History Awesome / GuardiansOfTheGalaxy2014

* Ronan grabbing the Infinity Stone with his bare hands and surviving the experience long enough, by himself, to integrate it into his Universal Weapon ''and'' challenge Thanos to boot.

--->And then, [[ScreamingWarrior Cue]] [[ShoutingShooter the]] [[BattleCry RIOT]]

** This also features an intense "I AM GROOT!" moment after some prison guards attack Groot, forcing him to fight back. Made even better by the voice filters failing and Vin Diesel's natural bass coming out. Yep, VD has such a BadassBaritone that no voice filter can hold it in when he goes all out with it.

-->'''Rocket:''' Let's make something clear. ''This'' one here's ''our'' booty! You want to get to him!? You go through us! Or… more accurately… ''we'' go through ''you''.

** This also features an intense "I AMMMM GROOOOOOT" moment after some prison guards attack Groot, forcing him to fight back. Made even better by the voice filters failing and Vin Diesel's natural bass coming out. Yep, VD has such a BadassBaritone that no voice filter can hold it in when he goes all out with it.

** When you consider that they had all had witnessed first-hand what the Power Stone could do when Carina grabbed it, and had learned from the Collector that even the group of people who had shared the power before had died too it makes it all the more incredible that they each reached out in the first place. For all each of them knew, they were sentencing themselves to die right on the spot, with only a slight ''chance'' that they would be able to stop Ronan first.

*** And another: instead of being awestruck with terror and basically frozen in place by Ronan's apparently forthcoming victory, he immediately starts doing all that he can to try and stop him after his first attempt failed miserably. The snarl on his face as he connects the wires, just before Drax uses the Hadron Enforcer, says it all.

*** When they witnessed the memory of the nine Cosmic Beings trying to use the Power Stone (and failing), they looked tidy and organized. None of that here: instead they have out of control surges of power, dirt, soot, and pure desperation, each of the Guardians burning from the inside out, each looking like a total wreck - and yet they still band together to master the Power Stone, each making the individual choice to step up and stand by Quill.

*** And another: instead of being awestruck with terror and basically frozen in place by Ronan's apparently forthcoming victory, he immediately starts doing all that he can to try and stop him after his first attempt failed miserably.

** Star-Lord staying behind to [[spoiler:get his mix tape back]].

* The [[spoiler:Celestial]] ravaging an entire planet with an [[spoiler:Infinity Stone]].
** That scene is great for two reasons: it's framed almost like a Creator/JackKirby panel, and it features [[spoiler:an actual Celestial from the comics, namely Eson the Searcher, one of the most dynamic-looking Celestials]].
* Carina [[spoiler: grabbing the Power Stone to take her revenge on the Collector, who just a few scenes ago threatened to lock her in a cage since she wasn't cleaning the cages properly. She dies in the process, but she also takes out Tivan's collection in the process reducing it to rubble.]]

* Quill and Rocket using unarmed mining pods to fight Ronan's necrocrafts. At one point, [[spoiler:Peter tears his way into a necrocraft using the pod and then using its arms, proceeds to use the guns of the ship that he's inside of]].
* Quill saving both [[spoiler:Gamora and himself from dying in the cold void of space]] with some very quick thinking.
* Ronan [[spoiler:grabbing the Infinity Stone]] with his bare hands and surviving the experience long enough, by himself, to [[spoiler:integrate it into his Universal Weapon ''and'' challenge Thanos to boot]].

* The Ravagers' incredibly flashy and highly effective [[spoiler:smokescreen]].
* Drax [[spoiler:blasting Nebula with his gun (non-fatally), after she called Gamora a stupid traitor.]] The quote that follows, "Nobody talks to my friends like that", had audiences erupting in applause.
** Nebula [[spoiler: rebuilding herself after being blasted is equal parts {{Squick}}, NightmareFuel, and Awesome.]]

* Groot [[spoiler:sticking his arm through a whole line of Ronan's goons, then slamming them into the other goons, and then repeatedly slamming the ones still on his arm.]] He then turns to Quill and Drax and flashes a grin.
* [[spoiler:Nebula's escape involves timing her fall from ''Dark Aster'' to land on a Ravager ship, kick its pilot out of the cockpit and then fly out of the battlefield]].
** She [[spoiler:''cut off her own goddamned hand.'']] ''And she just keeps going.''
* The whole final showdown, including Drax and Rocket [[spoiler:destroying Ronan's hammer, letting Quill grab the stone, with him nearly being destroyed, until Gamora, Drax, and Rocket (who is grabbing onto one of Groot's twigs) join him together.]] And then, after hearing Ronan's EvilGloating of, "Behold your guardians of the galaxy!" at the start of the battle, we now hear this exchange:

