The Steves discuss the 2014 blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1, along with what's making them happy in pop culture today.
What's Making Us Happy?
Guardians Discussion
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
The Steves discuss the 2014 blockbuster, Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 1, along with what's making them happy in pop culture today.
What's Making Us Happy?
Guardians Discussion
Ending- Any music or audio clips were borrowed from the original source material.
Hello, returning happys and new listeners. This is Steve Bennet-Martin
Stephen:and, and this is Stephen Martin-Bennet. And in welcome to a lifetime
Steve:of happy, the podcast where we take you on our journey through some of the movies, TV shows, and other bits of pop culture that are helping to keep us happy. We'll hopefully bring a smile to your face along.
Stephen:And today we're continuing Avengers, April with a trip off planet featuring our favorite batch of scrappy space pirates. As we discuss guardians of the galaxy volume one. Yes.
Steve:First my love what's been making you happy.
Stephen:Well, I could honestly say it's, you know, everything everywhere all at once.
Steve:Hey, that's a new movie that we saw.
Stephen:It is a new movie that we saw. Fantastic.
Steve:It was, it was the type of movie that makes you think while also making you laugh while also making you cry while also making you feel all of the feels. Yeah.
Stephen:And it's so it's this multi-verse action comedy, family drama, interpersonal coming of age growth story. And it was just, you know, everything everywhere all at, once. It stars Michelle yell from, um, crouching tiger, hidden dragon. Um, it also has Jamie Lee Curtis in, she, you could tell she was just having the best time in this role. And, um, then also, uh, an actor that I haven't seen for a while, but I saw on the. Um, in Goonies and temple of doom, you'll call him Dr. Jones, um, was one of the main characters and it was just really, really, really good. I definitely want to see it again. And, um, Uh, I like there's so many words, but none of them seem like enough. I dunno. It's one of those things you have to experience.
Steve:Yes, it certainly is. Meanwhile, the, the morning show on apple plus is making me well, I use the word happy loosely because it deals with a lot of heavy content. Um, I'm enjoying watching it. Make it like my new happy show. If you're looking for a happy show, it's not, um, it's not it it's tackling, you know, the, the me too movement, sexual misconduct in the workplace they're getting into season two. Um, it's, it's a little
Stephen:ageism. Yeah. They deal with a lot of stuff, but it is, um, good drama. It's good drama. And it's Jen Aniston, Reese Witherspoon. And a lot of really talented actors and actresses, and it's definitely a new type of role for Jennifer Aniston. It's certainly
Steve:is. Yep. Yeah, with that, having to be the bene, the second show we watched on apple after Smiggle dune, we're at two very ends of the spectrum, but both involve a lot of comedians. And, but this one is, they're not in their usual comedian roles. No, not at all, but you know what? It is more of a comedy than what we've seen previous.
Stephen:Is it
Steve:guardians of the galaxy is, and that was my attempt at a segue. But, uh, yeah, uh, I am DB describes it as a group of intergalactic. Criminals must pull together to stop a fanatical warrior with plans to purge the universe.
Stephen:I mean, technically that's what it is, but it seems like it misses the whole point of the movie whenever they do it like that, I'm like, And w I read that and I was like, that sounds really serious. And I guess that is the plot, but in my head, I'm like, but that's not at all what it's about. What's it
Steve:about my love. Oh,
Stephen:so the reasons that we love it. Yeah. It's hysterically funny.
Steve:It is very funny. Yes.
Stephen:Um, the music is amazing.
Steve:It was nominated for a Grammy. It did not win it, but it was nominated and.
Stephen:This sense of found family. Yes. Um, the interpersonal dynamics with all of the characters, the gorgeous set pieces, like it's a beautiful film. Um, the action is wonderful. The dialogue is really witty and smart. Like I don't have any bad things to say about this movie. It does a lot of heavy lifting. To get us further in the MCU.
Steve:Yes. And one thing that I would add to it, I don't love like everything about it. There certainly are some elements that could be better, but I also do want to just point out that I find, like, it brings like the weirdness to a lot of the MCU that wasn't there previously. Like not only is it funny and. That's funny and space. Hi-jinks like we even seen Thor, how that like shifts once they go into space, how all of a sudden everyone's a little bit funnier and wittier, but it also just brings like the weirdness of having like cosmos with the dog and having Howard the duck in the post credit scene. And just like the weirdness of space is something that I feel like, you know, comics are always pretty weird and they kind of like try to make like iron man and, you know, captain America and all that. I'm like, I'm a lot more grounded in reality than we typically see in. And I feel like this brought them like a huge way forward to say, you can be as wacky and crazy as you get in the comics and people are going to love it. And we've seen that growth since then significantly. Absolutely. Yes. Now guardians of the galaxy is the 10th entry in the MCU, the Marvel cinematic universe, and was released on August 1st, 2014 with a budget. It
Stephen:doesn't seem sorry. It doesn't seem like that was eight years ago. It was eight years ago. Yes. And that it was only the 10th entry in the MCU.
Steve:Now they've had 58. No, they have not had 58 if you're keeping track, but it is not it's growing quickly. And it has a budget of 192 to 232 million. What's the difference of 40 million when you're talking Marvel money. Um, and it had a box office of$772.8 million.
Stephen:That's what we like to call a success.
