Guardians Of The Galaxy / GoTG - Tropes S to Z

Tropes # to C | Tropes D to J | Tropes K to R | Tropes S to Z

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S

• Sacrificial Lamb: Saal and his wingmen die trying to stop Ronan's ship.
• The Scapegoat: Everyone in the prison hates Gamora, considering her guilty by association due to what Ronan has done. Rocket says she'll last a day at most.
• Screaming Warrior: Groot and Rocket do a lot of screaming in the Prison Riot.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • Nebula pulls one of these during the final battle after falling off the Dark Aster. She manages to hijack one of the Ravager ships and make a clean getaway.
  • Rocket tries to when Ronan gets the Infinity Stone and Peter and Gamora get captured by the Ravagers, but Groot and Drax talk him out of it.
• Screw Your Ultimatum!: Rocket and Drax attempt to rescue Peter and Gamora by threatening to blow up the Eclector unless they are turned over in the next five seconds. Yondu doesn’t believe the threat, having never met Rocket, and he’s unaware that this weapon is allegedly capable of blowing up moons. Subverted by Peter when activates the comm himself to convince Rocket to stop.
• Self-Deprecation: A Running Gag through the film is that none of the characters have ever heard of the "Guardians of the Galaxy", much like a large percentage of the film's intended audience. It's lampshaded in the second trailer:
  Star-Lord: I look around, and you know what I see? Losers! We've all lost something... But life is giving us a chance!
• Sequel Hook:
  • We need to know what's on Awesome Mix Vol. 2.
  • James Gunn has said what happens in the film is important to the plot of the third ''Avengers'' movie. In fact, the first words that appear in the credits are "The Guardians of the Galaxy will return."
  • It's discovered by the Nova Corps that Quill is only half-Terran; they're just not sure what the other half is. More importantly, it turns out that Yondu and the Ravagers were hired by his dad to fetch him, but decided to keep Peter around rather than finish the job.
  • Drax shifts his vendetta to Thanos, as while he avenged his wife and daughter with the death of Ronan, the Kree villain was acting on behalf of Thanos.
  • In addition, Nebula escapes at the end, so we'll no doubt be seeing her again.
  • Anyone who paid special attention to the Collector's collection might have noticed Adam Warlock's regenerative cocoon. It was even shown to be hatched in the Howard the Duck scene. Since Adam plays a huge role in both the Guardians of the Galaxy's formation and the Infinity Gauntlet storyline, this sneaky Easter Egg might have been a hint for those who were paying close attention.
• Serkis Folk:
  • Along with voicing the character, Vin Diesel also portrays Groot via motion capture, even wearing stilts to match Groot's height. An actor named Krystian Godlewski stood in as Groot before Diesel was cast, but none of his footage ended up in the film.
  • Josh Brolin portrays Thanos through motion capture in his two scenes.
  • James Gunn's brother Sean played Rocket on-set, while the character is voiced by Bradley Cooper.
• Sex for Services: When planning the prison break, Rocket suggests that Gamora use the fact that a number of the male prisoners find her attractive to broker a "trade" of some sort for an item he needs. Gamora rejects the idea.
• Sexy Shirt Switch: When we first meet Bereet, she's wearing the T-shirt Peter was abducted in.
• Shattered World: Thanos resides in a debris field floating in space. The stinger from Avengers actually showed the blasted husk from which the debris probably came.
• Shoulder Teammate: Rocket climbs on top of Groot during the prison escape, first to seek protection against the drones, and then taking advantage of the higher viewpoint to indulge in More Dakka once he gets his paws on a gun.
• Shouting Shooter: Rocket does this several times, both when blasting away with a rifle while standing on Groot's shoulder or when firing the guns of a fighter ship that he is piloting.
• Shout-Out: Collected in their own subpage for this movie.
• Shown Their Work: Peter flies through the cold vacuum of space with his hands exposed and removes his mask to save Gamora, who had already been floating in space for at least a minute, and both survive. Contrary to most media depictions of space exposure, if you were actually thrown into space, your head wouldn't explode and you wouldn't freeze; you'd puff up a bit and while you would get cold, it wouldn't be very quick since there's nothing to conduct the heat away from you. Actual death comes from lack of oxygen, but you'd still have a minute or two during which you could possibly be rescued and resuscitated (though probably still in pretty bad shape). Fortunately, Yondu arrives Just in Time to save Peter, and Rocket gives a Hand Wave that Gamora's enhanced physiology from her cybernetics would let her survive a little longer than normal.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!:
  • Drax shoots Nebula with a rocket launcher while she's in the middle of a speech building up to a dramatic showdown.
