Guardians of the Galaxy 2's Avengers Plot Hole

Spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ahead.

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is altogether rather distanced from the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The cosmic arm Star-Lord and co. inhabit is already pretty out there and with his sequel James Gunn has been given free reign to steer into that without the need for the usual world-reinforcing. Certain elements of the film will no doubt carry over into Avengers: Infinity War and all five of the post-credits scenes most certainly set up the future, but for all intents and purposes we're dealing with a standalone adventure.

There is, however, one moment that provides a bit more of a tangible link to The Avengers and the rest of the MCU, at least in terms of location. The film opens on Earth in 1980 Missouri, showing a youthful Ego romancing Meredith Quill and planting one of his expansion pods, and we later return in the film's final act when Ego activates that device sending a big blob of CGI rampaging through the nearby town that, if Peter Quill hadn't successfully stopped him, would have turned the whole of our big rock into part of the Living Planet.

That's the sort of thing that we've come to expect The Avengers to deal with over the past decade, and indeed many people were bracing for a surprise cameo from Iron Man or another hero. Of course, that would be very, very unlikely (even without Marvel's web of contracts) if Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was, like most MCU movies, set at the time of its real-world release. As it currently stands the Avengers are disassembled; Zemo successfully split them in Captain America: Civil War, sending Team Cap underground and leaving Team Tony with an injured War Machine and mentally unstable Vision.

However, Vol. 2 isn't set in 2017 - it's set much earlier, which poses a bit of a problem.

The Plot Hole Explained

Thanks to word from James Gunn and Kevin Feige respectively we know that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is set a few months after the original film (to allow for Groot to be a small twig) and four years before Infinity War. This means the film's events have to take place in 2014 (for anyone in doubt, the year tags of both films state this). Which begs the question, why does nobody respond to a Celestial attack?

Chronologically, the 2014 dating puts Vol. 2 between Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron. The key events on Earth at this point are the repercussions of the unmasking of Hydra and fall of S.H.I.E.L.D.; the Avengers had re-teamed to hunt down the various Hydra cells and reclaim Loki's staff from Baron Strucker (a mission they're finishing up in their second film). Cap's hunting Bucky, Iron Man's rebuilt his suits set, Thor's on Earth and the whole Initiative is in full swing. An explosion of planet-threatening alien tech should be on their radar. Particularly so given that, while Tony is yet to have the instigating vision that leads to him erroneously making Ultron, he and Banner are still working on an AI system to keep the world safe - he is more than in-touch with the wider global status.

The event seems to go by without mention. There is the possibility the gang checked it out off-screen between films, but the fact such a cataclysmic event wasn't later cited by General Ross when chastising the team and introducing the Sokovia Accords in Civil War (there's no mark on his world map for Missouri) makes that seem unlikely.

And what of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.? Even if we can somehow rationalize the Avengers not caring about the backwaters, it's hard to ignore Phil Coulson and co., who exist explicitly to respond to these sort of complaints. Vol. 2 would take place at the start of Season 2, after they've acclimatized to a post-S.H.I.E.L.D. world and just as the characters were becoming acutely aware of the larger Inhuman issue, so something Celestial would definitely pique their interest. Yet nobody bats an eyelid.

In short, shifting the timeline to enable Baby Groot led to Guardians introducing an Earth-based plot element that clashes with the accepted canon. Whoops.

Next Page: [valnet-url-page page=2 paginated=0 text='How%20Could%20We%20Get%20Around%20This%20Big%20MCU%20Plot%20Hole%3F']

How Do We Explain The Plot Hole?

The practical explanation for this plot hole is one of production restrictions. The decision was made to shift Guardians 2 back in the timeline at a point when the intricate details of Avengers 2 and quite likely Captain America 3 were locked, with the whole Earth-set destruction after that. The Marvel machine is tightly ran, but with so many moving parts things like this are inevitably going to fall through the cracks. This is probably why, in part, the overlapping of films that personified Phase 1 has been dialed back in recent years (with Vol. 2 the exception).

That said, it would have been easy enough for James Gunn to work around it. The main purpose of showing Earth at all - besides allowing the director's parents a brief cameo as panic-stricken bystanders - is to justify the movie's intriguing opening; you need to have Ego plant a pod to make the romancing scene have narrative relevance (it's also a parallel to him planting the tumor in Meredith's brain) and Chekov's gun dictates we later see it go off. However, fitting of Guardians 2's free-flowing weirdness, it would have been easy enough to have the film's requisite decimation occur on a different far-off world (one that doubles as a neat comic reference of some form) with Earth's a ticking time bomb that never goes off; a delay could have even served as a visual representation of Ego's conflict over his feelings for Peter's mother.

But, with the deck we've been dealt, is there a way to rationalize this within the continuity? This is something the Marvel One-Shots used to do in dependably knockabout fashion, but they were canceled presumably because they were too high-cost for what are essentially Blu-Ray bonus features.

Let's presume every other film is set in its month of release unless explicitly stated otherwise (i.e. Iron Man 3 obviously unfolds at Christmas). This puts The Winter Soldier in May 2014, Guardians 1 in August 2014, Vol. 2 in November 2014 and Age of Ultron in May 2015. If Cap didn't manage to re-mobilize The Avengers following the reveal of Hydra for a good six months - an odd gap, but one could chime with them still mopping up the whole thing after a further half-year - then they weren't together at the time of the incident (and we know from Phase 2 solo outings they won't turn to everything). Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. is harder to escape, but there are periods in early Season 2 when a run of episodes would keep the team busy.

It hinges on the nature of Ego's powers really. In the film, his defeat is seen to freeze the encroaching power force, but if it was to eventually dissipate then it's possible, if not too likely, the whole attack could pass without either or our teams being aware of it. Of course, all of that requires multiple leaps of faith.

The Unavoidability of Marvel Plot Holes

Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark in The Incredible Hulk

This isn't the first major plot hole that this type of shared universe storytelling has created for Marvel. Quite often a topic raised in a film is contradicted by a later piece of the puzzle, often one like this Vol. 2 issue in production at the same time and thus open to change.

It was particularly prominent in the early days when the series was still finding its way. The Incredible Hulk's post-credit scene, which had Tony Stark visiting an inebriated General Ross to discuss The Avengers, clashed with him being kicked out of the S.H.I.E.L.D. initiative by Nick Fury in Iron Man 2; thanks to several easter eggs, both films clearly took place at the same time. In the end, One-Shot The Consultant revealed the Hulk scene as part of a bigger trick by Agents Coulson and Sitwell - not elegant, but serviceable. That's nothing on Thor, which has had Loki's death, the Rainbow Bridge's destruction and the Infinity Gauntlet easter egg all nullified in the year's since.

The fact of the matter is, while "everything is connected" in the MCU, more often than not it only works in a macro sense and requires some serious squinting when you look at specific details. The shared universe may be meticulously plotted, but when you're dealing with so many different writers and directors with distinct visions working on dozens of projects simultaneously some contradictions are going to emerge, even at this sophisticated level.

Now just nobody mention the fact Drax has completely forgotten about vengeance for his dead wife and child with his romancing of Mantis and we'll be OK.