In 1988, following his mother's death, the child Peter Quill is abducted from Earth by
the Ravagers, a group of alien thieves and smugglers led by Yondu Udonta. In 2014, on the
abandoned planet Morag, Quill steals a mysterious Orb but is attacked by henchmen of the
fanatical Kree renegade Ronan the Accuser, led by Korath. Although Quill escapes with the
Orb, Yondu discovers his theft and issues a bounty for his capture, while Ronan sends the
assassin Gamora after the Orb.
When Quill attempts to sell the Orb on Xandar, the capital of the Nova Empire, Gamora
ambushes him and steals it. A fight ensues, drawing in a pair of bounty hunters: Rocket, a
genetically and cybernetically modified raccoon and his companion, the tree-like
humanoid Groot. Nova Corps officers capture the four, detaining them in the Kyln prison. An
inmate, Drax the Destroyer, attempts to kill Gamora due to her association with Ronan, who
killed his wife and daughter. Quill convinces Drax that Gamora can bring Ronan to him,
though Gamora reveals that she has betrayed Ronan, unwilling to let him use the Orb's
power. Learning that Gamora intends to sell the Orb to the Collector Taneleer Tivan, Quill,
Rocket, Groot, and Drax work together to escape the Kyln in Quill's ship, the Milano.
Ronan meets with Gamora's adoptive father, Thanos, to discuss her betrayal. Quill's group
flees to Knowhere, a city planet inhabited by thieves and merchants made from the severed
head of a dead Celestial. A drunken Drax summons Ronan while the rest of the group meets
Tivan. Tivan opens the Orb, revealing an Infinity Stone, an item of immeasurable power that
destroys all but the most powerful beings who wield it. Tivan's slave, Carina, grabs the
Stone, triggering an explosion that engulfs Tivan's collection. Ronan arrives and easily
defeats Drax, while the others flee by ship, pursued by Ronan's followers, including Gamora's
adoptive sister Nebula. Nebula destroys Gamora's ship, leaving her floating in space, and
Ronan's fighters capture the Orb.
Quill contacts Yondu before following Gamora into space, giving her his helmet to survive;
Yondu arrives and retrieves the pair. Rocket, Drax, and Groot threaten to attack Yondu's ship
to rescue them, but Quill negotiates a truce, promising the Orb to Yondu. Quill's group
agrees that facing Ronan means certain death but that they cannot let him use the Infinity
Stone to destroy the galaxy. On Ronan's flagship, the Dark Aster, Ronan embeds the Stone in
his warhammer, taking its power for himself. He contacts Thanos, threatening to kill him
after first destroying Xandar. Hateful of her adoptive father, Nebula allies with Ronan.
The Ravagers and Quill's group join the Nova Corps to confront the Dark Aster at Xandar,
with Quill's group breaching the warship with the Milano. Ronan uses his empowered
warhammer to destroy the Nova Corps fleet. Drax kills Korath, and Gamora defeats Nebula,
who escapes. However, the group finds themselves outmatched by Ronan's power. Rocket
crashes a Ravager ship through the Dark Aster. The damaged Dark Aster crash-lands on
Xandar, with Groot sacrificing himself to shield the group. Ronan emerges from the wreck
and prepares to destroy Xandar, but Quill distracts him, allowing Drax and Rocket to destroy
Ronan's warhammer. Quill grabs the freed Stone, and with Gamora, Drax, and Rocket sharing
its burden, uses it to vaporize Ronan.
Quill gives Yondu a container supposedly containing the Stone and gives the real one to the
Nova Corps. As the Ravagers leave Xandar, Kraglin Obfonteri remarks that it turned out well
that they did not deliver Quill to his father per their contract. Quill's group, now known as
the Guardians of the Galaxy, has their criminal records expunged, and Quill learns that he is
only half-human, his father being part of an ancient, unknown species. Quill finally opens
the last present he received from his mother, a cassette tape filled with her favorite songs.
The Guardians leave in the rebuilt Milano along with a potted sapling cut from Groot, which
grows into a baby version of him.
In a post-credits scene, Tivan sits in his destroyed archive with two of his living exhibits: a
canine cosmonaut and an anthropomorphic duck.
