Captain America: The Winter Soldier [2014]
And... and I sat on this movie for a couple of days. Out of all the MCU movie reviews, Captain America: The Winter Soldier is probably one of the harder movies for me to review for the simple fact that I really don't have a whole ton to say short of summarizing the movie because... it's just so good. I keep thinking that I overrate this movie in my mind, but having rewatched this movie recently, and having the pleasure of rewatching Captain America: The First Avenger and The Avengers prior to this, it really does make me really feel for the themes of this movie particularly well.
And... and I'm not sure I have it in me to articular why this movie is so good even compared to the MCU's pretty high standards. Okay, not all the movies in the MCU's "Phase Two" are winners. Thor: The Dark World and Avengers: Age of Ultron are messy at best, and boring at worst. I'm not the biggest fan of Iron Man 3 either. But Captain America: the Winter Soldier? This was the movie that, I feel, not only has the most solid story out of almost the entirety of the MCU movies, but also serves as a very good sequel for the themes introduced in previous MCU movies while also shaking up the status quo on the 'spy' side of this world. Oh, toss in some really cool action scenes, a fair chunk of continuity and some of the best character work I've seen for major MCU characters Captain America, Black Widow and Nick Fury? Yeah. This was the movie that, I feel, turned these three characters from well-acted adaptations of comic-book characters into actual characters of their own.
The beginning of the movie is already pretty cool. We get a bit of a follow-up on the question of what an old man-out-of-time like Steve Rogers would do in the modern day, and we get to see him adjusting to modern life, including befriending another ex-soldier, Sam Wilson, while jogging. All that is done in-between missions, of course, which he undergoes with Black Widow and SHIELD's strike-force team, STRIKE. We get a pretty cool fight against comic-book villain Batroc the Leaper, and throughout the mission, Captain America finds out that not only is the SHIELD vessel actually doing some shady spy stuff, Black Widow is also running a secret intel-gathering information behind his back under Nick Fury's orders.
It's a dilemma that gripped Steve Rogers during the events of The Avengers, which gets brought up but gets shelved aside thanks to the massive alien invasion happening shortly afterwards. Captain America is a soldier, and of course he's going to fight when his country asks him to. But when said country is also doing a lot of unsavoury, black-ops spy stuff? It's pretty neat to see Steve Rogers confront Nick Fury about it, and throughout the opening act of the movie I really do like that for every gesture of trust that people like Fury show Steve (like showing him Project Insight), we also get a couple that are revealed to be not so trustworthy (Steve's pretty nurse neighbour turning out to be SHIELD's "Agent 13").
The worldbuilding is also pretty good, too, introducing different facets of SHIELD as if they had been organically there, like the Triskelion, the World Government Council (briefly glimpsed in Avengers), the STRIKE team, and the introduction of Secretary of Internal Security, Alexander Pierce. Nick Fury gets a bit suspicious about some aspects of Project Insight, and... and perhaps in another version of this story we'd be wondering if Nick Fury is actually the villain. And in the comics, we'd be right to wonder, but I feel like the MCU creators know that the audience is smart enough to know that it's not the case, so we quickly establish that Fury still has his comic-book counterpart's shiftiness, but is ultimately a good guy.
And then, in a pretty cool extended scene, Nick Fury gets ambushed while driving by a bunch of mercenaries, leading to yet another pretty cool action scene. It feels like something out of the more grounded James Bond movies, with Nick Fury's car having some tricked-out machineguns and super-bulletproof glass and whatnot, and even while half-injured, Nick Fury still held out long enough to escape until the main villain, the eponymous Winter Soldier, shows up. He's got a metal arm, he's got a cool mask, and he's got wicked mascara game.
Fury manages to escape to Steve's apartment, and I love all the spy-stuff going on here with Fury talking to Steve in code, and leaves the USB drive to him before Winter Soldier shows up and guns him down. We get a particularly cool confrontation between Steve and Winter Soldier, including a scene where Steve just shows how much of a super-soldier he is by bodily running through walls and jumping across buildings... but then the Winter Soldier just effortlessly catches Cap's vibranium shield.
