Struggling to embrace his role in the modern world, Steve Rogers teams up with Natasha Romanoff and a new ally, the Falcon, to expose a deep-seated conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. that threatens to destabilize global security. But as they peel back the layers of deception, they find themselves targeted by a deadly and unstoppable assassin known only as the Winter Soldier, who shares a haunting connection to Captain America's past.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
April 4, 2014 |
Running time |
136 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Sci-Fi Thriller |
Budget |
$170,000,000 |
Box Office |
$714,421,503 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Anthony Russo Joe Russo |
Produced by |
Kevin Feige |
Written by |
Christopher Markus Stephen McFeely |
Music by |
Henry Jackman |
Cinematography |
Trent Opaloch |
Edited by |
Jeffrey Ford Matthew Schmidt |
Production Co. |
Marvel Studios |
Distributed by |
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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Movie Collection |
Movie Order: #02 in Captain America Collection
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The Plot
On Your Left
Two years following the cataclysmic Battle of New York, Steve Rogers has committed himself to working as an operative for S.H.I.E.L.D. based in Washington, D.C., though he continues to struggle with the nuances of modern society. During a routine morning jog around the National Mall, Rogers repeatedly outpaces a fellow runner, jokingly warning him "on your left" each time he passes. The man introduces himself as Sam Wilson, a former United States Air Force pararescue trooper now working as a counselor at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Rogers and Wilson quickly bond over their shared difficulties in readjusting to civilian life after serving combat tours.
Their conversation is interrupted when Natasha Romanoff pulls up in a Corvette to collect Rogers for an immediate extraction mission. They deploy to the Indian Ocean to retake the Lemurian Star, a S.H.I.E.L.D. launch ship that has been hijacked by pirates led by the mercenary Georges Batroc. Rogers leads the STRIKE team, including Brock Rumlow, to secure the deck and eliminate the pirates. While Rogers focuses on the hostages, he discovers Romanoff is not with the main group; she has deviated to the ship's data center. Rogers confronts her, finding she is downloading S.H.I.E.L.D. intelligence onto a USB drive per a secret directive from Director Nick Fury. The distraction nearly compromises the operation, forcing Rogers to extract Romanoff amidst a chaotic escape.
Project Insight
Back at the Triskelion headquarters, Rogers confronts Fury about the compartmentalized mission parameters. In an attempt to justify his actions and demonstrate trust, Fury takes Rogers to the facility's massive underground complex to reveal "Project Insight." The project involves three next-generation Helicarriers, linked to a network of targeting satellites, designed to preemptively neutralize hostile threats from 3,000 feet in the air. Fury argues that S.H.I.E.L.D. must take the world as it is, but Rogers, disillusioned by the concept of holding a gun to the world's head, retorts, "This isn't freedom. This is fear."
Seeking a connection to his past, Rogers visits the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian Institution to view the history he left behind. He subsequently visits an elderly Peggy Carter in a retirement home; she is suffering from dementia and struggles to keep a grip on the present, heartbreakingly realizing Steve is alive as if for the first time. Later, Rogers attends a PTSD support session led by Sam Wilson, observing from the back as Wilson helps fellow veterans navigate their trauma.
The Director Compromised
Meanwhile, Fury attempts to access the files Romanoff retrieved from the Lemurian Star, only to find the data encrypted and inaccessible. Troubled, he reports to senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce, requesting a formal delay of Project Insight due to his rising suspicions. Upon leaving the Triskelion to meet Maria Hill, Fury’s SUV is ambushed by assassins disguised as police officers. Despite sustaining a fractured forearm, Fury utilizes his vehicle’s defensive systems to evade the pursuit.
His escape is cut short by a mysterious masked figure standing in the road—the Winter Soldier—who fires a magnetic Disc Grenade beneath the SUV, flipping it violently. Before the assassin can finish him off, Fury uses a high-tech laser cutter to slice through the chassis and the street below, escaping into the sewer system.
