What Christmas movie was Kevin Bacon watching in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special? Like some weird superhero movie directing Santa, James Gunn has delivered an awesome Christmas gift, The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special.
This new special sees The Guardians try and kidnap ‘80s movie icon Kevin Bacon in an attempt to give Peter Quill the best Christmas ever. Yes, seriously, just roll with it. It’s anarchic; it’s hilarious; it’s everything you want from a Christmas special with the added bonus of being part of the biggest franchise in the world.
While watching it, however, one thing did catch our attention. When Drax and Mantis are breaking into Kevin Bacon’s house, he’s watching a really weird-looking alien movie. So what movie was Kevin Bacon watching in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special?
What movie was Kevin Bacon watching in The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special?
When Drax and Mantis first try and get Kevin Bacon’s attention he’s watching the science fiction movie Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
While it may be easy to write off this kitschy comedy movie as one of the world’s worst movies ever (and it frequently does) it actually gave us an important part of Santa’s mythology. You see, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians was the first time in documented cinematic history that Mrs Claus appeared in a movie.
As for why Gunn put it in his film? Well, it shares some thematic similarities with The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special, and both are about aliens trying to abduct an important figure from Earth so they can celebrate Christmas. It also probably helps that Santa Claus Conquers the Martians is in the public domain, so it didn’t cost Marvel a penny to put in the special.
The Guardians will return in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3. If you want to know more about the future of the MCU and Marvel’s Phase 5, we’ve got guides to all the upcoming Marvel movies, including Thunderbolts, The Marvels, and even Secret Wars.