[[spoiler:''[[[VillainousBreakdown Utterly furious at this remark, Ronan attempts to attack them with an enraged snarl.]] Quill opens his hand and directs the stone's energy toward Ronan, blowing the villain to smithereens.]'']]
** It really cannot be understated just how awesome [[spoiler:the Guardians' sharing of the Stone's power is. It's the epitome of ThePowerOfFriendship as a cliché, blown way out of cinematic proportion, and incredibly awe-inspiring for it.]]
** When you consider that they had all had witnessed first-hand [[spoiler: what the Power Stone could do when Carina grabbed it, and had learned from the Collector that even the group of people who had shared the power before had died too]] it makes it all the more incredible that [[spoiler: they each reached out]] in the first place. For all each of them knew, [[spoiler: they were sentencing themselves to die right on the spot, with only a slight ''chance'' that they would be able to stop Ronan first]].
** A Fridge moment of awesome: [[spoiler: Quill clearly saw Rocket and Drax planning something, since he was distracting Ronan. But Gamora might not have, if her BigNo when Peter leaped to grab the stone was any indicator. And yet she was the ''first'' person to react to Peter holding the stone, yelling for him to take her hand. It was one of the biggest moments where her concern and care for Peter shone through]].
*** For that matter, the fact that [[spoiler: Quill starts distracting Ronan in the first place. On top of being absolutely hilarious, it shows off his quick-thinking as he sees that Rocket has started assembling an improvised gun but Ronan is clearly about to kill them all before he can finish and, basically completely spontaneously, does the very first thing he can think of to give Rocket and Drax the few more seconds they need, and it works]].
** And one for Rocket: he is clearly the most reluctant of the bunch, [[spoiler: and yet in the finale, despite hearing his friends' screams of pain and seeing the power of the stone begin to rip ''each of them'' apart from the inside out, he ''still'' reached out to share the burden with them]].

** Made all the better when you notice that [[spoiler:the scattered twigs of Groot are glowing as well, he is sharing the load with the rest of them (also good foreshadowing that he did not in fact die from the crash - or rather, he did die, but he left behind a son).]]

* [[spoiler: [[https://youtu.be/sSPpMb0RCFw?t=14 A grounded Yondu vs a Sakaaran platoon with a necrocraft]]. They order him to turn on the Nova Corps. Yondu just stands still, opens his coat like a Western gunslinger would to show off his guns for a shootout, and unholsters his Yaka arrow. Then he lets the arrow loose, wiping out the whole platoon in seconds, including the one still onboard the necrocraft. The poor suckers never stood a chance.]]
** Also counts as a follow up to his offscreen moment just before. [[spoiler: Surviving a crash landing that literally annihilates his ship into pieces and he didn't have any sort of escape pod since we see him standing ''in'' the wreckage.]]
* [[spoiler: Groot's building a shelter for the rest of the team inside Ronan's crashing ship, essentially sacrificing himself in the process]].
-->'''Groot:''' [[spoiler:We are Groot.]]
* Gamora [[spoiler: beating Nebula, at least for now.]]

* For decades, fans of [[spoiler:Howard the Duck]] were positive that there was no chance in hell that they would ever see a worthy portrayal of the character on the big screen. TheStinger of this film proves them wrong.
** It's also been suggested that this scene represents something of a BadassBoast by Marvel, to wit: [[spoiler:the company did so poorly with films based on its properties until the turn of the century that for quite a while the 1986 ''Howard'' film was their best known one, with its status as ''the'' iconic bad comic book adaptation. After so long as a source of shame for Marvel, with the monstrous success of the MCU they now get to say "We're so big that we could even do ''this'' if we wanted."]]

* Rocket charging at Ronan after [[spoiler:Groot's death.]] He was initially terrified of the Infinity Stone alone and when Ronan got his hands on it his plan was to literally get as far away as possible. After [[spoiler:Groot's sacrifice]] though Rocket is willing to attack Ronan head on and unarmed. Granted, it fails, but it was cool to see someone not cowering in terror of Ronan once he had reached the surface.

** Personally, the fact that Saal objects to listening to Quill only ''once''. And, when they decide to act against his advice, he doesn't object and hopes ''he'' is the one being wrong. In most movies, he'd be the obstructive asshole, here he's actually a quite reasonable guy. Which makes [[spoiler:his death later on all that more of a TearJerker]].

** The fact that Rocket likely did that to [[spoiler: avenge the deaths of Saal and the other Nova Corps pilots Ronan had just killed]].
* One for the villain: in rapid succession, first Quill[[note]]via Rocket-designed {{BFG}} to-the-face[[/note]] - then Rocket[[note]]via Ravager starship [[RammingAlwaysWorks to-the-face]][[/note]] - and finally the surface of Xandar[[note]]via [[ExpospeakGag lithobraking]]… [[RuleOfThree to-the-face]][[/note]] make very creditable attempts to reduce Ronan to a greasy stain. How invulnerable ''is'' this guy? [[spoiler: It took an Infinity Stone - [[RunningGag to-the-face]] - to bring him down.]]