Have you ever seen a group of people given a great responsibility, but they all seem incapable of handling it? You think to yourself that there’s no way they’ll be able to pull it off. But to your surprise, they perform their duty quite well. If you haven’t, then you can consider rewatching the movie “Guardians of the Galaxy (2014).” After rewatching it, I thought, there’s no way people with the qualities of Peter, a dishonest thief, Gamora, a killer, Rocket, a raccoon, Groot, a walking tree, and Drax, a meathead, could be the protectors of the Galaxy. But when they come together as a team, they end up saving an entire planet. So let’s go through the story of the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie. And if you haven’t watched the movie, don’t read ahead because there are spoilers.

In 1988, a kid named Peter Quill on Earth gets abducted by Ravagers (space pirates) after his mother dies of cancer. Twenty-six years later, he tracks a valuable orb on an abandoned planet called Morag. As soon as he retrieves it, another party searching for the orb, led by Korath and employed by Ronan the Accuser, arrives. They try to take the orb and Peter to Ronan, but he escapes in his ship, The Milano. Soon after, he gets a call from Yondu Udonta, a Ravager leader. Yondu gets angry at Peter because he arranged the deal to retrieve and sell the orb, but Peter intends to betray him. Yondu puts a bounty on Peter to capture him alive and retrieve the orb.

On the Kree warship, The Dark Aster, Korath returns empty-handed without the orb. He informs Ronan that Peter plans to sell the orb to an intermediary called The Broker. Ronan has an agreement with the mad titan Thanos, who promised to destroy Xandar for Ronan in exchange for the orb. Thanos has also lent his two daughters, Gamora and Nebula, to Ronan to help him in his mission. Ronan wants to destroy Xandar because his kind, the Kree, was at war with the Xandarians for thousands of years, and he lost his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather during the war. Ronan tasks Nebula with retrieving the orb from Xandar. Gamora insists that she should go instead, as she already knows Xandar.

At Xandar, bounty hunters Rocket Racoon and Groot find out that there is a bounty on Peter. They follow Peter to collect the bounty. Peter goes to The Broker to sell the orb. Peter asks him what the orb is because he almost got killed by Ronan’s hunters while getting it. Hearing Ronan’s name, The Broker gets scared. He backs out of the deal and kicks Peter out of his shop. Being after the orb, Gamora was waiting outside the shop. Seeing an opportunity, she snatches the orb out of his hand and tries to run. Peter stops her. Being after the bounty, Rocket and Groot try to capture Peter. As they all cause mayhem in broad daylight in the middle of the Xandarian capital, they all get arrested by the Nova Corps (Xandarian Cops). They all get transported to a high-security prison called The Kyln.

At the prison, Gamora has a lot of haters who want to kill her. They have lost their families to Thanos, Ronan, and their subordinates. At night, some of them corner her in an attempt to kill her. Drax The Destroyer steps in and claims that he owns the right to kill her because Ronan laughed when his men murdered his wife and daughter. Peter stops Drax by convincing him that she has betrayed Ronan and he is coming to get her. And when he does, Drax will get the chance to kill Ronan himself. In reality, Peter saved her because she knows a buyer interested in the orb he stole. Rocket, Groot, Peter, and Gamora devise a plan to escape from the prison.

Thanos summons Ronan for failing to show any progress. Ronan accuses Gamora of betrayal. He starts to argue with Thanos. Thanos agrees to honor the agreement to destroy Xandar if Ronan brings him the orb. He threatens Ronan to bathe the starways with his blood if he shows up empty-handed again. Ronan and Nebula set out for The Kyln to retrieve the orb.

At The Kyln during mealtime, Rocket states his requirements for the escape plan. They need to get into the central watchtower of the prison. To get into that tower, Rocket will need a security band that the guards wear to control the gates inside the prison. He also needs the prosthetic leg of a crippled prisoner. Finally, he needs the Quarnyx Battery situated on the side of the wall of the watchtower behind a black panel. Removing the battery will cause everything inside the prison to go into emergency mode, so he suggests getting it last.