Steve:Yes, it was directed by James Gunn who wrote the screenplay with Nicole Perlman, a gun started his career writing movies, like Scooby-Doo one and two.
Stephen:Um, I officially blame him for Scooby-Doo one, but he definitely. Um, fixed that with number two, but we'll do the Scooby-Doo movies at some point. I'll go further into that.
Steve:Yay. And he did move on to directing with the 2006 horror comedy slither. Oh.
Stephen:It's so good, but they're moments in that movie that makes me want to throw up. Yeah.
Steve:And the 2010 movies, super, which I can't recall. Nope. Um, Pearlman consulted on Thor before landing this gig. Uh, and also co-wrote last week's captain. And Pokemon detective Pikachu. Apparently if you ask Gunn, he scrapped most of her work and not a lot of it is in the final product. It was all his, but you also don't really want to ask gun for a lot of things that he thinks other than just making good movies, because there was some scandal involved with him in the guardians movies, where he was fired at one point before being, being brought back on. Isn't that true, babe?
Stephen:He was, um, it was after two. Uh, before three had gone into production, somebody did a deep dive into the past, on his Twitter and found some things that he was no longer proud of and no longer stood behind. And, um, that was during the time where America was like, look, actions have consequences. And so he apologized. Um, his life since then has been different. So it's one of those things people can grow. Um, and the fans, the actors, um, every cast member said, bring him back or we're not doing it either. And Disney said, oh,
Steve:Yes. And, uh, speaking of the cast, it features an ensemble cast of heroes with Chris Pratt as star, Lord, and Peter Quill. We know him from Jurassic world. Yup. Uh, Zoe's Zell Donna. She was
Stephen:the lead, the lead blue monkey person and avatar.
Steve:And now she's the lead green person in this movie. Good morning.
Stephen:And she was also Hora in the star Trek, reboot movies.
Steve:I wonder if she's ever just played. Uh, O'Hara is human. Oh, okay. Well, there you go. Yeah. And it also has Dave Battista from the WWE as Drax, the destroyer
Stephen:VIN diesel from fast and the furious as
Steve:group and Bradley Cooper from a star is born as well as a bunch of other stuff as rocket, the raccoon.
Stephen:And every good hero needs some good villains. And here we have Lee pace as Ronan Lee paces in one of my favorite happy shows of all time, pushing daisies as a pine maker,
Steve:I have a very different role on
Stephen:guessing severely different role. It did deal with death though, but it was
Steve:a racist, tiring. No, he was not. Oh, Michael Rucker, who we know from the walking dead. Speaking of racism. Yes. Is yonder.
Stephen:Karen Gillan from doctor who and selfie as Nebula and Jilin. Jumaan hidden SU as coreth.
Steve:Yes. And what was funny is we'll get to him later. Um, now for the comic book origins, the guardians of the galaxy, like many teen books has gone through iterations, but it started back in 1969 with a team that includes Vance Astro Martinex to Naga captain Charlie 27 and young.
Stephen:I know none of those names other than Yondu and if it weren't for these movies, I still wouldn't know Yondu
Steve:apparently I did not go back and read them, but it, it is, uh, while there is time travel involved where they do it cross or intersect with the characters that we know from the Marvel 606, the general gist of it all. That, you know, captain Charlie 27, it was a captain who was like flung like a thousand years into the future. And he's with like the last of all of his kind and like that everyone in that team is the last of their kind. Or maybe the Vance was the human, who knows. Yeah. But they were all like the last of their kind, uh, fighting in some sort of far future world that would oftentimes have. Time traveled to bring them back into like the six month six timeline. But oftentimes they were very far removed, uh, which led to like a fun playground, huh. And, uh, in 2008, Dan. The da in 2008, Dan Abnett and Andy Lanning formed the team that now resembles the one in MCU featuring an initial roster of star, Lord rocket raccoon, Groot, Fila, Val Gomorrah, Drax, the destroyer and Adam
Stephen:warlock. And that's more likely the one that I know, especially whenever, um, the all new X-Men and the guardians teamed up in 2014, 2015. Whenever, um, Jean Gray was put on trial for the crimes of the Phoenix, even though it was a teen. Whole other thing, but that's a lot of the people we solve them. Yes.
Steve:As well as kitty pride became a, uh, guardian at some point.
Stephen:Yup. Because she was dating slash engaged to Peter Quill.
Steve:Yes. Now, uh, Fila Vel was the second artificially created offspring of captain Marvel and is yet to be featured in the MC. Well, Adam warlock was created by Ayesha and a group of scientists called the enclave to defeat the guardians of the galaxy and was teased and volume. Choose post credit scene and will be played by well Poulter in volume three. Wow. Why do you think that those two were left out of this team?
