Steve Agee as Gef
- Tommy Flanagan as Tullk
- Evan Jones as Retch
- Jimmy Urine as Halfnut
- Stephen Blackehart as Brahl
- Mike Escamilla as Scrote (uncredited)
- Joe Fria as Oblo
- Terence Rosemore as Narblik
- Blondy Baruti as Huhtar
- Sylvester Stallone as Stakar Ogord
- David Hasselhoff as Ego (alternative form)
- Ving Rhames as Charlie-27
- Michelle Yeoh as Aleta Ogord
- Miley Cyrus as Mainframe (voice, uncredited)
- Michael Rosenbaum as Martinex
- Laura Haddock as Meredith Quill
- Gregg Henry as Peter Quill's Grandfather
- Stan Lee as Watcher Informant
- Seth Green as Howard the Duck
- Mac Wells as Officer Fitzgibbon
- Alex Klein as Zylak
- Ben Browder as Sovereign Admiral
- Hannah Gottesman as Sovereign Chambermaid
- Jeff Goldblum as Grandmaster (cameo, end credits)
- Fred the Dog as Cosmo (cameo, end credits)
- Glenn Close as Irani Rael (deleted scene)
- Nathan Fillion as Simon Williams (deleted scenes)
- Unknown Actor as Krugarr
Sequel[]
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was followed by a sequel Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023).
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This is the fifteenth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
- This is the second film in the Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.
- This is the eighth highest grossing film of 2017.
- Bradley Cooper recorded his lines for Rocket while wearing a motion-capture headpiece in the recording studio, to perfectly synchronize Rocket's voice and facial expressions. In the first film, Cooper supplied only the voice.
- James Gunn revealed that he and producer Kevin Feige wanted David Bowie to appear in a cameo before his death on January 10, 2016.
- This film features five mid- and post-credit scenes.
- Vin Diesel recorded Groot's voice for 16 foreign language releases of the film, up from six for the first film.
- The teaser poster is a parody of the cover for Ramones' album "Rocket to Russia".
- James Gunn previously said that Stan Lee's cameo in this film is one of the four cameos Lee filmed in one day. In addition to this film, Gunn directed two other cameos, one being Doctor Strange (2016) and another one he did not specify.
- This sequel was announced a week before the release of Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), at San Diego Comic-Con 2014.
- While traveling via multiple space hops, one of the planets the ship travels past appears to be the Kronan homeworld. This is home to Korg the rock creature, who appears in the Planet Hulk storyline of Thor: Ragnarok (2017). Thor also already fought and defeated a "Kronanite" in Thor: The Dark World (2013).
- Laura Haddock (Meredith Quill, Peter Quill's mother) also appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) as a fan of Captain America.
- Gary Oldman, Viggo Mortensen, Christoph Waltz, Christopher Plummer, Max von Sydow, Alec Baldwin, Ron Perlman, Stephen Lang, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, Robert De Niro, Michael Biehn, Mel Gibson and Liam Neeson were considered for the role of Ego. Matthew McConaughey was also considered, but passed on the role in favor of The Dark Tower (2017).
- In an interview, James Gunn said that most of the questions will be answered in this film that remained unanswered in the first.
- Director James Gunn cast Michelle Yeoh (Aleta Ogord) as a tribute to 1990s Hong Kong films, of which he is a fan. Yeoh is a Malaysian actress who rose to fame in 1990s Hong Kong action films, such as Yes, Madam! (1985) and Holy Weapon (1993).
- Marvel Studios made a statement regarding the future of the "Guardians" franchise, saying that Avengers: Infinity War (2018) will take place four years after this film, which in turn takes place in 2014, three months after Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
- David Hasselhoff, who appears briefly, was the first actor to play Nick Fury, in Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998). This is the role Samuel L. Jackson plays in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, first seen in Iron Man (2008) in an uncredited cameo as the character.
- Benicio Del Toro, who portrayed the Collector in the first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), expressed interest in portraying the character again despite Marvel not contacting him about the sequel.
- Pom Klementieff also provided her voice for the French version.
- Originally set for a July 2017 release, but was pushed up to May 5.
- Despite the announcement that Nathan Fillion was cast in this film, he never appears in the theatrical version.
- James Gunn Sr. and Leota Gunn, parents of James Gunn and Sean Gunn (Kraglin), have small parts in the film.
- This film takes place three months after the first, placing the events in 2014. Stan Lee's cameo refers to him being a postman, a potential reference to his cameo in the previous year's Captain America: Civil War (2016). The events in that film, however, take place in 2016. Alternatively, this may be a reference to his cameo in Fantastic Four (2005), where he played the Baxter Building's mailman, Willie Lumpkin.
- James Gunn noted that many of the crew from the first film, such as cinematographer Ben Davis and production designer Charles Wood, signed on to work on Doctor Strange (2016). However, due to a late change in production schedule to a November 2015 start, they were unable to work on this film.
- This film marks the fifth collaboration between James Gunn and Michael Rooker. The other four were Slither (2006), Super (2010), Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), and The Belko Experiment (2016), which Gunn wrote.
- This is Michael Rosenbaum's first foray as a Marvel Comics character. He previously played several live-action and animated DC Comics characters, including Lex Luthor on the television series Smallville (2001), as well as Wally West/The Flash in several animated television shows and movies.
- One of only four Marvel Cinematic Universe movies to feature full opening credits. The others are Iron Man 2 (2010), The Incredible Hulk (2008), and the first Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).
- Second collaboration between Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell, the first being Tango & Cash (1989).
- First Marvel Cinematic Universe sequel to use a number rather than a subtitle since Iron Man 3 (2013). All other sequels since the third Iron Man have used a subtitle. Examples include: Thor: The Dark World (2013), Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), and Avengers: Infinity War (2018). The only other sequel to have used a number and not a subtitle is Iron Man 2 (2010).
- While this is the first film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe to be released on the 4K UHD video format (mainly thanks to a push from director James Gunn), this would not be the first MCU film to have a true 4K digital intermediate, but rather an upscale from a 2K DI. Marvel films would not switch to true 4K DIs until Black Panther (2018), with Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018) following suit.
- Kurt Russell and Michael Rooker's second film together. The first was Tombstone (1993).
- This is Sylvester Stallone's second comic-book movie after Judge Dredd (1995), and the third to have the setting in the future after Demolition Man (1993).
Guardians of the Galaxy |
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Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023) |
Phase Three |
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Captain America: Civil War (2016), Doctor Strange (2016), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Black Panther (2018), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018), Captain Marvel (2019), Avengers: Endgame (2019), Spider-Man: Far From Home (2019) |