  • Rocket rams Ronan with a spaceship when he's in the middle of gloating to Drax about how he killed his family.
• Sibling Rivalry: Gamora and Nebula are both kidnapped/adopted daughters of Thanos and refer to themselves as sisters. They also spend nearly every appearance for the rest of the MCU describing their love/hate relationship for each other.
  • Nebula visibly winces at Thanos calling Gamora "my favorite daughter."
• Sigil Spam: The Nova Corps puts their starburst symbol all over the place. Their fighter ships themselves are shaped like starbursts. Even Xandar's capital city resembles the sigil when seen from above. (Which could be explained if the city came first, and the sigil was inspired by it.)
• Single Tear: Towards the end, Peter sheds one when seeing his mom on her deathbed in a dream sequence caused by touching the Infinity Stone.
• Skewed Priorities: After their escape from the Kyln, Quill risks his life and returns to the prison in order to recover his walkman.
• Slow "NO!": In the climax, Gamora does this during Peter's Desperate Object Catch for the Infinity Stone blown from Ronan's hammer.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Peter Quill, a.k.a. Star-Lord.
  • When he announces his name to Korath he expects a reaction, but Korath just shrugs and asks "Who?" It even continues when the Nova Corps get him.
    Peter Hey, y'know what? There's another name you might know me by.
    [Korath turns to face Quill]
    Peter: Star-Lord.
    Korath: [beat] Who?
    Peter: [visibly disappointed] Star-Lord, man. The legendary outlaw? [beat] Oh, forget this...
  • Peter's later ecstatic when Korath actually greets him using his "outlaw name" in their second encounter. It's apparently the first time anyone else has used it seriously.
    Korath [grins menacingly] Star-Lord.
    Peter: [grins in return] Finally!
• Small Universe After All: Word of God says it takes place in the Andromeda Galaxy.
• The Smart Guy: Rocket Raccoon, a brilliant planner with an eye for gadgets. He remotely hacks a number of guard robots, disables a space station's anti-grav and proceeds to fly the guard tower out of the prison, a plan he concocted in a few minutes at most.
• Smoke Shield: The first time Quill fires Rocket's Hadron Enforcer upon Ronan, it causes a big explosion and the Guardians momentarily think they've won, Drax even saying "You did it!" Of course, Ronan is at full power thanks to the Infinity Stone, and they see he's unharmed when the smoke dissipates.
• The Smurfette Principle: Gamora for the Guardians, Nebula for the villains, though the two start nominally on the same team.
• Soundtrack Dissonance:
  • Despite the film being a Space Opera, the soundtrack consists of various sixties and seventies hits — all tracks from Peter's "Awesome Mix Vol 1" mixtape. This emphasizes just how much he doesn't fit into a superhero persona in that situation.
  • The opening has Peter finding a creepy tomb on a dead world, only to start dancing through the monster-infested ruins to the 1974 Redbone's hit "Come and Get Your Love".
  • Peter gets processed and locked up in space prison to "Hooked on a Feeling" by Blue Swede.
  • "Escape (The Pina Colada Song)" by Rupert Holmes plays as Peter fights through a dozen or so security guards to get his cassette player back. It turns out this song is playing because one of the prison guards, who examined the cassette tape, has taken a liking to the song. Granted the dissonance is slightly lessened since a song titled "Escape" is playing as he escapes from a prison.
  • "Moonage Daydream" by David Bowie plays as the Guardians reach the Wretched Hive of scum and villainy, Knowhere Station.
  • The Guardians form their master plan to beat Ronan to the 1976 "Cherry Bomb", by the Runaways.
  • "O-o-h Child" plays after Ronan's ship crashes and Groot dies protecting the rest of the Guardians. Quill uses this to challenge Ronan to a dance-off.
  • "Ain't No Mountain High Enough" by Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell plays as a Right Now Montage shows what Yondu, Nova Prime Rael, Officer Dey, and the Guardians themselves are doing after the Final Battle.
  • The crew flies off to their next adventure to "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. Groot then dances to the rest of the song, while Drax cleans his knives in the background.
• Source Music: The '70s tunes that play in the movie are all from a cassette tape that Peter owns and listens to regularly in the film itself.
• Space Clouds: Clearly our heroes are guarding the same part of the galaxy that Asgard is in. Knowhere and Thanos's... throne room-asteroid thing are both surrounded by nebulae.
• Space Is Air:
  • While this trope is in full force with most of the ships, the Knowhere mining pods are portrayed extremely realistically, consisting of small cramped spheres covered in retro-thrusters that maneuver with Newtonian mechanics.
  • While the Dark Aster and Yondu's mothership are straight examples of big, boxy fortresses, the Milano and her sister ships are streamlined for atmospheric operations; their wings and thrusters even shift during complicated maneuvers.
