New ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3’ clip shows captive Rocket and his old friends

Writer/director James Gunn had teased his upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 as an origin story for Bradley Cooper‘s beloved, bruising Rocket, and a new clip of the film exclusive to Collider shows just that.

For the uninitiated, Rocket was the subject of illegal animal experimentation that turned him into the character fans have come to love.

This clip shows Rocket in his youth, where he and other animals are being held — and experimented upon — by a character they call Sire.

The anthropomorphic animals have all been equipped with various implants and given the ability to speak, and one by one, they choose names for themselves as they dream of freedom.

An otter voiced by Linda Cardellini names herself Lylla, as opposed to her serial number, 89Q12. A walrus dubs himself Teefs (Asim Chaudhry), while a rabbit (Mikaela Hoover), cruelly retrofitted with spider legs and a metal speaker over her face, chooses Floor, as that’s where she finds herself.

The little raccoon known as 89P13 says, “Someday I’m gonna make great machines that fly. And me and my friends are gonna go flying into the forever and beautiful sky: Lylla and Teefs, and Floor and me, Rocket.”

As heart-wrenching as the scene is, Gunn insists to Collider that no real animals were harmed in the making of the film.

He commented, “I was very, very careful about what we see in terms of animals being hurt because it is something I’m incredibly squeamish about, and people are squeamish about. So I think the difficult stuff to watch in the movie … is because of the idea of what’s happening more than what you actually see.”

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 launches May 5 from Marvel Studios, which is owned by ABC News’ parent company, Disney.