All 8 Captain America Movies, Ranked from Just So-So to Superheroic Greatness

Endgame, which marks Steve Rogers' final appearance in the MCU, features him passing both his shield and his mantle over to Sam Wilson. So we probably won't be seeing the first Avenger onscreen again anytime soon -- especially since Marvel's got their hands full with the remaining Avengers, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy and, eventually, both the X-men and the Fantastic Four. But Cap's impressive Hollywood run deserves to celebrated. We've seen him go from a sickly, pint-sized weakling to a muscle-bound living legend. From facing off against Nazis to dismantling corrupt American intelligence agencies to going toe-to-toe with a giant intergalactic warlord, Cap's big screen adventures have spanned from 1945 to 2023 and we still haven't seen him as much as we'd like. So until Steve makes his way back to theaters we'll just have to re-watch the solo films, team-ups and guest appearances that we've already got. Here they are:





8. Homecoming

In what is his absolute worst appearance on film, Cap was seen speaking in the cheesiest imaginable PSAs created for school kids. It's best forgotten.









7. The First Avenger

Like Iron Man, Captain America: The First Avenger introduced a then-lesser-known superhero to theater-goers. Unlike the previous movie, The First Avenger mostly takes place in the past -- during the 1940s. It's unique in that it's the only World War II movie of the series. 

The story details how a short and scrawny but tough and principled U.S. Army reject (Steve Rogers) becomes the first and last successful participant in the military's "super-soldier" program in which his strength, agility, endurance, healing, speed and reflexes are increased exponentially. He also grows taller and gains an astounding amount of muscle mass. His primary weapon, a shield made from vibranium, was designed by one of his contemporaries, genius-industrialist Howard Stark (Tony's father). Following Rogers' plane crashing into the Arctic Ocean, Stark retrieves an otherworldly device called the Tesseract (which was also on the plane) while attempting (unsuccessfully) to locate Steve and the aircraft.

After Rogers awakens in New York City after being frozen in the Arctic for seven decades, he's offered a mission by Nick Fury in a post-credits scene.

You won't see anyone flying through the clouds but watching Cap acquire his powers is entertaining enough. Like Iron Man, Captain America's worldview has an enormous impact on events to come in later movies. 

More than anything else, the blue lasers derailed the middle of Captain America's origin story. But the beginning (filled with 1940's sci-fi and spy action) and the end (Steve Rogers discovering that he's a man out-of-time) are essential viewing.

Appropriately enough, Cap has the best line of the film: "I had a date."









6. Endgame

Although Cap did have a cringe-worthy and totally out-of-character scene in Endgame (admiring his own ass), one of the very best moments of the Infinity Saga's closing chapter is the revelation that he's worthy of wielding Thor's hammer, Mjolnir, which also grants him access to the big guy's lightning powers. Naturally, he doesn't hesitate to light Thanos up. After the Mad Titan rips his legendary shield to pieces, Steve even faces off against the warlord and his massive army all alone...until the ever-dependable Sam Wilson arrives with back-up.





5. The Age of Ultron

In Age of Ultron, Cap visibly unnerves Thor by almost picking up the latter's hammer, Mjolnir (it wouldn't be revealed 'til later that he chose not to out of respect for Thor's ego). He also goes mano-a-mano with the nearly-indestructible murder-bot Ultron himself. But while he proves himself willing and able to use lethal force if needed, Steve also demonstrates his regard for human life, refusing to leave a rapidly-disintegrating Sokovia until everyone is rescued.

Once again, Cap has some great lines. Some of the best actually - even better than Iron Man's. They include:

"I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science invented was me."

"You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed - walk it off."

"What kinda monster would let a German scientist experiment on him to help his country." (Sarcastically referring to himself and the Maximoffs)

4. The Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier is Captain America's The Empire Strikes Back. Darker, more mature and more sincere than Cap's debut solo film, it's evident from the very beginning that Winter Soldier is an entirely different movie than -- not only The First Avenger -- but all of Marvel's previous offerings. This sequel isn't merely a departure. It belongs to another genre altogether. The First Avenger was a light-hearted, good vs. evil, period war movie about a superhero. Winter Soldier is a mostly sober conspiracy thriller loaded with paranoia, suspense, timely concern about government overreach, global surveillance, spies, assassins and shades of grey. According to the filmmakers, there was also a reassuring reliance on practical stunts and special effects and less dependence on CGI whenever possible. Luckily, somebody wised up and replaced the stupid blue lasers with bullets. There are no traces of mystical energy sources and no Nazis. Unlike in The Avengers, there are also no aliens, no Iron Man, no Thor, no Hulk, no Loki and best of all, no Hawkeye. This is the most grounded and mature Marvel movie so far.

