Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol 3: How to Write Flashbacks and Exposition

This episode we're going to be looking at Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 by James Gunn, and we're going to be talking about flashbacks and exposition. Using Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as a model, you’re going to learn how to use flashbacks, and how to bury exposition in your screenplay.  The interesting thing about Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is that it's not just one story. It's actually two stories taking place in two different time periods that are juxtaposed together, and those two stories collide at the end of the screenplay. The first story is very typical Guardians of the Galaxy fare. It's big, it's funny, it's action packed, it's larger than life, it's ridiculous, it's wonderful, it's got a great soundtrack, and it's about this ragtag family defeating evil.  And underneath that story, like in every Guardians of the Galaxy movie, there's a theme of loss that permeates everything– all done on the biggest, boldest possible palette that you could have as a screenwriter.  But then there's another story. There's another movie inside of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.  You can actually pull these two movies apart and look at them separately.  Technically, the second story in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is a series of flashbacks, but it's also its own story: the story of how Rocket Raccoon became Rocket Racoon.  This story is built like a play. It takes place almost entirely in one cage, and it is a tiny little character-driven story inside the giant action landscape of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.  If you pulled it out of the larger container, you'd have a beautiful, contained short about three animals who become Rocket’s friends and family.  There are going to be some spoilers ahead… Like all Guardians of the Galaxy movies, you know where this is going. Guardians of the Galaxy is a series of movies built around loss: so if little baby Rocket’s just made some sweet little animal friends, you know he's going to lose them.  What's really interesting is that the emotional core of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is built around a flashback sequence, which, if you extracted it from the larger movie, most people would agree is built a lot more more like a play!  If you go to a Guardians of the Galaxy movie and you don't feel that funny, action-adventure, sci-fi, crazy, awesome soundtrack, larger-than-life stuff, you're gonna be mad.  But buried underneath all that wonderful silliness, there's this sweet little play about how Rocket became Rocket, and about this beautiful family that came together and was destroyed. There's so much that I love about that.  Seeing this bold little choice play out in the context of a popcorn-movie blockbuster illustrates one of the principles that I always like to remind new writers about: if you deliver to the audience the main thing they're coming for, they will let you get away with nearly anything else.  You can do a little play buried inside your giant blockbuster movie, and as long as it ties together thematically, and as long as you're giving them the big action sequences they want, you're fine.  By the way, that doesn't mean that everything needs to be buried under action sequences.  People come to a Sundance movie because they want to cry. People come to a comedy because they want to laugh. People come to a romantic comedy because they want to believe that love is possible. And if you do these things,