During the conversation, without hearing the full thing, Groot goes and takes out the battery. No one but Drax notices Groot doing it. The whole prison system instantly goes into emergency mode, forcing them to improvise immediately to get the other items. The guard drones start to shoot at Groot. A riot starts in the prison. Rocket climbs onto Groot’s shoulder. After defeating a bunch of guards, Drax throws one of their weapons at Rocket. Grabbing the gun, he shoots down the drones. Gamora snatches the control band from a guard’s hand, and Peter gets the prosthetic leg.

Using the band and the battery, Rocket builds a device, and they all get into the watchtower. Drax also gets in with them as he wants his revenge on Ronan. Peter gives Rocket the leg, and Rocket reveals that he only needed the battery and the control band and was just joking about the leg.

The guards return with reinforcements and start shooting at the watchtower with cannons. Rocket turns off the artificial gravity of the entire prison hall except for the control room they are in. He detaches the control room from the tower base and takes control of six drones. He attaches them to the bottom, using the drones as propulsion engines to fly the control room out of the prison area.

While retrieving their belongings from the impound, Peter notices that the guards didn’t put in his Walkman, which was a gift from his mother. He goes to retrieve it and tells the others to stand by with his ship, The Milano. He takes the orb with him so that the others don’t leave without him.

After they all safely board The Milano, Rocket starts to build stuff by ripping out spare parts of the ship. Peter asks Gamora what the orb is, guessing it’s some kind of weapon. Gamora refuses to share any information, but when Drax grabs the orb, she shouts at him, saying he might destroy them all. As they almost start to fight, Peter stops them, saying they are stuck together until they sell the orb and split the money.

Shortly after their escape, Ronan and his Sakaarian army invade The Kyln in search of Gamora and the orb. The Kyln guards say they don’t know where they went. Ronan sends out Necrocrafts to find them. As for everyone else in The Kyln, Ronan tells Nebula to kill everyone. He doesn’t want the Nova Corps to know his objectives.

Yondu goes to The Broker and forces him to tell him what the orb is, why everybody is after it, and who his buyer is.

Gamora takes the team to the mining colony of Knowhere to meet her buyer, The Collector, Taneleer Tivan. He makes them wait before the meeting. While waiting, Drax, Rocket, and Groot get drunk and begin to fight each other. Peter steps in and stops them from killing each other, but Drax gets angry and leaves the place. Going out, he finds a communication station and forces the operator to send a signal to call Ronan.

Tivan’s slave Carina invites them in. After taking the orb, Tivan opens it, revealing that it houses the power stone. He explains that the infinity stones formed during the Big Bang and are elements of immense power. Not fascinated by the stories, Rocket rushes Tivan and asks him to make the payments. As Tivan left the power stone exposed while transferring the payments, Carina grabs the power stone to end his oppression. This causes an explosion, disintegrating Carina and blowing up Tivan’s place.

Gamora takes the orb and tells Peter that they should give it to the Nova Corps, as they have the capacity to contain something like it. But being wanted by the Nova Corps, Peter suggests they should sell it for money elsewhere. While they were arguing, Ronan approached with his fleet. Searching for Peter, Yondu and the Ravagers also find them. Seeing them all there, Gamora escapes with the orb in a mining pod. Peter and Rocket follow her.

Ronan orders Nebula to retrieve the orb. Drax tries to fight Ronan alone. Ronan beats him senseless and throws him into a reservoir. Cornered, Gamora tries to leave Knowhere in the mining pod, but they are not designed for space. Nebula gains the upper hand, blows up Gamora’s pod, and takes the orb.

Seeing Gamora’s unconscious body floating in space, Peter gets out of his pod to save her. He announces his coordinates to Yondu, as they can’t both fit into the pod simultaneously. The Ravagers come and capture them.

Back at Knowhere, Groot pulls Drax out of the reservoir, puncturing a hole in his lung to help him breathe. Going back to Knowhere, Rocket gets angry and tells Groot they should go as far as possible to avoid Ronan’s destruction. Groot and Drax convince him to go and save Peter and Gamora.

After retrieving the orb, Ronan communicates with Thanos. Thanos orders him to bring the orb to him. But now that Ronan knows the orb contains the power stone, he refuses. He fuses the stone into his Universal Weapon, plans to destroy Xandar himself, and threatens Thanos, whom he always felt treated him with disrespect.

After capturing Peter and Gamora, Yondu tries to kill Peter to make a statement to his crew. But Peter convinces Yondu to steal the power stone from Ronan, saying that Gamora knows everything there is to know about Ronan and his ship.

