‘Guardians of the Galaxy 2’: The Heartwarming Moment Between Rocket and Groot You Might Have Missed
All of the Guardians of the Galaxy are outsiders of one kind or another, but Rocket and Groot are more so than the others. Not only are they not humanoid in form, but the actors who give then their voices, Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel, tend not to show up at Marvel Cinematic Universe roundups.
However, that makes the bond between Rocket and Groot all the more touching. Fans pointed to a particular scene in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 as evidence of this, and it’s actually a subtle scene that’s easy to overlook.
How did Rocket and Groot bond?
Rocket and Groot have such a bond that not only can Rocket understand the various intonations of “I am Groot,” but the pair had their own comic book series in 2016.
They’re particularly important to the team, Rocket was the one who gave the Guardians of the Galaxy their name, and he was one who brought Groot on board.
That storyline appeared in the comics around the mid-2000s, and writer-director James Gunn used elements of these in his screenplays. Star-Lord’s team tries to escape through a drainage pipe that Groot could not fit into. Groot dies, and this allows the team to escape. A new Groot was created as a sprig offshoot In time, Groot’s body regenerated from the twig, growing back to full size.
In the movies, this is “Baby Groot,” who stole the show at the very beginning of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, as he bops around to Electric Light Orchestra’s “Mr. Blue Sky,” oblivious or uncaring of the chaos going on around him. For many viewers, that was the highlight of the movie, but a quieter scene caught the attention of some fans on Reddit.
What is the ‘Vol. 2’ scene between Groot and Rocket?
A topic starter on Reddit wrote:
“After Rocket sets the traps in the forest on Berhert and is waiting for the Ravagers, you hear Rocket humming into a communicator to a song while Groot is listening on the other end. I’ve seen this scene countless times, and it just now clicked with me that Rocket was humming to Groot to keep him calm and let him know everything was alright. We see that Groot is visibly nervous, and Rocket is trying to calm him down. It is just a great scene that shows how Rocket is truly the greatest father figure for Groot.”
It might seem hard to imagine Rocket being any kind of father figure, but he definitely is paternal toward Groot, feeling responsible for him. While everyone on the team, particularly Star-Lord, who can also understand Groot, cares about him, the key bond is definitely between tree and raccoon.
In the forum, Rocket actually takes a little heat for this, with one fan arguing that Rocket was using Groot as bait, but another fan said: “All the traps were set to keep the Ravagers from getting to the ship. Maybe Rocket thought that was the safest place for him. I don’t think Groot or the ship was being used as bait, I think he set the traps to be safe knowing a lot of people were coming after them.”
Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel are heard but not seen
One thing that’s a little odd about the MCU is that Rocket and Groot are voiced by very big stars: Bradley Cooper and Vin Diesel. One could even argue that Cooper is a bigger star than some of the Avengers. Yet you rarely if ever see either actor promoting Marvel movies. It might come up as a side topic on the talk show circuit, but a Marvel movie is rarely if ever the main topic.
Miri Jedeikin of AMC Movie News stated: “I think really, what it boils down to is, sometimes, when actors are in films, they have contracts that state that if they have other conflicts that come up, they can bow out of press. Sometimes, they have in their contracts that if they absolutely have to do press, then they get paid more for it.”
