Guardians of the Galaxy smashed box office records with its debut this weekend, but some are more concerned with Marvel’s Guardians breaking some laws of science. Guardians director James Gunn took to his Facebook page today, though, to address the nitpicking nerds who claim there are unrealistic elements in a movie that partly takes place inside the severed head of a giant space god.
“Sometimes people’s incorrect beliefs about science,” Gunn wrote in a Facebook post today, “can often make them believe the correct science within another work of fiction is inaccurate.”
At issue is a particular scene in Guardians of the Galaxy involving deep space and whether or not someone can survive and not explode without a spacesuit. If you’ve read this far and you don’t want to see SPOILERS, we’ve really got to wonder what exactly is wrong with you.
Gunn notes that, throughout test screenings of Guardians of the Galaxy , “people would be upset when Quill saves Gamora and both of them survive in space for a short amount of time without space suits or oxygen.” These people, presumably, are going on the Total Recall Corollary, which states that your eyes will pop out of your head and skin will boil if you are exposed to anything other than Earth’s atmosphere for more than a few seconds.
While Total Recall was an admirable scientific documentary on the pitfalls of colonizing of Mars, these people are mistaken, according to the Guardians director.
“I had to stick to my guns in the editing of the film,” Gunn wrote, “as it was completely possible.”
It’s questionable whether the critics even have a leg to stand on with regard to living and dying in a vacuum, though. Badass Digest notes that humans can endure the ravages of space for a short period, just like Quill does in Guardians of the Galaxy . Some pretty brutal experiments on dogs showed that animals can survive a complete vacuum for up to 90 seconds, though they definitely wouldn’t be in any shape to go handling Infinity Gems shortly after that. No word on how raccoons fared in the trials.
Gunn does, though, toss out a few reasons for Guardians critics who want their galaxies more faithfully rendered on screen. According to Gunn, there are four reasons that the two Guardians could survive out in the raw galaxy for as long as they did.
- Gamora is genetically and cybernetically enhanced, boosting her durability.
- There is residual atmosphere around Quill from both the Kyln and Knowhere, lessening the impact of space.
- The scene is in slow motion, meaning they weren’t exposed for as long as you might think.
- The airlock in the Eclector (Yondu’s ship) has regenerative properties.
The last one is our favorite, but we’d like to toss one more in there: Because it is fiction. It is comic book fiction. It is comic book fiction with a murderous, talking raccoon and a moving, fighting tree. If “Wouldn’t he die in space?” is your only nitpick with this film, you are not winning at life.
Gunn addresses a number of other concerns viewers had about Guardians , including where Quill gets the batteries for his Walkman and how everybody speaks English. The latter we pointed out when The Inquisitr looked at the Guardians of the Galaxy extended trailer , but the former is mildly interesting. How does Quill get those batteries?
“They’ve mastered anti-gravity,” Gunn responds. “I think they can figure out a power source for his Walkman.”
Fair enough, but we’d counter with this: Anyone who’s had a favorite cassette tape knows that those things wear out if you’re listening to them as much as Quill likely was. Twenty-something years of play means that the Guardians of the Galaxy soundtrack would probably be quite warped. Trust us, back in the day we had a copy of Dr. Dre’s The Chronic on tape; we know these things.