Stephen:Um, Adam warlock seems to be something you want to build towards because. You were already dealing with a lot just going into space because like Marvel space is different than what people are used to with star wars space in star Trek space. It's a little more out there. So you need, um, at a more Lux, a little for more of a push and file Lavelle. We're just now getting to Marville and who knows if they're going. Introduce that character at all. So it's another one of those things of better left to the history of books potentially. What about, you know,
Steve:uh, I mean, that makes sense to me. I don't know much of either of those characters, although I know Adam more like becomes a much bigger thing as this time in the MC or not the MCU, but as Marvel comics goes on and having read a little bit more about what the team was like, I mean, how would you say Star-Lord and the, his group are different in the comics than they are in the book or in the movies that we see. Um,
Stephen:so. In the comics. I definitely see star Lord, like, and I know that we see character growth and everything like that. But, um, the star Lord that I saw in 2014 in that time is definitely not as much of a screw up bumbling type of idiot. As this
Steve:star Lord is. Yes. I mean, that's the one thing that I understand is that he already comes kind of equipped with his backstory, or we know about his father, which we learn about more in volume two, but like in the comics star, Lord has called star Lord. Not because he's a bumbling idiot naming himself for his ego, but because he is like literally a Lord of the stars and like, he comes with that ego
Stephen:and his dad is very much present and his dad is always very disappointed in him. Like it's a thing because you know, having interplanetary parents is definitely a Marvel thing.
Steve:Yes. And we'll get more into the other characters as we go on, but it does start off with a young Peter Quill, uh, in earth at 1988, uh, sitting in the waiting room of a hospital, listening with headphones to us and mix tape, number one on his Walkman. Yup.
Stephen:His grandpa comes out and gets him so that he can say goodbye to. Who's dying from a brain tumor. Uh, his mom gives him a present and tells him that his father was an angel made of pure light. And Peter, you are just like him. Um, but listeners you'll have to wait till volume two to see Daryl.
Steve:Yes, she asks for his hand, but he's too scared to take it just then she dies. And the disrupt Peter runs outside and is abducted by space
Stephen:ships, uh, mixed tapes, mixed tapes, mix tapes.
Steve:I re I remember making my own mix tapes when I was little, but I was at the age where it was like, you burn a CD for myself. Yeah. And it was more of a CD. What was your experience with mixed tapes?
Stephen:Mixed tapes for the thing, whether it was. Um, listening to the radio for hours to record, um, that one song that you love and, or all of the ones that you like and putting them together or taking, um, it cause a lot of tape decks back then had the two sides. And so you could play one and record on the other side. And so you'd be grabbing different songs and you'd give that to the person that you liked. And it was a very big thing in the eighties and early nineties. And then. It became, you know, mixed tapes you could still have on CDs and. I made this playlist for you these days type of thing. Yeah.
Steve:And true or false, because I didn't have too much experience with it. But I have heard that as much as a lot of like wacky space hi-jinks occurs in this movie that probably one of the most unbelievable parts of the movie is that a mixed tape on a cassette that's been played as much as he's clearly played at last to 26 years. That
Stephen:is most likely true. Um, it should not have lasted that long unless. You know, has rerecorded it onto something because when I got my Paula Abdul forever, your girl, you can better believe. It wore thin and
Steve:broke. Yes. Now speaking of 26 years later, we are find ourselves on the planet, more ag as an adult, Peter Quill, AKA star Lord. Now Chris Pratt gives a very star wars. He vibes as he's exploring the planet, uh, searching for a mysterious or ball dancing to Austin mixtape. Number ones coming. Get your LA.
Stephen:Come and get John Love and he
Steve:finds the orb. Yes. But before he does that, I also want to take a brief aside because he has this really cool piece of tech as he's exploring the planet, that we don't really see going into the movie, like past it, but it looks like he's able to kind of scan the history of the world around him to see what it was like back when it was more in habitated.
Stephen:That's exactly what it looks like, because he can kind of. Like, it looks like a desolate landscape with ruins and things, but whenever he uses the scanner, it kind of shows what major roads would have been and where people would have walked. And by doing that, it leads him in the direction of the temple. He's trying to find. So I thought that was pretty. Even if it was only used for 10
Steve:seconds, I wish it was using more. Cause I mean, that's just like a fascinating tool to have in your little tool belts. Um, I think that that would be like as much as normally I'm like history, blah it's in the past. Um, I think that that
Stephen:would nor history are doomed to repeat it.
Steve:Exactly. I think that that would be really cool. And then if I'm like, where did my keys go? And then I can like scan back and like find where I left my keys.
Stephen:You just need Rachel Gray for that one.
Steve:Yes. But he does find the orb and almost immediately gets ambushed by Cora at the pursuer and his henchman after Cora doesn't recognize Peter a Star-Lord to shoot him. Yes. A shoot out a curse and Peter makes it to the ship, the mulatto and escapes.
Stephen:Uh, yeah. So, you know, you've got iron man with his Woody banter and cap with kind of his dad jokes and quips. Um, but right off the bat, you see a different. Of sense of humor that is unique to the guardians.
Steve:Yes. I mean, you see him using like the little space wrote in that says microphones as he's dancing, you know, and he has that like banter with Cora who clearly doesn't get it. But, um, yeah, I just feel like the sense of humor, something unique and new to Marvel at the time. I remember just like laughing so much throughout the first time that we saw it. And I was like, I didn't expect to laugh as much in a Marvel movie.
Stephen:Yeah. And it's kind of nice in that way where. This is one where it's almost more of a comedy than an action film, or at least it's a good blend where things like, um, captain Marvel definitely wasn't as funny or, um, black widows, not as funny, that was more action and family heavily things. It's nice that there is a variety.
Steve:Yes, certainly. And we know chorus from captain Marvel last week and he names drops Ronan who appears later what a small universe. Yeah. Now did you recognize coreth when we were watching captain Marvel as the bad guy from guardians?