Don't Trust Anyone
Rogers returns to his apartment and notices his stereo is playing, a sign of intrusion. He enters cautiously through a window to find a battered Fury sitting in the dark. Fury silently types a message on his phone revealing that the room is bugged, while verbally claiming his wife kicked him out. He warns Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised just as three bullets shatter the wall, striking Fury. Rogers looks out the window to see the Winter Soldier on a nearby rooftop. Handing Rogers the flash drive, Fury whispers his final command: "Don't trust anyone," before losing consciousness. Rogers’ neighbor bursts in, revealing herself as "Agent 13," an undercover operative assigned by Fury to protect Rogers.
Rogers pursues the assassin, crashing through a window into the adjacent office building. He hurls his vibranium shield at the fleeing target on the roof, but is stunned when the Winter Soldier catches the shield with a cybernetic metal arm and throws it back with equal force before vanishing over the ledge.
The Fugitive
At the hospital, doctors fail to revive Fury, and he is pronounced dead. Maria Hill collects the body while Rumlow informs Rogers that Alexander Pierce requires his presence at the Triskelion. Suspicious, Rogers hides the USB drive in a hospital vending machine before departing. In Pierce’s office, the official claims to be one of Fury's oldest friends and demands to know who killed him. Honoring Fury's last wish, Rogers withholds information about the drive and the circumstances of the shooting.
As Rogers boards the elevator to leave, he is gradually joined by Rumlow and a squad of STRIKE agents. Realizing they are positioning themselves to subdue him, Rogers asks if anyone wants to get out before the fight begins. A violent close-quarters brawl ensues, ending with Rogers knocking out the entire squad. He hacks the elevator controls to drop to the garage, mounts his motorcycle, and speeds out of the facility. A S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet attempts to block his path, but Rogers disables it with his shield and escapes. Pierce immediately brands Rogers a fugitive for withholding information. To cover his tracks, Pierce orders the Winter Soldier to eliminate loose ends, including assassinating his own housekeeper, Renata, who inadvertently witnessed the two men speaking.
The Ghost in the Machine
Rogers returns to the hospital to retrieve the drive, only to find it missing. Natasha Romanoff appears, revealing she secured the device. Confronting her about her knowledge of the conspiracy, she identifies the assassin as the Winter Soldier, a ghost story within the intelligence community whom she encountered years prior. The two form a tentative alliance and visit an Apple Store to analyze the data. They discover the drive contains a program tracing back to a specific location in New Jersey.
Stealing a truck, they drive to Camp Lehigh, the abandoned army base where Rogers trained during World War II. Within an old S.H.I.E.L.D. office, they discover a secret elevator leading to a bunker housing banks of antiquated databanks. Upon inserting the USB drive, the computers activate, displaying the consciousness of Arnim Zola, the Hydra scientist Rogers captured in 1945. Zola reveals that after Operation Paperclip brought him to S.H.I.E.L.D., he rebuilt Hydra from within the organization like a parasite. He explains that Hydra has been orchestrating global chaos for decades to make humanity willing to surrender its freedom for security. Before they can learn more, a S.H.I.E.L.D. missile obliterates the bunker. Rogers shields Romanoff from the explosion, and they barely survive under the rubble.
The Algorithm
Seeking a safe haven, the pair turn to Sam Wilson. Wilson agrees to help, revealing he has access to the "Falcon" winged flight suit from his military days. The trio interrogates Jasper Sitwell, a Hydra sleeper agent, forcing him to the roof of a high-rise. Under pressure, Sitwell reveals that Zola’s algorithm uses data mining to predict future threats to Hydra’s new world order. Project Insight’s Helicarriers are programmed to use this data to eliminate millions of individuals instantly, including Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Stephen Strange.
While transporting Sitwell on the highway, the group is ambushed by the Winter Soldier. The assassin throws Sitwell from the moving car into oncoming traffic and engages the heroes in a brutal firefight. During the melee, the Winter Soldier’s mask is ripped off, and Rogers is paralyzed with shock to see the face of Bucky Barnes, his best friend who supposedly died in 1945. Taking advantage of Rogers' hesitation, S.H.I.E.L.D. forces arrive and arrest Rogers, Romanoff, and Wilson.
