Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Crossed Off A Bucket List Moment For Nathan Fillion
This article contains minor spoilers for "The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3."
Actor Nathan Fillion, a widely beloved figure thanks to his appearances on the cult series "Firefly" and on the hit series "Castle," has played three different roles across James Gunn's "Guardians of the Galaxy" movies. In the 2014 original, Fillion played the voice of a character called Monstrous Inmate, a tough space-alien prison denizen that the Guardians fought. Fillion also filmed scenes for "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 2," but they were cut for the film's theatrical release. He was to play a human actor named Simon Williams.
In "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3," Fillion finally appears on screen in a recognizable way, playing a character named Karja. Karja was one of the many elite security guards — called Orgosentries — who worked on the high-tech, organically grown medical space station called the Orgosphere. It was explained that the Orgosentries, who walk around in puffy, comedically outsize uniforms, are among the best security guards in the galaxy, and that infiltrating the Orgosphere is a near-impossible task because of them. Fillion's face, uncovered and without alien makeup, sticks up out of his puffy uniform for all the world to see.
Karja complains about one of his underlings a lot (sample dialogue: "Your friend's a moron. I got one of those too."), and the Guardians are easily able to dupe him and sneak around the Orgosphere under his nose. It seems, however, that Karja eventually catches wise to the Guardians' presence in his facility, and an enormous fight breaks out. Karja is thrown through the air and slams into a strange sculpture.
According to a recent interview with Screen Rant, that fight fulfilled a long-held career aspiration for Fillion; he always wanted to fly through the air.
He floats through the air with the greatest of ease
The Screen Rant interviewer Joe Deckelmeier noted that the fight scene on board the Orgosphere was wild, mixing action violence with slapstick comedy. Orgosentries encounter malfunctioning suits and soar through the air. Mantis (Pom Klementieff) uses her hypnosis powers to turn the sentries on each other ... or just think they're cats. Sci-fi laser weapons are fired, and people are flung bodily every which way. Karja, as mentioned, is also thrown through the air.
To achieve the effect, the filmmakers attached Fillion to a complex system of wires and pulleys, which are common tools in certain kinds of stunt photography. Fillion said that he has always wanted to be wired into a pulley system like that and that it was actually a long-held professional goal of his. Indeed, it seems that Fillion has a list of certain scenes or actions he's always wanted to do as part of his acting career, and that he's met other such goals already. The actor said:
"There's a list of things I've been wanting to do in film and television that I've been checking boxes for a very long time. Recently, a few years ago, I got to defuse a bomb. It's something I've always wanted to do on TV. In this picture, I've always wanted to fly around on cables. I wanted to fly, and this is my first time flying in a film. Everything I dreamed it would be. Everything, Joe. Everything I dreamed it would be."
Fillion does mention what else was on his list.
The other items on Fillion's list
Of course, Fillion was glad to share his goal, presumably to manifest them in real life. In addition to defusing a bomb and flying through the air, Fillion wants to blow things up in various ways. He's seen a few badass moments in action movies and would like to be able to recreate them himself. In one instance, however, he wants to buck a very particular cliche. The actor said:
"I want to do a dynamite plunger, one of those, when it goes boom. I want to take a cigarette and go 'bink' and then have it light gas and go off and go boom. I want to walk away from an explosion in slow motion and go boom, and then I go, 'Ooh.' And I actually look back."
The above quote uses the word "boom" three times.
A dynamite plunger is likely familiar to anyone who has seen a Chuck Jones-directed Roadrunner cartoon, and was used notably in "The Bridge on the River Kwai." As for "binking" a cigarette, it seems that shows up in movies rather regularly, and will likely be known to most movie fans. A floor is flooded with gasoline, and an idle arson will use their own lit cigarette to ignite the pool.
The idea of walking away from an explosion without looking at it was satirized in the movie "The Wrong Guys" wherein Will Ferrell complained that being near an actual explosion is a concussive and hurtful experience. Lonely Island wrote a song about the cliche, "Cool Guys Don't Look at Explosions," for the 2009 MTV Movie Awards.
Nathan Fillion, it seems, would be happy to look at an explosion.