'Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2' Footage Recap: Baby Groot, Human Ego & So Much More [Comic-Con 2016]
At the tail end of a massively busy, massively exciting day in Hall H, Marvel Studios unleashed a ton of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 footage on an adoring crowd. One was a lengthy clip featuring Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) escaping the Ravagers with help from Baby Groot, and the other was the first Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 trailer.
Read our Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 footage recap below.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Footage Recap
The scene opens with a couple of Ravagers throwing Yondu and Rocket Raccoon in a dingy looking cell. "We deliver you to the Kree in the morning," Taserface grunts. "Neither one of you will last much longer after that."
Outside the cell, we see a group of Ravagers holding up a small cage containing Baby Groot. "What about this little plant? Can I smash it with a rock?" a Ravager asks.
"No!" responds his leader. It's too adorable to kill!"
"Can I at least poke its eyes out?"
Fear not — the Ravagers don't end up poking Baby Groot's eyes out after all. They do, however, put him in tiny (adorable) Ravager gear and start screaming at him to fight. Baby Groot looks terrified and sad, and the entire Comic-Con crowd "aww-ed" at the sight.
Fortunately, his friends Yondu and Rocket Raccoon have been hatching a plan. A despondent-looking Baby Groot is walking around when Yondu calls him over. He wants Groot to sneak into the captain's quarters and steal a prototype fin. We see Baby Groot carefully slip in, dig around... and come back to Yondu with a piece of fabric. "That's my underwear!" Yondu exclaims.
A montage ensues of Groot bringing back the wrong items, including a toe, a desk, and a prosthetic eye. (Rocket Raccoon, of course, wants to keep that one around. "He's gonna wake up tomorrow and he's not gonna know what happened!" he says, gasping with laughter.) Eventually, Yondu asks Rocket to explain the situation instead, and only then does Baby Groot return with the correct item.
We cut to a Ravager shaving in the bathroom when he hears music playing. He walks out to see Ravagers trying to figure out what's going on. They buzz open a gate to see Yondu and Rocket Raccoon calmly sitting in the middle of a room. Yondu stands up, wearing the prototype fin — it looks essentially like a giant glowing red clear plastic mohawk, but what's really cool about it is that it lets him control a glowing red arrow. Said arrow goes through two of the Ravager guards and Yondu, Rocket Raccoon, and Baby Groot hero-walk out of their cell.
The Ravager captain wakes up to realize what's happening, but it's too late. Yondu unleashes the arrow which flies straight toward the camera... and then right through a bunch of guards, one at a time. We see slow-motion close-ups of the Ravagers at the exact moment they're hit.
We then see Rocket Raccoon and Yondu (with Baby Groot on his shoulder) striding around the Ravagers' quarters. A moving red streak lets us know where the arrow is flying, and Ravager bodies are falling all around them. Baby Groot sees one he wants to take care of personally, and extends his tree-arms to grab the Ravager, pull him down, and throw him off the balcony. Satisfied, Groot drops down and lands on Rocket's shoulder.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Trailer Recap
The Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Comic-Con trailer opened, naturally, with a close-up shot of Awesome Mix Vol. 2. Baby Groot picks up two wires to connect them, and Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain" starts playing.
We then see the Guardians in a giant glowing circle with spheres surrounding them. Something serious is about to go down. Star-Lord and Gamora begin their usual petty (and funny) bickering about her weapon of choice, a rifle rather than her usual sword. "We've been hired to stop an inter-dimensional beast, and I'm going to stop it with a sword?" she says. "You're the one who's being inconsistent!" he protests.
But the arguing stops when a giant portal opens in the distance and something — perhaps a ship or a creature — comes through. "Showtime, assholes," says Peter.
We then see the Guardians walking through a forest, and then into a giant gold hall. Sitting on star-shaped thrones above them are statuesque gold figures including Ayesha, played by Elizabeth Debicki. "Careful, these people are easily offended and the consequence of transgression is death," warns one of the Guardians.
