Guardians Of The Galaxy Easter Eggs And References

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Taneleer Tivan a.k.a. The Collector

Fans will no doubt recognize Benicio del Toro as The Collector from the post-credits scene in Thor: The Dark World. In Guardians of the Galaxy, he gets much more screen time, and his artifact gallery is one of the main sources of Easter eggs. At the end of Thor: The Dark World, Sif and Volstagg hand him the Aether, an Infinity Stone, because they don’t feel comfortable having two Infinity Stones so close together on Asgard — the other being the Tesseract. Peter Quill and Gamora try to sell The Collector the stolen orb. It is at that time that The Collector opens the orb and reveals that it houses the Power Stone. His tortured assistant, thinking that she can use it to free herself, grabs the Power Stone and causes an explosion in the gallery, killing herself in the process.

The Tesseract a.k.a. The Cosmic Cube

The Tesseract has already made numerous appearances in the Marvel Cinematic Universe:

In Iron Man 2 when Tony Stark was going through his notes, we see a drawing of the Tesseract.
In Thor‘s post-credits scene, the Tesseract is shown to Erik Selvig by Nick Fury.
In Captain America: The First Avenger, the Tesseract was central to Hydra’s plan in creating weapons to conquer the world.
In The Avengers, the Tesseract is again central to the movie’s plot, where Loki uses it to open a portal for the invading Chitauri.
In Thor: The Dark World, the Tesseract is mentioned as one of the six Infinity Stones when Sif and Volstagg visit the Collector.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, one of the holographic images is the Tesseract when The Collector is giving a history of the Infinity Stones to Peter Quill and Gamora.

Thanos

Thanos made his first Marvel Cinematic Universe appearance in the post-credits scene of The Avengers, where he only cracks a devilish grin. In Guardians of the Galaxy, he plays a more dominant role. Portrayed by Josh Brolin, we see the Titan meet with Ronan to discuss Gamora’s betrayal. He also lays down a harsh in-your-face insult to Nebula (Karen Gillan) when he proclaims that Gamora was always his favorite.

The Dark Elves

The Dark Elves led by their leader, Malekith, were the main antagonists in Thor: The Dark World, and a Dark Elf is seen in The Collector’s gallery being kept like a zoo animal. It’s unknown how he got there. Maybe Sif and Volstagg dropped him off while they were delivering the Aether.

The Chitauri

The Chitauri were one of the main antagonists in The Avengers. In Guardians of the Galaxy, one is seen in The Collector’s gallery kept in a cell, and the leader of the Chitauri, The Other (Alexis Denisof), is seen in alliance with Thanos, Ronan, and Nebula.

The Infinity Gauntlet

When all six Infinity Stones are mounted on the Infinity Gauntlet, the wearer is granted control over the universe, which includes time, space, mind, soul, reality and power. For non-comic book fans, think of this as someone getting a cosmic Konami Code and the video game is the universe … yep, instant free for all. Though the Infinity Gauntlet is not seen in Guardians of the Galaxy, it is alluded to, because Thanos’s main goal is to capture the Power Stone. The Infinity Gauntlet is, however, briefly seen in Thor when the camera quickly pans by Odin’s treasure room during an attack by the Frost Giants.

12%

It seems like a very mundane thing, but “12%” will carry a lot of weight after this. The first time “12%” was heard was in The Avengers when Tony Stark offered to give Pepper Potts 12% of the credit for building Stark Tower. They humorously bickered over the number with Pepper thinking she deserved more credit.

In Guardians of the Galaxy, Peter Quill tells his friends that he has 12% of a plan. The result is Rocket letting out a fake laugh mocking Peter and calling him out as a one-upper. The two also bicker over the number.

The significance of two movies having similar arguments shows that the ensemble casts of The Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy mirror each other. This, in turn, gives a nod to the audience that one day we will see them team up in a movie.

If you haven’t seen them, check out some more Guardians of the Galaxy Easter eggs and references:

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