• Space Mask: Star-Lord's retractable metal mask is somehow enough to protect him or Gamora from the vacuum of space.
• Space Opera: Huge Space Battles! Space Pirates! Space Police! Green-Skinned Space Babes! A MacGuffin that could decide the fate of the galaxy! Welcome to the Cosmic Marvel universe.
• Space Pirate: Yondu and the Ravagers. Although we never see them do any pillaging on-screen, they are described as (and act like) a group that will steal anything from anyone and everyone else treats them as such.
• Space Police: The Nova Corps, who aren't really amused that an Anti-Hero Team is calling themselves the "Guardians of the Galaxy" instead.
• Space Station: Knowhere, which is the floating head of a dead Celestial.
• Space Western: The whole film is one. The Ravager are very bandito/Indian raider-esque and Knowhere is explicitly compared to a old west outlaw town by Quill.
• Spanner in the Works:
  • Rocket had this elaborate plan laid out to break out of prison, and Groot, well-meaning tree that he is, proceeds to immediately grab the item that they were supposed to grab last, which triggers the prison alarms. The rest of the team have to quickly improvise the rest of the escape.
  • The Collector's repeated attempts to get his hands on the Orb through intermediaries result in the disruption of Thanos and Ronan's plans.
• Spectacular Spinning: Onboard the Dark Aster, the team finds itself in what seems to be the machine room where they fight Korath's forces amongst giant rotating cylinders.
• Spontaneous Crowd Formation: In the climactic dance battle, a crowd of people shows up as a convenient audience. This is all the more inexplicable because the city they're in had previously been evacuated, dive-bombed, and borderline colony dropped, yet there are still plenty of people around to gawk.
• Spreading Disaster Map Graphic: During the Collector's monologue about the origin of the six Infinity Stones, we see images of some planet being destroyed by the destructive power of one of the orbs.
• Stacked Characters Poster: The film poster is composed as a pyramid of the main cast with Star Lord on top.
• Starfish Language: It sounds like all Groot can say is "I am Groot", but he's actually very intelligent and well-spoken, and that's just how his subtle and complex language sounds to people no matter what he says. Helpfully, Rocket can understand him.
• The Starscream: Ronan the Accuser is revealed to be this once he gets hold of an Infinity Stone, with the intention of going after Thanos once he's through with the Nova Corps.
• Stealth Pun:
  • The third trailer includes the Tag Line "All Heroes Start Somewhere." After the word "Somewhere" appears on screen, the next thing you see is a space station. The name of that space station, not mentioned in the trailer but known to followers of the comics, is Knowhere.
  • In the end, Yondu opens his capsule expecting to find the Infinity Stone as promised by Quill but finds a troll doll figure inside. In other words, he got trolled.
  • During the Guardians' escape from prison, the Pina Colada song plays... The song's real title? "Escape".
  • Before the Guardians' escape, Rocket asks his companions for a controller from a guard's arm, and the prosthetic leg from one of the prisoners. In other words, Rocket demands an arm and a leg to get them out.
• Stepford Smiler: The Collector's aid, Carina, is always smiling, putting on a chipper mood in front of others. In actuality, the Collector is a Mean Boss to her, constantly hurling abuse at her and her fellow servants, keeping those who crossed him in one of his cages.
• Sticky Fingers: Quill may be a thief, but at least he understands the concept of ownership, whereas Rocket seems to struggle with the idea.
  Rocket: Question: what if I see something that I wanna take and it belonged to someone else?
  Rhomann: You would be arrested.
  Rocket: But what if I want it more than the person who has it?
  Rhomann: It's still illegal.
  Rocket: That doesn't follow. No, I want it more, sir, you understand me?
• The Stinger: Howard the Duck is among the Collector's collections.
• Storming the Castle: The Dark Aster is a space ship and a castle in one.
• Strongly Worded Letter: The Nova Corps's response to Ronan's rampage is to contact the Kree government and request that they issue a statement condemning his actions. They don't even demand anything, despite allegedly having been the victor of the war between Xandar and the Kree.
• Stupid Evil:
  • Thanos's two most trusted minions, his "daughters," have been tortured into serving him. They both betray him.
  • The Collector is a Mean Boss who keeps his maids like slaves and locks them up in cages if they upset him (in full view of the others as a warning). It was a bad idea to unveil the Infinity Stone and explain to the heroes how it worked when one maid was within reach of it.
• Suddenly Shouting: Courtesy of Rocket.
  Rocket: I got one plan and that plan requires a frickin Quarnex battery so FIGURE IT OUT!!!!
  