Aside from the costume, Chris Evans' Steve Rogers hasn't changed drastically. His hallmark sincerity and stoicism's still there but he's a little more suspicious of people's motives now and there's the suggestion that he's disenchanted with his role as a soldier in today's world. This only serves to broaden and deepen the character and Evans portrays the new depth perfectly.

Winter Soldier was the 4th highest-grossing film in the U.S. for 2014 and 7th highest-grossing film of the year, worldwide. It would've been #1 if not for Legos, mockingjays and galactic guardians.

Cap delivers the movie's best lines: 

"Before we get started, does anyone wanna get out?"

"Then finish it. 'Cause I'm with you 'til the end of the line."

"The price of freedom is high; it always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it."

"On your left."

3. Infinity War

It really looked like Infinity War would be Cap's swan song (especially given Chris Evans' announcement that he wouldn't be starring in any more Captain America solo films) but one of the movie's many surprises would be the fact that Steve had gotten up close and personal with the Infinity Guantlet -- and lived! Unfortunately, he has to watch his best friend (Bucky) disintegrate in front of his very eyes following Thanos' infamous Snap. But before that happens, a pissed-off Captain Rogers leads half of the Avengers -- with a serious assist from Black Panther and the forces of Wakanda -- in a fight to the death against the Mad Titan's bloodthirsty Black Order and his army of Outriders.









2. Civil War

Civil War is a very loose adaptation of the 2006 comic book storyline of the same name. In the movie version, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.N. step in after the last straw in Avengers-related mayhem -- the Scarlet Witch's accidental killing of a bunch of bystanders during a mission to catch The Winter Soldier's Brock Rumlow. During a meeting between the team and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, some of the previous missions that ended in collateral damage come up, including: the NYC invasion; the heli-carrier crashes in D.C.; Iron Man's fight with the Hulk in Johannesburg; and the Sokovia battle. The government's insistence on having operational control over the Avengers leads to the team's disbandment with half agreeing to federal supervision under Tony Stark's leadership and the other half following Steve Rogers. 

Cap's eventual status as a fugitive -- and a startling revelation about Bucky's involvement in the deaths of Stark's parents -- leads to a violent confrontation between two world-renown heroes: Captain America and Iron Man. The two former colleagues' philosophical differences (which were always there) devolves into Tony attempting to murder Bucky to avenge Ma and Pa Stark, which leads to both Cap and the former Winter Soldier two-piecing the hell outta Iron Man. Ultimately, Steve single-handedly beats his former colleague down to the pavement and plants his shield squarely in the arc reactor that powers his famous suit (settling the four-year-old argument of who could beat whom in The Avengers).

Cap delivers the film's best line to Iron Man during a brawl between the two former teammates:

"I can do this all day."









1. The Avengers

Given the horrendous optics of the suit that he wears (his worst ever), The Avengers is definitely not the best showcase for Cap. But the movie, the Avengers' first mission as a team, does show why his famous colleagues are willing to follow his lead against impossible odds -- and to the death if need be -- as he directs super operations during an alien invasion of his hometown. The seeds of an eventual beef between the super-soldier and Tony Stark are sown in this first billion-dollar MCU film as well. Steve even invites Tony to knuckle-up with the line: "Put on the suit."





Originally Posted 5/15/19


Related:



The 7 Greatest Movies of the MCU





Iron Man's 4 Greatest Movies

Captain America's 5 Greatest Movies

Endgame, which marks Steve Grant Rogers' final appearance in the MCU, features him passing both his shield and his mantle over to Sam Wilson. So we probably won't be seeing the first Avenger onscreen again anytime soon -- especially since Marvel's got their hands full with the remaining Avengers, Black Panther, the Guardians of the Galaxy and, eventually, both the X-men and the Fantastic Four. But Cap's impressive Hollywood run deserves to celebrated. We've seen him go from a sickly, pint-sized weakling to a muscle-bound living legend. From facing off against Nazis to dismantling corrupt American intelligence agencies to going toe-to-toe with a giant intergalactic warlord, Cap's big screen adventures have spanned from 1945 to 2023 and we still haven't seen him as much as we'd like. So until Steve makes his way back to theaters we'll just have to re-watch his best solo films, team-ups and guest appearances that we've already got. Here they are:

5. The Age of Ultron

In The Age of Ultron, Cap visibly unnerves Thor by almost picking up the latter's hammer, Mjolnir (it wouldn't be revealed 'til later that he chose not to out of respect for Thor's ego). He also goes mano-a-mano with the nearly-indestructible murder-bot Ultron himself. But while he proves himself willing and able to use lethal force if needed, Steve also demonstrates his regard for human life, refusing to leave a rapidly-disintegrating Sokovia until everyone is rescued.

Cap directed his fellow Avengers and their respective specialties with unquestionably satisfying results during the Battle of New York. Three years later, we see that he's forged the group into a perfectly coordinated, well-oiled machine as they execute a strike on the Eastern European compound of Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. During the raid, they seize Loki's scepter, which had gone missing some time following the latter's invasion of Manhattan.

