8. Rocket’s Battery Theft – Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2
Rocket Raccoon is one of the most endearing characters in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies, managing to stand out despite being rendered entirely in CGI and being considerably smaller than his companions (well, not baby Groot, but still). Much of his charm comes from his gruff and occasionally abrasive personality, his quick temper, and his moral ambiguity. Unfortunately, despite being something of a technological genius, Rocket also occasionally does really dumb things.
At the start of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, the team is tasked by the Sovereigns (a powerful race of intergalactic beings) with protecting their valuable Anulax batteries. After fighting off a monster and recovering the batteries, they return to the Sovereign, but their arrogant demeanor upsets Rocket, and he chooses to steal the batteries from under their noses. Sparking the ire of an incredibly proud and notoriously volatile race of people is a pretty dumb thing to do, especially when you have no real need of the thing you’ve stolen from them. That makes Rocket’s decision pretty dumb, doesn’t it?
Well, yes, but eventually, they do come in handy. Rocket later uses the batteries to kill Ego, Peter Quill’s power-mad celestial father. Still, he initially stole them just because the Sovereigns hurt his feelings, and that’s generally a pretty stupid thing to do. Had Rocket not stolen the batteries, the Guardians never would have needed Ego to rescue them and probably wouldn’t have found themselves in danger, meaning that everything bad that happens in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (including Yondu’s death, which makes for an unexpectedly upsetting moment) can be traced back to Rocket’s dumb decision.