  Rocket: YOU'RE! MAKING! ME! BEAT! UP! GRASS!
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: The Other (Thanos's chamberlain). Although he was able to scare Loki in The Avengers, Ronan makes short work of him.
• Suicide Attack: Ronan orders his Necrocraft fighters to dive-bomb Xandar during the fight. They manage to do quite a bit of damage until Rocket and the Ravagers start blasting them out of the sky before they can land.
• Superheroes in Space: Perhaps the first film example of superheroes in a Space Opera setting.
• Superhero Movie Villains Die: Ronan and Korath are both killed. Nebula survives.
• Surrounded by Idiots: During the Kyln prison break, an exasperated Gamora declares "I'm going to die surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy."
• Sustained Misunderstanding: Drax, Rocket and Groot either have no idea about human gestures and metaphors, completely misunderstand what people are saying, or are just simply unintelligible.

T

• Take My Hand!: Happens a few times.
  • The first is when Peter's mom asks him to take her hand just before she dies.
  • The second is from Gamora when Nebula is about to perform a Disney Villain Death, which she subverts by timing it so she lands on a passing Ravager fighter.
  • Finally, when Peter is about to be overwhelmed by the Infinity Stone, Gamora calls for him to take her hand, which he does after a brief flashback memory of the first incident.
• Talking Animal: Rocket, only he'll chew your face off if you call him an "animal".
• Talk to the Fist:
  • Drax shoots Nebula with a rocket while she's badmouthing Gamora.
  • Peter interrupts Ronan's monologue by singing and dancing to buy time for Rocket to repair the Hadron Enforcer and shoot Ronan's hammer.
• Tattooed Crook: Drax's body is covered in red tattoos. He's introduced as a prisoner.
• Team Killer: Ronan kills The Other for annoying him during their argument.
• Team Power Walk: The Guardians assemble in slow-mo purposeful walk towards camera◊, echoing many a space movie as well as MCU's own The Avengers. But like with many other tropes, the film plays this moment for laughs with Gamora yawning, Star-Lord scratching his nose, and Rocket adjusting the crotch of his pants.
• Team Title: Obviously, though they are only referred to as "Guardians of the Galaxy" near the end.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: The five of them can't stand each other (with the exception of Rocket and Groot), and spend as much time fighting each other as their enemies. Eventually they become Fire-Forged Friends.
• Tempting Fate: When Rocket explains his plan for their prison break: "Once the battery is removed, everything is gonna slam into emergency mode. Once we have it, we gotta move quickly, so you definitely need to get that last. — Cue Groot ripping the device from the wall, kicking off the red alert.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: Groot impales a bunch of Mooks by extending his arms into them, lifting them off their feet, slamming them down hard enough to break their legs audibly, knocking the other mooks into the opposite wall, then repeatedly slamming the impaled mooks against the walls and ceiling for about thirty seconds.
• This Cannot Be!: Ronan expresses his disbelief that the Guardians together could safely wield the Infinity Stone right before they kill him.
  Ronan: [horrified] You're mortal! HOW?!
• This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!
  Quill: You said it yourself, bitch. We're the Guardians of the Galaxy.
• Throat Light: At the end, when Rocket joins the other Guardians in sharing the devastating energy of the Power Stone, its purple glow can be seen coming from his throat.
• Throat-Slitting Gesture: Drax, being Literal-Minded, is extremely confused the first time he encounters this:
  Star-Lord: She betrayed Ronan. He's coming back for her. And when he does, that's when you... [draws finger across his throat]
  Drax: ...Why would I put my finger on his throat?
  Star-Lord: What? Oh, no, it's a symbol. This is a symbol for you slicing his throat.
  Drax: I would not slice his throat. I would cut his head clean off.
