Exploring the Ethics of Animal Experimentation in Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

Every so often a film is released which compels viewers to question trelationship they have with nonhuman animals and the objectificatithat society makes of them. A recent motion picture that has attemptedto rekindle the discussion regarding animal experimentation is JamesGunn’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023). Part of the Marvel CinematicUniverse, the film tells the story of a group of outcast heroes known as tGuardians of the Galaxy as they try to save the universe. This third volumefocuses on the character of Rocket, a genetically modified raccoon. Tfilm exhibits a candid depiction of the cruelty that nonhuman animaendure when exploited in vivisection and criticises the anthropocentrismthat underlies the act of experimenting on nonhuman animals throughRocket’s past. Thus, the aim of this paper is to analyse the portrayal ofRocket and the consequences of having been tested on. I argue that thefilm proposes an abolitionist stance towards the question of animtesting, hence counteracting the more widespread utilitarian perspective.Moreover, I explore how the notion of sentience plays a fundamental rolein the portrayal of the other than human beings that appear in thenarrative. In relation to this, the analysis will make use of the concept ofspeciesism to study how characters from different species interact witheach other and who is portrayed as an individual sentient being deemedworthy of being saved.