Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 Still Has The Greatest Needle Drop In The MCU

Published Aug 31, 2026, 9:00 PM EDT

Liz Declan is a Lead Writer for ScreenRant, primarily covering movies. She is a massive fan of Star Wars, the MCU, and Supernatural. In addition to writing, Liz loves attending and covering conventions and interviewing actors. Find her on TikTok and Instagram @va.va.vera

As exciting as it is to see the MCU introducing characters and storylines that audiences have waited years for, such as the introduction of the X-Men (finally) with Sadie Sink's Jean Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day as well as the confirmation of Samara Weaving as Emma Frost, Kit Connor as Cyclops, Adam Driver as Mister Sinister and myriad other X-Men casting confirmations, the harsh truth is, these thrilling introductions are also necessitating some devastating departures. As just one example, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 seemed to truly be the end of this branch in the MCU.

That doesn't mean the characters themselves will never return in the MCU; there are various ways these characters can and no doubt will return in the coming years. However, it seems unlikely that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 4 will ever truly come to be, particularly because Vol. 3 put such a seemingly definitive end to their group overall. Peter Quill returned to Earth and reunited with his maternal grandfather, the version of Gamora who survived made it very clear that she did not feel a bond with the Guardians (sadly, especially Quill), and Rocket is now leading the group.

However, this transition does make sense. In fact, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 was easily the darkest of those three movies, and it's arguably among the MCU's darkest movies overall, particularly because of how brutal Rocket's backstory ends up being. Yet, as unsettling and devastating as the narrative of the movie is at various points, Vol. 3 actually had the perfect way to conclude things without having audiences getting up and leaving the theater sobbing, and that was with the single best needle drop moment in the entire MCU.

"Dog Days Are Over" Was The Perfect Conclusion To Vol.3

After Quill has come to terms with the fact that this version of Gamora doesn't love him and never will, Rocket has communicated with his friends who died years before he joined the Guardians of the Galaxy, and the whole group has decided to go their own separate ways (although some of them do stay together, such as, unsurprisingly, Rocket and Groot), Vol. 3 brought the movie home with a needle drop of Florence + The Machine's "Dog Days Are Over"—a song that is all about coming out on the other side of sadness and hardship and finding joy again.

That was honestly a stroke of genius by the movie, as it not only captured the sentiment at that point in the narrative but also did so by using the classic Guardians of the Galaxy digital music player—this time, rather than Quill's Walkman from his mom, it's a Zune that Quill gives to Rocket. With that entry point, this needle drop also felt natural instead of forced or a bit awkward, which can sometimes happen in movies, and allowed for a montage sequence that likewise landed with audiences instead of falling flat.

Guardians of the Galaxy Always Nailed Music

Perhaps the only thing to miss as much as the camaraderie of the team now that Guardians of the Galaxy is seemingly over is how well these movies incorporated music. Although Rhodey might have called Star-Lord an idiot when he saw him dancing with his Walkman in Avengers: Endgame, that scene was actually such a great reminder that these movies often differentiated themselves from other MCU films by having this emphasis on music—after all, there's a reason the Disney World ride based on these movies is so music-centric as well.

It therefore shouldn't come as too big a surprise that Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 has the best needle drop moment in the entire MCU to date, but it deserves to be acknowledged, especially because this movie's use of "Dog Days Are Over" likely isn't the first example that comes to mind regarding the Guardians of the Galaxy movies' brilliant use of music.