• Title Drop: Star-Lord, Rocket Raccoon, and Rhomann Dey all get to do this, at least in the trailer. In the actual movie, it's said by Ronan and Star-Lord.
• Title In: All locations are introduced via Establishing Shot and on-screen text.
• Token Good Teammate: Groot is the only Guardian that doesn't start the film as a criminal or Jerkass; the only reason he's with them is because of Rocket. Word of God notes that he's essentially "innocent" compared to the others.
• Took a Level in Kindness: All but Groot become more compassionate as the film goes on.
• Toplessness from the Back:
  • In the trailers, Gamora undresses on Quill's ship. This doesn't happen in the movie.
  • And in a non-fanservice version, Quill gets a look at Rocket's back when they're both being stripped of gear at the Kyln. Foreshadowing his later revelation, Rocket has various cybernetics embedded in it.◊ In-between the bald spots and scar tissue.
• Tractor Beam:
  • Yondu's Ravager spaceship is equipped with a tractor beam, visualized by a cone of light. Used early on abduct little Peter from Earth.
  • Later, Yondu saves Peter Quill and Gamora from freezing to death in space by dragging them to his ship with the same tractor beam.
  • Nebula's Necrocraft has one too, which she uses to collect the orb with after blowing Gamora's ship apart.
• Translation Convention: It's safe to say that, except in the prologue, none of the characters speak in English throughout the movie.
• Translator Microbes: Star-Lord's arrest record lists him as having a translator implant in his neck, and Word of God has confirmed that most space-faring types in the MCU (including the rest of the Guardians) have similar implants.
• Traveling at the Speed of Plot: Everyone's space ship engines must be cued to the plot.
  • While it takes the Guardians quite a while to reach Knowhere from the Kyln, Ronan and company manage to receive Drax's phone call and arrive within the same amount of time the Guardians spend talking to the Collector.
  • It takes Yondu and his team very little time to travel from Xandar to Knowhere and arrive at the same time as Ronan.
  • In the time it takes Ronan to travel to Xandar, the Guardians manage to just beat him there, despite having to work out their issues with Yondu first.
• Tribal Facepaint: Although not to the extent of Ronan's This Means Warpaint design, the only other Kree official seen in the movie also bears some black facepaint during his conversation with Nova Prime.
• Trick Arrow: Yondu's weapon of choice is a single golden, high-tech arrow that he can control by whistling and guides with the implant on his skull. He uses it at one point to wipe out an entire detachment of mooks.
• Two Decades Behind: Peter is abducted in 1988 and the story takes place 26 years later. This means it all happens in 2014, Earth time.

U

• Understatement: Yondu describing Peter Quill's father, who he'd been protecting Peter from after having unwittingly delivered God knows how many other children to their deaths, as a "jackass".
• The Unfavorite: With Nebula sitting right there, Thanos criticizes Ronan for having alienated "my favorite daughter, Gamora".
• Unfolding Plan Montage: The heroes' plan to save Xandar is explained via fancy animations on a Holographic Terminal.
• Unspoken Plan Guarantee:
  • Rocket doesn't tell any of the Guardians (or the viewer) how he plans to get them out of prison, only that they need access to the control tower. Gamora is visibly delighted by the reveal.
  • Mostly averted with Quill's 12% plan to save Xandar. We get bits of an Unfolding Plan Montage and though some of the details, e.g. how Ronan gets killed, go down differently, the final outcome is still as planned.
• Uplifted Animal: Rocket is the result of "illegal genetic and cybernetic experiments on a lower life form".
• Used Future:
  • Most of the space faring races' "futuristic" technology is covered in dirt and grime, a far cry from the Crystal Spires and Togas of Asgard.
  • Averted by Xandar, which is very pristine-looking (though more Earth-like, with fountains-and-walkways). At least until a good chunk of it gets destroyed by Ronan's forces.
• Use Your Head: Drax headbutts an opponent during the Prison Riot.