Star-Lord gives Ayesha a flirty wink, but it's really Rocket Raccoon who gets the facepalm moment. "They told me you people were conceited douchebags," he starts as the other Guardians stare at him in horror. "But that isn't true at all!" he finishes.
After a few snippets of big, bright, colorful action, we cut to the Guardians in the forest. They're arguing again. "Well, they're trying to kill us, you stupid racoon!" yells Peter. Rocket is offended at being called a raccoon, so Peter apologizes. Sort of. "I'm sorry, I took it too far. I meant trash panda," he says.
"Is that better?" asks Drax.
Peter laughs. "No, it's worse, it's so much worse."
The trailer then shows us quick flashes of each of the new characters one at a time, including Star-Lord, Gamora, Drax, Raccoon, Drax, Yondu, Nebula, Mantis (who's an alien with antennae). There's some typically crazy stuff going on including Gamora fighting a giant octopus. And then... a giant egg-shaped thing begins lowering itself into the forest. It opens, and out step an unfamiliar man played by Kurt Russell, and Mantis played by Pom Klementieff.
"After all these years, I've found you," says Russell's character.
"Who the hell are you?" responds Peter.
"I figured my rugged good looks would make that obvious," responds Russell's character. "My name's Ego and I'm your dad, Peter."
Ego explains that he's not a human, but has made a human body for himself. "I create what I imagined biological life would be like, down to the most minute detail," he says.
Drax has a question. "Did you make a penis?"
The other Guardians react with exasperation, especially Peter who protests that he doesn't need to hear about how he was conceived. But Drax insists, and Ego (who seems unfazed) answers. "Yes, Drax, I've got a penis." "Thank you," Drax says.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Footage Reaction
In a word, the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 footage looks wild. Not surprisingly, it includes much of the same heart and humor that made the first film a hit. And best of all, Guardians is still delightfully weird. It's all bright colors and weird lights and fast-paced action, with tons of fun and funny character moments. Drax asking about Ego's penis is a perfect example. Of course the most literal man in the world would think to ask, and of course a living planet won't take offense.
James Gunn has promised that Vol. 2 would reveal the identity of Peter Quill's father, and he quickly gets that reveal out of the way... which makes us all the more curious about everything else going in that trailer. What's coming through that portal? Is Yondu nicer than he used to be? How will Nebula return to the fold? Exactly how annoyed are those gold beings going to be at Rocket Raccoon's insouciance?
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Panel Recap
In addition to all the footage revealed at the Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 recap, Marvel also trotted out director James Gunn and several of the film's stars including Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Michael Rooker, Karen Gillan, Pom Klementieff, Elizabeth Debicki, and Kurt Russell. Here are a few details we learned from the panel.
Only a few months have passed since Vol. 1.
"Well, he's famous now in the galaxy for having saved so many people, and what the Guardians of the Galaxy did in the first movie," Pratt said of what's changed for Star-Lord. But not that different. Pratt confirmed that Vol. 2 picks up "only a couple of months" after Vol. 1. "He feels like he's part of this group, a leader of this group," said Pratt. "He's a little more responsible and trying to stay out of trouble, but not necessarily doing the best job."
Meanwhile, Bautista says Drax is "just more confused" nowadays. "He's surrounded by people using metaphors and he's trying to figure it out," he said.
Pom Klementieff's Mantis hangs out with Ego.
Klementieff was reluctant to say too much about her role, but did reveal how she factors into the film. "I'm a new character called Mantis and I'm an alien. I have empathic powers and I've spent my life with Kurt Russell's character before meeting all the Guardians."
Elizabeth Debicki's Ayesha has a rough relationship with the Guardians.
Debicki was finally confirmed to be playing Ayesha, the leader of "a new species we haven't seen yet." Again, Debicki wouldn't say too much, but she did reveal, "She enlists the help of the Guardians and things turn quite sour."