Every movie has continuity errors-- even Guardians of the Galaxy movies. They're inescapable because there are multiple takes of any virtually every scene in a film. Even if everyone tries to do everything exactly the same way, little differences inevitably slip in. An actor holds her hands differently in one take. A prop accidentally gets bumped, changing its position. The boom microphone inadvertently dips into the frame. When the editor assembles the footage, pieces of all those different takes are combined, occasionally leading to mistakes ending up in the finished product.
Because we live in an age where technology allows us to scrutinize movies frame by frame, spotting such continuity errors has not only become easier, it's also become something of a sport. Online forums are filled with people looking for them in major releases. Entire YouTube channels are devoted to them. IMDb even has a section of "goofs" for many of the movies listed on the site.
In some cases, the errors are rather dull and boring. In others, they're more quirky and fun. The two Guardians of the Galaxy movies have quite a few that are amusing to discover, partially because the films themselves are so enjoyable to watch that you don't notice how glaring some of these mistakes are. We've collected twenty examples from GOTG and GOTG Vol. 2 that we think you'll enjoy. Odds are you've watched the movies multiple times. Now go back and see if you can catch these blunders in continuity and logic.
Here are 20 Mistakes Fans Completely Missed In Guardians Of The Galaxy Movies.
Star-Lord's disappearing rat microphone
The opening credits sequence in Guardians of the Galaxy helps to establish who Peter Quill is as a character. He puts on his headphones and fires up his trusty Walkman, then begins dancing around the surface of an alien planet while lip syncing to Redbone's classic 1973 song "Come and Get Your Love". The scene lets us know that Peter loves music and is, at heart, kind of a goofball.
During his impromptu performance, he grabs a rat-like creature and uses it as a pretend microphone. If you watch the sequence closely, you will notice that the rat comes and goes from his hand with each shot. It's there, then it's not, then it's back again.
How not to hold a cup
How do you hold a cup? Most likely, you hold it with just one hand. Some of you might use two. The latter technique isn't as common, but it exists. What you absolutely can't do, however, is hold it both ways simultaneously. Gamora, on the other hand, can do just that. In GOTG Vol.2, there's a scene in which Mantis prepares to give a psychic reading to Peter Quill and Drax. She explains her empathic ability to sense what others are feeling inside.
Gamora stands and listens, holding a cup in both hands for quite a while.
When the camera switches angles so that it's now behind her, she holds the cup in her right hand only. Her left arm is by her side.
Where did the Collector's henchmen go?
This one is a really bizarre mystery. Partway through Guardians of the Galaxy, our heroes make their way to Knowhere, so they can meet up with Taneleer Tiven, also known as the Collector. As they enter his chamber, a woman with red skin announces them to him. In that long-distance shot, we see the Collector just standing there, flanked by a henchman on either side.
When the shot switches to something a little closer, the henchmen are no longer visible. At first, it appears that maybe they're just slightly out of frame, since it is sort of a closeup. However, none of the subsequent shots have them, either. Somehow, they have mysteriously vanished and, oddly, none of the characters acknowledge this.
Yondu's resurrected fin
Much is made in GOTG Vol. 2 about Yondu's fin. It's cut off at one point, and at another, Baby Groot is sent to retrieve it. Why is the thing so important? Apparently, it possesses some truly magical properties that we are not directly informed of, including the ability to be resurrected. In the movie's final minutes, Yondu passes away. His body is put into a very colorful oven for cremation.
In a closeup, we see his upper body, including the fin, burning up and disintegrating.
A very short time later, during one of the post-credits scenes, Yondu's henchman Kraglin is shown wearing it and unsuccessfully attempting to master its powers. Somehow, it has managed to reassemble itself and make its way to him.
Is Gamora wearing Star-Lord's helmet or not?
An especially poignant sequence in GOTG finds Gamora floating helplessly in space. Star-Lord rushes out to save her. Knowing that she can't breathe, he removes his helmet, puts it on her, and glides her back to the ship, where she will be safe and hopefully survive this perilous ordeal. The sight of Gamora wearing his helmet is significant because, in addition to saving her, it hints at the romantic connection between the two.
Once they return to the ship, the two Guardians are pulled in, landing on the floor with a thud. The helmet is now abruptly gone, leaving Gamora's head visible and exposed. Where did it go? There's no way she could have removed it in the split second it took them to come on board.