V

• Vehicular Assault: In Space. When fleeing Knowhere, Gamora is assaulted by a Necrocraft that uses its wing to push her pod against a rock wall.
• Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: Ronan the Accuser is surprisingly dark and menacing for a film that's so light-hearted and adventurous.
• Villain Ball: Ronan could have achieved his goals easily if he tried a more subtle approach like just taking a nondescript shuttle to Xandar and using the Infinity Stone without drawing attention to himself. Instead he had to make a big production of it by having his easily recognized flagship fly to Xandar and giving an archetypal monologue about what he's going to do before actually doing it, which gave the Guardians and the Nova Corps the opportunity to fight back. And later, when all Ronan has to do to win is use his warhammer to touch the ground he's standing on, he pauses to gloat even more. He even keeps Rocket alive to hear it. This gives Rocket enough time to reassemble his gun and shoot the Infinity Stone out of Ronan's grip, although not without a little help from Quill challenging Ronan to a dance-off, baffling the villain long enough for Rocket to take the shot.
• Villain Has a Point: During his audience with Thanos, Ronan correctly points out that it was Gamora, not him, who made this mess and their intel has confirmed she meant to betray them the whole time. Yet the Mad Titan summons him and is trying to scapegoat the Accuser. He's also aware that giving Thanos an Infinity Stone is not a good idea.
• Visual Pun: When Yondu opens the orb Peter gave him, he finds a Troll Doll instead of the Infinity Stone. Peter is "trolling" Yondu.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: The relationship between any two members of the team (except Groot), but special mention goes to Drax who is Innocently Insensitive to his teammates. And then Nebula shows up and he blows her away for trash-talking Gamora.
  Drax: No-one talks to my friends like that.
• Voiceover Letter: Peter's note from his mom.

