Real Astronaut Criticizes Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 3 Over Star Lord Scene
"Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" is generally regarded as a strong end to the "Guardians" trilogy. It has a little something for everyone, including nail-biting action, tear-jerking moments, and revelations that rock the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. At the same time, the film isn't entirely devoid of negatives — one of which being impossible to ignore if you're a stickler for scientific accuracy in your space-faring superhero blockbusters. Just ask real-life astronaut Chris Hadfield, who pointed out a major inaccuracy in a pivotal Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) scene during a conversation with Vanity Fair.
During the climax of the film, it appears that Star-Lord is done for. He fails to make the jump from the High Evolutionary's (Chukwudi Iwuji) ship to Knowhere, leaving his friends and found Guardians family to watch him die in space. Before Adam Warlock (Will Poulter) swoops in to rescue him, his face swells and freezes in response to being in the vacuum of space. According to Hadfield, this isn't how such swelling and freezing would go down in the real world.
"It wouldn't happen like that. There's no water on your face. It's not going to instantaneously freeze," he explained, noting that one's thermal mass would cause the freezing to take longer. If anything, Star-Lord would suffer swift internal damage, but Hadfield admits this is hard to convey in a feature film. Additionally, Hadfield indicated that Star-Lord's recovery would've been lengthy, if possible at all.
Star-Lord is lucky to have survived at all
It's no stretch to say that Star-Lord's time in space looks incredibly painful, between the premature facial swelling and freezing. In the context of the film, it's nothing short of a miracle that he survives, let alone recovers with seemingly no lasting health issues. This is another aspect of Star-Lord's near-death experience in space that Chris Hadfield didn't buy. He described in vivid detail what happens to the human body in space within a few seconds, making it clear that Star-Lord is lucky to have lived and escaped space without major health problems.
"90 seconds, and you're a satellite. Within about 15 seconds, all the oxygen that is in your blood will have come through your lungs the other way, and you will have breathed it out. In about 15 seconds, you have blood without enough oxygen in it, and when it gets up to your brain, you'll go unconscious," he said, going on to state that the swelling comes from the blood in one's body starting to "fizz like opening a can of Coke." Without a helmet in space, one's lungs would also quickly collapse.
With all of that in mind, Star-Lord should thank his lucky stars that the MCU's avoidance of scientific accuracy didn't bring his life to a gruesome end.