Stephen:I did not. And I really should have, but I mean, I recognize the actor. Yes. Um, because he's a very talented actor, but I had forgotten that he was in this.
Steve:Yes. And speaking of forgotten, when Peter returns to the ship, there's a girl that he had hooked up with. He could completely forgot. Was there accidentally answers the quote unquote space phone as his father figure Yondu calls in to see, uh, where Peter got up to with the orb. Uh, Peter decides he's going to sell it on his own. And after Peter hangs up young newsman reprimand him for always being soft on Peter, despite constant Patreon. Which Yondu brushes off, being more interested in finding out who else is interested in the orb
Stephen:and family dynamics. I mean, they get you every
Steve:time. Exactly. And that's one where I remembered Yondu more fondly, but I think it's from the amazing things they do with him and volume two I'm Mary Poppins. Yes. Um, I feel like they could have used them better in the first one, but he still is a good character. I.
Stephen:I think it's another one of those things that it was after the performances and the audience reception that they realized what they had. Same thing with Karen Gillan, um, as Nebula. It's another one of those things where like, We have something really good here. We need to use more of this.
Steve:Yes. Uh, and there is a war going on between the Cree and Zandar, uh, Nova prime
Stephen:played by the incomparable. Glenn close
Steve:is upset that Ronan isn't honoring the peace treaty that was signed and that the crate aren't doing anything to keep Rhoden in check.
Stephen:Yeah. So the peace treaty is pretty much a useless piece of paper. That, you know, I'm sure whenever the diplomat side didn't everything, everyone was like, yay. But as long as Ronan is still going to attack and the Cree aren't going to do anything that peace treaty means nothing. And war is still going on. Space
Steve:wars and Coretta returns to the dark Aster. A Cree worship led by the genocidal tyrant, Ronan, the accuser. He seeks to destroy the planet of Zandar after their people killed his father and grandfather. Um, coreth reports that he failed in getting the orbit and that Peter has it Ronan wants the, or because he can train it to Thanos in exchange for Thanos destroying Zandar. There's a lot of new space stuff here that we see echo on throughout the future movies. But Ronan decides to send Dionysus daughter Nebula after Peter, uh, but her sister Gomorrah volunteers, and over nebulous complaints thrown in sentence.
Stephen:Uh, and so it's interesting, like, um, we had seen Thanos at the very end of the first Avengers movie very briefly. And you know, it's always interesting whenever you see like a big, bad villain, you think of them as God-like alone, he's got kids, that's like a totally different thing that you wouldn't expect. I mean, even like, um, in the new star wars trilogy, like emperor Palpatine, raise his granddaughter. I mean like that you don't expect the big, bad villains to have family stuff too. So it's interesting. And that's one of the things Marvel does really well is that there isn't really a Marvel. That's all evil. Like Marvel is so good with their shades of gray. And
Steve:we have Ronin here. Who's just evil for evil sake. I know that you got to know a different side of him recently in the comics I did, but Ronan here is definitely a one-sided cur I hate Zandar because there are diverse and I hate diversity.
Stephen:He also says it's because they killed his father and grandfather. He has a personal group. Like Drax does yes. Against Ronan. And so it's one of those things he feels fully justified in it, which again, gray area, like, so I was recently reading in, um, Marvel comics, the war of Kings that dealt with the CR the CRI, the scrawl lots of stuff. And, um, Ronan was. Married to one of the, um, Inhumans. And he definitely was more of a Magneto type character in that. So like that's where I'm talking, like where Marvel does a really good job where their villains aren't all the way evil. Now here. He's pretty, just awful and evil. Yeah. In terms of the Marvel history they had to work with, he didn't have
Steve:to be yes. Now on the planet Zandar we see rocket raccoon throwing shade at Passerbuys, including Stanley, who is being a dirty old man heading on a younger woman log root drinks from the water fountain. Uh, he sees peers warrant and pursues him as Peter takes the orb to a broker and asks what it is, um, because running's group. Goons wanted to too, but once the broker hears running scene, he's like, I'm not getting involved. Like if random mindset, like get out of my shop, he wants to kill us all. It's really bad. And so as he leaves, that's when he gets ambushed.
Stephen:Yup. Outside Gomorrah, standing there and Peter's like, Ooh, hot chick. And real quick, she, um, takes his ball, take it, kicks him in the chest, takes his ball. They fight. Then they're ambushed by rocket and Groot because they're seeking to claim the bounty on Peter and it's all pure chaos. And all they're doing is drawing attention to them. And all the finding that they're doing is actually breaking all kinds of laws and no one's winning and Nova Corp shows up and Peter Gomorrah, rocket and Groot are all arrested, processed, and sent off to the space prison. Um, the kill.
Steve:Yes. Now we touched a little bit on the star Lord that we know in the comics, but what do you know, uh, or what did you know a rocket and Groot before coming into
Stephen:this? Um, not much on Groot. Rocket is, um, he's kind of, if you mixed cable and gambit together in terms of personality, Cables, I've got a plan. I've also got big guns and gambits, um, sense of humor and things. That's kind of how I saw him. I wasn't as familiar with.
