When Guardians of the Galaxy Turns Into a Crim Law Review Session

The holiday season means binge-watching a few TV series and movies with the kids. That means a lot of Marvel Cinematic Universe.

At the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 1, there’s a short exchange where Nova Corps officer Rhomann Dey tries to send the new “heroes” off with a warning:

"Your criminal records have also been expunged. However, I have to warn you against breaking any laws in the future."

Rocket and Drax the Destroyer immediately do what law students, bar examinees, and my kids do best: They test the edges of the rule.

If you’ve ever wondered what it looks like when an MCU movie becomes a bar prep review session, this is it.

Rocket and Larceny

Rocket’s question to Rhomann Dey is this:

"If I see something that I want, and it belongs to someone else … what if I just take it?"

Welcome to larceny, which at common law is:

• Taking and carrying away

• Of tangible personal property

• Of another

• By trespass (without consent)

• With intent to permanently deprive

Here are a few bar-exam-friendly translations:

✅ “Taking” + “carrying away” can be tiny.

You don’t need to sprint out of Knowhere with a giant sack labeled “STOLEN GOODS.” Even slight movement can satisfy the “carrying away” requirement.

✅ “But I want it more” isn't a defense.

Larceny cares about ownership or possession and intent, not who has the stronger emotional attachment.

✅ The intent must exist at the moment of the taking.

Larceny generally requires that, at the time Rocket takes it, he intends to permanently deprive the person of it.

Drax and Common Law Murder

Drax follows up Rocket's question with his own hypothetical:

"What if someone does something that irks me and I decide to remove his spine?"

Rhomann Dey replies:

“That’s, that's actually murder.”

Yep.

At common law, murder is the unlawful killing of another human being with malice aforethought. And “malice aforethought” doesn’t require cartoon villain planning. It can be satisfied by any one of these states of mind:

• Intent to kill

• Intent to inflict great bodily injury

• Reckless indifference to an unjustifiably high risk to human life (“depraved heart”)

• Intent to commit a felony (felony murder)

Drax’s plan to “remove his spine” is, at minimum, an intent to inflict great bodily injury, and very likely an intent to kill. Either way, that’s malice aforethought.

So yes, Rhomann Dey is right: Murder is “one of the worst crimes of all.” And it's also commonly testable.

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The objective isn't to memorize movie quotes. Instead, it's to leverage them as opportunities for learning and reviewing legal principles. Pop culture gives you an easy “hook” to hang rules on, and those hooks matter because bar prep is a long season. If a two-minute scene helps you remember understand what is a taking or how to establish malice aforethought, then that is a win.