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- NOTE: This article is about the incarnation of the High Evolutionary from the Marvel Cinematic Universe film series. The mainstream version can be found here: High Evolutionary.
| “ | I'm not trying to conquer the universe... I'm perfecting it. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary explaining his plans to Star-Lord; his most famous quote. |
| “ | THERE IS NO GOD! THAT'S WHY I STEPPED IN! | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary revealing his god complex. |
| “ | You thought you could escape me?! NO! You think you have some worth in and of yourself without me?! NO! YOU ARE AN ABOMINATION! NOTHING MORE THAN A STEP ON MY PATH, YOU FREAKISH LITTLE MONSTER! HOW DARE YOU THINK YOU ARE MORE, 8... 9... P... 1... 3?!! | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary's villainous breakdown towards Rocket. |
The High Evolutionary is the main antagonist of the 2023 Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero film Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the third and final installment in James Gunn‘s Guardians of the Galaxy trilogy.
He is a space-faring alien cyborg scientist and the founder of Orgocorp, who aimed to conduct illegal experimentation upon lower life forms, such as animals and children, into anthropomorphic humanoids to create what he deems the perfect society. He is known for creating various species and creatures across the galaxy, such as the Sovereign, the Xeronians, and the Humanimals.
Amongst his several creations, however, his greatest would be Subject 89P13, better known as Rocket Raccoon; a raccoon from Earth that was genetically modified and given advanced intelligence, but at the cost of being subjected to the High Evolutionary's constant torture and abuse. When Rocket managed to escape from his captor, the High Evolutionary sought out to reclaim his creation, inevitably putting him in conflict with the Guardians of the Galaxy in the process. Thus, he is Rocket's creator and arch-nemesis and the reason he met, befriended and joined the Guardians in the first place.
He was portrayed by Chukwudi Iwuji.
Appearance[]
The High Evolutionary is a humanoid with dark skin and greying brown hair. He wears a purple suit consisting of an armored torso and robed pants. After his face was mutilated by Rocket, he wears a skin mask to cover the damages, as well as a purple helmet covering his hair that supports the mask. Without his mask, High Evolutionary has an exposed bloodied skull, along with a bulging bloody eyeball. His nose is cut off with bone visible and half of his mouth is gone.
In his imprisonment, he additionally wore a brown jacket and a new mask after his previous one was destroyed.
Personality[]
| “ | You didn't want to make things perfect. You just hated things the way they are. | „ |
| ~ Rocket Raccoon about the High Evolutionary's true nature after Gamora unmasks him. |
| “ | I think in his head he believes he's doing the best thing for the best for the humankind, which all, sort of narcissists and sociopaths do. They don't really think they're doing anything wrong, and they feel entitled to do what they do. | „ |
| ~ High Evolutionary's actor Chukwudi Iwuji describing his narcissistic traits. |
At first, the High Evolutionary seemingly appeared to be a noble, kind, charismatic, compassionate and knowledgeable being who wants to create a perfect world with the perfect species. In truth, however, this was only a ruse as his true self is actually a very deluded, unhinged, sadistic, cruel, deranged, vile, immature and overall heartless egomaniac, who, as Rocket puts it, just hates things the way they are. He is horrifyingly ruthless and psychopathic, as he experimented on many animals with no regard for how much pain they would be in, abuses his experiments in various ways, and whenever things don't go according to his planning, he not only has them incinerated, but also destroys whatever world disappoints him as a means of starting over again. Eventually, every successful test subject becomes a dangerous soldier in his army.
He is also highly prideful to a fault, exemplified when Rocket figures out how to create animal people without turning them violently aggressive, something the High Evolutionary failed to do, this made the High Evolutionary very envious of Rocket’s intelligence since he could not comprehend that one of his experiments, which he considered lower than him, could figure out something that he couldn’t, leading him to want to extract Rocket's brain for the knowledge while he incinerates the rest of Batch 89.
He is extremely lacking in terms of empathy, viewing his creations as mere experiments and believing they aren't and shouldn't be anything else. Furthermore, after Rocket and Lylla escape their cells and he shoots the latter dead, the High Evolutionary goes as far as to heartlessly mock Rocket for crying over her death before saying he "won the crying contest". He also planned the whole thing from the start by telling Rocket of his intentions for him and the rest of Batch 89, thus showing just how uncaring he is.
