Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Ending Explained
In the Guardians holiday special animated opening, we get a flashback to a young Peter Quill trying to introduce Yondu and Kraglin to Christmas cheer. Yondu doesn’t have any, but claims he hates Christmas for some reason and doesn’t want trees or presents on his ship. Why is he such a jerk?
We don’t know, but when Mantis and Drax hear this story years later from Kraglin while spending time in Knowhere, they think it’s the reason Peter no longer has the Christmas spirit.
Mantis believes that a nice Christmas present would make Peter feel happier, and when he talks to Drax about it, he suggests an idea. As he’s heard Peter talk a lot about the legendary Earth hero who saved so many lives, Drax concludes that this person would make an ideal Christmas present for his captains. Who is this legendary hero? Legless actor Kevin Bacon!
The search for the famous actor then continues, but as we find out later in the film, the greatest gift for Peter is someone else!
Drax and Mantis take the Guardian’s spaceship to Earth and land it somewhere in Los Angeles. They then begin their search for Kevin Bacon with a walk down Hollywood Boulevard, where various people play the roles of Ant-Man, Captain America, Jack Sparrow, and GoBot.
This leads to a comical sequence where Mantis jumps on a guy in a Captain America costume, thinking he’s the real hero. Drax is more interested in the guy in the GoBot suit and beats him up because he thinks he’s an invading robot!
After causing some chaos on the streets of LA, the two go to a bar and get a little drunk. Then we see them sitting on the sidelines complaining that they didn’t get any closer to finding Kevin Bacon. A woman from a nearby souvenir shop overhears their conversation and gives them something to aid their search: a tourist map showing the homes of famous Hollywood celebrities. Using a map, they find the actor’s house.
Is Kevin Bacon happy to be a Christmas present?
Kevin is relaxing at home and enjoying the infamous Christmas movie, Santa Claus and the Martians, he’s not too happy when Drax and Mantis come to the security gate and demand he be let in. As Drax, the two Guardians throw Mantis over the gate and then jump over it himself.
After helping Kevin with his lawn decorations—Mantis grabs a giant candy cane, Drax grabs a blow-up elf—they literally barge into the actor’s house and demand he come with them. Kevin obviously doesn’t want to be taken to their leader, but after a chase scene at home and through the streets of his neighborhood, Mantis puts him in a trance that convinces him he wants to go for a walk.
Back on the spaceship, Drax and Mantis realize that Kevin is not the hero Peter claims he is. They discover that he’s just an actor and doesn’t save a small town by “dancing like a fool” (Drax’s Footloose reference) or save camp from Jason Voorhees (one of Bacon’s first film roles was Friday the 13th. ). It’s devastating for both of them, especially since they have no tolerance for actors. But since they still have to save Christmas for Peter, Mantis tells Kevin that he needs to act like a hero for their captain’s sake.
Does Peter like his Christmas present?
No! After being presented with his wrapped present, Kevin Bacon is horrified when he walks out. It’s not that he doesn’t like the actor, but he’s upset that two members of his crew are actually committing an act of human trafficking. He tells Mantis to snap Kevin out of his trance, which he does. As expected, Kevin is horrified when he realizes what has happened to him, and is even more worried when he comes face to face with Rocket, a “talking raccoon”.
As Peter comes to terms with what his crewmates have done, Kraglin and Nebula go after Kevin. When Kraglin captures the horrified actor, he explains why Drax and Mantis did what they did, and tells Kevin that his actions in Footloose influenced Peter’s actions when he saved the galaxy.
What does Peter consider his “greatest” Christmas present?
The guards surprise Peter by decorating Knowhere with Christmas lights. To make the mood even more cheerful, Kevin sings a Christmas carol. This makes Peter very happy and he is touched by what his crewmates do for him.
Then it’s time for everyone to give each other gifts. Peter gives Groot a new Gameboy to replace the one that was broken during the events of Endgame. Nebula somehow got a hold of Bucky’s prosthetic arm, and she gifted it to Rocket. Cosmo gives Kraglin a dead alien rodent. Mantis gives Drax an inflated elf (he lost the one he took from Kevin’s garden earlier). Groot gives everyone wooden figurines depicting the events of the Special Feast.
All of these gifts are joyfully received, but the best gift for Peter is yet to come. Mantis and Peter sit together after Kevin Bacon goes home, promising to return at Easter. Peter asks Mantis why she’s trying so hard to make Christmas special, and she tells the story of how Yondu ruined Christmas years.
Peter explains that Yondu didn’t destroy Christmas and tells Mantis the conclusion to the story that Kragley missed. In the cartoon, we see Yondu return to the pile of presents he ordered thrown in the trash and open the one Peter gave him. The gift is a Yoda-like doll, which pleases Yondu. We then see Peter open the gift Yondu gave him – his signature twin blasters. But these are not what Peter considers his “greatest” gift.
Back in the present, Mantis reveals to Peter that his late father, Ego, is also his father. We discovered this in the second Guardians of the Galaxy movie when we learned that Ego was in the larval state of the mantis. So she’s more of an adopted girl than born, but that still makes her Peter’s sister.
Peter is thrilled when he realizes that Mantis is his sister, telling her that it is the “greatest Christmas present” he could ever receive. Then they embraced heartily.
Christmas saved?
He assumed that he was down about the holiday season in the first place, for Peter. But during the post-credits scene, Rocket announces that Christmas has been destroyed again. Why? Because Groot, standing with his arms outstretched while being decorated with Christmas lights by Rocket, decides to put his arms down, ruining Rocket’s holiday display.
After declaring that Groot has ruined Christmas, the raccoon says, “Now we have to have one more special event.”