At a party held at Stark Tower, many of the team members -- Tony "Iron Man" Stark, James "War Machine" Rhodes and Clint "Hawkeye" Barton -- attempt to lift Thor Odinson's mystical hammer, Mjolnir, only to fail utterly. But when Rogers gives it a try, the enchanted weapon budges ever so slightly, visibly astonishing Thor.

After Tony Stark and Dr. Bruce Banner use the scepter in a seemingly failed attempt to launch an artificial intelligence program, Ultron, the unexpectedly hostile and completely independent A.I. attempts to murder the Avengers, citing their history of bloodshed. It also views them as its only obstacle to accomplishing its mission: eradicating mankind, which Ultron believes to be the Earth's biggest threat.

The team later tracks Ultron, who managed to flee following his failed attack at Stark Tower, to the Johannesburg headquarters of black market arms dealer Ulysses Klaue. Ultron intends to procure Klaue's stash of vibranium, the same substance used to make Rogers' shield, so that he can construct a new, indestructible body for himself. A battle ensues, during which the Avengers encounter Ultron's allies, Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, Sokovian twins who blame Stark for the deaths of their parents. The Maximoffs volunteered for experiments conducted by von Strucker, using the scepter. Though all of the other test subjects died as a result of the trials, the twins emerged with enhanced abilities. Pietro confounds the Avengers with his superhuman speed and Wanda manipulates them with hallucinations based on their deepest thoughts. Rogers has a vision of Peggy Carter, who died of natural causes a year earlier.

After Banner's vision triggers a transformation into the Hulk and a subsequent rampage through a South African shopping district, which is only brought to an end by a destructive confrontation with Stark, the Avengers are vilified by the media. Heeding Maria Hill's warning to lay low, the team heads to Barton's family farm, which he'd kept secret from everyone but Romanoff" to regroup. While there, tensions between Rogers and Stark rise once again, illustrating the deep philosophical differences between the two men.

After tracking Ultron to the Seoul, Korea lab of geneticist Dr. Helen Cho, the team engages him again, with Rogers fighting the robot one-on-one. Ultron sought out Cho in order to use her work with synthetic-tissue and the scepter to create a synthetic, humanoid body. When he begins to upload his consciousness into the body, Wanda is able to read Ultron's mind for the first time and discovers his plan to render the human race extinct. She subsequently betrays him and informs Pietro and the Avengers. Rogers, Barton and Romanoff then interrupt the upload and seize the body, into which Ultron has implanted the scepter's gem.

When the body is transported to Stark's lab, he convinces Dr. Banner to aid him in uploading his A.I. personal assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. into it. Stark's actions reignite the rift between he and Rogers. Thor, while disagreeing with Stark acting unilaterally, nevertheless actuates the body -- Ultron's vision for the future. The Avengers, with the twins and the Vision in tow, then fly to Sokovia, the Maximoff's home country, where Ultron has constructed a vibranium-powered machine he intends to use to lift the capital city to such a height that dropping it back to Earth will render the planet uninhabitable for humans.

Shortly after their arrival, Rogers directs the team in combat against Ultron's drone army but insists that rescuing the citizenry is their highest priority. After defeating the drones with no apparent civilian casualties, the Avengers evacuate the city, after which Stark and Thor shatter it into pieces too small to cause the genocide that Ultron had intended. Ultron himself is eliminated when his Vision destroys his last remaining body.

Some time later, as he initiates a training session for the newest recruits, Rogers begins to utter his famous command, "Avengers, assemble!"

Once again, Cap has some great lines. Some of the best actually - even better than Iron Man's. They include:

"I really miss the days when the weirdest thing science invented was me."

"You get hurt, hurt 'em back. You get killed - walk it off."

"What kinda monster would let a German scientist experiment on him to help his country." (Sarcastically referring to himself and the Maximoffs)

4. The Winter Soldier

The Winter Soldier is Captain America's The Empire Strikes Back. Darker, more mature and more sincere than Cap's debut solo film, it's evident from the very beginning that Winter Soldier is an entirely different movie than -- not only The First Avenger -- but all of Marvel's previous offerings. This sequel isn't merely a departure. It belongs to another genre altogether. The First Avenger was a light-hearted, good vs. evil, period war movie about a superhero. Winter Soldier is a mostly sober conspiracy thriller loaded with paranoia, suspense, timely concern about government overreach, global surveillance, spies, assassins and shades of grey. According to the filmmakers, there was also a reassuring reliance on practical stunts and special effects and less dependence on CGI whenever possible. Luckily, somebody wised up and replaced the stupid blue lasers with bullets. There are no traces of mystical energy sources and no Nazis. Unlike in The Avengers, there are also no aliens, no Iron Man, no Thor, no Hulk, no Loki and best of all, no Hawkeye. This is the most grounded and mature Marvel movie so far.