Resurrection
While in transport, the guards are incapacitated by one of their own, who reveals herself as Maria Hill in disguise. She uses a high-tech "Mouse Hole" device to burn through the vehicle's floor, allowing them to escape. Hill takes them to a secret dam facility where Nick Fury is alive and recovering. Fury explains he used a stress-inhibiting serum developed by Bruce Banner to fake his death. He reveals that to stop Project Insight, they must board the three Helicarriers and swap their targeting controller chips with compromised ones, neutralizing the fleet.
Flashbacks reveal Bucky’s torture after his fall from the train; he was recovered by Hydra, had his severed arm replaced with cybernetics, and was subjected to cryostasis and brainwashing to become the Winter Soldier. In the present, Pierce attempts to wipe Barnes’ memory again when he begins to recall fragments of his past. Meanwhile, Rogers refuses to give up on his friend, stealing his World War II uniform from the Smithsonian for the final battle, vowing to save Bucky just as Bucky once promised to be with him "until the end of the line."
The Battle of the Triskelion
Rogers, Wilson, and Hill infiltrate the Triskelion as the World Security Council arrives to witness the launch. Rogers hacks the facility’s PA system, exposing the Hydra conspiracy to all S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and urging them to stand down. Chaos erupts as loyal agents fight Hydra infiltrators. Rumlow initiates the launch sequence from the control room, forcing the Helicarriers into the air. Wilson and Rogers take to the skies, fighting through heavy fire to replace the controller chips on the first two carriers.
Inside the building, Alexander Pierce holds the Council hostage. Romanoff, disguised as Councilwoman Hawley using a Photostatic Veil, subdues the guards. She triggers a data dump of all S.H.I.E.L.D. and Hydra files to the internet to expose the truth. Pierce notes that disabling the encryption requires two Alpha Level clearances. Fury arrives by helicopter, using his damaged eye for a retinal scan to provide the second authorization. Pierce kills the Council members with nano-explosives in their badges but is eventually shot and killed by Fury after Romanoff disables her own safety badge to create an opening.
End of the Line
In the air, the Winter Soldier destroys Falcon’s flight suit, forcing Wilson to parachute to safety. Rogers confronts Barnes on the final Helicarrier. They engage in a vicious hand-to-hand duel as the targeting system locks onto millions of civilians. battered and bloody, Rogers manages to insert the final chip just seconds before the firing sequence completes. With the systems overridden, Hill commands the Helicarriers to target each other. The massive vessels fire, tearing themselves apart.
As the carrier collapses, Rogers refuses to fight Barnes any longer. He drops his shield and surrenders, telling Bucky, "I'm with you 'til the end of the line." Barnes, triggering a memory, relents. The floor gives way, and Rogers falls into the Potomac River, unconscious. Barnes dives in, drags Rogers to the riverbank, and disappears into the woods.
A New Age
In the aftermath, S.H.I.E.L.D. is officially dissolved. A hospitalized Rumlow is seen surviving the destruction, though severely burned. Fury, officially dead to the world, burns his eyepatch and heads to Europe to hunt down remaining Hydra cells. Natasha Romanoff appears before a Senate committee, defiantly defending the Avengers' actions before setting off to find new covers. Rogers and Wilson review a dossier Romanoff obtained regarding the Winter Soldier program. Seeing that Rogers intends to find Bucky, Wilson commits to joining him on the mission.
In a hidden Hydra laboratory in Sokovia, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker proclaims that the age of miracles has begun. He observes two prisoners in containment cells: a man moving at blur-inducing speeds and a woman manipulating energy blocks with her mind. He vows to use the scepter in his possession to continue Hydra's work. Meanwhile, in the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian, Bucky Barnes stares intently at his own memorial display, beginning to understand who he really is.
