Guardians Of The Galaxy's First Footloose Reference Made Kevin Bacon's Jaw Drop

"Guardians of the Galaxy" was a massive audience-pleaser, and one of those faces in the theater it brought a smile to was none other than Kevin Bacon's. Imagine being Kevin Bacon sitting in your local multiplex, throwing back some popcorn and watching the latest big MCU movie only to find out you yourself end up being not only name-checked in the movie, but also become kind of essential to the plot.

Bacon would ultimately appear alongside the Guardians of the Galaxy themselves in last year's "The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special," but before that was even a possibility, he was just a movie fan whose "jaw dropped" when he heard his name pop up in that first film. He described that moment in an interview with IGN:

"If you can imagine sitting there in a dark theater and all of a sudden hearing yourself name dropped in that kind of way, it's a very, very, very strange experience, but cool ... I walked out of the theater and called my wife and I said, 'I'm going to go back and see this movie. It's a great movie, and there's a little surprise in there for you, you'll see.'"

Of course, a few years later, Bacon was essentially kidnapped by Mantis and Drax as the ultimate Christmas present for Chris Pratt's Star-Lord, and he got to be more than just an inspiration for young Peter Quill.

It's worth noting that Bacon's role in the Holiday Special was to help unite the Guardians as a family, which is very much what the mere suggestion of Kevin Bacon was able to do in the first "Guardians of the Galaxy." It was Quill telling Gamora about "Footloose" that brought them closer together as a romantic pair, and it also happened to set up the big finale of that movie.

Remember, "Guardians of the Galaxy" was a movie driven by music. Not only did James Gunn write direct references to "Footloose" into the film, he also infused it with rockin' needle drops and even bookended the movie with dancing. Star-Lord dances to Blue Swede's "Hooked on a Feeling" as he recovers the orb containing the Power Stone, and the movie ends with a dance-off that defeats Ronan the Accuser by bringing all the newly formed Guardians together as one family, ready to put their own lives on the line for the others.

This parallel wasn't lost on Bacon, either. He called "Footloose" and "Guardians of the Galaxy" "symbiotic," and he's not wrong. The joy of music and expressing yourself through dance are crucial throughlines to both films, so it seems like Bacon was destined to join up with the Guardians of the Galaxy, even if he's only an honorary Guardian. 

Although, we've probably not seen the last of the "Guardians of the Galaxy," so who knows? Maybe Kevin Bacon will join up with the new team down the line? One can only hope.