Guardians of the Galaxy (2004)

If Guardians of the Galaxy was made 10 years earlier.

Directed By: J.J. Abrams

Plot
In 1981, following his mother's death, a young Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by a group of alien thieves and smugglers called the Ravagers led by Yondu Udonta. Twenty-three years later on the abandoned planet Morag, Quill steals a mysterious orb, but is attacked by forces, led by Korath, of the fanatical Kree renegade, Ronan the Accuser. Although Quill escapes with the orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the assassin Gamora after the orb.

When Quill attempts to sell the orb on Xandar, capital of the Nova Empire, Gamora ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters: the genetically and cybernetically modified raccoon Rocket, and the tree-like humanoid Groot. Nova Corps officers capture the four, detaining them in the Kyln prison. An inmate there, Drax the Destroyer, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with the powerful intergalactic warlord, Thanos, and Ronan, who killed his family. Quill convinces Drax that Gamora can bring Ronan to him, though Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the orb's power. Learning that Gamora intends to sell the orb to the Collector Taneleer Tivan, Quill, Rocket, Groot and Drax work with her to escape the Kyln in Quill's ship, the Milano.

Ronan meets with Gamora's adoptive father, Thanos, to discuss her betrayal. Quill's group flees to Knowhere, a remote lawless outpost in space built in the giant severed head of a Celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan while the rest of the group meets Tivan. Tivan opens the orb, revealing the Power Stone, an item of immeasurable power that destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Tivan's slave Carina grabs the Stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs Tivan's archive. Ronan arrives and easily defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers and Gamora's adoptive sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and Ronan's fighters capture the orb.

Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive; Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce, promising the orb to Yondu. Quill's group agrees that facing Ronan means certain death, but that they cannot let him use the Infinity Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's flagship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the Stone in his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening to kill him after first destroying Xandar; hateful of her adoptive father, Nebula allies with Ronan.

The Ravagers and Quill's group join with the Nova Corps to confront the Dark Aster at Xandar, with Quill's group breaching the Dark Aster with the Milano. Ronan uses his empowered warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. Drax kills Korath and Gamora defeats Nebula, who escapes, but the group finds themselves outmatched by Ronan's power until Rocket crashes a Ravager ship through the Dark Aster. The damaged Dark Aster crash-lands on Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him, allowing Drax and Rocket to destroy Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed Stone, and with Gamora, Drax and Rocket sharing its burden, uses it to vaporize Ronan.

In the aftermath, Quill tricks Yondu into taking a container supposedly containing the Stone, and gives the real Stone to the Nova Corps. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, Yondu remarks that it turned out well that they did not deliver Quill to his father per their contract. Quill's group, now known as the Guardians of the Galaxy, has their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens the last present he received from his mother, a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs. The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano along with a potted sapling cut from Groot, which grows into a baby version of him.

In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck.

Cast

 * Nathan Fillion as Peter Quill/Star-Lord: The half-human, half-alien leader of the Guardians who was abducted from Missouri as a child in 1981 and raised by a group of alien thieves and smugglers called the Ravagers.
 * Cole Sprouse portrays Young Peter Quill
 * Thandiwe Newton as Gamora: An orphan from an alien world who seeks redemption for her past crimes. She was trained by Thanos to be his personal assassin.
 * Dolph Lundgren as Drax the Destroyer: A warrior who seeks to avenge his family's death at the hands of Ronan.
 * Bruce Willis as Groot: A tree-like humanoid, he is the accomplice of Rocket.
 * Adam Sandler as Rocket: A genetically-engineered raccoon-based bounty hunter, mercenary and master of weapons and battle tactics.
 * Eric Bana as Ronan the Accuser: A Kree zealot and war criminal who agrees to retrieve an artifact for Thanos in exchange for the annihilation of his mortal enemies, the Xandarians. Ronan and his Sakaaranarmy hunt down the Guardians when they interfere with his goals.
 * Gary Busey as Yondu Udonta: A blue-skinned bandit who is the leader of the Ravagers and a paternal figure to Quill. Yondu helps Quill to steal the orb before Quill betrays him, leaving Yondu and the Ravagers to chase the Guardians.
 * Rosamund Pike as Nebula: An adopted daughter of Thanos who was raised with Gamora as siblings and is a loyal lieutenant in the employ of Ronan and Thanos.
 * Keith David as Korath: A Kree ally of Ronan who is a feared intergalactic hunter.
 * Jeff Daniels as Rhomann Dey: A corpsman in the Nova Corps, the Nova Empire's military and police force.
 * Jane Fonda as Irani Rael: The leader of the Nova Corps, known as Nova Prime, whose mission is to protect the citizens of the Nova Empire and keep peace.
 * Antonio Banderas as Taneleer Tivan/The Collector: An obsessive keeper of the largest collection of interstellar fauna, relics and species in the galaxy who operates out of a place in space named Knowhere.

Rating
Rated PG-13.