Aside from the costume, Chris Evans' Steve Rogers hasn't changed drastically. His hallmark sincerity and stoicism's still there but he's a little more suspicious of people's motives now and there's the suggestion that he's disenchanted with his role as a soldier in today's world. This only serves to broaden and deepen the character and Evans portrays the new depth perfectly.

Winter Soldier was the 4th highest-grossing film in the U.S. for 2014 and 7th highest-grossing film of the year, worldwide. It would've been #1 if not for Legos, mockingjays and galactic guardians.

Following the Battle of New York, Steve Rogers returns to familiar territory: putting his muscle and combat prowess to work for the U.S. government. But instead of the U.S. Army, the WWII hero reports to Col. Nick Fury as a field agent for S.H.I.E.L.D.

We first see the native New Yorker during his morning run in his new home, Washington, DC. After being lapped by him a few times on a jog around the Potomac, former soldier Sam Wilson strikes up a conversation with Rogers and they bond over the respective military experiences that still haunt them both, though Wilson has done a much better job of adjusting to post-Army life. Eventually, the new friends are interrupted by the arrival of Rogers' colleague, Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff, a fellow field operative for S.H.I.E.L.D, who picks him up for a classified mission.

The mission: to lead a strike team tasked with liberating the hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. marine vessel hijacked by terrorists. The team boards the ship covertly after an airdrop into the surrounding water; unlike the others, Rogers doesn't use a parachute. While on board, Rogers subdues the terrorist's leader, Georges Batroc, during a physical confrontation between the two men. Afterwards, he discovers Romanoff deviating from orders by downloading intelligence from the ship's computers instead of freeing the captives. This compromises the team's security, forcing Rogers to save her from a grenade attack.

Back at the Triskelion building, from which S.H.I.E.L.D. operates, Rogers questions Fury about Romanoff's directives and the mission's true objectives. Fury admits that he deceived Rogers and gives the rationalization that the ends justify the means and explains that Romanoff ascribes to the same philosophy. Fury also reveals S.H.I.E.L.D.'s soon-to-be-launched program: Project Insight. Insight involves global surveillance working in conjunction with three helicarriers poised to kill individuals designated as potential threats by the agency. Rogers objects, citing a lack of both privacy and due process. Fury subsequently discovers that he's unable to decrypt the files downloaded by Romanoff. Ironically, he also finds himself a victim of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s duplicitous practices when he learns that some of his top secret clearances have been revoked -- at the behest of "Col. Nicolas J. Fury" -- and requests that Insight's launch be delayed.

Rogers later visits Wilson at work: a community center where he councils fellow veterans and helps them to develop coping skills for use in transitioning to civilian life. Following a group therapy session, Wilson asks Rogers how he envisions his future. Never having been asked before, Rogers is unsure if a life of combat, which is all he's known, is still what he wants.

After a meeting with old friend and senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce, Fury is ambushed and badly injured by S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives posing as police officers. Barely escaping, Fury makes his way to Rogers' apartment, whom he gives a flash drive containing the encrypted files. Fury alerts Rogers to the fact that the agency's been compromised before being gunned down by the masked assassin who led the earlier ambush. Rogers' neighbor, Sharon, who presented herself as a nurse, reveals herself to be an undercover S.H.I.E.L.D. agent assigned to protect him without his knowledge. Rogers pursues the assassin and discovers that not only does he possess enhanced abilities like himself, he also has a robotic arm made of vibranium (the same material used to construct Rogers' shield).

When the assassin eludes him, Rogers travels to the hospital where Fury was transported. Shortly after his arrival, he encounters Romanoff, who relays her suspicion that the assassin who shot Fury is the same one who shot her years earlier: an operative nicknamed the Winter Soldier by the intelligence community, who some believe to be a myth. Fury is pronounced dead during emergency surgery.

The following day, Rogers reports to Pierce as ordered, where the latter pressures him to divulge the information that he suspects Fury relayed to him. When Rogers denies having any such intel, Pierce surreptitiously orders his arrest. After he's attacked by several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in an elevator, Rogers overpowers them all before escaping the building by jumping several stories to the ground and disabling a low-flying fighter jet that opens fire on him before fleeing on a motorcycle.

Having retrieved the drive that Rogers hid in a hospital vending machine, Romanoff resolves to help him decrypt it. After accessing the drive's data at a local mall, the pair share a kiss -- at Romanoff's suggestion -- in order to avoid being recognized by the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents tracking the drive who converge on the shopping center. Information found on the drive leads the duo to the abandoned New Jersey Army base where Rogers underwent basic training. After discovering a concealed room on-base, they learn that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by international terrorist group, Hydra. Having alerted their pursuers to their location by accessing the base's surprisingly functional servers, Rogers and Romanoff become the targets of an air strike; Rogers saves himself and Romanoff from the initial blast and the subsequent collapse of the building.