Fury is pronounced dead during surgery, and Steve, not trusting anyone, keeps the existence of Fury's USB drive hidden. I like how it's ambiguous just who among SHIELD is an enemy at this point, and how many of them are just working on the assumption that Nick Fury is a villain. Alexander Pierce brands Steve Rogers a fugitive, and since Steve doesn't know who to trust, he breaks out of the SHIELD Triskelion... which leads to one of the most iconic scenes in this movie, which is the cramped elevator fight that Steve has against STRIKE commander Brock Rumlow ("Crossbones" in the comics) and his entire squadron. And then he proceeds to ride a bike and take down a goddamn fighter jet with his shield, because he's Captain god-damn America.
The only ally Steve seems to trust is Black Widow, and I really do like how they did this. An inferior movie would just have them meet, shrug that they're both former allies and move on. And I don't think we'd question it too much. But this is honestly one of the few movies that allowed Black Widow to actually act as a character. She's a reformed super-assassin herself, and she wants vengeance for Nick Fury. And she's just continually flummoxed at just how much Steve Rogers trusts her. I really do like that confrontation in the hospital when Steve tries to assert that he doesn't trust Natasha, but realizes that he really doesn't have much of an option. There's a bit of fun tension between the two, but I don't think the writers of this movie ever tried (or forced) it to become anything more than flirting. No, Black Widow's terribly-written romance will not come until Age of Ultron.
But I also really like this sequence of events, too, with Steve and Natasha just going around with minimal resources, trying to get information out of the USB drive from Apple stores and stuff, narrowly avoiding STRIKE commandos. This trail of clues (again, very old-school spy movie) leads them to a SHIELD bunker in Steve Rogers' old training camp, which is a nice call-back to Steve Rogers' ancient history. With finding that Peggy Carter was one of the original founders of SHIELD (oh yeah, Peggy also has a cameo earlier, having suffered from Alzheimer's in her old age), they also discover a secret basement containing an ancient supercomputer containing the preserved consciousness of Cap's old foe, Arnim Zola. It's probably one of the better adaptations of one of the more outlandish character concepts from the comics that would make sense in live-action.
Arnim Zola gives a whole exposition speech, talking about how SHIELD has spent its time after World War II doing its version of Operation: Paperclip, but all that really succeeded in doing is to allow talented Hydra minds to flourish within SHIELD, and continue preserving a version of their organization. A secret organization within the secret organization! It actually kind of makes sense, in a creepily technical way -- humanity will surrender its freedom in exchange for security. We get hints that Hydra has been reshaping history in the background, with a neat little off-handed showcase that one of the things it did was to arrange for the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark. Something that's going to be very relevant later on! Arnim Zola, turns out, to have been stalling, because SHIELD missile-bombs the bunker.
Around this point where Steve and Natasha figure things out, the audience also gets to see that the Winter Soldier is meeting with the head of Hydra within SHIELD -- Alexander Pierce. This goes beyond just grunts like Brock Rumlow or Jasper Sitwell, but all the way to the top. I love, too, the little subversion which felt refreshingly interesting at the time -- that the Winter Soldier is just a cool-looking goon that isn't even the main villain. Nowadays, even in the MCU itself, that sort of revelation is kind of played out. But when The Winter Soldier hit the screen, it was a bit of a refreshing shock that the titular villain isn't, in fact, the main villain. Hell, we even see Pierce essentially telling his goons to 'reprogram' Winter Soldier later on when he starts getting his memories back!
It's also delivered a bit more naturally throughout the movie, but we get the revelations that some of the minor characters we've seen in previous movies -- the senator from Iron Man 2 and Agent Jasper Sitwell from Thor -- are in fact working for Hydra. The audience doesn't really have to know who these guys are beyond 'ah, more Hydra agents within SHIELD/the government', but actually knowing who they are adds so much more to the MCU continuity fun.
Meanwhile, Steve and Natasha end up meeting up with Sam Wilson, someone who they can be sure is out of SHIELD's reach. This is Sam's debut movie and... and he honestly really doesn't do much beyond being a nice guy and showing off the pretty cool 'Falcon' wingpack. It's a bit too mundane-ized in this movie, but the unfolding metal wings is definitely something that is synonymous with the live-action version of Falcon. Cap, Black Widow and Falcon interrogate Jasper Sitwell, and find out that with Arnim Zola's help, they have turned Project Insight into something that can instantly eliminate any individuals that can become threats to Hydra... including Cap's Avengers allies. It's the ultimate extreme of 'big brother is watching you', with these satellite-guided weapons just patrolling the world, shooting and killing every single dissident to what Hydra deems is 'order'. Again, it's a supervillain plan that even fits with the spy and subterfuge theme that's been emphasized throughout this movie.
