In broad strokes, the Marvel Cinematic Universe tells superhero stories. But producer Kevin Feige insists that each movie has its own distinctive genre. The first movie where it really felt like this was the case was Guardians of the Galaxy. With its talking raccoon, band of antiheroes, and deep-space setting, Guardians of the Galaxy was worlds apart from movies like Iron Man and The Avengers.
In many ways, the Guardians movies are space operas akin to Star Wars or Flash Gordon, and adhere to a lot of the genre’s conventions. So, here are 10 Sci-Fi Movie Tropes In The Guardians Of The Galaxy’s MCU Solo Franchise.
A plucky renegade hero
As soon as the first trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy was released, critics drew comparisons between Peter Quill and pulpy heroes like Han Solo and Indiana Jones. He’s a charming, roguish space pirate who plays by his own rules, recklessly gets himself into dangerous situations, and always has the perfect quip.
But the great thing about Quill is that he’s essentially a subversion of this trope. He isn’t like Han or Indy or Flash Gordon; he just wants to be like them. He’s an ‘80s kid who grew up idolizing those characters.
Casual space travel
In Guardians of the Galaxy – and in most science fiction stories – characters can just hop into a spaceship and fly to another planet with the same blasé attitude that someone in the real world might have when they get in their car and drive to the grocery store.
For most of us, going to space is an unattainable dream, but for the Guardians, it’s just a part of everyday life. This was even addressed in Avengers: Endgame when Rocket sarcastically made fun of Scott Lang for never having been to space.
Aliens are just humans with green skin
Although more recent movies dealing with alien visitors, like Annihilation, have moved away from this trope, and H.R. Giger’s designs in Alien found a haunting beauty in distorting the familiar human anatomy, it’s common for sci-fi films to depict aliens merely as humans with green skin (or blue skin, or purple skin, or whatever).
In the early days of filmmaking, before the advent of CGI or even advanced prosthetics, this was an easy way to convey to the audience that a character was an alien. In Guardians of the Galaxy, a movie with the budget and resources to visualize any possible concept of extraterrestrial life, this feels like a retro stylistic thing. Gamora is a human with green skin, Yondu is a human with blue skin, Aakons are humans with yellow skin etc.
Far-fetched technology
As it says on the tin, science fiction is fiction derived from scientific concepts. Like most sci-fi movies, the technology featured in Guardians of the Galaxy is incredibly far-fetched, like the Holographic Spacesuits or Star-Lord’s Quad Blasters.
The time machine in Back to the Future, the hyperdrive in Star Wars, and the proportional human shrinking in Honey, I Shrunk the Kids are all examples of sci-fi technologies that defy real science and exist for the purposes of telling a story.
Audible sounds in space
In space, no one can hear you scream. In fact, no one can hear anything, because there are no molecules to vibrate, so sound can’t travel.
However, most sci-fi movie directors missed the memo about this, depicting explosions and lasers and war cries ringing out through the vacuum of space in their movies. Guardians of the Galaxy is similarly guilty of this, particularly in the battle scenes.
Daddy issues
“Of course I have issues – that’s my freakin’ father!” Daddy issues can be seen all over the MCU, from Tony and Howard Stark’s strained relationship to Thor and Odin’s strained relationship, but the focus on fatherhood can be seen in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies in particular. The impact of Thanos’ emotional and physical abuse on Gamora and Nebula has shaped their character arcs. Peter Quill’s adoptive father used fear as a parenting tool and his biological father turned out to be a genocidal planet.
Since it inherently tackles philosophical issues like creation, science fiction can be a great avenue to explore fatherhood. The most obvious example is Darth Vader’s redemption arc in the original Star Wars trilogy, but sci-fi daddy issues can also be seen in Star Trek: The Next Generation’s Data, Terminator 2’s fatherless John Connor and father figure T-800, and Superman’s Jonathan Kent.
Ancient astronauts
A common sci-fi trope involves skeletons of astronauts suggesting a long history of space travel in the story’s world. Often, this can involve a hint that aliens visited Earth long before human history began, which is a trippy idea, but it can also take place on distant planets that humans are visiting for the first time.
In Alien, this can be seen in the “space jockey.” In Guardians of the Galaxy, this can be seen in the fact that Knowhere is located inside the severed head of a Celestial.
Technobabble
It’s common for sci-fi dialogue to be filled with technobabble. Take Star Trek, for example: the characters are always talking about warp fields and tractor beams and subspace.
From birthing pods to Anulax batteries (or “Harbulary batteries,” as Drax erroneously put it) to the Power Stone, half the dialogue in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies is just made-up technological lingo.
Space battles
Part of the fun of science fiction is getting to watch spaceships blow each other up. George Lucas revolutionized cinematic space battles with his groundbreaking use of models and miniatures to create action-packed set pieces in the original 1977 Star Wars movie.
Since then, tons of sci-fi movies – including the Guardians of the Galaxy films – have captivated viewers with space-bound battle sequences.
Alien abduction
The opening scene of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie takes us back to 1988. A young Peter Quill joins his mother at her deathbed in a hospital, and can’t bear to take her hand. So, he runs out of the building, where he’s blinded by a huge white light coming from the sky.
This recalls countless alien abduction scenes from the annals of science fiction history. Usually, these scenes take place in cornfields or farmhouses as opposed to outside hospitals.