Stan Lee might be a time-traveler
It's debatable whether or not writer/director James Gunn would explain away the errors in his two Guardians of the Galaxy movies. That said, there is one that he did publicly address, and it involves the King of Marvel himself, Mr. Stan Lee. In GOTG Vol. 2, Lee's cameo has him telling the Watchers that he was once a FedEx delivery man. This is, as hardcore fans will doubtlessly know, a reference to his cameo in Captain America: Civil War.
The error is that Vol. 2 technically takes place a couple years before Civil War.
Gunn offered a mea culpa, saying, "I wasn't thinking, But I'm going to say that probably Stan Lee used the guise of a FedEx guy more than one time."
Ronan's hammer problem
In the climactic scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, the gang has a final confrontation with the evil Ronan. It appears that the villain has the upper hand, but then Peter distracts him by busting out some funky fresh dance moves and crooning his own version of "Ooh, Child" by The Five Stairsteps. This distraction gives Drax just enough time to fire a weapon at Ronan's hammer, destroying it and freeing the Infinity Stone embedded within.
For most of this scene, Ronan holds the hammer so that its head is on his left side. For the big dramatic moment, though, the weapon magically moves to his right, conveniently giving Drax a much clearer shot at it.
The magical moving speakers
GOTG Vol. 2 announces its sense of playfulness with a remarkable opening credits sequence. The Guardians land on a giant platform, where they must conquer a massive snarling beast. As they fight the creature, Baby Groot puts some music on the speakers the gang has brought along. He cheerfully dances to the sounds of Electric Light Orchestra's "Mr. Blue Sky" while his colleagues take a whooping.
Keep an eye on those speakers.
The platform has alternating bands of gold and white going around it. In some shots, the speakers are unmistakably on the gold section. In others, they're on the white sections. They inexplicably bounce back and forth throughout the scene, despite never being touched.
The mystery hand touching Peter's mother
A flashback at the beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy finds Peter Quill as a young boy. He is summoned into his mother's hospital room, where she lays terminally ill. The two have a short conversation, during which Peter seems very sad and uncomfortable, and his mom tries to soften the blow of her imminent demise.
Shots from two different angles show Meredith Quill in the bed, with no one next to her. Then comes a different angle. All the way on the left-hand side of the screen, you will notice that there is a hand on her shoulder, as though someone is comforting her. Since no one was by her side up until now, we can only wonder whose hand that is and where it came from.
The shifting Guardians line-up
In Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, there is a scene in which our beloved heroes journey to the center of Ego. Star-Lord and Yondu are up front, piloting the ship. Toward the rear, four of the others -- Drax, Nebula, Mantis, and Gamora -- look out a hole that's been ripped in the side, waiting to see what happens. Nebula moves forward so that all four are standing side-by-side.
The next shot is from a reverse angle, and it completely messes up the blocking of the scene.
Mantis turns around and is suddenly in front of the others. She even walks right past Drax. As she does this, we can see that Nebula is now somehow behind everyone else again. Whereas they once formed a line, the Guardians are now scattered.
Gloves or no gloves?
The beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy is set on the planet Morag. Star-Lord attempts to steal some kind of orb, only to be confronted by Korath. He dashes to his ship, the Milano, pumps the thrusters, and blasts off before he can be captured.
When you see his hands on the ship's controls, Star-Lord is wearing a pair of tan and black gloves. There's no way you can miss them because they're shown several times. As the Milano bolts away, it hits a geyser of water that blasts it even further skyward. Star-Lord is slammed against the windshield, which his now-bare hand presses against. In the next shot, showing him tumbling around inside, the gloves are back.
Teleporting Gamora
The first battle in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is between our heroes and a gigantic multi-limbed beast. Initially, it seems as though the creature will get the better of them, but some fast-footed teamwork saves the day. Gamora is the one who finishes off their foe. She leaps up to his neck and uses her blade to slice him all the way down the length of his disgusting body. She lands directly in front of him, but when the camera pulls back for a wide shot, she's suddenly much more to his side.
It's almost as though Gamora beamed several feet to the right.
While we're at it, how was Gamora able to avoid getting splattered with the ooze spewing out of the creature as she sliced it?
Rocket's rapidly changing fur
Poor Rocket. It's got to be hard being a raccoon in outer space, especially when your constant companion is a talking tree. There's a lot of ammunition for people to make fun of you. Fortunately, Rocket has a special power that seemingly allows him to quickly correct a bad fur day.
When the raccoon first wakes up in jail during the original GOTG, the hair on the side of his face is badly matted. You've heard of "bed-head," his is more like "bed-face." His disheveled appearance is played for laughs, so it's a tad surprising when his fur is completely back to normal in the next shot a couple seconds later. Somehow, he managed to do this without a comb.