Now branded as fugitives and having nowhere else to turn, Rogers takes Romanoff to the only person he still trusts: Sam Wilson. While at Wilson's home, Romanoff sneaks a peek at a shirtless Rogers and thanks him for saving her life again. After disclosing that he's one of the few people whom she trusts and asking if the feeling's mutual, Rogers assures her that it finally is.

During a strategy session for the upcoming mission, Wilson offers to accompany the former government operatives and surprises them by divulging that his U.S. Air Force career entailed his service as a pararescueman; not a pilot, as Rogers assumed. Wilson participated in a classified program during which he utilized a cutting-edge, experimental jetpack.

While interrogating Hydra sleeper agent Jasper Sitwell, the Winter Soldier attacks the trio's car, prompting Romanoff to immediately jump from the backseat to Rogers' lap, who's sitting in the front passenger seat. A fierce gun battle with the assassin and S.H.I.E.L.D. agents ensues, after which Sitwell is left dead and the Winter Soldier is unmasked and revealed to be James Barnes, Rogers' former friend, believed to be KIA during WWII (Barnes had actually been apprehended by Soviet troops and given the same super-soldier serum as Rogers, which allowed him to survive being placed in cryogenic suspension). Rogers, Wilson and Romanoff are taken into custody, to be summarily executed, but they escape with the aid of Fury's lieutenant, Maria Hill. Hill, in fact, takes them to Fury, who'd faked his death. The group then resolves to, at Rogers' insistence, dismantle S.H.I.E.L.D. and the organization's helicarriers.

After infiltrating the Triskelion, Rogers delivers a patriotic speech via the building's P.A. system that inspires several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, including Sharon Carter (no longer posing as Rogers' neighbor) to defy their colleagues intent on killing Rogers and proceeding with the helicarrier launch. Following gunfights in the air, the S.H.I.E.L.D. airstrip and onboard one of the carriers, Wilson and Rogers manage to replace the crafts' targeting chips with ones that Hill uses to direct the helicarriers to open fire on one another. However, Rogers' final confrontation with Barnes, during which he eventually refused to fight his old friend, results in the former left shot and unconscious on a crashing carrier. Barnes saves him from drowning and leaves him on the banks of the Potomac; Wilson, in the Triskelion without his jetpack when the building begins to collapse, is rescued by Fury, who, shot Pierce to death after Romanoff uploaded all of S.H.I.E.L.D.'s files to the web.

Rogers later regains consciousness in the hospital and awakens Wilson, who'd fallen asleep while keeping watch in his room.

Following Rogers' recovery, he and Wilson resolve to track down the now-vanished Barnes.

Cap delivers the movie's best lines: 

"Before we get started, does anyone wanna get out?"

"Then finish it. 'Cause I'm with you 'til the end of the line."

"The price of freedom is high; it always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it."

"On your left."

3. Infinity War

It really looked like Infinity War would be Cap's swan song (especially given Chris Evans' announcement that he wouldn't be starring in any more Captain America solo films) but one of the movie's many surprises would be the fact that Steve had gotten up close and personal with the Infinity Guantlet -- and lived! Unfortunately, he has to watch his best friend (Bucky) disintegrate in front of his very eyes following Thanos' infamous Snap. But before that happens, a pissed-off Captain Rogers leads half of the Avengers -- with a serious assist from Black Panther and the forces of Wakanda -- in a fight to the death against the Mad Titan's bloodthirsty Black Order and his army of Outriders.

Steve doesn't make an appearance right away in Infinity War. He isn't even mentioned until another alien incursion in New York prompts Dr. Bruce Banner to prevail upon Tony Stark to give the Captain a call. Stark, still bearing animosity toward his former colleague because of their physical confrontation two years earlier due to Rogers' failure to disclose the fact that he knew that James Barnes murdered his parents, clearly doesn't wanna make the call. When Stark drops his phone during the ensuing fight with two of Thanos' lieutenants and pursues their ship into the upper atmosphere, Banner reaches out to the fugitive Rogers himself.

Rendezvousing in Edinburgh, Scotland in order to indulge their fledgling romance covertly, former teammates Wanda Maximoff and the Vision are attacked by Thanos' lieutenants Corvus Glaive and Proxima Midnight, who seek to retrieve the Mind Stone, imbedded in the android's skull, for the intergalactic warlord. Noticing a figure in the shadows during the confrontation, Midnight hurls her spear in his direction -- which is caught and thrown back by none other than Steve Rogers. After being branded fugitives two years earlier, Rogers and Sam "Falcon" Wilson, once again working with Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff, come to the new couple's rescue, injuring Glaive in the process.

