Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is the 2017 sequel to the 2014 superhero Space Opera/Space Western film Guardians of the Galaxy and the fifteenth entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Like the first film, it is directed by James Gunn. It is based on the Marvel Comics superhero team, the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Two months after the defeat of the villainous Ronan the Accuser, the Guardians of the Galaxy, which consist of Peter "Star-Lord" Quill (Chris Pratt), Gamora (Zoe Saldana), Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) are riding high on their newfound notoriety, selling their services as heroes for hire. Unfortunately, when they take a job for a race called the Sovereign in exchange for their captive, Ronan's former Dragon Nebula (Karen Gillan), the Guardians end up angering their easily-offended clients and get put on the Sovereign's hitlist. Now the Guardians are on the run from the Sovereign and the team's old Space Pirate enemies / allies the Ravagers, who have mutinied against their boss Yondu (Michael Rooker) for his softness on his former apprentice Peter, and are now leading the Sovereign's manhunt. And just to complicate matters, Peter's Disappeared Dad Ego (Kurt Russell) has resurfaced, along with Mantis (Pom Klementieff), a protégée of his own.

Tropes used in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 include:

• Actor Allusion:
  • One of Stakar's first lines is yelling at Yondu about how he betrayed the code.
  • Teenage Groot takes up all his time with video games, which are something of a passion of Vin Diesel's.
• Adaptation Species Change:
  • Quill is still a Half-Human Hybrid but here he's half-Celestial instead of half-Spartax.
  • Ego is supposedly a Celestial but there's enough ambiguity that he may be an unrelated entity who just co-opted the name.
  • Like Drax in the last film, Mantis, a human in the comics, is now an alien.
  • Adam Warlock was human, or at least an Artificial Human, in the comics. Here, he's looking to be a Sovereign.
• Adaptational Badass: Star-Lord ends up being significantly stronger than in the comics. In the climax, he dukes it out with Ego Man of Steel-style. However, following Ego's death, Peter loses his powers.
• And Starring: The opening credits feature two examples:
  • Among the Guardians: "Featuring Vin Diesel as Baby Groot and Bradley Cooper as Rocket."
  • While towards the end of the main credits: "With Sylvester Stallone and Kurt Russell."
• Ascended Extra: Kraglin had a cameo appearance in the first movie and accomplished no more than the nameless Ravagers. Here, he plays an important part in both Taserface's mutiny and Yondu's subsequent escape, and effectively becomes the Guardians' getaway pilot during the fight with Ego. He also has a large role in Yondu's funeral. It's less surprising an ascent when you realize said extra is played by the actor who also does the motion-capture for Rocket—and who is the director's brother to boot.
• Assimilation Plot: Ego's ultimate plan is to become the entire universe.
• Big Bad Ensemble: Ego is clearly the main villain and certainly the main threat to Quill, but Ayesha is a formidable problem to the Guardians.
• Bittersweet Ending
• Breather Episode: Like its predecessor. It has its dark moments but is primarily a campy Space Opera comedy.
• The Cameo: Guess who appears in the film as a Watcher informant?
  • Also, The Hoff.
• Continuity Nod: Krugarr is shown practicing the same Eldritch Magic as Doctor Strange.
• Dance Party Ending: The ending credits feature the Guardians (and some other characters) dancing to the tune of a Zune.
• Darker and Edgier: In spite of being a comedy, there is more risque humor, a Bittersweet Ending, and more emotionally overwhelming circumstances than the first.
• Disappeared Dad: Quill's biological father was literally absent his whole life until finding him after hearing the climactic events of the first movie. This lead Peter into imagining that David Hasselhoff was his dad and telling other kids he was on tour in Germany to explain his absence.
• Disc One Final Boss: At first it seems like High Priestess Ayesha of the Sovereign is gonna be the main antagonist, pursuing the Guardians over a slight, but she become a small fry when Ego's plan to assimilate all life is discovered.
• Don't Think, Feel: How Youndu uses his fin and how he encourages Peter to use his Celestial powers.
• The Dragon: Mantis to Ego the Living Planet.
• Early-Bird Cameo: The Grandmaster is seen dancing during the credits.
• The Empath: Mantis has the ability to read and alter emotions through physical contact.
• Enemy Mine: Started out as such for Nebula and Yondu, as they join the Guardians for the sake of their survival.
• Expository Theme Tune: As with "Awesome Mix Vol. 1", the songs in "Awesome Mix Vol. 2" were chosen by Peter's mother to explain her relationship with his father over their time together and apart. Towards the film's end, the audience gets to hear some of "Awesome Mix Vol. 3", which offers a brief glimpse look into the father-son relationship between Peter and his adoptive father, Yondu.
• Final Battle: The climax features one between the Guardians, Yondu, Nebula, Kraglin, Mantis, Ego, and the Sovereign.
• Funny Background Event: During the first battle of the Guardians in the movie, the camera focuses on Baby Groot dancing to "Mr. Blue Sky". In the background, the audience can still see the Guardians getting their asses kicked by the monster.
