Sort of. Peter Quill references how his mother died and his grandfather screamed at him on the same day, which caused him to leave Earth. Also, the villain, the High Evolutionary, creates many sentient creatures, including some he treats like beloved children (like Rocket) and some that look like human children, and then he rejects, abandons, or attempts to destroy them all.
***SPOILERS***
While he does not forgive his abuser, at the end of the movie Rocket decides not to kill his abuser when he is presented with the opportunity. He explains himself by simply stating “[he is] a Guardian of the Galaxy.” Basically, he chooses to move past his trauma and be the bigger person, establishing that he now knows his ability to do good and be what his abuser said he couldn’t.
I've really gotta argue on this one I do not agree with all the yes votes here. (Spoilers obviously) The greatest act of violence Rocket commits in the film is against The High Evolutionary after he kills his friends and makes it clear he is going to kill Rocket as well to dissect his brain. This reads to me as self defense. People have argued that Rocket's trauma being the explanation for why he acts the way he does also counts as this, but I can't really agree. It's true that we and the other characters do understand Rocket more after finally learning what he's been through, but it's also true that Rocket throughout the films has been a growing and developing character. His arc in this film especially felt cathartic to me: he is able to indirectly tell his friends about his past, and they help him fight against that past and his abuser because they love him. Rocket is able to return to the source of his trauma and save other abused kids (or animals) from what happened to him. This in itself makes the point that I believe the film is trying to make: despite everything horrible that happened to him, Rocket lived past that point and was able to become everything his abuser said he would never be; he's finally able to be happy. That does not make this a "the abused becomes the abuser" situation in my eyes.
Peter Quill is depressed and self-destructive at the beginning of the movie, and drinks until he loses consciousness. Dialogue implies this has become a regular occurrence.
despite all the content of the movie, there is a note in the credits from a humane society stating no animals were harmed in the making of the movie :-) all the animals in the movie are CGI i believe
(Major spoilers) Rocket Raccoon's backstory is explored, particularly how he grew up in a lab with three other experimental animals: Lylla the otter, Teefs the walrus, and Fllor the rabbit. All three of these characters are shot to death onscreen. In another scene, a living turtle is put in a chamber, sprayed with chemicals to make it evolve into a humanoid turtle, and then burned alive. In addition, an entire world of similarly evolved animal humanoids is destroyed, and several are seen dying onscreen.
The entire movie unfortunately is set up around animal abuse and mutilation in order to set up Rocket’s back story. It is very hard to watch and very gut wrenching, I do not recommend watching this if you are an animal person. I felt very sick and unsettled after watching this. Very depressing movie.
Yes, graphic images on screen of animals are shown dead and lying on the floor in the middle of the movie after being hit in the line of gunfire . This could be distressing for some viewers.
A rabbit was torturously vivisected, abused, and turned into a cyborg before the events of the film and (spoilers) later gets shot with sight of the body.
There’s a cat-like alien animal and I wasn’t sure if they’d make it, especially with how many other animals die in the film. Gamora briefly threatens the cat alien with death but they ultimately survive.
I would say yes. At the beginning of the movie, Peter passes out from drinking too much, and the others are worried about him. One of them mentions helping Peter by "touching" him (i.e., emotionally connecting), but Drax interprets this as sexually touching Peter, and says they'll need to "draw straws" to pick who does it since he doesn't want to volunteer. This is uncomfortable, as Peter is unconscious during the discussion, and the comment about drawing straws suggests that the hypothetical touching would be involuntary even for the perpetrator.
Extensive scenes of animals, sentient animal-creatures, and human-like children kept in cages. One woman taken hostage, held at gunpoint, and repeatedly threatened with murder. One minor villain held against his will and dragged to his death.
I would say yes. At the beginning of the movie, Peter passes out from drinking too much, and the others are worried about him. One of them mentions helping Peter by "touching" him (i.e., emotionally connecting), but Drax interprets this as sexually touching Peter, and says they'll need to "draw straws" to pick who does it since he doesn't want to volunteer. This is uncomfortable, as Peter is unconscious during the discussion, and the comment about drawing straws suggests that the hypothetical touching would be involuntary even for the perpetrator. The whole scene is presented as humourous, and some audience members laughed.
Yes, multiple characters freeze in space and rocket is shown foaming at the mouth and struggling to breathe after being hurt by a powerful energy blast
A planet full of people explodes and at another point a lot of animals that were tortured/experimented on are said to be burned in the morning but it isn't shown on screen and the main character escapes.
There's an entire planet grown from flesh that gets cut, burned, and squashed in various gross ways. CG animals are cut open and have artificial limbs and other additions attached to their bodies.
Several non-human characters (notably Nebula and Mantis) get their arms, legs, jaws, or other bones graphically broken in fights. They either self-repair or use high-tech med-packs to instantly heal.
Yes, the high evolutionary is heavily scarred after rockets rage after his loss of his best friends. At the end of the movie, the team rips off his skin mask and you can see a bloodied face with just muscle and missing teeth
Somewhat. An acquaintances of the high evolutionary falls with quill and groot until groot grows a glider and smashes the bad guy into the ground and later a lake
Not seen onscreen, but Nebula speaks about her father Thanos cutting her eyes out and replacing them with mechanical ones "as torture." A sentient walrus also has grotesque metal frames that appear to pin his eyes open at all times, leaving them red and irritated.
