Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2Save

We open with the Guardians defending a planet's interdimensional batteries from a giant tentacled monster — to the soundtrack of ELO's 'Mr. Blue Sky.' Baby Groot is dancing through the entire battle, oblivious to the carnage around him. The opening sequence sets the film's tone: heart, music, scale, and an extreme commitment to letting the soundtrack do emotional work.

The Guardians are now an established team. They've been working for the Sovereign — a gold-skinned race of genetically-perfect aliens — guarding the batteries. Their payment is the captured Nebula (Karen Gillan), Gamora's adopted sister. Rocket steals a small handful of the batteries during the job. The Sovereign sends drones to murder them. The Guardians escape barely; their ship is destroyed.

They crash on a remote planet. A man in a luminous spacecraft arrives — Ego the Living Planet (Kurt Russell), an ancient celestial being who claims to be Peter Quill's father. He sweeps the team off to his home — a literal living planet shaped into a cathedral of his own consciousness. Ego explains he is one of the universe's last surviving Celestials, and Peter is his only biological son. Peter, who has spent his entire life resenting the father who never came for him, begins to bond with Ego.

Meanwhile, Yondu's Ravager crew has mutinied against him — they consider him soft for raising Peter rather than delivering him to Ego decades earlier. Yondu, captured by his former crew, escapes with Rocket and Groot. Their flight across multiple planet-hops with hundreds of arrow-killings provides the film's most-memed action sequence — Yondu's whistle-controlled Yaka arrow killing dozens of mutinous Ravagers in a single continuous shot.

Peter discovers the truth. Ego is not benevolent. Ego is a planetary intelligence trying to assimilate the entire universe into his own consciousness — to make every celestial body into more of him. Ego seeded thousands of children across the galaxy hoping one would inherit his Celestial powers; Peter is the first viable candidate. Ego planted brain tumors in Peter's mother to murder her — to prevent Peter from being attached to anything but Ego.

The Guardians turn on Ego. The climax takes place across Ego's planetary core. Peter has briefly inherited Ego's celestial powers and uses them against Ego. The team detonates a bomb at the core. Ego's planet begins disintegrating. Yondu sacrifices himself to save Peter — using his last remaining spacesuit to shield Peter from the vacuum while Ego's planet collapses around them. Peter survives. Yondu does not.

The film closes with Yondu's funeral. The Ravagers' tradition is to send a body up in a flying coffin lit by hundreds of small ships. Yondu — finally honored as a proper Ravager — is given the full ceremony. Peter delivers a eulogy that recognizes Yondu, not Ego, as his real father. The film's most-quoted line: 'He may have been your father, boy. But he wasn't your daddy.' Guardians Vol. 2 grossed $863 million globally — slightly more than the original. The film is widely considered one of the most-emotionally-mature MCU films of the entire saga.