Steve:And that's interesting. Cause group out of all of these is actually the oldest character having appeared before it was even Marvel comics entails us to astonish number 13 in November of 1960. I was not alive. Yes, no blame that. I know that. Um, and he did go through again, like many iterations and that times he could talk at times he cut into, at times he was a straight villain at times he was. Gray area. He was even on a team with Nick fury and a whole bunch of other aliens at one point. Um, but yes, he's one of the oldest, which makes sense. Cause he's a tree. Got it. And
Stephen:trees are
Steve:forever. Yes. And uh, pretty much everyone in the prison wants to call Gomorrah because she's the daughter of. Uh, one of the inmates, Drax, the destroyer has a vendetta against her because running killed his wife and daughter. So he wants to avenge them by taking the life of one Ronan's family members in return. Although she's not
Stephen:related, no, but like their team. And so it makes
Steve:sense, but yeah, she revealed, she was planning on double crossing him all along. Um, Peter are using her favor and steps in to stop them from killing her.
Stephen:Uh, and then Ronan is summoned to meet Thanos on his like asteroid thrown world and running reports to who is played by the wonderful Josh Brolin. That Gomorrah is a trader and kills one of the fantasies underlings for showing disrespect to him. Uh, fantas tells him to take care of Gomorrah and get the orb and threatens to kill him. If he doesn't. He also notes that Gomorrah is his favorite daughter. Anger's Nebula, who's standing right there. He was standing right there and also kind of sends Nebula off with Ronan, like go help.
Steve:Yes. And like many things in Marvel comics there, things are a little more complicated than what we get in the movies. Cause they're just setting things up in the movie. Right. But, um, you know, the Nebula, Gomorrah being daughters of dinos is something that translates from the comics as well. Isn't it? I
Stephen:do believe that like, Further away from all the things I'm familiar with. But I do know that that all connects and it's interesting seeing this than I was because, you know, they're giving them dialogue. They're giving him hints of a personality, not as much as we see later in infinity Warren in game, but it's also knowing that he is someone that is feared and respected. Yes. And so they're doing a good job of setting that up and I do appreciate that Marvel was playing the long game with this character. Yes, they didn't introduce. In infinity
Steve:war. And even here, I would never think that he grows to have the effects, like a vape coming, the finger snapper that like destroyed the world. Like literally both like in fiction as well as like the amount of emotional trauma that happened to people at the end of infinity
Stephen:war. Yeah. And it, this, I liked that they played the long game and it, how long it took them to. I'm interested to see if their Marvel's going to have another one of those 22 film set up type of things. Or are we going to have smaller arcs where things are done in 10
Steve:films? Yes. I mean, they're, they're working the multi-verse for all it's worth right now.
Stephen:I am all on board because that means we're closer to potentially having mutants. Yes.
Steve:Now back at the kill with a group of people that no one fears or respects, we have our guardian. Uh, Gomorrah has a plan to sell the orb to someone else. Peter rocketing group agreed to help and split the room. Rocket has a plan to escape the prison, but first he needs one of the guards, risks devices, a prisoner's prosthetic leg, and a battery from a tall column in the prison. As he's explaining that it's very important. The battery gets last group goes and grabs it first as we see in the background. Yeah. Cause it
Stephen:it's so funny that he's all explaining it. And we do see that visual of Groot growing really tall, reaching up polling the thing off the wall and he, and just as rocket. And the important thing is we want to grab it last cause as soon as you do, everything's gonna,
Steve:or yeah. And so with that, uh, the alarm goes off. Security. Droids fly in Gomorrah goes to get a risk devices, Peter negotiates for the prisoners leg drags to so it's decides to join the escape, realizing that eventually Ronan will go after Gomorrah and then he can kill Ronan himself.
Stephen:Good plan. You know, gets the items. They agreed to go.
Steve:Yes. And rockets surprise. The Peter actually got the legs saying that he was only kidding and didn't didn't really need it. He just thought it'd be funny. So I couldn't get the guys like off. I
Stephen:was just like hopping around after that. And just as they're about to run out of time, rocket rigs up the stuff to turn off the gravity in the prison and then uses this occurred security droids, um, as many jets to fly the guard station out of the main prison area. And, you know, they get to the hangar where the ship is, but Peter says, you know, I have to go back for it telling you, you left something behind. We all know exactly what it is because he was looking through his bag and his Walkman wasn't there. And so, you know, he's going back for the Walkman and the mixed tape. And, you know, they think that they've got the orb with them. Cause rocket says you got the orb. And then we see that, um, Quill still has that. They would have at that point, they would have left without him. Yes.
Steve:What's your most prized possession that you couldn't escape an alien prison without you and Remy on. Thank you. Now, Drax is a hundred percent literal, which leads to some funny humor. Uh, what are your thoughts on him the first time watching her now?
Stephen:So the first time watching it through, I didn't enjoy it as much because I kept seeing him messing things up. Like, we'll see later on. And I don't know if they played to his literal humor as much as they did in the second one. Especially once they had the alien girl who was really attractive and he's like, you're so grotesquely ugly. And so it's another thing that I think they saw what they had and they were like, let's build on that. Now. Watch now are liking Drax more now and going back to watch. I have more appreciation for it.
