Editor's Note: The following contains spoilers for Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.If cussing was an art form, James Gunn would certainly have proved his mastery over it by placing the MCU's first F-bomb in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. It comes when Peter Quill (Chris Pratt) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) are entering a car on Counter-Earth. Neither of them have ever driven one, but Quill remembers how they are supposed to work from his childhood and has to teach Nebula how to open a 1980s Chrysler door. She is having a really hard time doing it, they are in a hurry to get to the High Evolutionary's (Chukwudi Iwuji) massive starship, and, let's face it, opening a car door is not that difficult, so he tells her to just "open the f*cking door."

The whole sequence may appear a little too mundane for something as big as an F-bomb, especially the first one in the MCU with its 33-movie history. Still, there's a reason why that's where it was dropped, as the thing about cussing is that it's all about timing and placement. Although the press has been making a fuss about it, cussing is one of the most natural things there is. It may be a big deal in a PG-13 movie that's bound to become one of this year's biggest blockbusters with a lot of kids in the audience, yes, but, you know, they say it too, so who are we kidding?

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Dropping an F-Bomb Is Not as Easy as It Seems

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Karen Gillan Chris Pratt Daniela Melchior Zoe Saldaña
Image via Marvel Studios

Of course, no one here is advocating for cursing all the time or having it be acceptable in any situation, because it just isn't. But still, cursing doesn't necessarily mean someone is vulgar, but that the person speaks as real people do, and can have a more accessible language.

Still, this feeling of doing something we're not "supposed to" is still extremely enticing when it comes to cursing, so it's common in movies for people to try and sneak one whenever possible and allowed. In a recent interview with Jimmy Kimmel, Chris Pratt mentioned that everyone tries to do it while on set and that he has tried it many times before, especially through improv (and Pratt is a great improviser — just remember the "network connectivity problem" joke on Parks and Recreation). It was only this time that they found the perfect moment to sneak an F-bomb without making too much fuss about it and making it sound natural.

The attempts of having curse words in the MCU are nothing new, actually. Recently Jon Favreau admitted that there is an alternate version of the first Iron Man post-credits scene where Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury drops a "motherf*cker" after Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) asks who he is. Unfortunately, everyone involved knew this version wouldn't make it to the final cut, as Favreau says they filmed it "just for fun." A few movies later, though, in the Avengers: Infinity War post-credits scene, Jackson did get to utter his signature curse word — not completely, though, as he turned to dust before he could finish.

A little earlier in the MCU timeline, in Avengers: Age of Ultron, Tony Stark does have his moment when he says "sh*t" in the opening sequence in Sokovia after he is shot at by the defenses in Baron Strucker's (Thomas Kretschmann) castle. Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) immediately tells him off because of the bad word, but we know it was just a tease — no one really doubts Tony's character or politeness because of a curse. He just said it at that moment because, well, being shot sucks.

What’s Really Behind Quill’s F-Word in ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’?

Chris Pratt as Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Image via Marvel Studios

Of all those situations in which curse words were said in the MCU, both on and off-screen, Quill's F-bomb in Vol. 3 is the only one that we wouldn't even notice if not for everybody making a point of showing it to us. That's because it's the most natural of all of them, one that everybody has said at one moment or another in their lives, especially in a situation like that. Quill and Nebula were in a hurry. She couldn't open the car door. We can cut her some slack because she's an alien and had never seen a car up to that point, but it seems intuitive that "pressing a button" would involve it going down when pressed, and the keyhole doesn't. That F-bomb was inevitable, Nebula herself would've dropped it if the roles were reversed.

And that's the beauty of cursing: when used adequately, it can express things regular vocabulary can't. The sense of urgency Quill wanted to convey couldn't come from any other word at that point. It's almost as if it was the word itself that unlocked in Nebula the comprehension of how to open the door. There's magic in that, and it's something most curses have in common. For example, when you want to emphasize something, you can say "really" or "so much," but none of those create the image that "as f*ck" does. "Today is really windy" doesn't carry the same intensity as "Today is windy as f*ck," right?

Of course, you can be honest with a clean mouth, too. And that's another interesting side of the whole F-bomb debate: if you use it too much, it loses its value. That alternate Nick Fury scene Jon Favreau mentioned didn't make the cut because, deep down, everyone already expects Samuel L. Jackson to say what he says there. He's so known for it, Marvel itself started bridging the gap between his Pulp Fiction character, Jules Winnfield, and Fury. This is a fun move, but it did take away some of Fury's character, to be honest. Even swear words sound classier when used judiciously, and, unfortunately, Jackson doesn't (all due respect if you're reading this, sir, you did contribute a lot to make swearing more socially acceptable).

We know that people attempting to drop F-bombs all the time may come across as childish, and maybe it is. Perhaps people who curse don't take themselves so seriously, and, really, that's too bad for people who don't curse, because they really should try it. According to Chris Pratt, Kevin Feige himself attempted to dissuade James Gunn from the idea of dropping that bomb at that moment, saying the director wouldn't want to go down in history as the one who broke the swear word ceiling in the MCU, to which Gunn replied: "Don't you know me? That's exactly what I want!" This interaction by itself proves this F-bomb was always meant to be dropped by Gunn. Not only did he come up with the perfect context for it, but he was also judicious when dropping it. It was natural and, let's face it, classy as f*ck.

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