W

• Walking Shirtless Scene: Much like in the comics, Drax is never seen wearing a shirt. Lampshaded in the suiting up scene before the climax; the Ravagers provide the Guardians with dark red leather uniforms. Drax considers the shirt for about two seconds before tossing it away.
• Wants a Prize for Basic Decency:
  • Yondu constantly holds the fact that he didn't allow the Ravagers to eat Peter Quill when he first came aboard as a child over Peter's head and expects his loyalty in return. Eventually Peter calls him out on it.
    Quill: Twenty years you've been throwing that in my face! Like it's some great thing, not eating me! Normal people don't even think about eating someone else! Much less that person'd have to be grateful for it!
  • Peter shamelessly talks himself up after saving Gamora from the vacuum of space.
• The War Just Before: The war between the Nova Empire and the Kree Empire has just ended before the beginning of the film. However, Ronan has got another idea.
• We Have Reserves: When Ronan sends off his Necrocraft pilots to dive-bomb Yandar.
• We Need a Distraction: Peter Quill dances in front of Ronan in order to buy time for Rocket Raccoon to repair a weapon for Drax to fire at Ronan's hammer. It works.
• Weapon of Mass Destruction: The Infinity Stones can be used to wipe out entire planets.
• We Will Not Have Pockets in the Future: The Xandarians are dressed this way.
• We Will Spend Credits in the Future: The universally accepted currency seems to be "Units".
• We Will Use Manual Labor in the Future: The Collector has servants that he does not treat well at all. This causes him problems.
• Wham Line:
  • After the Ravagers leave the Guardians on Xandar:
    Kraglin: Yeah, Quill turned out okay. Probably good we didn't deliver him to his dad like we were hired to.
    Yondu: Yeah, that guy was a jackass!
    • He wasn't kidding.
  • In-Universe, when The Collector explains what the MacGuffin really is.
    The Collector: Oh, my new friends. Before creation itself, there were six singularities. Then the universe exploded into existence, and the remnants of these systems were forged into concentrated ingots. Infinity Stones. These stones, it seems, can only be brandished by beings of extraordinary strength. Observe. These carriers can use the stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field.
    Quill: There’s a little pee coming out of me right now.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: Bereet? Where did she go after Quill got arrested by Nova Corps? (It's blink-and-you-miss-it, but when Rocket is scanning Quill to find out he has a bounty, you can see Quill saying goodbye to her before he heads to the Broker.)
• What the Hell, Hero?: Drax's extremely reckless behavior in his quest for vengeance against Ronan results in a lot of people ending up hurt or dead, and Drax himself getting beaten severely and nearly killed. Rocket calls him out on this, pointing out that Drax is not the only person whose family has been killed by Ronan, and that getting even more people killed while trying to get revenge is not an appropriate method of redress. It works: Drax is deeply shamed, which prompts him to behave much more rationally, and more cooperatively, from then on.
• When Trees Attack: Groot may be the nicest member of the team, but if you make him angry, he's also the most dangerous. Definitely.
• "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The movie ends with one: The Nova Corps seals the Infinity Stone away, Rhomann Dey comes home to his family, Yondu discovers that Peter gave him a troll doll instead of the Infinity Stone and Groot is slowly regenerating in a flower-pot after his Heroic Sacrifice. And as for Peter and his True Companions, they're off to do "Something good, something bad, a bit of both."
• White Male Lead: Despite the diverse cast of alien misfits, the white, male, and human Quill is the leader of the group.
• Would You Like to Hear How They Died?: Ronan does not even remember killing Drax's family, although he later claims he has since recalled and that their death rattle was pathetic. He's probably lying just to infuriate Drax.
• The Worf Barrage: Ronan is completely unfazed by the Hadron Enforcer. He absorbs the attack despite a direct hit to the chest and re-emerged from a cloud of smoke.
• The Worf Effect: The previously Made of Iron Drax gets beaten half to death in his first fight with an an unarmed Ronan, to show just how dangerous the Kree villain is. He actually gets curb-stomped both times he fights Ronan solo; it is only the combined efforts of the Guardians that deliver the win.
• World-Wrecking Wave: The Infinity Stone has the effect of converting any organic matter it touches into energy, unless it is held by a being of incredible power. If used on a planet, the resulting chain reaction would rip through the microbes in soil and seawater, rendering the entire planet lifeless.
• Wretched Hive: The Knowhere space station, a severed Celestial head located at an unspecified place just outside of the galaxy. It's a port of call and observatory for intergalactic travelers, as well as a mining colony for selling illegal materials on the interstellar black market, and so attracts all sorts of unsavory characters.

X

• The X of Y: Guardians of the Galaxy.
• X-Ray Sparks: In the fight between Gamora and Nebula, Gamora's skull and skeleton flicker into visibility when she's painfully shocked by Nebula's electric staff.

Y

• You All Meet in a Cell: Played with. Quill, Gamora, Rocket and Groot first meet each other on Xandar, but the entire team first meets up in the Kyln prison when they run into Drax.
• You Are Not My Father: Gamora never actually says this to Thanos in this movie, but this is clearly how she feels when Quill refers to him as her father. She tells him quite plainly that Thanos murdered her true family and adopted her against her will. Her "sister" Nebula seems to feel the same way about Thanos, but chooses to take a very different path to rectify it.
• You Are Number 6: Rhomann Dey refers to Rocket by the serial number used by the scientists who created him.
• You Don't Look Like You: Most of the costumes are spot-on or at least pragmatic approximations, but Korath◊ looks absolutely nothing like his comic counterpart◊. Which is for the best.
• You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Said by Rocket right after he and Groot finally manages to bag Peter Quill, only to see Gamora coming back at them and just pushing Rocket aside like an annoying pet.
• You Killed My Father: Ronan points this out to the captive Xandarian before crushing his head.
  Ronan: Because I do not forgive your people for taking the life of my father, and his father, and his father before him.
• You Shall Not Pass!:
  • The Nova Corps try to use their fighter craft to physically do this to the Dark Aster as it nears Xandar's surface, using an interlocking shield mechanism which essentially turns their hundreds of ships into one giant energy net. They don't stop it, but they do considerably delay it. And it's only the power of the Infinity Stone that gets the Dark Aster through it.
  • Simultaneously, the Ravagers use their own ships to shoot down Ronan's Mook Mobiles as they try to strafe and Suicide Attack the Xandarian capital city. This, on the other hand, is mostly successful.

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