In an attempt to save them from the Ravagers, Rocket threatens to blow up their ship. Peter stops him, saying through the communicator that they are all right. Rocket, Groot, and Drax also board the Ravager ship. Hearing Peter’s idea of stealing from Ronan, Rocket loses his mind, saying going after Ronan is suicide. Gamora says that she has lived her life surrounded by enemies. Even if she dies during this mission, it will be among friends. Hearing this, everyone agrees to join Peter.

Together they devise a plan. They must stop Ronan from reaching the surface of Xandar. If he touches the planet’s surface with the stone, every living thing on it will be destroyed. Rocket is tasked to lead a team to blow a hole in the Dark Aster’s starboard hull. Through that hole, Yondu and Peter’s aircraft will enter. To get to Ronan, Gamora will disable the ship’s power source to open the security doors of the main flight deck. When they make it to the flight deck, Peter will use the Hadron Enforcer built by Rocket to kill Ronan. Once Ronan is dead, they will retrieve the stone.

Every crew member is provided with a containment sphere to hold the stone, as touching it with bare hands is fatal. Peter contacts one of the Nova Corps officers asking for their help to stop Ronan.

As Ronan’s ship enters Xandar’s atmosphere, the Ravager fleet approaches it, fires explosives to cover their view, and dives underneath it. Rocket successfully blows a hole in the starboard hull. But Yondu’s ship gets hit, and he gets grounded. Taking heavy fire, they lose hope of reaching the Dark Aster. The Nova Corps fleet joins them to help. Peter successfully gets his ship in through the hole.

All Nova pilots interlock their battleships to create a blockade, preventing the Dark Aster from moving forward.

Peter, Drax, and Groot fight their way to the flight deck. Gamora goes to disable the power source, but Nebula gets in her way.

Ronan’s army surrounds Yondu and tells him to call off his Ravagers from the battle. He kills them all using his whistle-controlled arrow.

Ronan instructs his Necrocraft pilots to dive-bomb the city. Rocket goes down with the Ravager fleet to provide ground support to save the city.

Ronan uses his Universal Weapon, powered by the power stone, to break the Nova fleet blockade.

Rocket asks Peter to hurry up as they start to take heavy fire down in the city. Peter replies that Gamora hasn’t been able to open the security door. After a struggling fight with Nebula, Gamora takes down the power source to open the security door. Peter enters the flight deck and shoots Ronan with the Hadron Enforcer, but having the power stone makes him impervious to the attack. Rocket flies up and crashes The Milano into the flight deck from the outside, destroying the flight deck and causing the Dark Aster to go down. Groot sacrifices himself by growing branches and creating a cushion around everyone with his body to save them.

The Dark Aster crashes on the ground. From the wreckage, Ronan emerges unharmed. Rocket starts to repair his Hadron Enforcer. As Ronan is about to put his Universal Weapon to the ground to destroy the planet, Peter suddenly starts dancing out of nowhere to distract him. In the meantime, Rocket fixes the Hadron Enforcer. Drax and Rocket fire the Hadron Enforcer, aiming at the Universal Weapon, destroying it. Peter grabs the power stone before Ronan can. As the power surges through Peter’s body, he starts to disintegrate. Gamora, Drax, and Rocket all touch each other to control the power stone. Together, they keep it stable and use the stone’s power to destroy Ronan. Gamora uses her container to seal the stone in it.

Yondu arrives and asks Peter to hand over the stone. Peter switches the container and gives Yondu a dummy container. He tells Yondu not to open the container as they just witnessed what it does to people. They hand over the power stone to the Nova Corps.

At the Nova Corps headquarters, they tell Peter that he is half-human. His mother was from Earth, but his father is something very ancient. That’s why he was able to control the power stone. The Nova Corps rebuilds The Milano as a gift to show their gratitude. Their criminal records are also expunged.

Going back to The Milano, Peter opens the gift from his mother that she gave him before dying.

At the Ravager ship, while other Ravagers are celebrating and being drunk, Yondu opens up the container and finds out it’s a little toy, not the power stone.

Peter Quill sets out for his new adventure with his friends, the Guardians of the Galaxy.

In a post-credit scene, we see The Collector surviving the explosion at his place.