As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
"LOOK WHAT YOU DID TO ME! For what?! All I wanted to do... was to make things... PERFECT!"
The final adventure for the Guardians proves to be their darkest; a deeply unsettling backstory for one of their members is unraveled and at the helm of it is one of the most sickening villains in all of the MCU. The galaxy may still be under their protection, but there's still dark places full of horrors.
Film
- The Jump Scare of Adam's attack on Rocket is startling, as it comes during a quiet moment with no warning. It doesn't help that Rocket screams in genuine fear and panic as he's thrown across the room.
- The High Evolutionary. One of the scariest and most horrifying villains the MCU has ever presented, he's an uncompromising, manipulative and downright cruel Mad Scientist who strives to create the perfect world. And there is nothing he won't do to achieve it. Chukwudi Iwuji delivers a very sinister performance and it doesn't help that the practical effect of his face being stapled onto his head is disturbing to look at, since it's just a little too smooth and glossy to be actual human skin. And that's because it isn't actually skin. All in all, he's basically the MCU equivalent of Fabius Bile.
- The Orgoscope is a nauseating-looking planet made of living tissue, with its surface composed of living flesh covered in giant hairs.
- Even as the High Evolutionary cradles young Rocket on his lap and speaks to him in a gentle fatherly tone, the sinister intent behind every single action he does and word he says makes it clear that he is nobody's father. Perhaps the creepiest moment is when he describes to Rocket what his mission is; to create what is already there, flawed as it may be, and make it into something perfect for his utopia. He does this as he grabs Rocket's head with far too much force (to the point Rocket is genuinely distressed) and gives the terrified young kit an utterly deranged wide-eyed glare.
- Peter and Groot exact revenge on Recorder Theel, the scientist responsible for Rocket's suffering. The humane thing was to simply shoot him and end the quivering bastard's life quickly. Nope. Peter lunges him and Theel out of the High Evolutionary's ship's window, with Peter fully expecting Groot will jump with him and cushion his fall. Theel only screams and cries at his inevitable demise; we see his body not only hit the ground hard, but Peter dragging his lifeless body through the ground at high speed until they crash into a pond, with all that is left is the Scientist's mangled corpse.
- Crosses over heavily with Tear Jerker, but the High Evolutionary's meltdown over Rocket's superior intelligence. Young Rocket is suddenly awoken in the middle of the night by a frantic High Evolutionary, who needs him to come with him for reasons he doesn't explain. Not only is he clearly erratic and panicking, but since Rocket is only a child and still drowsy, he can't make sense of it and for a moment it seems like something is seriously wrong and the High Evolutionary needs his help to fix it. Instead, poor Rocket is abruptly subjected to a harsh interrogation about how he was so easily able to figure out the evolution chamber's flaw, almost as if he's blaming him for it. At first, the High Evolutionary puts on a front of fatherly patience, but once Rocket stumbles a second too long for his liking, the mask slips as though it's laced with soap and the true monster underneath makes itself known to the terrified and confused Rocket. All the more disturbing, the whole scenario plays out exactly like an abusive father waking his child in the middle of the night and finding any excuse to antagonize them.The High Evolutionary: How did you know about the microseminoproteins, P-1-3? What happened in there? Why? How did you know, P-1-3?
Rocket: I-i-it was too little filtration.
The High Evolutionary: In the hypotonic, yes, we know, we fixed that! BUT HOW DID YOU KNOW?!?! I! MADE! YOU!!!! HOW DID YOU KNOW?!!! Because it worked. It... it worked. Their rage is gone. - Rocket's attack on the High Evolutionary. It begins right after probably the biggest Tear Jerker in the film, and from there it becomes an unmitigated nightmare as the young and traumatized raccoon unleashes all his built-up rage. The use of practical effects lend heavily to the nightmarish gore the film has and this scene is no exception. The only mitigating factor is that Rocket did this to someone completely and utterly bereft of empathy and general redeeming qualities. Keeping with the movie's theme of animal cruelty, this scene perfectly demonstrates why messing with a wild animal - however domesticated it may appear - is a very bad idea, which far too many people in real life learn the hard way.
- Most detail is avoided, though a single shot clearly shows his lips being torn off.
- A Freeze-Frame Bonus as his reinforcements arrive show that his nose has been completely ripped off.
- Granted, it's on the good guys' side, but damn! If the sight of Knowhere drifting lifelessly through space in the first movie was scary, seeing the thing, now converted into a fully mobile spacecraft, staring straight at the High Evolutionary - and the camera, by proxy - like a living, physical god heaping damnation on the "false god" isn't just haunting, it's legitimately terrifying. And judging by his reaction, the High Evolutionary knows that his days are very numbered.
- "RELEASE THE HELLSPAWN!! ALL OF THEM!!!" Upon realizing that the combined might of the Guardians of the Galaxy and Knowhere itself has a legitimate chance of defeating him, the High Evolutionary unleashes a locust-like swarm of the Praetorian Guard crafted by his empire of cruelty and pain; The Hellspawn. Tumor swollen, asymmetrical, malformed brutes comprised of his countless failures to literally nail incompatible body parts together with painful and rusty staples, they can barely even stand, much less walk properly, dragged down by bloated heads and swollen limbs their all too small bodies were never meant to support. All are clearly driven mad with agony by the process that deformed them, obeying the High Evolutionary's commands out of fear of further torture.
- The last humanimal left alive after the destruction of Counter-Earth and the demise of the High Evolutionary's guards is the Controller. She's completely harmless and hostile, but her design is a nightmarish-looking naked mole-rat cyborg piloting the High Evolutionary's ship while literally fused to the control panel via wires and mechanical parts.
- After the High Evolutionary slaughters his own henchmen after they attempt to mutiny, he slowly walks through the wreckage to find Rocket and make his creation pay for his defiance. With his dark silhouette contrasting with the bright flames burning all around him, he looks less like a man and more like a shadowy demon roaming the depths of Hell. It's as awesome as it is chilling.
- The High Evolutionary's true face (pictured above). MOTHER OF GOD. It's no wonder he wears a mask based off his original appearance, because this man barely has any face left to speak of. Rocket didn't just scratch him, he tore off his entire face right down to the bone. There’s barely any skin left at all, just raw red meat flayed right down to the skull in some places. His entire face is basically one big open wound. It's no wonder the High Evolutionary has such a vendetta against him — he looks even worse than the Red Skull!The High Evolutionary: Look what you did to me...! For what...? All I wanted to do... was to make things... perfect!
- Peter nearly dying in space after he fails to make it off the High Evolutionary’s ship before Cosmo’s powers give out. While it nearly happened before in the first film when trying to save Gamora, here his face realistically bloats on-screen like an actual corpse and it seems like he's truly dead until Adam flies in to save him.
