Film / Captain America

"I don't like bullies. I don't care where they're from."

— Captain Steve Rogers, The First Avenger

Captain America is a sub-franchise of superhero films and series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe — based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name, his supporting cast and his legacy.

The main Captain America trilogy is comprised of:

• Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) — During World War II, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is a sickly young man desperate to join the military. When he's deemed unfit for service, a kindhearted scientist takes pity on him and invites Steve to become part of a top-secret initiative tasked with creating super-soldiers for the war effort. Emerging stronger than ever, Steve soon becomes a beloved figure of American propaganda back home, but is unfortunately lost in the Arctic while performing an act of heroism... until decades later, when a mysterious figure recovers his frozen body and recruits him to join a project called the Avengers Initiative.
• Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) — Now a top-ranking agent of S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve's faith in the United States government is put to the test when that organization is infiltrated by a long-dormant threat, forcing him to re-evaluate his trust in certain people. Making matters more complicated, he's being hunted by a deadly assassin who's closer to him than he thinks...
• Captain America: Civil War (2016) — When an incident indirectly caused by The Avengers abroad produces many casualties and international strife, Steve is once again forced to confront his loyalties and moral judgement, even if it causes a schism between him and longtime ally Iron Man.

Steve Rogers also appears throughout the Avengers films in a leading capacity:

• The Avengers (2012) — Set shortly after his body is recovered by S.H.I.E.L.D., Steve is forced to acclimate to life in the 21st century amidst an alien invasion of New York.
• Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) — With Steve now fully integrated in the 21st Century and officially leading the Avengers, Earth's Mightiest Heroes are forced to reassemble when Tony and Bruce accidentally create an evil artificial intelligence bent on rebooting mankind.
• Avengers: Infinity War (2018) — Following the disbandment of the Avengers, Steve must work with the African nation of Wakanda to prevent a genocidal alien conqueror from bringing ruin to Earth.
• Avengers: Endgame (2019) — In the wake of Infinity War, what few heroes are left standing in the rubble must somehow make things right.

And then there's a string of cameo appearances by Steve in other MCU films:

• Thor: The Dark World (2013) — Shows up as a brief illusion materialized by Loki.
• Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) — Appears in a series of PSAs and motivational films broadcast in the Midtown School of Science and Technology.

Steve's Love Interest and SSR agent Margaret "Peggy" Carter (Hayley Atwell) had her own adventures after his seeming demise in 1945:

• Agent Carter (2013): A short film from the Marvel One-Shots line that was made as a proof of concept for the below series.
• Agent Carter (2015-2016): The immediate post-World War II adventures of Peggy following Steve's disappearance, dealing with the theft of dangerous technology conceived by Howard Stark and an unstable energy from another dimension.

Rogers had a Happy Ending in Endgame, and chose a successor to entrust his vibranium shield to, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie):

• The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021): The story of Sam Wilson/Falcon and Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier continues in this series, which chronicles Wilson's path to become the new Captain America. It also introduces Steve's brief (and unworthy) successor John Walker and Isaiah Bradley, a super soldier experiment subject with a tragic backstory.
• Captain America: Brave New World (2025): The continued adventures of Wilson as the new Captain America.
• Thunderbolts (2025): Bucky Barnes and John Walker get recruited for a superpowered black-ops team.

There's also the matter of Alternate Universes:

• What If...?:
  • "What If... Captain Carter Were The First Avenger?" (2021): Which shows what would have happened if Peggy Carter had taken the Super-Soldier serum instead of Steve Rogers.
    • "What If... The Watcher Broke His Oath?" (2021): Captain Carter is recruited in the Guardians of the Multiverse to stop Infinity Ultron from causing destruction in The Multiverse.
    • "What If... Captain Carter Fought The HYDRA Stomper?" (2023): Back in her own universe, Carter finds an old HYDRA weapon... and a disturbing revelation about who is inside.
    • "What If... the Avengers Assembled in 1602?" (2023): Captain Carter gets summoned to another world, where she finds that that universe's Steve Rogers is at the center of everything.
    • "What If... Strange Supreme Intervened?" (2023): One of Carter's allies in the Guardians of the Multiverse asks for her help, but what exactly is he trying to do?

• "What If... Zombies?!" (2021): Steve has been turned into a zombie amidst a Zombie Apocalypse. Bucky Barnes/the Winter Soldier is one of the survivors, and becomes the owner of Cap's shield. This is planned to continue in its own spinoff, Marvel Zombies (2024), but it's not clear how involved Captain America characters will be in that.
• "What If... Peter Quill Attacked Earth's Mightiest Heroes?" (2023): When Ego the Living Planet tries to invade Earth in the 1980s, HYDRA decides to send the Winter Soldier to assist S.H.I.E.L.D. and he joins that era's Avengers.
• "What If... Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?" (2023): Steve is present at the Avengers' Christmas party.

• Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022): Another variant of Peggy Carter became a Super-Soldier instead of Steve and joined the Illuminati.

And one more spinoff of note:

• Rogers: The Musical: A stage show adaptation of Steve's life, primarily featuring events from The First Avenger and The Avengers. It originated as a gag in Hawkeye before being Defictionalizedinvoked and made a real show in Disney's California Adventure theme park in the summer of 2023.

See also: the 1979 duology starring Reb Brown as Captain American, and the 1990 film with Matt Salinger in the title role.

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Tropes throughout the Captain America films as a whole include:

• Airborne Aircraft Carrier:
  • Captain America: The First Avenger features an odd example with the Valkyrie, a massive airplane with rear facing propellers on its wings built by the Red Skull and HYDRA. It turns out that each "propeller" is actually a detachable mini-fighter plane, with either jet engines or rockets keeping it aloft. Based on real-life designs, however — see below.
  • Captain America: The Winter Soldier, shows that S.H.I.E.L.D. is trying to extend its reach by launching three new helicarriers that Tony Stark fitted with his repulsor technology after his experiences in The Avengers. But it turns out HYDRA designed them to eliminate all possible dissidents and the Cap had to destroy them.
• Anachronistic Clue:
  • Late in Captain America: The First Avenger, Steve awakens in an unfamiliar room and hears a nearby radio playing the broadcast of a baseball game. A young woman in 1940s period clothing enters the room, and he demands answers from her, informing her that it can't be 1945 since the game on the radio was played in 1941 and he knows this because he attended that game.
  • In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when Natasha and Steve are investigating the old SHIELD computer room, Natasha sees the modern USB hub amidst computer equipment that appears to be from the 1980s and earlier.
• Arc Villain: HYDRA is this for The First Avenger and The Winter Soldier. By the time Civil War happens, they've already been done and dealt with during Age of Ultron.
• Comic-Book Movies Don't Use Codenames: Averted. Steve is often referred to (almost interchangeably) as Captain America throughout.
• Deuteragonist: Each individual film has its own Deuteragonist, but "Bucky" Barnes is one for the trilogy as a whole.
• Genre Shift: Each of the Captain America films can be classified under different genres:
  • The First Avenger is a super-hero war film, set during World War II.
  • The Winter Soldier is a super-hero conspiracy thriller inspired by films of that genre from The '70s.
  • Civil War is a super-hero crisis crossover event, in the style of the comics themselves.
• Guest-Star Party Member: Black Widow's participation in The Winter Soldier comes across as this, since she's the only major supporting character in the film to also have been a fellow Avenger.
• Iconic Sequel Character: Steve's longtime sidekick The Falcon makes his debut in The Winter Soldier, as does on-off love interest Agent 13 and frequent adversary Crossbones. Civil War sees the introduction of Zemo, yet another one of Cap's rogues gallery from the comics.
• Made of Indestructium: Captain America's iconic shield is made of vibranium, a metal that virtually nothing on Earth can destroy. It does end up getting wrecked, by Thanos using a sword made from an unnamed alien metal. He then gets a new one sometime after Thanos' defeat, and hands it over to Sam Wilson/Falcon in old age.
• Rogues Gallery: The film and series have featured several enemies of Cap from the comics such as Crossbones, Georges Batroc, Baron Zemo and of course HYDRA.
• Two-Part Trilogy: The First Avenger has less in common with either of the two films that succeed it, as it's set decades before the second and third entires, and it's the only one of the three not directed by The Russo Brothers. The Winter Soldier and Civil War, on the other hand, are more tonally consistent with one another.
• Villain Reveals the Secret:
  • In The Winter Soldier, Armin Zola gleefully admits that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been infiltrated by HYDRA, all to rub it in Captain America's face seventy years after they first met. This also serves to distract him and Black Widow from a HYDRA missile that is intended to take out everyone present.
  • In Civil War, after striking a truce after a misunderstanding, Iron Man, Captain America, and Bucky work together to stop Helmut Zemo from releasing the other Winter Soldiers. But when they get to the room, Zemo reveals that he never intended to release the soldiers and killed them all. His real plan was to get them in the same room together so he can show them a footage of Bucky killing Stark's parents in 1991. Rogers is forced to reveal to Stark that he knew about his parents' death and kept it a secret, which results in Tony trying to kill Bucky and a near-lethal fight between Cap and Iron Man. The end result is the Avengers being disbanded, seemingly for good.
• War Hero: Steve is set up as a Propaganda Hero by the US government, but he becomes an actual war hero after liberating 400 POWs from a Hydra facility, for which he receives the Medal of Valor.

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