The year 2014’s Guardians of the Galaxy was one of those shockingly groundbreaking movies that, in hindsight, should not have been as big of a hit as it was. Realistically, a space action movie about a tree and a raccoon should not have worked, yet somehow Marvel pulled it off.
By adding heart to the characters and stakes to the narrative, Marvel added an expansion to their cinematic universe that fans could not get enough of. Theaters were filled for the sequel more than they were filled for the first, and the Guardians of the Galaxy went on to become highlights earlier this year in Avengers: Infinity War, with a couple of the characters confirmed to return next year in Avengers 4.
While Guardians of the Galaxy did end up being a great movie, somehow making a talking tree and talking raccoon work on the big screen, the focus on these usually inconceivable elements took the narrative’s focus away from some of the other important elements of the movie, which created a number of plot holes and other head-scratching moments that really don’t make sense when you think about them.
While a majority of these moments are admissible, as they are small and generally don’t take away from the overall film, there are some moments that many viewers cannot overlook, as they make the movie’s plot rather hard to believe.
With that said, here are the 30 Things That Make No Sense About Guardians of the Galaxy.
No One On Earth Noticed Peter’s Abduction
Right off the bat, audiences were introduced to the space antics of Guardians of the Galaxy when young Peter Quill was abducted by aliens right outside of a hospital. However, one thing that really didn’t make sense about this scene was the fact that no one else on Earth seemed to notice the abduction.
Upon rewatching the scene, it should be noted that Yondu’s ship that took Quill was not only large with bright lights, but also incredibly loud. Despite this, no one runs outside, looks out a window, or has any response to what is going on. While it’s possible that the reactions simply weren’t shown, there realistically should have been some sort of response by the people of Earth in the wide shot of Peter standing under the ship.
Ronan’s Plan To Destroy Xandar
The climax of Guardians of the Galaxy featured the Kree villain, Ronan, seemingly accomplishing his plan to eliminate Xandar. Now with the Power Stone, all he has to do is strike his hammer-like weapon onto the surface of the planet, and all civilization on the planet will come to an end.
However, if he can destroy the planet by simply hitting his hammer into the planet’s surface, why did he choose to do this at the most guarded location on Xandar? He chose to attack the primary city of the planet, where the Nova Corps. base is held, thus meaning that Ronan would have to fight an entire armada of ships in order to reach the surface. He could have achieved his plan a lot more easily simply by travelling to a different spot on the planet.
Gamora Miraculously Survives Her Ship Being Blown Up
About midway through the movie, Gamora is seemingly done for after Nebula blows up her ship right outside Knowhere. In the real world, or in any realistic movie, no one would have been able to survive that explosion. If the fire didn’t end their life, then the pieces of the ship would have impaled them, not to mention what the vacuum of space would have done when the ship was blown open.
However, these rules seemingly didn’t apply to Gamora, who majestically floated out of the remains of the ship completely unscathed. There wasn’t a scratch, bruise, or burn mark on Gamora from the ship’s explosion, which makes no sense at all.
Drax’s Inconsistent Ignorance Of Metaphors
One of the most humorous gags regarding Drax the Destroyer, who otherwise would be a rather bland character, is that he is unable to understand similes, metaphors, or any other figures of speech that aren’t completely literal. Figuratively, everything goes right over his head.
However, this joke is not consistent in Guardians of the Galaxy. One of the most pointed out instances of this inconsistency occurs during Quill’s inspiring speech before the third act, where he says they now have a chance “to give a s**t.” Somehow, Drax knew exactly what Quill meant by this figurative saying instead of seeing it as an invitation to defecate. While this is an absurd example, Drax’s inconsistency continues throughout Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 and Avengers: Infinity War.
Thanos’s Dependence On Ronan And His Goons
Now that Avengers: Infinity War has been released, featuring Thanos finally being active, it makes rewatching Guardians of the Galaxy rather confusing, particularly with the connection between Thanos and Ronan. In hindsight, it really does not make sense that Thanos had such a reliance on Ronan, who has a history of defying authority.
When the Power Stone was finally available to be retrieved, Thanos did not attempt to retrieve the stone himself, nor did he send any of the members of the Black Order to retrieve it. Instead, he seemed completely content with Ronan sending four of his goons to retrieve the Stone, despite this stone being absolutely essential to Thanos’s plan. The Thanos we know would have been a lot smarter about this.
Gamora’s Morals Regarding Whether Or Not To Sell The Stone Are All Over The Place
The first half of Guardians of the Galaxy primarily follows the Guardians teaming up to sell the Power Stone to the Collector, who was the buyer that Gamora had arranged for the Stone to be sold to. However, Gamora’s viewpoint completely changed about halfway through the movie .