And then we get the second-act climax, where Winter Soldier ambushes our heroes in the highway. Jasper Sitwell dies in the process, and we get a particularly gripping sequence of car battle, followed by a shootout in the streets as Winter Soldier and his mercenaries hunt down our woefully under-equipped heroes. It ultimately boils down to a 1-v-1 between Captain America and Winter Soldier, including a particularly badass action sequence involving a knife. But after Winter Soldier's mask is ripped off, Captain America gasps in shock because the identity of Winter Soldier is... Bucky! His friend who died in the previous movie!
And the twist? Bucky doesn't even remember who Bucky is. It proves to be enough of a distraction for Brock Rumlow and STRIKE to come in and arrest Cap and his allies, but they are freed from their prison car by Maria Hill, who brings them to see Nick Fury, who's alive and had faked his death in the operating room. Captain America and his allies aren't particularly happy at being kept in the dark again, and I do like that while they see the necessity in taking down Hydra and Project Insight, they basically strong-arm Nick Fury into agreeing that they do things differently in the future, because all this spy stuff is what led to Hydra being in power in the first place.
The final act is pretty cool, too, basically an extended infiltration sequence into the Triskelion as our heroes try to take out the Helicarriers. There's even a pretty cool plan going on here, with Black Widow disguising herself as one of the World Security Council members to spill Pierce's plans to the other WSC members. Nick Fury shows up and uses a backdoor to the SHIELD database -- his scarred-over eyeball, which is so cool! This ended up being the thing that the heroes decide to do, which is to leak every single piece of data in the SHIELD database into the world. There's a bit of an argument and a struggle -- with Pierce emphasizing how it's Nick Fury that taught him to 'make the hard choices' -- but ultimately Pierce kills most of the World Security Council, and Fury shoots him and leaves him to die.
Of course, while this is going on, we've got a confrontation all over the Triskelion. Brock Rumlow and STRIKE try to enforce Alexander Pierce's Hydra rule, but even the technicians of SHIELD that are just working ends up resisting. Agent 13/Sharon Carter also ends up fighting against Brock a bit. Captain America and Falcon try to infiltrate the Helicarriers, but the Winter Soldier arrives as they're doing their 'replace the chips' deal, leading to a pretty intense fight. Falcon's wingsuit gets taken out of the fight disappointingly early on, although we did get a couple of thrilling flight scenes. Falcon gets to fight Brock Rumlow, though, so at least he's got an antagonist to contend with.
And... and ultimately, the good guys win, of course. They stop the Helicarrier, Pierce gets killed, Rumlow gets a building dropped on him (he survives with scars) and Hydra is exposed to the public. But the huge climactic point is Steve Rogers faced against Winter Soldier. It's a badass superhero action scene, of course, but there's also a huge sense of guilt going on there. Throughout the movie, one of the underlying themes has been Steve trying his best to adjust in a world that feels so alien to him. Every aspect of his old life from World War II are either in a museum or, like poor old Peggy, no longer in a state to really talk to him. Even the state of the military and the spy life is so fucked up, and we've seen that while Steve is friendly to everyone, he's also not the most comfortable with the Avengers. Sure, Steve definitely made friends with Natasha and Sam in this movie, but Bucky? Bucky isn't only a friend from Steve's old life, but he also represents one of the few times in Steve's life that he failed. It's a chance to correct his mistake, and I love that Steve, even in trying to save the world, still refuses to fight Bucky to the death. I didn't particularly care for this moment back in 2014, but now? Knowing what happens to Bucky in Civil War, Infinity War and Falcon and the Winter Soldier? Yeah. It's a pretty damn strong moment.
As the Helicarriers and the Triskelion are destroyed, Captain America falls into the river, and the Winter Soldier fishes him out. Freed from his Hydra masters, Winter Soldier basically just... disappears, revealed to be trying to learn more about himself in the post-credits scene. Then we get the montage showing the conclusion to this. SHIELD is disbanded, Natasha leaks all the SHIELD information to the public, and Nick Fury continues to fake his death and hides off to continue taking the fight against Hydra on his own. The movie ends in a pretty optimistic note, all things considered, keeping enough things open-ended (including a particularly on-the-nose teaser for Age of Ultron).