Rocket saves the other animals. Quill stayed behind to save the last of the animals. Adam tried to save his mother. Adam’s mother tried to protect Adam
No, because no one is in a romantic nor sexual relationship (except for the unnamed married couple they meet). However, Peter—who is hoping that Gamora will date him again—has an awkward minute where he suddenly briefly considers Nebula as a potential love interest, right in front of Gamora. It doesn't seem like Peter is joking so it's a bit weird, but everyone drops it and isn't offended.
Some mild to moderate Jumpscares. The most “strong” jumpscare is when a monster is suddenly revealed by a flashlight. Which happens close at the end of the movie. There are also milder jumpscares (sudden explosions etc.) But the movie itself, don’t have alot of jumpscares and it rather focuses on action and drama.
Technically yes. When the main characters are arriving on the antagonist's planet (implied to have been manually constructed), they briefly fly over an ocean bay. The same bay is shown again when the antagonist's ship lifts off. After Peter jumps from said ship, he lands in a shallow pond/stream.
if anyone else saw this chain of comments and got confused- allow me to explain in unnecessary detail. in about the second group fight, nebula is shot from behind with a ray gun and falls forward. when she lands something that looks like blood or oil shoots out of her mouth a bit. if you’re not expecting this, the way in which is comes out could look like v*, but knowing her character it’s probably oil that was expelled from the impact of the blast. i went in knowing about this scene and it didn’t affect me since i knew it wasn’t v*. some people have mentioned at the end there are monsters that spew goo. this isn’t v* and shouldn’t be mentioned in this category. they just spew it like blood. it doesn’t even come out of their mouth. however, in this same scene, groot shoves a branch down a monsters throat and expands it from inside. you can see the monster struggling and it looks like he’s choking. this made me uncomfortable but didn’t trigger me too bad. this was during the hallway fight scene at the end.
Yes, it is used to torture rocket and his friends. A hologram can be seen where rocket is tortured while they are inserting his cybernetic implants into him as a baby
Mantis and Drax are debatably autistic-coded but there are also other factors in their upbringing that seem to explain these traits as opposed to implicit autism.
Not exactly, but the first version of the new men have an aggressive gene that causes them to be violent and angry, nearly attacking rocket until they are restrained and neutralized by the high evolutionarys guards
Technically? It's very mild to me though, as my easily triggered depersonalization-derealization was NOT triggered by this movie. Here's some potential issues: (1) Multiple references to Gamora not remembering the Guardians, due to her being from the past (retrieved during Avengers: Endgame). Alt timelines etc. aren't discussed, aside from Gamora insisting she's "not her" (i.e., the deceased Gamora from the recent past). (2) Many flashbacks to Rocket's traumatic past. However, it's always very clear what is/isn't a flashback, as present-day Rocket is comatose. (3) Some animals have their "evolution accelerated" into humanoids with a device on screen, but it's more like instant mutation. (4) A planet is destroyed, but that's not "unstable reality."
The animals are all kept in confined cages. I'm not sure why there are so many no votes on this. To me, hours of dreaming of getting out and seeing the sky felt quite claustrophobic.
Arguably all the Guardians of the Galaxy have some form of PTSD, but this movie is heavily focused on Peter Quill's emotional damage over losing his lover Gamora, and Rocket Raccoon's extensive emotional damage over the deaths of his friends and his creator extensively abusing and rejecting him.
No, but some kids cry and get upset after drax mantis and nebula have an argument with each other and one of them blurs out an insult. Drax cheers up the kids by playing with them like he did to his daughter when she was little.
Not exactly, but Drax makes a comment on how an outfit "isn't [his] color", that it "doesn't go with [his] eyes" and the Ravagers laugh. So, still in the same vein, I'd say
Unfortunately the only minorities in the cast play aliens aside from the High Evolutionary (who might be alien but looks identical to a human) and he’s the villain. This character isn’t portrayed in an insensitive or misrepresentative way, however.
There’s a character whose face is actually bloody flesh wearing the skin of a black person’s face over it but this is his actual face that was torn off by Rocket. Tl;dr no blackface.
It’s suggested between Mantis and Quill as a joke, before the joke is extended to the entire crew. Nothing serious but still enough to throw someone off a little.
Spoilers: none of the main characters die. Rocket leads a new Guardians group with Groot, Warlock and others. Mantis goes to learn about herself. Nebula stays to lead Nowhere and Drax helps her raise the rescued children. Gamora goes back to her Ravenger family. Peter returns to Earth to reunite with his grandfather. So everyone gets their arc and ends up in a good place, even if the group is split up. So I suppose it is bittersweet, but the movie ending with the song "Dog Days Are Over" and a literal dance party does attempt to lighten the mood.
A car is not crashing. But Peter is not good at driving, so they are hitting some trashcans and drive over someones lawn. It is implied, that it is a little reckless. Also there is one scene where Drax is grabbing someone off their moving motorcycle. Might even push them off, i cant remember well
Multiple instances but the most prevalent is when they rip off the high evolutionarys face mask and he is revealed to what I can describe as to be looking like two faces bad side but the full skull, being heavily red, only muscle eyeballs and some teeth