Returning to the Avengers' facility in upstate New York (the first time in years for Rogers and Wilson), the five reunited former colleagues meet with Banner and Col. James "War Machine" Rhodes in order to regroup and devise a strategy. While the Vision proposes that Maximoff destroy the Stone -- and himself in the process -- in order to keep it out of Thanos' hands (he plans to assemble the six Infinity Stones so that he can kill off half the population of the universe in order to alleviate overcrowding). However, Rogers refuses this option, insisting that, "We don't trade lives." After Banner hypothesizes that it may be possible to remove the Stone (from which much of his power is derived) from the android's forehead without destroying him, Rogers suggests that the group travel to Wakanda, where the technological advancement far exceeds anything with which Banner is unfamiliar.

Upon their arrival in the secretive African nation, Wakanda's monarch, King T'Challa, tasks his sister, Shuri, with safely extricating the Stone. Rogers reunites with the king, who provided the former's longtime friend, James "the Winter Soldier" Barnes, with sanctuary in the wake of the international manhunt launched for him two years prior. In preparation for the inevitable battle with Thanos' forces, T'Challa orders that Rogers be provided with a vibranium shield (to replace the longtime weapon that he relinquished to Tony Stark), while Barnes is presented with a new vibranium arm to replace the one destroyed by Stark in combat.

When Thanos' troops, the Black Order and the Outriders, arrive, T'Challa leads Wakanda's forces -- while Rogers leads the gathered former Avengers --against them. Eventually, the Mad Titan himself
makes his way to Wakanda and is confronted by Rogers, who, though overmatched, survives the encounter. Nevertheless, Thanos gains possession of the Mind Stone by ripping it from the Vision's skull. Armed with all six of the ancient gems, he wipes out half of all living creatures in the universe by snapping his fingers. While Rogers is spared, Barnes is not. And Cap can do nothing but watch as his old friend disintegrates before his eyes.
"We don't trade lives."

"I'm not looking for forgiveness. And I'm way past asking permission."




2. Civil War

On December 16, 1991, long before Steve Rogers learned that he'd survived the war, his oldest friend, James Buchanan Barnes, murdered Howard and Maria Stark. Barnes carried out the killings as part of an assignment while involved in the Winter Soldier program. His other objective was to retrieve the last batch of the super soldier serum that provided Rogers with his enhanced abilities, which Howard had in his possession. Because Barnes staged the murders to look like a car accident, neither the couple's famous son, Tony, nor the general public, has ever suspected any foul play.

In 2016, Avengers Rogers, Sam "Falcon" Wilson, Wanda Maximoff and Natasha "Black Widow" Romanoff track a terrorist cell to Lagos, Nigeria. The terrorists, led by former S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Brock Rumlow, steal a bio-weapon from the city's Institute of Infectious Diseases but are prevented from fleeing with it by Rogers and co. During a confrontation with Rogers, Rumlow detonates a bomb on his person in an attempt to kill the former but Maximoff uses her powers of telekinesis to elevate the ensuing explosion away from everyone on the ground. Unfortunately, the blast kills several Nigerians and 11 visiting humanitarian aid workers from the African nation of Wakanda.

The Lagos team -- and Tony Stark -- are visited by U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross in upstate New York. Citing the collateral damage left in the wake of several Avengers' missions, Ross presents them with an ultimatum: sign the Sokovian Accords, an agreement placing them under the authority of the U.N.; or retire. While Rogers is staunchly opposed to government oversight, Stark, Rhodes, the Vision and Romanoff are in favor. While they discuss, Rogers is notified via his cell that his old flame Peggy Carter has died.

Rogers attends Carter's London funeral, accompanied by Wilson and Romanoff, who offer emotional support. After serving as a pallbearer, Rogers is surprised to see S.H.I.E.L.D. operative-turned CIA agent Sharon Carter delivering a eulogy, revealing herself to be Peggy's niece in the process.

Elsewhere, former Sokovian Intelligence colonel and kill squad commander Helmut Zemo locates and murders Barnes' former handler. He also takes possession of the man's book containing codes used to trigger the former assassin following his brainwashing at the hands of Soviet intelligence.

Later, during the ratification of the Accords, held in Vienna, Austria, a bomb kills several of the attendees, including King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Barnes is identified as the culprit via security footage. When Rogers and Wilson arrive, the former reaches out to Romanoff, who was present during the detonation and caught the edge of the blast. Despite her pleas for him not to get involved, Rogers vows to track down Barnes and Carter provides him with the location of his last known whereabouts. And despite her similar pleas to T'Chaka's son, T'Challa, the new Wakandan king swears vengeance on the former Winter Soldier.

When Rogers and Wilson track Barnes to an apartment in Bucharest, Romania, it becomes clear to Cap that his friend finally recognizes him. But shortly after his arrival, a Bucharest SWAT team breaches the building, leading to a confrontation during which Rogers and Barnes evade and fight the SWAT team members non-lethally. Shortly after Barnes escapes into a tunnel, with Rogers close behind, both of them out-running cars, T'Challa joins the pursuit dressed in vibranium armor. With T'Challa displaying abilities not unlike the two former soldiers, Cap calls for an assist from Wilson. Eventually, all four are placed under arrest by the newly-arrived Rhodes, working with the international authorities.