Where did Gamora go?
A most peculiar continuity error can be found in the original Guardians of the Galaxy when the characters end up in the "space jail." Gathering in the common area, Peter is confronted by a brutish inmate. As he walks closer, Gamora has his back, standing literally just a foot or two behind him. Or is she? In the very next shot, a more panoramic view of the prison is given and Gamora is no longer standing behind Peter. In fact, she's not there at all, nor is she in any of the shots that follow.
That's right, she vanishes from a room full of people.
Maybe Zoe Saldana was unavailable when the follow-up shots were filmed, or perhaps a moment explaining Gamora's departure was cut out.
Baby Groot's loud desk
There are plenty of hilarious moments in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but perhaps the funniest involves Baby Groot. When Rocket and Yondu are imprisoned by the Ravagers, they ask their little tree-like friend to sneak into the captain's quarters and find Yondu's fin, which has been taken from him. Baby Groot misunderstands, instead bringing them a comically bizarre series of objects, including a pair of underwear, a human thumb, and a large metal desk.
The Ravagers are sleeping, and the desk makes a loud, annoying sound as he drags it across the floor. This leads us to wonder how the noise from the desk could possibly have failed to awaken them. It simply makes no sense. Not a single one of them heard that commotion?
Meredith Quill's inconsistent letter to Peter
The emotional high point in Guardians of the Galaxy finds the adult Peter Quill reading the letter his mother wrote to him shortly before she tragically passed away when he was a child. Director James Gunn shows us the note for a couple seconds, then switches to Peter's face as we hear his late mom read it in voiceover.
There's just one problem -- what she's reading isn't exactly what's on the paper.
It begins, "I know these last few months have been hard for you, and I know it's because of the special bond we share. But I'm going to a better place, and I will be okay." When Meredith's voice is heard reading the letter, she omits the part about them having a special bond.
Peter's radio moves on its own
During a tender moment in Vol. 2, Peter Quill and Gamora stand on a balcony and behold the beauty of Ego's planet. He wants to ask her to dance, so he tosses his communicator on a nearby chair. The two then begin a very romantic slow dance that ends with her becoming frustrated with him.
This is an important moment between the two characters, so your attention is probably not on the radio device. When Quill throws it down, it lands almost perfectly in the middle of the chair. In subsequent shots, however, it's all the way over to the left-hand side. This is clearly the result of parts of two different takes being combined within the scene. Obviously, Chris Pratt couldn't throw it exactly the same way twice.
Rocket's moving pursuers
Geography is a recurring problem in the Guardians movies. Perhaps the most egregious example of how it's misused can be found in Vol. 2. The Ravagers chase Rocket Raccoon through a forest. He has a trap laid out for them, climbing a tree and setting off a device that blows his pursuers into the air. In the shot where Rocket pushes the button, we can tell the Ravagers are fairly far in the background behind him.
When they fall back to the ground, they somehow land directly behind the tree he's perched in.
That would make sense if we saw them being blown forward, but they aren't. They're blown straight up. There's no way they could have moved closer to Rocket.
Meredith's changing footwear
The opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 occurs even before the Marvel Studios logo appears. Set in 1980, it features Ego and Meredith, the two young lovers who will eventually be Peter Quill's parents, cruising in a car, listening to the Looking Glass song "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". They pull over and venture into the woods, where Ego intends to show her something.
As they run through the forest, eagle-eyed viewers will catch that Meredith is wearing Ugg Boots -- the kind with the distinct band of fur at the top. In all subsequent shots, however, she is wearing heels. Either she somehow changed footwear or actress Laura Haddock didn't want to risk jogging in shoes likely to make her trip.
The Awesome Mix cassette isn't possible in the movie's timeline
Peter Quill's mix tape is an essential element of the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. He uses music as both inspiration and coping mechanism. The songs he listens to comprise the films' soundtracks, often helping to highlight the emotional aspect of the scenes in which they appear.
Hardcore audiophiles online noticed something interesting.
In trying to identify exactly what kind of cassette tape Peter has, they discovered that, aside from the custom label, it possesses the exact markings of the "CDing 2," manufactured by TDK. Because they were knowledgeable enough to figure this out, they similarly discovered that this particular brand wasn't manufactured until 1993. The scene where young Peter has the tape takes place in 1988, five years prior. Somehow, he got one before it existed.
---
Did you spot any of these Guardians of the Galaxy errors? Have you caught any others? Tell us in the comments.