Steve:Yes. I know it wasn't intentional, but I know like the, the one thing I remember like, reading about was like someone with like on the spectrum was like, I identify with Drax. He's just like, Oh, and you know, I know that that wasn't intentional with the writers. That's not like they set out to write someone on the spectrum with Drax, but right. You know, be being literal, not understanding sarcasm. I, you know, you can see how someone could identify with that. Like we identify with like mutans for their otherness. Exactly. Yeah. Now Yondu goes to the broker and finds out. Peter still has. Threatening the broker with his arrow, he gets the man to reveal where Peter might have traveled. Yes. Because every time that we see Yondu, he can't help, but just like shit, like show his arrow. And everyone's always terrified of the arrow where like, it was like eventually like a very strange, like penis metaphor. I was feeling like, he's like, well, look at what I got. And everyone's always like, no, we see later on, but it does. And why people fear it so much. Yeah.
Stephen:And like, if you can take out 20 people all by yourself, That arrow is definitely something to be scared
Steve:of. Yes. Now everyone I'm Peter should gets to know one another better with some conflict and tension between pretty much all of them. Yep.
Stephen:As soon as they arrive on nowhere spelled K N O w H E R E
Steve:no. With your brain. Yup.
Stephen:Where? And, uh, And it's a space station built in the severed head of a celestial, which comes into play with the eternal, with the internals and coming into more things in the MCU. So very nice little nod to the celestial back in phase two. Yes. And we
Steve:get to meet the collective.
Stephen:And while they're waiting for their appointment, Drax, rocket, and Groot get drunk and gamble, Gomorrah and Peter Bond over music. And he explains that his mom made him the mixed. Her favorite songs and Gomorrah listens and she likes it and he asked her to dance, but she doesn't trust him. And he said, it reminds him of the old fable about other people who didn't dance and had sticks up their butt called Footloose,
Steve:very concerned over how the six got up their butts. Yeah.
Stephen:And he makes a pass at her, but she says, she's not one of those starry-eyed waves he's used to, and she won't fall for his pelvic sorcery.
Steve:Good for her. Cause I know I felt for your pelvic source three, babe. Well then it worked. Yes. Before they meet with the collector, Drax, rocket and Groot, all drunk. Get into a big fight. Drax thing is dumb and rocket is tired of people calling him a rodent or a raccoon or vermin. Uh, Peter talks to them at a fighting the collector's assistant, fetches them and they all go to meet. Jackson goes off on his own and makes a call to Ronan. Cause he's an idiot. Yes, but we got to meet the collector a little bit more. Benicio Del Toro who has a giant assortment of collectibles from all over the galaxy, including cosmos the Soviet space dog, as well as we see later, Howard, the doc. Yep. Uh, the collector puts the orb into a kind of. Thingy which unscrews the two halves of the Orban reveals. That's a capsule for an infinity stone and it's a purple one. Yes. And we get more exposition there. And again, I'm just like, wow. How could someone watch infinity war without having watched guardians?
Stephen:Oh, I know like the, as I said, this does a lot of the heavy lifting because it explains that the infinity stones are six singularities created during the big bang. And you know, obviously there's more than the one here and we have. Other ones by this point and that they can destroy planets. Yes.
Steve:The collector's assistant suddenly grabs the stone, trying to kill him and escape. The infinity stone is poisoning her and then she, and everything in the area blows out.
Stephen:It's a pretty impressive explosion too.
Steve:Yes. It's a really good way to kind of show how dangerous these stones can really be. Um, luckily most of the people survive along with causes. Uh, cause you don't want to harm the puppet. Exactly. I made sure to add that in the notes, because then you have to make sure that cosmos, okay. Even if he has Russian and they're not our friends, friends
Stephen:at the moment, eh, it's not cosmos fault that he's rushing.
Steve:Yes. Uh, Peter and others managed to escape with the orb, holding the infinity stone. They decided the safest place to take the stone is Nova. It's dangerous to be anywhere else in. They know Ronan will use it for destruction. Yup.
You
Stephen:know, for a comedy, Robin space, as we said, this lays so much groundwork for other Avengers movies, then a lot of the rest of them
Steve:put together. Yeah. Yes. For sure. And suddenly the group is ambushed by Ronan and his crew responding to drags his call Yon do's Ravager plan two platoon also shows up and there's a lot of space fights and. Fighting fighting kick kick, and people fighting with each other, uh, ultimately ending with Gomorrah, rocket, and quilt, taking off in a single passenger ships while Nebula, and some of Ronan's goons chase after them, Drax tries to fight Ronin, but gets his ass beaten. Yeah.
Stephen:And so this is a very big part that you see more on the second time through Drax felt this was his big moment. Ronan didn't remember Drax or killing his fans. This hurt Drax even more because the most defining moment of Drax is life. And the other person involved didn't bother to remember it like that had to hurt like all over again. And I think besides Ronan being as powerful as he is, I think that in itself, through Drax office game and he was destined to lose at that time.
Steve:Yep. And with that Nebula chases can worship above the atmosphere and blows it up, showing that she's really ready to kill her. Sister gets the infinity stone leaves, Kimora floating in space. Peter realizes he can't allow her to die. So he calls Yondu to tell him where he is, then exits the ship and floats, took a Mora where he gives her as little space mask to help keep her alive. Yondu arrives and collects Peter and Gomorrah with a tractor beam right before they can freeze to death. This is where we see the Yondu ship is the same ship that abducted Peter as a child.
Stephen:And I like all the pieces floating together and, you know, We, you know, you're kind of putting all that together, but it's nice that they're also not hitting you over the head with it.