After the fight on Knowhere, Gamora was absolutely appalled when Quill suggested they still try to sell the Orb, despite the idea of selling it to someone as untrustworthy as the Collector being Gamora’s idea from the beginning. While this was originally admissible as Gamora seemingly did not know how strong the “Orb” was, Avengers: Infinity War revealed that she knew about the Infinity Stones all along, leaving this as just another piece of bad writing.
Quill Wasn’t Too Quiet About Their Transaction On Knowhere
When the Guardians traveled to Knowhere about halfway through the movie, it was clearly established that the people there were not trustworthy. The civilization started as a black market territory, and was soon filled with scum and villainy, much like Mos Eisley in Star Wars.
However, despite this being common knowledge, Quill did not think that it would be smart to be quiet about their transaction. Quill publicly announced to Rocket that they were about to get paid 4 billion units in a bar filled with some rather dangerous looking aliens. While it may be in Quill’s character to announce this carelessly, it’s incredibly unrealistic that he manged to leave Knowhere, or even the bar for that matter, unscathed and unfollowed.
The Guardians Holding Quill’s Hand Somehow Helped Him Hold The Power Stone
One plot point in the climax of the movie that many viewers were displeased with was that Quill somehow managed to stop Ronan simply by holding onto the Power Stone. While this wasn’t necessarily a plot hole, as it was later explained that he was half Celestial, what doesn’t make sense about this scene is that Quill was able to hold the Stone a lot better when his teammates were holding his hand.
While this was emotionally powerful, showing how far the Guardians had come as a team, it’s not really logical. As soon as Gamora, Rocket and Drax touched Quill, they should have been blown to bits like Carina, the Collector’s pink servant. Even if they didn’t blow up, touching Quill really shouldn’t have been able to help him withhold the Infinity Stone in the slightest. Overall, this is just a confusing scene to look back on.
Where Did Rocket’s Ravager Suit Come From?
Shortly before the third act of the movie, the Guardians went through a montage where they prepared for the final fight, leading up to a recognizable shot featuring the heroes walking side by side down a hallway, each of them in their new red suits given to them by the Ravagers.
It makes sense that Quill was able to have a Ravager suit, as he used to be a Ravager himself. It also makes sense for Gamora and Drax to have suits, as the Ravagers likely had suits in their sizes. However, what doesn’t make sense is that the Ravagers just happened to have a doll-sized suit on hand for Rocket. While the galaxy is filled with aliens of all shapes and sizes, Rocket is the only creature in Guardians of the Galaxy who is his size, making us wonder why that suit was made in the first place.
The Nova Corps Didn’t Fight The Dark Aster Until It Was Right Above Them
During the final fight of Guardians of the Galaxy, the Nova Corps took to the skies to defend their city. However, their plan of defense is a bit confusing. Despite having notice from Quill that Ronan’s army would be attacking Xandar, the Nova Corps decided to wait until Ronan’s ship, the Dark Aster, was right above the city to attack him.
The Dark Aster took a bit of time to make its way into Xandar’s atmosphere, yet the Nova Corps did not think that would be a good time to attack. This incredibly foolish and unrealistic military decision resulted in over 80,000 fatal casualties during this final fight, obliterating a good portion of the city.
The Collector’s Servant’s Sacrifice
The Guardians’ time in Knowhere featured a brief subplot regarding Carina, the pink servant of the Collector. It was quickly established that Carina was unhappy in her job and was seemingly abused by the Collector, but she could not do anything about it because the Collector was keeping her sister held as a prisoner.
While this seemed like the beginning to a great subplot, the rest of her story was rather weird. Carina’s solution to her problem was to hold onto the Power Stone, which the Collector had just established was incredibly powerful and would end the life of anyone who touched it.
While this self-destructive move would have been a great conclusion to Carina’s arc if the story had built her up as someone who simply hated her life, the story also established that she wanted to protect her sister, who more than likely lost her life in the explosion. This was one subplot that was written more for plot convenience rather than to actually tell an interesting, believable story.
The Sakaaran Army Pretty Much Let Yondu Beat Them
During the destructive climax of Guardians of the Galaxy, Yondu seemed to face his bitter end when he crash landed and was immediately surrounded by over 20 Sakaaran soldiers, who were working for Ronan. Yondu survived this encounter in one of the coolest scenes in the movie, using his arrow to take out all of the enemies surrounding him simply by whistling.
While this scene was definitely cool, it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. Yondu took about 25 seconds to get out his arrow and take out the Sakaarans. During this time, any of the Sakaarans could have simply shot at Yondu to stop him, but instead they all looked at each other confused until they were each impaled by the arrow.
