Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3 Understands That Without the Small, the Big Doesn’t Matter

This post contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. If you haven’t caught up yet, read our spoiler-free review or check out our Timecode Party.

Writing is hard, and endings can be even harder. This becomes especially true in long-spanning sagas like the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the stories that make the franchise juggernaut what it is. The Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy has always had the weight of the cosmos on its shoulders, what with ushering in the galactic chapters of the MCU and holding within it not just the Power Stone, but Thanos’ key to the Soul Stone (RIP, Gamora 1.0). But, the real trick to these stories — the secret sauce that has made the Guardians of the Galaxy films stand out over the years — is James Gunn’s understanding that without the small moments, the big ones don’t matter.

The Guardians have always had huge roles to play. It’s always save the galaxy this, save the galaxy that, and never hey are you little broken idiots ok? Except that last bit isn’t really true, is it? That “hey are you little broken idiots ok?” is so small in the grand scheme of things. It’s a minute, tiny detail in a galaxy full of threats and hurdles. But it’s also the most critical part of the story, especially in this final chapter.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 ends happily. And when I say “happily,” I mean “huge grin on your face even though you watched two-plus hours of animal torture” happily. But — and I say this as someone who had to look away in several parts of the movie and may or may not have ugly cried a few times — that happy ending succeeds as well as it does because it is earned. Happiness itself isn’t something that people should have to sacrifice for to achieve but, so far as narrative success goes, that “earned” part is important.

Each member of the Guardians leaves the trilogy with what they needed most. Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) stops tripping over himself trying to pretend that Gamora (Zoe Saldana) is the woman he fell in love with and stops running from his past to spend the remainder of his grandfather’s living days on Earth. Meanwhile, Gunn goes out of his way to showcase that this version of Gamora is fulfilled and happy with her Ravager family, never choosing to have her slip back into the characteristics of Gamora 1.0 that differentiate the two. She is allowed to remain as savage and untamed as she chooses to be without sacrificing the occasional moments of caring that shows that both Gamoras are made up of the same core even if their circumstances made them different and equally remarkable warrior women. 

Drax (Dave Bautista) has the most cleanly circular story. The core motivation of the character is the loss of his family, and he closes out his journey as a father figure to a whole army of children. His arc would have been just as clean if he had died getting them safely to Knowhere — something I was absolutely certain was going to happen —  but it would have been the easy way out. Even worse, dying is obvious. But, you know what they say about to live being an awfully big adventure. Gunn’s insistence that these characters get to live out the rest of their days getting what they’ve always needed is something that some will call twee, but in the context of a saga that has always had so many mean blows, it’s the most fitting end to create a well-rounded story. Parallel to Drax, Mantis (Pom Klementieff) finally gets her own future and her own story that’s finally tied to no one and serves no one but her own needs and wants after serving Ego and then carrying the Guardians’ emotional baggage.

By now, everyone knows that this has been Rocket’s (Bradley Cooper) story all along. He gets his closure along with the rest, stepping into his leadership role and becoming the protector he felt he failed to be to his last family. Even his long-awaited acceptance that he is, in fact, a raccoon signifies a huge moment for the character. But the most impactful moments here in this wonderfully warm ending are with Nebula (Karen Gillan) and Groot (Vin Diesel), though Groot’s is more by way of the audience.

I’m gonna lead the city. Make it the type of home I never had — Nebula

Nebula’s story mirrors Rocket’s, but in a way that is both more intimate and broad at the same time. Both have devastating backstories — kidnapped from their families to be ripped apart and turned into something new by a tyrant who hoped to exploit them for their own means — and both stepped into their next chapters in a way that best fits their respective stories. Rocket became a leader to protect the wider galaxy but with a smaller-scale team, while Nebula chose to rebuild a single planet to ensure any child who comes to it is safe and defended.

Becoming the type of person that you needed when you were younger is such a powerful story device, one that hits particularly hard for those who came from broken homes and didn’t have the safety or protection that they may have needed in their formative years. Seeing the often cold, cranky Nebula trust the Guardians enough to show this side of herself is impactful on its own, but Gunn’s decision to highlight this part of the character drives home Vol. 3’s understanding of the emotional weight of these tiny moments. 

The galaxy doesn’t care if Nebula’s heart grew three sizes that day, but we do. I’m not as hard on Phase 4 as others — particularly with so many of its television offerings being as strong as they are — but there are certainly a few Marvel films that could stand to learn that lesson.

Groot’s small but secretly huge moment is more of something for us, the audience, than it is for him. This iteration of Gamora can’t understand what he’s saying throughout their misadventures, but she finally hears more than “I am Groot” once she becomes part of their weird little family. We’re not quite sure what he said to her, but can infer in the same way that we’ve been inferring what Groot says since Vol. 1.

But shortly after, it becomes clear that the audience won’t have to infer anymore. A scene or so later, Groot smiles and says “I love you guys.” And, I gotta be honest, I haven’t shut up about the one-two punch of this and the aforementioned Gamora scene since walking out of our screening. 

This beat is so clever. It’s not just a culmination of three films worth of wondering what hilarious, lewd or insistent things the lovable creature is saying to the rest of the team; it’s an impeccable send-off filled with so much love that it could make your heart burst. In his final outing of the MCU, James Gunn used Groot — the one who has always had the strongest grip on our hearts — to say to the audience “You’ll always be a part of this. You are loved.”

Three Volumes, two Avengers, and one Thor: Love and Thunder (and a Holiday Special) later, and all of the universe saving (or, for Peter Quill’s part, sometimes universe devastating) comes in second place to the biggest idiots in the galaxy finding their family, becoming a father again, building what they needed when they were younger, and reminding us that we are loved.

Here’s hoping that future MCU films remember the small in ways that can be as powerful as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, because damn what an impact this trilogy had. 

Amelia is the entertainment Streaming Editor here at IGN. She’s also a film and television critic who spends too much time talking about dinosaurs, superheroes, and folk horror. You can usually find her with her dog, Rogers. There may be cheeseburgers involved. Follow her across social @ThatWitchMia