The High Evolutionary is also incredibly delusional, believing himself to be “God”, and that he is “perfecting” the universe. He is obsessed with perfection, showing how far he’ll go to get it by repeatedly destroying Counter-Earth - so he can re-make it into “perfection”. In truth, however, he is nothing more but an arrogant and narcissistic madman who cares only about himself and prefers to make things better for himself rather than anyone else; even Rocket points this out to him once the High Evolutionary is eventually defeated. Even after everything he did to Rocket, the High Evolutionary still believes that he did nothing to deserve Rocket mauling his face.
The High Evolutionary also seems to have problems managing his temper as over the course of the film, he becomes more and more prone to emotional outbursts such as lashing out at his underlings (eventually killing them), torturing Adam Warlock for talking back to him and threatening to wipe all the Sovereign out if they fail him. It gets to the point that he's more focused on unleashing his fury on Rocket than he is on getting his brain. He also had quite a temper tantrum when Rocket, as a child, proved smarter than him resulting in him shouting, throwing, and emotionally abusing Rocket then announcing he'll burn his friends alive in front of him.
The High Evolutionary is also feared among his staff and the Sovereign, because of what punishment he can do to them if they fail him in the slightest, as he tortured Adam Warlock simply for talking back to him. This continued during the final battle with the Guardians of the Galaxy; when the heroes were winning, The High Evolutionary arrogantly refuses to accept defeat even when his crew point out that they cannot win and that his obsession is becoming needless. Then when his staff turned on the High Evolutionary, realizing what an egotistical lunatic he is to a fault, he responded by killing them all in a fit of rage - showing his lack of tolerance for disobedience. He was also willing to risk the lives of his own subordinates for the sake of capturing Rocket.
Biography[]
Background[]
Much of the High Evolutionary's past is unknown other than the fact that he has been active for over 300 years and does not originate from Earth. Regardless, he visited the planet sometime in the past, around the 1980s, and became fascinated by its culture. However, he viewed humanity's flaws as an impediment to their potential to be "the perfect society".
Therefore, he decided to create his own perfect race, establishing a planet called Counter-Earth to serve as his base and kidnapping several animals from Earth and mechanically modifying them to develop this race, with some of the early members including the otter Lylla, the walrus Teefs, the rabbit Floor and likely some of his other cyborg subordinates like the War Pig, Behemoth and Hellspawn. He also founded Orgocorp to fund his illegal experiments and created the Sovereign race as an "aesthetic experiment" and is implied to have created the Abilisks.
Eventually, the High Evolutionary surgically modified a baby raccoon he had captured into the intelligent cyborg that would later name himself Rocket. Around this time, he would also start transitioning his progress from cybernetically enhanced animals to using chemicals to genetically evolve them into humanoids named "Humanimals" within a matter of seconds. But all the experiments had too much anger and aggression to be released. So Rocket would help him crack the code to grant these humanoids intelligence, to which he would repay him by deciding to keep him as the "brains" of his operation while ordering Pad 89, Rocket's prison and the home of Lylla, Teefs and Floor, to be incinerated. After he cracked the code and the ideal species, the High Evolutionary revealed his true nature to Rocket, stating that he was now the only use he had for him was his brain. So he and the rest of 89’s would be killed tomorrow.
Not wanting his friends to die, Rocket crafted an impromptu key card to unlock their cages and free them. However, the High Evolutionary expected this to happen; he arrived and shot Lylla dead, causing Rocket to cry hysterically, which the High Evolutionary heartlessly imitates and says that Rocket has "won the crying contest", before having his soldiers do the same to Teefs and Floor. Enraged by this sudden turn of events, Rocket attacks the High Evolutionary by mauling his face to an irreparable degree as he screams in pain. Believing his creator to be dead, Rocket escapes from Counter-Earth, after which he would eventually become a member of the Guardians of the Galaxy.