And... and yeah. It's ultimately just a summary of the movie, I know. But I really did enjoy all the themes being explored here. It did get admittedly somewhat preachy about 'spy stuff is bad!' near the end, but I also liked that they noted that when done by good people like Fury and Widow, spy stuff is sometimes necessary. And, well, considering this is a movie about Steve Rogers, it also highlights his 'I'm a good man trying to do good' mentality. Again, this is the movie that really made me like Steve Rogers as an actual character because, well, the MCU did the right thing trying to focus on him as a good person first and foremost instead of going for the 'patriotic flagman' which is something that most audiences outside of America would roll their eyes at.
And... so many things in this movie is done well! Alexander Pierce is an excellently interesting villain with just enough backstory told to us in the movie for him to not feel too flat. Brock Rumlow and the brainwashed Bucky make for pretty great goon antagonists. Black Widow, Falcon, and to a lesser extent Nick Fury and Maria hill are also all juggled pretty well, and, as mentioned before, this is one of the few movies that actually allowed Natasha to show a fair chunk of characterization. The themes of this movie and the general pacing of the plot is handled well, and all the action scenes are thrilling. Again, this movie definitely deserves its place as one of the best offerings the MCU has to offer.
Marvel Easter Eggs Corner:
- Post-Credits Scene: The mid-credits scene who off Baron Strucker and Dr. List, minor antagonists for the upcoming Age of Ultron, looking at two more assets Hydra has stored away -- Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. The post-credits scene show Bucky going into the museum to learn more about his past.
- Stan the Man: Stan Lee is the security guard who has the misfortune of being on guard when Steve Rogers decides to steal his WWII outfit. It's played for laughs but he totally got fired for that, huh.
- Future Movies Foreshadowing: Agent Sitwell name-drops Stephen Strange several movies before he debuts in the MCU.
- Past Movie Continuity: Obviously, the events of Captain America: The First Avenger is mentioned a lot of times, especially in regards to Bucky and Arnim Zola. The deaths of Howard and Maria Stark, previously off-handedly mentioned in the Iron Man movies, is also expanded upon here as being caused by the Winter Soldier. Steve finds out about SHIELD weaponizing Hydra tech in The Avengers abroad the Helicarrier. After the events of The Avengers, Stark Tower is now known as Avengers Tower. Senator Stern returns from Iron Man 2, and Jasper Sitwell from Thor, where it's revealed that they were both Hydra agents all along. Tony Stark (Iron Man), Bruce Banner (Hulk) and President Ellis (from Iron Man 3) are part of the targets of Project Insight.
- Movie Superhero Codenames: Winter Soldier is consistently referred to as 'Winter Soldier' throughout the movie since his secret identity is a major part of the movie's plot. Sharon Carter is also called 'Agent 13' for the majority of the movie. Sam and Natasha did get referred to as "Falcon" and "Black Widow" a couple of times in the climax where it's treated like their codenames. Batroc the Leaper is just called 'Georges Batroc', while Brock Rumlow is never referred to as 'Crossbones'.
- Favourite Action Scene: You'd think it's Captain America against like a dozen Hydra agents in the elevator, leading to him in a 1v1 fight against a Quinjet. But no, my favourite action scene in this one is Captain America versus Winter Soldier in the streets, with a particularly slick move where Bucky flips a knife mid-air.
- Funniest Line: There are a couple, but my favourite is probably Nick Fury yelling at Falcon after a helicopter rescue that floor numbers aren't painted on the side of the building.
- There are several shots of Winter Soldier prominently holding Captain America's shield in action scenes -- the comic-book Bucky would actually become Captain America for a time.
- The Baxter Building, home to the Fantastic Four (who wasn't available to the MCU at the time of shooting this movie), can be glimpsed in the Project Insight scene although no member of the Fantastic Four is explicitly named.
- "Operation: Zemo" can be seen on the Smithsonian exhibit, referencing the supervillain Baron Zemo. Though since a MCU version of Baron Zemo would show up later on with no relation to Cap's WWII career, this is probably non-canon now.
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