• Heel Face Turn: Mantis does this during the Final Battle of the film.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Yondu stays behind when the others flee Ego, specifically to help Peter escape once Ego is dead. Rocket only has one space suit and one jetpack, so Yondu takes the latter. After they clear the atmosphere, Yondu puts the space suit on Peter to keep him alive and dies shortly after.
• I Am Not Weasel: Among the things Rocket is called are "puppy", "trash panda", and "triangle-face monkey" by various characters as a Running Gag.
• Knight of Cerebus: When Ego reveals his true colors, the humor completely drops. PERIOD!
• Late Arrival Spoiler: Simply the fact that there's a character named "Baby Groot" and that adult Groot is nowhere to be seen gives away his death in the first movie.
• Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Rocket's reaction when Baby Groot brings back a freshly-severed toe.
• Little No: Peter can only choke out one of these as Ego crushes his walkman in front of him.
• Loads and Loads of Characters: Purposefully averted, according to Word of God from director and writer James Gunn, to contrast to the other MCU team movie sequels in this phase like Captain America: Civil War (which often doubled their cast size). 2 out of the 3 new Guardians were antagonists in the last film, and the new secondary characters are about the same number as those that died in the last film or otherwise don't appear in this one (Ronan → Ayesha, Korath → Taserface, the Collector → Ego, etc.). He even leaves characters that will debut in Thor: Ragnarok or the third Guardians movie to only appear in The Stinger or the credits.
• Melee à Trois: The Guardians vs. The Sovereign vs. Ego.
• Mood Whiplash: There's lots of these.
• Mythology Gag: Stakar Ogord's team references the original Guardians of the Galaxy.
• No Animals Were Harmed: "No raccoons or tree creatures were harmed in the making of this film. The same cannot be said of the wranglers of said raccoons and tree creatures."
• Overly Long Gag:
  • Groot dancing while the rest of the Guardians fight the Starfish Alien.
  • Groot being sent to find Yondu's fin and bringing back something else.
  • Peter really does ask all the other Guardians if they have any tape (except maybe Nebula).
• Rapid-Fire "No": Peter when Yondu dies.
• Reality Ensues:
  • Played for Laughs in the opening. Skin is the same level of thickness on the inside as it is on the outside, it's just a different angle. To be fair, it's implied that Drax was intending to target the vulnerable insides protected by the skin but he still tries to futilely pierce the monster's hide.
  • When Ego shows up claiming to be Peter's father, Peter is not eager to jump on board given that, aside from reasonable caution, his father abandoned his dying mother.
  • Yondu accurately says that if the Ravagers kill the Guardians, they'll bring the wrath of the Nova Corps down on their heads. As the other Ravagers then demonstrate, Yondu putting one person (Peter) ahead of the wellness of the group and their profits leads to a mutiny.
  • Though Drax and Mantis are attractive by human standards, they're aliens whose own standard of beauty differs from ours.
  • Since Yondu never told Peter that he was joking when threatening to let the Ravagers eat him, Peter genuinely believed that Yondu and the Ravagers were awful people.
  • The one rule of the Ravagers is that they don't deal with kids. Yondu broke that rule and got his clan expelled from the larger group.
  • Quill may be a Pop-Cultured Badass but the other Guardians know nothing about Earth culture and all his references, such as Cheers, fall flat.
• Related in the Adaptation: Ego is now Peter Quill's father instead of J'Son of the Spartax. Ego's adoption of Mantis also makes her and Quill adopted siblings.
• Save the Villain: Gamora pulls Nebula from an exploding space shuttle, only moments after the latter attempted to kill her.
• Sequel Escalation: A higher-stakes plot (though one more independent from the MCU's cogs than in the original), more effects, more jokes, more big-name actors (even in bit parts!), and more emotional punch. If one considers how old Ego was and how many planets had those seeds of his all over them, this film had the highest potential death toll of any villainous scheme in the MCU (in the immediate sense of "This action will kill people," not counting future actions such as Thanos getting the Infinity Gauntlet), or for that matter most science-fiction and superhero movies. Even the bad guys in Star Wars didn't want to erase all habitable mortal existence and replace it with extensions of themselves.
• Sequel Hook: Ayesha is creating a new kind of warrior. She'll call him "Adam."
• Skewed Priorities: Rocket setting up some tunes while the group is fighting the Abilisk. Even Quill says that that's hardly a priority.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • Baby Groot dancing to Electric Light Orchestra's cheerful "Mr. Blue Sky" is the opening of the movie, with the actual action of the rest of the Guardians fighting the Abilisk relegated to the background.
  • Glen Campbell's breezy "Southern Nights" is played while Rocket fights Yondu's crew. Mostly by Wreaking Havoc with gravity mines.
  • Jay and the Americans' upbeat "Come a Little Bit Closer" is the background music to which Yondu, Rocket, and Baby Groot, lay waste to the mutinous Ravagers.
• Tagline: "Obviously."
• The Worf Effect: After the two helped kill an Eldritch Abomination, Gamora outright tells Nebula that she doesn't think it's possible to kill Thanos.
• Wretched Hive: Contraxia.