The High Evolutionary managed to survive and masked his injuries with a prosthetic face before continuing his experiments, filling Counter-Earth with the Humanimals as they formed a society not dissimilar to that of Earth's. However, the Humanimals still displayed a lot of the flaws that were present in humans, prompting him to create and develop a new species named the Star Children in secret as he plotted Counter-Earth's destruction.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3[]
Years following Rocket's escape, he and the Guardians have now stationed their headquarters in the Celestial skull outpost of Knowhere. Still searching to acquire Rocket, the High Evolutionary forced the Sovereign high priestess Ayesha to awaken her son Adam Warlock from his cocoon prematurely, sending him to Knowhere to kidnap Rocket and bring him back to Counter-Earth. During their battle, Adam blasts and severely wounds Rocket before retreating from the other Guardians when suffering his own injuries. Following Adam’s failure to retrieve Rocket, High Evolutionary meets with Ayesha and threatens to destroy their civilization if they fail him again, while torturing Adam to force Ayesha to submit.
Unable to heal Rocket due to a kill switch surgically attached to his heart, the Guardians infiltrate the Orgoscope, Orgocorp's biological headquarters, in search of a passkey that would disable the switch and ensure his survival, reluctantly enlisting the help of a timeline-displaced variant of one of their late members, Gamora to help them. Unbeknownst to them, the High Evolutionary had anticipated their move and sent one of his recorders, Theel, to retrieve the key before the Guardians could retrieve it. The Guardians soon learn of the High Evolutionary’s twisted experiments on Rocket and head to Counter-Earth in order to retrieve the key to Rocket’s kill switch.
Upon arriving at Counter-Earth, the Guardians' leader Star-Lord and his comrade Groot enter the High Evolutionary's base and come face to face with him as he explains his past with Earth, Rocket, and his machinations of perfecting the universe. He then sets his laboratory, in reality, a massive spaceship, to launch into space in search of a planet for his "new colony", while razing all of Counter-Earth (with Ayesha on it), causing the planet's entire population to be rendered extinct in the process. While Star-Lord and Groot manage to extract the passkey from Theel's head, escape the cataclysm alongside Gamora and successfully revive Rocket, the Guardians' other members, Nebula, Drax and Mantis, secretly board the laboratory, where they would come across the hundreds of Star Children trapped in cages before the High Evolutionary finds and imprisons all three.
As the spaceship continues its trek, Star-Lord contacts his comrade Kraglin Obfonteri to transport the entirety of Knowhere to the ship's location and fire at it, setting off its gradual destruction before he, Groot, Gamora and Rocket board the ship and regroup with the others, who escape with a trio of Abilisks thanks to Mantis turning them to their side with her hypnotism abilities.
The team fight off the High Evolutionary's soldiers and evacuate the Star Children onto Knowhere, Rocket manages to find the location of all the animals captured by him, including his original family of raccoons. However, the High Evolutionary quickly finds him and violently attacks him, ranting that he's nothing but a failed experiment, only to be quickly overpowered by Rocket and the other Guardians, as they violently beat him up back and ending it with Gamora stabbing him in the side of his chest before peeling off his mask to reveal his mutilated face. Instead of killing him out of vengeance, Rocket decides to spare him, but not before rescuing all the trapped animals and children before the ship goes down. Drax then carried the High Evolutionary on his back, saving him from the destruction of his ship.
Shortly after, the High Evolutionary was imprisoned in a cell on Knowhere for his crimes, ironically placing him in the same deplorable living conditions he forced his test subjects to endure. The High Evolutionary wore another mask to hide his mauled face again.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers[]
- Superhuman Durability: The High Evolutionary was capable of surviving Rocket mauling his face to little or no flesh left. He also survived several attacks from the Guardians of the Galaxy which would've killed a normal human being.
- Longevity: It was stated that by the events of the movie, the High Evolutionary lived for over 300 years, and he still retained the appearance of an Earth man in his 30-40s.
- Gravity Manipulation: After Rocket's actions, the High Evolutionary gave himself the power to manipulate gravity.
- Spatial Pressure Generation: The High Evolutionary was able to generate spatial pressure. He used this ability to restrain his foes, such as pushing an immensely powerful being, Adam Warlock into a building's wall, though Adam was weakened at the time. He also used this ability on Rocket during his final battle.
- Telekinesis: The High Evolutionary has the power to move objects with his mind using gravity. He did not use this power very often, he used it to move a wall to reveal what's behind it.
- Levitation: The High Evolutionary is capable of levitating, although he did not use this power very often.
- Energy Projection: The High Evolutionary projected an energy blast, which was capable of destroying Arête Laboratories' control room and killing several scientists who ordered him to detach all the damaged sections of the laboratory.