Steve:Yes. Meanwhile, onboard the dark Aster Ronin, tell Stanos that. Now that Ronan has the infinity stone, he can cut Thanos out of the deal. And instead he's going to destroy Zandar himself and then go after Thanos, he grabs the, the infinity stone and it gets all sort of swirly. Eviling puts it into his hand. Yeah.
Stephen:And, you know, I always saw, like, I know it's a hammer, but you know, he's kind of judge, jury and executioner Ronan, the accuser. I always in my head called it as gavel. That's kinda like, um, and so Nebula has also like, even though, you know, oh, you're betraying my father. She's like, I don't care about that. Um, I'm going to stay in fight with you and you can help me kill fan. I was like, I like this idea.
Steve:And back on Yondu. And Yondu is going to kill Peter for double crossing them, even though no one, including himself believes he's actually going to do it. And he can reconsider his, when Peter says he has the plan to get the order back and Yondu keeps on saying, you know, well, the entire crew wanted to eat you. And I stopped them from eating you. So you should be indebted to me. And he's like, dude, you can't be like applauded for not eating a human baby.
Stephen:Yeah. That's not something people do. So you shouldn't get. We're not doing something you shouldn't have done. Yes. I love that. On
Steve:nowhere, Drax, Groot and rocket decided to join forces to save Peter and Gomorrah from Yondu because Groot reminds rocket that Peter and Gomorrah are the only friends they've ever had. And
Stephen:I do like that because you know, of course, Groot is only saying I am Groot, but rocket is fully versed in what all that means. And. I really liked that moment, because like you had of, we had kind of seen them as friends, but then for them to acknowledge, yes. They're the only friends we've ever had. You're like, they're all outsiders. And it's really at that moment where you. Oh, my God, they really are all outsiders. And they're all each other
Steve:has. Yes. And they're starting to slowly realize that as well. A rocket basically holds up the, the Yondu ship and says, he's going to blow it up. But Peter comes out and says like, you don't need to blow it up. It's all good. Yeah.
Stephen:And now everyone on board, the Milano, Peter explains that they must prevent Ronan from touching the infinity stone to the ground of. Because it would wipe out the entire planet and that he has a plan to stop Ronan and there they're like, great, great. What's your plan? It's like 12% of a plan. I have part of a plan. It's 12% of a plan. And everyone's scoffs except Groot who informs them that through rocket it's more than 11% of a plan.
Steve:Yes. And they all one by one decide that it's a cause worth dying for, especially if they're dying together and working together. So, you know, we finally have the team, uh, that they would rather die as friends, a group of others, uh, who in circumstances would never would have met our perfect found family for each other. And they do this really well. It's not just a superhero team, it's a family. And
Stephen:that's something Marvel does extraordinarily well is making their teams feel like family because the X-Men, aren't a team. They're a family. Like mutants are definitely a thing. The Avengers are coworkers. The guardians are a family. Yes.
Steve:And rocket says for their plane, he's going to need one of the Ravagers bionic eyes. And no one believes him because he can only pull that shit once in a movie. He's like, no, no guys, I need it. Yes. Peter warns the Nova Corp that Ronan is coming to destroy them and they should be ready. Uh, Glenn close is like, do we believe him? And in his message, he says he might be an asshole, but he's not a hundred percent of the day.
Stephen:And I believe that yes.
Steve:And then I love when she's like, do you believe it? He's like, well, I don't believe anyone's truly a hundred percent of the deck. Yeah. In which case I would beg to differ, but that's a different
Stephen:podcast because that is now rockets ideas to blow a hole and Ronan ships so that Peter GRU, Drax and Gomorrah can get on board. Gomorrah is going to cut the power for Ronan security. And they're going to blow him up with a Canon that rocket. Bing bang, boom, easy peasy done.
Steve:Yes. And the plan, like for pretty much goes the way that they expect it to, uh, up to the point where when they end up shooting Ronan with the device, it doesn't work. Not at
Stephen:all. And, um,
Steve:what I like on the way though, is green lights up a path in the dark Aster, um, which was really beautiful. What tracks confess this feelings. Including the stupid tree in the green whore, which, I mean, I wish she'd stop calling her a Hort cause she doesn't do anything core. I know it's a problem, but this movie isn't always the best to the women in it, unfortunately. No,
Stephen:but you'll have
Steve:that Gamora and Nebula get into a big fight while Drax Peter and Greg go to the bridge to the ship and fire that cannon
Stephen:and dozens of Nova ships linked together. And like it's hundreds of ships and. Like they formed this giant net that slowly tried to slow down the descent of the dark Aster, because if they can keep it in the air that keeps Ronin from touching the stone to the ground and Gomorrah finally beats Nebula, Nebula falls out of the dark Astro lands on a Ravager ship, knocks the pilot out of that. And she flies away and never to be seen again until the second movie and Ronan orders, his ship to start comma causing and disaster. Which rocket and Yom dues men began, um, you know, pointing their ships north towards the sky and shooting down as many of the kamikaze as they can. It's a very big deal. And they're like, it's being shown very well. Like the movie's doing a very good job of showing how serious
Steve:this is. Yes. Uh, we even see a Drax kill core app on the. Well, crew takes out a whole bunch of Ronan's men with his long, thin branch growing arm, which he thrashes around.