After the group is transported to a secure facility, Barnes is questioned by Zemo posing as a psychiatrist. Rogers and Stark meet once again to discuss discuss their contrasting views on the Sokovian Accords but fail to agree: Prompted partly by guilt, Stark believes that government oversight is necessary and will prevent the team's disbandment; Rogers worries that the team will be used to further political agendas. Having arranged for a device that emits an EMP to be delivered to the electric grid that powers the building, Zemo recites the code words designed to trigger Barnes once the electricity -- and thus, the audio/video surveillance -- is knocked out. Having deduced that Zemo was an imposter seconds before the EMP, Rogers, Wilson and Carter race to Barnes' holding cell in time to confront him after he breaks out of his restraints. A skirmish with Barnes leads to him hurling Rogers down an elevator shaft; Stark, armed only with a single gauntlet, barely survives a face-off with the prisoner; Wilson and Carter prove to be no match for the former assassin; and T'Challa arrives just in time to save Romanoff from being strangled by him. After Barnes exits the facility and commandeers helicopter, Rogers stops him from fleeing by grabbing one of the struts and anchoring himself to the helipad. Barnes attempt to kill Cap with the chopper's rear propeller results in the craft crashing and the would-be pilot's fall into a body of water below.

After saving his unconscious friend from drowning, Rogers and Wilson secret him away to a location in which a hydraulic press is housed, which they use to trap Barnes cybernetic arm, preventing him from escaping. Barnes, however, proves that he's recovered from his episode by recounting a memory of Rogers that preceded his military enlistment. He also reveals Zemo's motives: the fact that there are five other members of the Winter Soldier program, who remain in cryogenic stasis in Siberia and are as susceptible to suggestion as he is. The trio surmises that Zemo could use these operatives to overthrow a small country.

Unwilling to allow Zemo to enact his suspected plan, Wilson enlists Scott Lang's help in their effort to stop the Sokovian terrorist. Rogers recruits the retired Clint Barton, who in turn liberates Maximoff from her Tony Stark-ordered home confinement. Sharon Carter then rendezvous with the group at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport to return Rogers' and Wilson's confiscated equipment.

Meanwhile, having been given 36 hours to apprehend Barnes, Rogers and Wilson from Secretary Ross, Stark has assembled a team of his own and tracked his former colleagues to the airport. Unaware of the threat that Zemo poses, Stark tries and fails to change Rogers' mind a final time; a battle ensues between Stark's allies, T'Challa, Rhodes, the teenage Spider-Man, the Vision and Romanoff and Rogers', backed by Wilson, Barnes, Lang, Barton and Maximoff. During the confrontation, Rogers and Peter "the Spider-Man" Parker discover that they share New York City roots (Brooklyn and Queens, respectively). Ultimately, Romanoff's decision to switch sides allows Rogers and Barnes to avoid apprehension so that they can continue their pursuit of Zemo.

Having uncovered evidence of Barnes having been framed for the bombing and subsequently convincing Wilson to divulge his and Rogers' whereabouts, Stark makes his way to the Siberian facility as well. Upon encountering the two fugitives and proposing a cessation of hostilities, the trio discovers However, Zemo, from the security of a blast-proof control room, activates video footage of Barnes murdering the billionaire's parents. Stunned by the revelation, Stark demands to know if Rogers was aware of what took place. When the latter confesses that, though he hadn't been informed of the assassin's identity, he did know about the circumstances surrounding Howard and Maria Stark's deaths.

The admission prompts a rage-filled attack from Stark, initiating a brutal fight between the industrialist and the two war veterans. Initially Rogers urges Barnes to flee but Tony seals the hatch leading outside. The pair then work together, severely damaging his armor. Barnes uses the strength of his cybernetic arm to crush one of Stark's gauntlets -- until the latter severs it; Stark proves to be no match for Cap fighting hand-to-hand -- even wearing his armor. After Stark downs him using a combat algorithm, Rogers offers him the line that he delivered to bullies growing up: "I can do this all day." Strong enough to stop Stark from taking flight by holding him in place, Rogers ends the fight by throwing Tony to the ground and overwhelming him with punches before finally disabling the Iron Man armor by driving his shield into the suit's arc reactor.

T'Challa, who's also arrived at the facility, apprehends Zemo, preventing him from committing suicide. It becomes clear that his true goal was to manipulate the Avengers, whom he recognized were too powerful for him, into killing each other.

When Stark reminds Rogers that his father designed his shield, he leaves it behind as he departs with Barnes.