The Prison Guards Weren’t The Brightest
In the seemingly highest security prison in the galaxy, Kyln, the Guardians of the Galaxy were somehow able to escape with ease. While their escape is primarily credited to the genius intellect of Rocket, the blame for their escape really falls on the guards, who seemingly do not know how to properly deal with a prison break.
The guards that tried to stop the escape seemed absolutely clueless, only being minor inconveniences in the way of the Guardians. The biggest mistake, however, was by the guards with the rocket launchers, who thought it would be smart to fire each rocket one at a time rather than to fire them all at once. When they finally thought about firing them all together, it was already too late.
Gamora Is Extremely Underpowered
Gamora is commonly referred to as “the fiercest woman in the galaxy,” yet Guardians of the Galaxy left that open to interpretation. While Gamora was certainly a good fighter, she didn’t really seem like the best fighter. Shortly after we met Gamora, she was easily taken down by a raccoon and a tree.
While Gamora was definitely fierce in the movie, and in her later appearances, she really didn’t live up to her title, making us wonder how she received the title “the fiercest woman in the galaxy” in the first place.
Quill Has A Language Translator (But No One Else Does)
Typically, in movies where English speaking characters come across foreign characters who speak different languages, instead of using subtitles, some movies will use what is called the “Translation Convention,” which is “rule of the world” where language barriers are ignored and everyone speaks exactly the same. This is what it seemed like Guardians of the Galaxy was doing, except for one little detail.
During the prisoner line-up scene after Quill was captured, the data on Quill that was holographically projected to the Nova soldiers stated that he had a translator implanted in his neck, which would explain how he could understand everyone else in the galaxy. Presumably, most people in these movies have a translator implant like that, which would explain how every character was able to converse easily with the others. While this was a fine explanation for Quill, it wasn’t consistent for the rest of the franchise.
Morag Was Never Explained
The beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy featured Quill retrieving the Orb from the planet Morag, where he is quickly confronted by a number of Ronan’s men who just happen to be trying to retrieve the Orb as well. This ended up leaving quite a plot hole in the movie, as it seemed like a wild coincidence that everyone was coming for the Power Stone at once.
This was explained in one of the original cuts of the movie, however, as Morag is primarily a water planet, and the Orb and the ruins around it are almost always deep underwater. At the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy, the tides of Morag had finally gone down for the first time in 300 years, which explains why everyone showed up at once: it was the first opening to retrieve the Power Stone in centuries. However, since this was cut from the movie, it leaves behind an awfully soggy plothole.
Yondu Was Treated As A Villain
Yondu was one of the least interesting characters in the first Guardians of the Galaxy. While he was the man who raised Quill, he wasn’t necessarily a likable character, and was actually treated as more of a villain, despite working with the Guardians in the third act.
This would’ve been great for his character had they kept Yondu consistent. Unfortunately, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, they treated him like he was a noble hero, which wasn’t very consistent with the character they had set up in the original movie. Yondu’s arc in Vol. 2 would have been a lot more believable and enjoyable had the first movie handled him better.
“We Are Groot”
One of the most touching moments in Guardians of the Galaxy was when Groot sacrificed himself in order to save his companions, with the last words of this humble tree being “We are Groot.” While this line was certainly heartwarming, as he had only ever said “I am Groot” throughout the movie until then, it didn’t really make sense.
First off, it should be biologically impossible for Groot to pronounce the word “we.” Second, having him say “we” instead of “I” doesn’t really show any character development. While this would’ve been a great change for Groot had he been selfish throughout the first half of the movie, he was actually selfless the entire time he was on screen, leaving people scratching their heads as to what “We are Groot” actually means.
The Rate Groot Can Regrow Himself Varies
One of the neatest aspects about Groot is that he can regrow limbs should he lose them, in addition to being able to regrow a new version of himself from his twigs after his sacrifice. While this is certainly a great ability that makes Groot stand out from the other heroes, the details of his powers are actually incredibly vague.
After losing limbs, Groot was able to easily regrow them within hours. However, he could also grow his limbs extra long in the matter of seconds, making us wonder why he couldn’t just do that to regrow his missing limbs in the first place. Furthermore, if he really grows that quickly, why did it take him four years (between Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers: Infinity War) to grow back to half of his original size?
No One Followed Young Peter After His Mom Passed Away
Guardians of the Galaxy opened with a truly heartbreaking scene, featuring the young Peter Quill watching his sick mother pass away right in front of him. As soon as his mother passed, Peter ran out of the hospital and was immediately abducted by aliens.
The part about this scene that made the least sense, however, was that no one tried to stop Peter from running, or even followed him. He had many relatives who were also present in the hospital, including his own father, yet none of them really seemed to care that this grief-stricken child was running away.
