FILM · 2011 · USA
Captain America: The First Avenger
- Directed by
- Joe Johnston
- Runtime
- 124 min
- Studio
- Marvel Studios, Marvel Entertainment
230 archived facts 7 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Sep 2026
During World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.
Summary: TMDB
149 Interesting Facts About Captain America: The First Avenger
- #002
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Most of the shots creating the young, scrawny Steve Rogers were done by a Los Angeles company called LOLA, which specializes in digital "plastic surgery." The technique involved shrinking Chris Evans in all dimensions. Every "skinny Steve" scene was shot at least four times: once as a normal scene with Evans and his fellow actors on set; once with Evans alone in front of a green screen so the element could be digitally reduced; once with everyone on set but Evans absent, so the shrunken Steve could be reinserted into the scene; and finally with a stand-in mimicking Evans's movements in case the second technique was needed. When Evans had to interact with the other characters in the scene, they had to either lower him or raise the other actors on apple boxes or elevated walkways to match "skinny Steve." For close-ups, Evans's fellow actors had to look at marks on his chin representing where his eyes would be after the shrinking process, and Evans had to look at marks on the tops of the actors' heads to represent his eyes. The second technique involved grafting Evans's head onto the stand-in, and was mostly used when Evans was sitting or lying down or when minimal physical acting was required.
- #003
Cameo appearances were originally planned for Wolverine (James "Logan" Howlett) and Magneto (Erik Lehnsherr), who were present during World War II. At that time Logan was a soldier and Lehnsherr was in a concentration camp. However, these cameos were scrapped due to rights issues. As a result of Disney's acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019, Marvel Studios now holds the rights to the X-Men characters.
- #004
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Howard Stark eventually finds the lost Tesseract, which leads him to create schematic designs of the cube's structure and overall power; this can be seen in a document case that Howard's son Tony examines in the middle of Iron Man 2 (2010).
- #007
Hayley Atwell based her performance as Peggy Carter on Ginger Rogers: "She can do everything Captain America can do, but backwards, and in high heels."
- #008
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The comic book seen in the film bears the cover of the real first issue of Captain America Comics, dated March 1941. The cover in the film was altered from the original version to remove the depiction of Bucky, because the character's film version (considerably younger) differs from his comic-book counterpart.
- #009
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Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan are almost exactly the same height. A camera trick (not CGI) made Captain America appear much taller than Bucky Barnes after his transformation.
- #010
HYDRA's futuristic aircraft take their designs from real World War II Luftwaffe concepts such as the Horten H. XVIII flying-wing bomber and the Triebflügeljäger (a propeller- or thrust-lift-driven fighter/interceptor).
- #011
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Shields made of different materials were used depending on what a shot required. Rubber shields were used when Captain America punched people. Magnets were used to hold the shield in place in scenes where he wore it on his back. In most scenes where the shield is seen being thrown, Chris Evans was miming the actions of catching and throwing it, and the shield was added later using CGI.
- #014
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(Around 42 minutes) The scene in which the submarine floods was shot in only three takes because Richard Armitage has a phobia of water.
- #015
Captain America co-creator Joe Simon was offered a small role in the film but declined because travelling was difficult at his advanced age. He did get to see a private screening of the film in New York before its release. He died five months after it came out. He was 98.
- #016
To prepare for the role of Bucky, Sebastian Stan watched many World War II films and documentaries and drew inspiration from Band of Brothers (2001).
- #017
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Despite the vial of serum stolen by HYDRA, the agent was compromised, and more of it turned up in The Incredible Hulk (2008), where it was injected into Emil Blonsky (turning him into the Abomination), a leftover from the Weapon Plus program that gave Isaiah Bradley superhuman strength. You can even see the words "Vita-Ray" on the refrigerated storage container. In Captain America: Civil War (2016), it is revealed that several other super soldiers were created during the Cold War (with a similar-looking serum stolen from Howard Stark) and that even more were later created using a serum developed by Dr. William Nagel while working for the CIA and later for the Power Broker, but the subjects became aggressive and impossible to control. According to canon, many attempts were made to replicate the super-soldier experiment, but it only worked successfully on Steve Rogers.