Abilities[]
- Genius-level Intellect: The High Evolutionary is impressively intelligent, as he's able to create creatures in the lab and Counter-Earth, and he's able to outsmart his enemies by figuring out every step they make, and what they'll do next, like when he figured out and knew that Rocket is intelligent who will escape with his friends.
- Intimidation: As the creator and ruler of many of the galaxy's civilizations, even the Sovereign, The High Evolutionary is greatly feared among the millions of communities for his power and scope. His wrath is something that none of them ever want to cross, as Gamora and Ayesha stated themselves. His own henchmen (even the other scientists of Orgocorp) are terrified of him, Rocket himself has lived in fear and hatred of him ever since his youth (to the point even just hearing his voice gives Rocket a panic attack), Star-Lord and Groot take their chances leaping 1,000 feet off the ledge rather than face him directly by themselves and even Gamora expresses reluctance to actually take him on.
Quotes[]
| “ | My sacred mission is to create the perfect society. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary in the trailers. |
| “ | We do. This recording is over 5,000 years old. 'Mo egraste forn, mo egalore fornonte,' which translated is, 'Be not as you are, but as you should be.' It's our sacred mission to take the cacophony of sounds around us and turn it into a song. To take an imperfect clump of biological matter such as you, and transform it into something... perfect. And we're halfway there, aren't we? | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary comparing music to his mission to Rocket. |
| “ | High Evolutionary: How did you know about the microseminoproteins, P13? What happened in there? Why? How did you know, P13? Rocket: Uh, it was too little filtration... High Evolutionary: In the hypotonic. Yes, we know. We fixed that. BUT HOW DID YOU KNOW?! I MADE YOU! HOW DID YOU KNOW?! Because it worked. |
„ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary showing his jealousy and confusion that Rocket figured out how to more stably evolve the humanimals. |
| “ | Oh. We? Look at you. As if you were cobbled together by fat-fingered children. How could you be a part of a perfect species? You’re simply a medley of mistakes we could learn from and apply to the creatures that truly mattered. Batch 89 was never meant for the new world, P13. You could figure out the complex workings of cytoplasmic filtration systems, but you couldn’t figure out that? But that brain… that I'd like to study further. Prep it for surgery and removal in the morning. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary revealing his true nature to Rocket and planning to remove Rocket's brain for further study. |
| “ | Incinerate them. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary ordering the deaths of Batch 89. |
| “ | Yes, I imagined you'd do something like this. Back in the cage, P13. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary on Rocket's attempt to escape and after unmercifully killing Lylla. |
| “ | Q12 and P13 escaped from their pens. Q12 is neutralized, but P13 is still out so I'll need assistance. (Floor: ROCKET, TEEFS, FLOOR, GO NOW!! ROCKET, TEEFS, FLOOR, GO NOW!) Remember not to bruise its brain. [Rocket continues to cry over Lylla's death] (Floor: ROCKET, TEEFS, FLOOR, GO NOW!! ROCKET, TEEFS, FLOOR, GO NOW!!) WAAAH-AAAAAAH-AAAAA-all right, P13. You win the crying contest! Now, back in the cage! | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary notices that Lylla and Rocket escaped from their cages before heartlessly mocking Rocket for crying over Lylla’s death, before an enraged Rocket vengefully attacks and violently mauls his face. |
| “ | Your friend once took advantage. I learned my lessons. I aimed some small parts of my mental capacity test back in my own direction and now gravity itself serves my whims. You must find Counter-Earth familiar. I visited your planet many years ago. Your people had wonderful spirit. The art, and music, and literature were some of the finest in the universe. Earth would be a fabulous place were it not for the ignorance and bigotry. It inspired me to create Counter-Earth, all of the good and none of the bad. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary‘s speech to Peter Quill and Groot. |
| “ | Anything I've done, I've done for the betterment of the universe. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary refusing to admit (or believe) he did anything wrong. |
| “ | They do not... which is why, as I've done many times before, I'm going to have to raze it all and start again. | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary coming to terms with the fact that Counter-Earth doesn't suit his standards before deciding to obliterate it. |
| “ | High Evolutionary: So, you'd like to joust, would you? Star-Lord: Go to Hell, you sick son of a bitch. You killed all those people. High Evolutionary: As I will your friends. I am sending you the coordinates. They will die unless you BRING ME WHAT IS MINE! Star-Lord: Screw you, you stretch faced, Robocop lookin’, Skeletor wannabe, PURPLE NURPLE, PIECE OF- (High Evolutionary crushes the earpiece out of rage) He hung up. |
„ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary and Star-Lord yelling at each other after he kidnaps his friends as High Evolutionary ragefully demands Star-Lord to bring Rocket to him while Star-Lord furiously insults and yells back at High Evolutionary. |
| “ | DO IT NOW! Get me 89P13, and kill everyone in the head of that DEAD GOD! | „ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary losing his temper as he angrily orders his men to have the Hellspawns kill everyone on Knowhere. |
| “ | Drax: His face came off. Rocket: It’s a mask. High Evolutionary: Look what you did to me...! For what...? All I wanted to do... was to make things... perfect! Rocket: You didn't want to make things perfect, you just hated things the way they are. |
„ |
| ~ The High Evolutionary's last words as he still foolishly proclaims he did what was right before Rocket rightfully justifies his actions before his well-deserved imprisonment. |
Gallery[]
.jpg "Guardians-thumb-1688148463069 (1).jpg (190 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 marks the first official live-action appearance of the High Evolutionary.