Rogers subsequently breaks into the detention center where Wilson is held and frees both he and Maximoff. He then sends Stark a package containing a phone programmed with a number where he can be reached, should he ever need his assistance. Later, he enlists T'Challa's help in providing sanctuary for Barnes, aa well as treatment to counter the lingering effects of the psychological programming he experienced during his time in the Winter Soldier program.

Civil War is a very loose adaptation of the 2006 comic book storyline of the same name. In the movie version, the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.N. step in after the last straw in Avengers-related mayhem -- the Scarlet Witch's accidental killing of a bunch of bystanders during a mission to catch The Winter Soldier's Brock Rumlow. During a meeting between the team and the U.S. Secretary of Defense, some of the previous missions that ended in collateral damage come up, including: the NYC invasion; the heli-carrier crashes in D.C.; Iron Man's fight with the Hulk in Johannesburg; and the Sokovia battle. The government's insistence on having operational control over the Avengers leads to the team's disbandment with half agreeing to federal supervision under Tony Stark's leadership and the other half following Steve Rogers. 

Cap's eventual status as a fugitive -- and a startling revelation about Bucky's involvement in the deaths of Stark's parents -- leads to a violent confrontation between two world-renown heroes: Captain America and Iron Man. The two former colleagues' philosophical differences (which were always there) devolves into Tony attempting to murder Bucky to avenge Ma and Pa Stark, which leads to both Cap and the former Winter Soldier two-piecing the hell outta Iron Man. Ultimately, Steve single-handedly beats his former colleague down to the pavement and plants his shield squarely in the arc reactor that powers his famous suit (settling the four-year-old argument of who could beat whom in The Avengers).

Cap delivers the film's best line to Iron Man during a brawl between the two former teammates:

"I can do this all day." 









1. The Avengers

Given the horrendous optics of the suit that he wears (his worst ever), The Avengers is definitely not the best showcase for Cap. But the movie, the Avengers' first mission as a team, does show why his famous colleagues are willing to follow his lead against impossible odds -- and to the death if need be -- as he directs super operations during an alien invasion of his hometown. The seeds of an eventual beef between the super-soldier and Tony Stark are sown in this first billion-dollar MCU film as well. Steve even invites Tony to knuckle-up with the line: "Put on the suit."

Following Steve Rogers' recruitment into S.H.I.E.L.D., the veteran soldier is finally given his first mission. He's tasked with helping to recover the Tesseract, an ancient alien device, from Norse deity Loki Laufeyson, which the Asgardian took from a government facility. After being flown to an aircraft carrier, he meets intelligence operative Natasha Romanoff and Dr. Bruce Banner, whose work with gamma radiation will hopefully allow the assembled team to track down the powerful device. Heeding Romanoff's advice, the two men head below deck and are surprised to learn that the craft can take flight. Once aboard, the new colleagues are also introduced to billionaire-turned-vigilante Tony Stark, dubbed the Iron Man by the news media; Rogers was actually an acquaintance of Stark's father, Howard, during the war.

After Loki is spotted in Stuttgart, Germany, where both Rogers and Stark confront and apprehend him. En route to the carrier aboard a quinjet, Loki's brother Thor Odinson arrives and absconds with his sibling while the craft is in flight. After Stark takes off after them, Rogers ignores Romanoff's warning not to get involved and follows suit, making a HALO jump after donning a parachute. Arriving during a fight between Stark and Thor, Rogers intervenes and absorbs the full impact of the latter's mystical hammer, Mjolnir, on his shield.

Having convinced Thor to turn his brother over to S.H.I.EL.D., Rogers returns to the helicarrier. Suspicious of Director Fury's motives, Rogers explores the craft in search of intel not long after his arrival. After finding weapons based on the Tesseract's alien technology, he confronts Fury. Rogers' and his new teammates, also suspicious, argue amongst themselves. Rogers finds himself particularly at odds with Stark, who he perceives to be lacking in integrity. He even challenges the former arms dealer to a fight with the line: "Put on the suit."

Before Stark can respond, Loki's allies assault the helicarrier in order to free him, severely damaging one of its engines in the process. Rogers and Stark work together to repair the engine; the former has to kill several of Loki's operatives in order to complete the task. The attack results in Loki's escape and both Banner and Thor missing, leading Rogers, Stark, Romanoff and assassin Clint "Hawkeye" Barton to ignore orders and fly a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. quinjet to New York City in order to stop Laufeyson, whom the team realizes intends to launch an alien invasion.

Shortly after their arrival, astrophysicist Dr. Erik Selvig uses the Tesseract to open a wormhole in the sky above Manhattan for Loki, through which the latter's army of Chitauri warriors begins to pour. During the ensuing battle (which is eventually joined by Thor and Banner, who transforms into a hulking monster), Rogers coordinates the team, leading them to defeat the invaders and close the wormhole.

Originally Posted 6/29/19

Related:

Iron Man's 4 Greatest Movies

The Hulk's 4 Best Movie Appearances