10 Moments That Ruined Amazing Movie Scenes
5. The Scooter Clothesline - Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 features one of the most harrowing sequences in the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, when a flashback details the horrible eventuality of Rocket's (Bradley Cooper) past.
The scene shows the deaths of Rocket's pals - otter Lylla (Linda Cardellini), walrus Teefs (Asim Chaudhry), and rabbit Floor (Mikaela Hoover) - at the hands of the High Evolutionary (Chukwudi Iwuji) and his goons, before Rocket brutally wounds the High Evolutionary, kills his goons, and escapes.
As Rocket flees, James Gunn cuts back to the Guardians on Counter-Earth, where a citizen drives up behind Drax (Dave Bautista) on a motorbike, prompting Drax to clothesline him off said bike.
In isolation it's a mildly amusing slapstick gag, but coming mere moments after we saw Rocket staring at his beloved Lylla's corpse?
The mood whiplash is outrageous, and given that Gunn is typically highly skilled at navigating tricky tonal shifts, this is definitely a rare case where he simply failed to pull it off.
We needed to sit with this heart-wrenching moment for a little longer, or at least ease back into the sillier stuff rather than bashing us over the head with a full on wacky slapstick joke immediately.