Stephen:Yeah. That was an interesting thing to see, like the tree guy in a whole new light, because we saw him, you know, with rocket on his shoulder, in the prison screaming and kind of punching people and creating the shield. Right. But to create a 50 foot long. Impaling device and then beating people to death with it. Yes.
Steve:And, uh, as I previously mentioned, when I jumped the gun, uh, the gun does not work on Ronan, but then rocket crashes, the mulatto into the bridge, seemingly destroying him. The entire ship is plummeting towards Zandar. So Groot forms, a giant nest around all of them for safety. And it's very touching. We see rocketing upset cause he knows exactly what Groot is doing. Will end up killing him. Crude who up to only this point said I am group responds with, we are Groot. Yes. The ship crashes, everyone except group is okay. Who is a pile of twigs strewn all about the battle's not over though, because Ronan is still alive and well,
Stephen:and this is where it gets a little more going. This is the big finale and, you know, Ronan comes out and he sarcastically calls Peter and everyone else, the guardians of the galaxy, and he raises his, you know, hammer gavel for a final blow. When Peter stands up and starts to dance. Ooh, cha things ago and I get easy. Uh, I mean, challenges run into a dance off and ran Ronin is very confused. And then Peter tells him, no, it was just a destruction because rocket had been taking that time to form a, build a new big gun. And, um, they shooted at Ronan's hammer. It explodes, and that releases the infinity stone. Yes, Peter
Steve:grabs the stone before Ronan can. He starts to be affected in the same way as the collector, his assistant. Um, but Gomorrah tells him to take his hand and unlike, because in earlier we see wasn't able to do it for his dying mother. He is able now with the growth that he's had to be able to take someone's hand and share their pain and his pain with them. And, uh, then. Uh, rocket grab it as well. And while no mortal man can hold an infinity stone, the four guardians together can hold it and they use it to destroy Ronan and insane. Through
Stephen:the power of friendship? Yes.
Steve:When would it be nice though? If more things can be settled by a dance-off instead, imagine if Ronan was like, okay, and then they'd had a dance
Stephen:off. Oh, I would have loved that. And then the only problem is if like Ronan was like a trained b-boy and I think that, you know, Quill would have lost that because I think he's more dancing with his heart. We're Ronan probably has the skills and then, oh, it could have been bad. Yeah. Yes.
Steve:Now at rocket collects one of the sticks. That was one screwed, which later we will see grow into a baby Groot, which is a thing from the comics. I found out where it is like kind of the life cycle of Groot. Um, and Yondu appears in demands the stone as per his original deal with.
Stephen:And Peter gives him the orb and Yonda was men take off. And one of them notes that he likes Peter, and he's glad he didn't take him back to his dad. Like they were supposed to all those years ago.
Steve:Dun dun, duh, and Gomorrah is upset that Peter gave up the stone. Peter reveals, he switched the orbs, which we all saw coming and he still has the stone, which he hands over at Nova HQ. Yep.
Stephen:And so that's also where we learned Peter's. Half human, half something ancient and unknown. And as we said, it's those nonhuman genes that allowed him to hold the infinity stone without dying.
Steve:And maybe we'll find out more in volume two. Maybe there's a party on Yondu ship. His crew is celebrating, but Yondu suspiciously looks at the orb and opens it and enter it as a troll doll. And he smiles
Stephen:because he kind of knew that he. It's Peter.
Steve:And wasn't going to hand it over that easily.
Stephen:Nope. Peter finally opens the present 26 years after his mom gave it to him. And it's a cassette labeled awesome mix tape number two. And he asked the guardians where they want to go. And Gomorrah says you lead star Lord, which, you know, he finally had someone calling that name and it made him that made his whole day. And he asked if they want something good or something bad. And they decide it's something a little bit of both.
Steve:Yes. And rocket holds in the pot, the stick that he retrieved after a great sacrifice. And we see the face of a tiny Groot on the stick, which starts dancing during the end credits while Drax is in the background, sharpening his knives. And he stops every single time that tracks looks at him, but then starts dancing and Drax looks away. You can tell that, like, that was the clip that sold a million baby grits and coffee cups. Yeah,
Stephen:100%. And, um, because it wouldn't be a Marvel movie without an after credit scene, the collector is sitting on, um, all the wreckage drinking when Cosmo the Soviet space dog comes up and licks his face. And. We hear a voice that said that's gross. And the camera turns to reveal Howard, the duck sitting on broken cage, drinking a martini. Yeah.
Steve:Yes. And how are the duck, which goes to show that not everything Marvel ends up being a
Stephen:success, no poorly a Thompson and Howard the duck back in the eighties, everyone thought it was going to be ginormous really successful. It had a lot of problems in development and didn't end up being what they were hoping. It is now a cult classic though.
Steve:Um, so I would argue that he's wrong, dog. Licking your face is not gross at all. It's love and love is beautiful. Yes, isn't it. Remy camp. And you know what else is beautiful and lovely our fans? Yes. And how can they get in touch with us?
Stephen:Well, they can get in touch with us on all the socials, whether that is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, or. At happy life pod.
Steve:And you can also email us with your thoughts on the guardians, as well as any of the Marvel movies we have coming up this month@happylifepodatgmail.com. Yup.
Stephen:And you know, until next week, everybody stay happy.