Directors Reveal What Groot Says In His Final Endgame Scene
Contains spoilers for Avengers: Endgame
As all Marvel fans know, Groot (Vin Diesel) is a character who's more about action than he is about talk. Possessing only a handful of words in his vocabulary that can be understood by humans, the tree-like superhero hasn't said much else other than "I am Groot" and "we are Groot" throughout his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. In his final line in Avengers: Infinity War, Groot said a little something more: he muttered the word "dad" to Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper) just before crumbling into space dust. And now, keeping up with what seems like a new tradition, Marvel gave Groot another intriguing final line in Avengers: Endgame.
Directors Joe and Anthony Russo revealed what the sentient tree-type spacefarer said at the very end of Avengers: Endgame when they spoke in a Q&A session following a screening of the superhero ensemble at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. Reddit user zachzhou630 was in attendance, and detailed the Russos' answers to nearly two dozen questions, one of which regarded Groot and the final words he uttered in Endgame.
The last place fans saw Groot in Avengers: Endgame was aboard the spaceship Benatar, watching as Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) have a friendly-but-maybe-not-so-friendly squabble. Having relinquished his position as ruler of New Asgard and passed that power along to Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson), Thor joins the Guardians of the Galaxy, playfully rebrands them as the Asgardians of the Galaxy, then starts messing with the map that Star-Lord was analyzing just a few seconds earlier. The two heroes exchange some jabs that they pass off as jokes before Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista) chimes in and suggests they "fight one another for the honor of leadership." Nebula (Karen Gillan) agrees, saying that it "sounds fair," while Rocket offers up his blasters for Star-Lord and Thor to use in their battle for dominance. In the instance they wouldn't want to use blasters, Rocket says they could use knives, which excites Mantis (Pom Klementieff). "Oh yes, please! Use knives," she says, and Drax voices his support for that plan immediately after.
The camera then pans over to Groot, who smiles cheekily and says, "I am Groot." According to the Russo brothers, that line genuinely means something: it translates from Groot's native language into English as, "Yes, I like knives."
So, there you have it: the entire Guardians of the Galaxy squad wants Star-Lord and Thor to settle their differences in a down-and-dirty knife fight — including little Groot.
While Groot's final line in Avengers: Endgame isn't nearly as significant as the last word he said in Avengers: Infinity War, that doesn't mean the phrase is completely without meaning in its own regard. Sure, knowing that Groot looked over at Rocket and called him "dad" in the seconds before he was dusted made everyone cry — but learning that the tree-like hero cracked a joke during his last moments of screen time in Endgame is bound to make everyone laugh. And that's important for the future of the character and his squad of fellow justice-seekers. Groot's last Endgame line leaves things with the Guardians of the Galaxy on a happy, silly note — which, in turn, establishes the tone for the next entry in the team's film trilogy.
Groot joining in on the banter with the rest of the gang proves that the Guardians are back in good sprits after Thanos' (Josh Brolin) original Decimation in 2018 and the reverse-Snap Professor Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) executed in present-day 2023. The team may be without Gamora (Zoe Saldana), whose adoptive father Thanos sacrificed her on Vormir in order to obtain the Soul Stone, but they've finally reassembled and are ready to locate their missing member. This last sequence for the Guardians in Endgame teases this "find Gamora no matter the cost" mission in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which will likely benefit from having Thor in tow, so long as he and Star-Lord can squash the beef between them.
It will be interesting to see how the hammer-wielding hero and the lord of dance get on in the third Guardians movie, and whether their apparent rivalry will dissipate before it gets out of hand or continue to grow until they have no choice but to sharpen their knives for a one-on-one fight, thus satisfying the twisted wishes of the rest of the team in the process. Star-Lord may have the advantage of his sweet dance moves to shimmy, shake, and moonwalk around the god of thunder, but Thor's got a quick hand that can summon literal lightning. If the two were ever to really turn their verbal stabs into literal ones, Thor could end up winning — you know, as long as he goes for the head.