By Bill Friedell
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2. (James Gunn, 2017), one of the primary characters in the film is the celestial being named Ego the Living Planet(Kurt Russell). He is not only a character, but a setting. Throughout the film’s runtime, Ego’s planet undergoes many visual changes that inform the viewer to perceive events. In fact, the entire film brilliantly utilizes its sci fi setting to better tell its story, and by looking at Ego’s planet, the Guardian’s ship, Contraxia, and the Sovereign's home planet helps visually inform the journeys of each character.
To sum up the plot, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 picks up with the Guardians after a mission gone wrong, driving a wedge between Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper). When the team meets Ego, claiming to be Peter’s father, invites Peter and the Guardians back to his planet. Splitting into groups Peter goes with Drax (Dave Bautista) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) with him as he reconnects with his father, while Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) fall into trouble with the Ravagers, led by Peter’s surrogate father Yondu (Michael Rooker).
As soon as the Guardians are taken to Ego’s planet, Gunn hits you with vibrant colors and whimsical atmosphere, perfectly complemented by George Harrison’s song, My Sweet Lord. Blue, orange, and yellow skies with a perpetual aurora borealis touch high mountain formations and lush green and red terrain. Cascades of multi colored bubbles adorn the sky. It is a paradise. Before this scene, the Guardians were hesitant to trust Ego, but the beauty of his planet is alluring to them.
To sum up the plot, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 picks up with the Guardians after a mission gone wrong, driving a wedge between Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Rocket (Bradley Cooper). When the team meets Ego, claiming to be Peter’s father, invites Peter and the Guardians back to his planet. Splitting into groups Peter goes with Drax (Dave Bautista) and Gamora (Zoe Saldana) with him as he reconnects with his father, while Rocket (Bradley Cooper) and Groot (Vin Diesel) fall into trouble with the Ravagers, led by Peter’s surrogate father Yondu (Michael Rooker).
As soon as the Guardians are taken to Ego’s planet, Gunn hits you with vibrant colors and whimsical atmosphere, perfectly complemented by George Harrison’s song, My Sweet Lord. Blue, orange, and yellow skies with a perpetual aurora borealis touch high mountain formations and lush green and red terrain. Cascades of multi colored bubbles adorn the sky. It is a paradise. Before this scene, the Guardians were hesitant to trust Ego, but the beauty of his planet is alluring to them.
This allure is even more important to Peter because Ego is Peter’s father. The film firmly establishes that Peter experienced a lot of sadness in his childhood because of a lack of a father. As a child, he told the kids at school that his Dad was David Hasselhoff and was away being an actor and musician. While he displays hesitancy over believing Ego wants a relationship with him after all this time, Peter seeing his Father’s planet is the beginning of Peter letting his Father into his heart.
It isn’t until later on in the film, when Peter and the Guardian’s learn the true nature of Ego’s need for Peter that the Planet himself changes. This change is signaled when Gamora and Nebula (Karan Gillen) discovers a large pile of various bones hidden away on Ego’s planet. The placement of the bone pile is a planetary skeleton in the closet, buried away from the pleasing aesthetic of Ego’s world. These bones are the other children of Ego who failed to harness the power he needs to ignite seeds he has planted to make everything into his image. Peter, now able to harness the power, can change the Universe, the entire setting into Ego. The facade is lowered even more by seeing the true face of Ego on the surface of the Planet itself, straight out of a Marvel comic.
It isn’t until later on in the film, when Peter and the Guardian’s learn the true nature of Ego’s need for Peter that the Planet himself changes. This change is signaled when Gamora and Nebula (Karan Gillen) discovers a large pile of various bones hidden away on Ego’s planet. The placement of the bone pile is a planetary skeleton in the closet, buried away from the pleasing aesthetic of Ego’s world. These bones are the other children of Ego who failed to harness the power he needs to ignite seeds he has planted to make everything into his image. Peter, now able to harness the power, can change the Universe, the entire setting into Ego. The facade is lowered even more by seeing the true face of Ego on the surface of the Planet itself, straight out of a Marvel comic.
Ego (Kurt Russell) in his planetary form.
Ego as he is depicted in the comics.
In order to defeat Ego, they must enter the planet’s core and destroy Ego’s brain. Inside the core, it is hollow and rocky, reflecting Ego’s heart. Ego has removed everything from his life that would impede what he calls his “purpose”. When Ego explains his history to Peter and the Guardians, it is done in these cores that house statue interpretations (in clip below), showing his quest for life and falling in love with Meredith Quill (Laura Haddock). Now revealing the lie, he never made a meaningful connection with any other lifeform he came across, seeing them as a disappointment. That is, until he met Meredith Quill, Peter’s Mom. He knew that his love for her would make him abandon his purpose, so he implanted a tumor in her and never returned to Earth. Now he is on the eve of his purpose being fulfilled, but he has alienated every connection from his life, leaving him a hollow planet. It’s also worth pointing out that the designs of all the statues on Ego’s planet are featureless, showing a lack of identity in others outside of his own self-perception. The universe is a blank setting that he wishes to imprint with himself.