- James Gunn has cited Dr. Moreau, the main antagonist of the classic Island of Lost Souls film based on H.G. Wells' novel The Island of Dr. Moreau, as one of the inspirations he had for the High Evolutionary on the film, most likely due to both characters being mad scientists experimenting on animals to make them humanoid.
- In contrast to his comic counterpart, the High Evolutionary appears to be an alien in the Marvel Cinematic Universe instead of a human. His source material's name, Herbert Wyndham, is never uttered in the film, and he does not refer to Earth as being his home planet when he talks about exploring it when he collected the raccoons he would use for his experiments. James Gunn would later rectify this by confirming that this version of the High Evolutionary is not named Herbert Wyndham and he is from an unknown alien planet.
- This version of the High Evolutionary is drastically more cruel, lacking the anti-villainous and well-intentioned traits of his goals. This excessive cruelty and lack of redeeming features was made to contrast him from other MCU antagonists such as Thanos and Erik Killmonger. James Gunn personally labelled him "the cruelest villain" in the entire MCU.
- Since Counter-Earth appeared comparable to early 21st Century Earth, it could be presumed that its population was around 7 billion, thus the High Evolutionary had one of the highest kill counts in the franchise - barring Thanos's crusade and snap (the latter reversed), TVA pruning, and the Incursions caused by Sinister Strange.
- Even though James Gunn confirmed that High Evolutionary is still alive and is currently being imprisoned in Knowhere shown in the deleted scene, he can be seen being carried by Drax as the heroes are escaping the exploding ship.
- He's the only main antagonist in a Guardians of the Galaxy film who survived, while Ego and Ronan The Accuser did not.
- High Evolutionary is similar to Ego, as both of them wanted to create something "perfect" and eradicate something that doesn't satisfy them:
- In case of Ego, he wanted to turn the entire universe in his image using the seeds he planted, but needed another celestial in order to do that, so he created his children and had Yondu kidnap them, and the moment he realizes they didn't inherit his celestial genes, he kills them.
- In case of High Evolutionary, he wanted to create a perfect society that is entirely flawless, but he needed to experiment the creatures in order to build a new colony, so he kidnapped the creatures, largely from Earth, to experiment them, but when they're uncontrollable or doesn't please him, he has them incinerated.
- High Evolutionary is similar to Ego, as both of them wanted to create something "perfect" and eradicate something that doesn't satisfy them:
- The High Evolutionary wears purple, as purple means royalty and creativity.
- His musical motif is Dido's Lament, which is played diegetically once when described in a flashback scene between the High Evolutionary and a young Rocket. It is thematically appropriate as it is about despair from aiming for an impossible dream, but failing, and the subsequent disappearance into death; thus representing the High Evolutionary's obsession with creating a perfect lifeform, yet continuously failing, forcing him to struggle with his own mortality that he desperately wants to avoid until achieving his impossible goal.
External Links[]
- High Evolutionary on the Pure Evil Wiki
- High Evolutionary on the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
- High Evolutionary on the Marvel Wiki
- High Evolutionary on the Disney Wiki
