Earlier this week, the highly anticipated first trailer for James Gunn’s ‘Guardians of the Galaxy‘ premiered on ‘Jimmy Kimmel LIVE’. Mere minutes after it aired, it hit the show’s official YouTube channel and there was already a plethora of screenshots, gifs, and memes making their way around the internet. Generally, though the public is unfamiliar with the team, they warmly received Star-Lord and the rest of the Guardians. Now, Gunn has come out and broken down the trailer to explain exactly what’s going on.

In an interview with Total Film, the director of the upcoming Phase Two film describes moments in the much talked about video that was sure to be the talk of the comic shop this week. For starters, Gunn discussed the major influence of ‘Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark’ on his life and his newest film:

“There is probably no film that influenced me more as a child – no film that excited me more or that I loved more – than ‘Raiders Of The Lost Ark’. It not only influences how I see Guardians, it influences how I live my life (which means the way for a woman to win my heart is to paint “love you” on her eyelids. Yes, I’m still single, why do you ask?).”

Then, he goes on to talk about each member of the team, starting with Groot, who apparently is the only one on the team who doesn’t “start out the movie as a bastard”. While talking about Gamora, he shares some insight on the makeup process and the amount of badasses in his cast:

“Zoe is about as un-intimidating as you can imagine! She gets in the zone the moment that cameras start filming – but before that she’s basically her loud, brash, completely lovable and goofball self. She got it easy with the makeup – it only took about four hours to put on, whereas it took Dave Bautista and Karen Gillan six hours or more. Zoe and Karen are the two most hardass characters in the movie – they’re our Clint Eastwoods. It should take more than a few people by surprise.”

Next, he goes into the many jokes featured in the trailer. However, one of the best gags actually isn’t a gag at all:

“‘Hooked On A Feeling’ is used in the movie. That and a lot of other old songs are on Quill’s mixed tape in his Sony Walkman. It’s one of the few things he has from Earth. I don’t think of it as a joke, because it’s very dear to him. It’s the umbilical cord that connects him to earth and the home and family he lost.”

Finally, the filmmaker had some parting words that expressed his excitement for the world to see this quite unusual little film of his:

“There is no doubt that the cinematic pinnacle of my career is our cameras circling around a maniacal raccoon shooting a machine gun on the back of a living tree. And I say this with as much modesty as I can muster – because certainly it is not me, but the hand of God guiding us all as we make this film – but it just may be the pinnacle of cinema in general. When we shot it we were twirling around an empty space in a giant set. But I think all of us could see the raccoon and the tree in our minds. They were already starting to form. I can’t wait to share them with everyone in August.”

While some people may have noticed the absence of key characters such as Lee Pace’s Ronan the Accuser, Michael Rooker’s Yondu, and Glenn Close’s Nova Prime, there’s still plenty of time between now and the film’s premiere to get peeks at these most mysterious characters. So until the next bit of promotional material manifests (potentially along with ‘Captain America: The Winter Soldier’), what did you think of the first trailer for ‘Guardians of the Galaxy’? Let us know in the comments below.

‘Guardians of the Galaxy’ starring Chris Pratt, Dave Bautista, Zoe Saldana, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace, Karen Gillan, Benicio Del Toro, and Michael Rooker blasts off on August 1st, 2014.