As Peter and the Guardians fight Ego, the planet crumbles and conforms to Peter and Ego, using the environment around them and the power it gives them against each other.And as Ego’s brain is destroyed, Ego’s “human” form fades into dust as his true self, the planet crumbles around Peter, symbolizing their broken relationship. But, Yondu, Peter’s “true” father saves him from the planet’s destruction, cementing Yondu’s arc from a failed father to no longer being isolated by his mistakes, finding redemption in saving his son.
The Guardian’s ship, the Milano, also subtly tells the tale of the Guardians. In the beginning of the film, the Milano is a place of comfort and home, emphasized by the use of Lake Shore Drive, by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah. A golden sunset radiates the cockpit and the wooden paneling that holds the ship’s cassette player. Once the Sovereign fleet attack the Guardians, their ship is left in pieces, just like Rocket and Peter’s relationship. Their inability to work together caused the group to be unable to properly escape, and if it wasn’t for Rocket taking the batteries from the Sovereign, they never would have been in the situation. As Star Lord, Drax, and Gamora leave with Ego, they walk towards sunlight, as Rocket turns away. It isn’t until the end of the film, at Yondu’s funeral, that this golden light returns, showing their return to being a family.
As Peter and the Guardians fight Ego, the planet crumbles and conforms to Peter and Ego, using the environment around them and the power it gives them against each other.And as Ego’s brain is destroyed, Ego’s “human” form fades into dust as his true self, the planet crumbles around Peter, symbolizing their broken relationship. But, Yondu, Peter’s “true” father saves him from the planet’s destruction, cementing Yondu’s arc from a failed father to no longer being isolated by his mistakes, finding redemption in saving his son.
The Guardian’s ship, the Milano, also subtly tells the tale of the Guardians. In the beginning of the film, the Milano is a place of comfort and home, emphasized by the use of Lake Shore Drive, by Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah. A golden sunset radiates the cockpit and the wooden paneling that holds the ship’s cassette player. Once the Sovereign fleet attack the Guardians, their ship is left in pieces, just like Rocket and Peter’s relationship. Their inability to work together caused the group to be unable to properly escape, and if it wasn’t for Rocket taking the batteries from the Sovereign, they never would have been in the situation. As Star Lord, Drax, and Gamora leave with Ego, they walk towards sunlight, as Rocket turns away. It isn’t until the end of the film, at Yondu’s funeral, that this golden light returns, showing their return to being a family.
This use of environmental storytelling doesn’t just apply to the overall narrative of the film. The settings are also utilized for characterization. In the director's commentary for the film, Gunn talks about the specific use of color combo=inations for specific scenes, which informs the production design (Gunn, 2017). For the Sovereign's throne room, they are characterized with a gold and blue color scheme, giving the Sovereign a regal, utopian aesthetic. Seeing as they perceive themselves as being genetically perfect beings, this choice of color seems fitting.
Contrasting the Sovereign is the planet Contraxia, where the audience is re-acquainted with Yondu. It is a snowy, cloudy planet that houses an outpost filled sleazy neon signs, perfectly reflecting Yondu’s current state, as he is shown isolated in a room, looking down on the rest of his Ravagers completely alone. Over the course of the film, he realizes that he isn’t alone, and that he had not driven everyone from his life
Contrasting the Sovereign is the planet Contraxia, where the audience is re-acquainted with Yondu. It is a snowy, cloudy planet that houses an outpost filled sleazy neon signs, perfectly reflecting Yondu’s current state, as he is shown isolated in a room, looking down on the rest of his Ravagers completely alone. Over the course of the film, he realizes that he isn’t alone, and that he had not driven everyone from his life
The Sovereign throne room. On the throne sits Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki), leader of the Sovereign.
The planet Contraxia.
Settings are an important stable of storytelling that can also undergo change the same way a character transforms over the course of a runtime. As Gunn points out in the film commentary, he aimed to make a film that was a spectacle as well as a character driven, personal film (Gunn, 2017). By utilizing the blockbuster and success of the original film to build a unique universe within the Marvel Cinematic Universe, even utilizing a character who is a setting, to visually display deeper meanings.
Works Cited
"Play Movie with Audio Commentary by Director James Gunn." Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Dir. Gunn. Walt Disney Studios, 2017. Blu Ray
Works Cited
"Play Movie with Audio Commentary by Director James Gunn." Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. Dir. Gunn. Walt Disney Studios, 2017. Blu Ray