- #018
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(Around 12 minutes) At the Expo, Howard Stark demonstrates his semi-functional "Reversion" technology, a precursor to Tony Stark's perfected "Repulsors" for the Iron Man armour. Both have an orange glow when in operation.
- #019
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(Around 6 minutes) The mural concealing the Tesseract at the start of the film depicts the World Tree, the same concept design Thor (Chris Hemsworth) shares with Dr. Jane Foster (Natalie Portman) in Thor (2011).
- #022
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Stan Lee's cameo in this film is an exception to the tradition of his appearing in films featuring Marvel Comics superheroes. In this case, Lee had nothing to do with Captain America's original creation, but the first story he wrote was "Captain America Foils the Traitor's Revenge" in Captain America Comics #3 in 1941, which also included the first appearance of Captain America throwing his shield as a weapon. In addition, together with Jack Kirby, he was responsible for successfully reviving the character in The Avengers #4 in 1964 and re-establishing him as a major figure in the Marvel Universe.
- #023
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(Around 1 hour 2 minutes) During the escape from HYDRA, Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan (Neal McDonough) and Gabe Jones (Derek Luke) steal a tank at the facility. As they drive off, you can hear Dugan shout "Wahoo!" In the comics, this is the battle cry of the Howling Commandos, of which both men are members.
- #024
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The shield Captain America first uses in the film's early stages, while selling bonds and making films to promote the war effort, is the same shield used in the first issue of the 1940 Captain America comic. After MLJ, the publisher of the comic character The Shield, complained that Captain America's shield was too similar, the shield was changed in the comics.
- #025
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Stan Lee appeared in a small role as a General. The officer seated next to him was played by Reb Brown, who starred as the title character in Captain America (1979) and Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979).
- #026
Hugo Weaving based Red Skull's accent on the famous German filmmaker Werner Herzog and the Austrian actor Klaus Maria Brandauer.
- #027
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(At about 1 hour 14 minutes) The red dress Peggy wears in the film's second act was designed by Anna B. Sheppard for Mélanie Laurent in Inglourious Basterds (2009), but it was never worn in that film.
- #028
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Johann Schmidt/Red Skull's (Hugo Weaving's) car was built from scratch on a modified truck chassis. It was twenty-five feet long and eight feet wide. Its design was inspired by the Mercedes 540K and Mercedes G4 and included an exposed "supercharger" between the front wheels. A 700-horsepower Drexler engine moved the car. Director Joe Johnston actually took it for a drive: "I drove it myself and it has about an eighteen-foot turning radius. So it's not much fun to use. But it looked magnificent. Just a beautiful car."
- #029
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(At about the 50th minute) Laura Haddock played an autograph seeker. She played Meredith Quill, the mother of Peter "Star-Lord" Quill, in Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). The character was reestablished as Peter Quill's grandmother.
- #030
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At the start of the film, while looking at the tesseract, Johann Schmidt says, "… And the Führer digs for trinkets in the desert." This is a reference to another Paramount Pictures film, Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). Director Joe Johnston was part of Industrial Light & Magic's (ILM) Academy Award-winning visual effects team on that film.
- #031
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Hugo Weaving went on record saying he was indifferent to the film. He said he was happy with the experience but that it was not normally the kind of film he would choose. He also stated he had very little interest in reprising the role of Red Skull because of the difficulty of the makeup process. In fact, when Red Skull (or a version of him) reappeared in Avengers: Infinity War (2018), he was played by a different actor.
- #035
Chris Evans was drawn to the character of Captain America: "Even without the comic book. I think Steve Rogers's story is great. He's a great man. Even if it were a script about anyone, I probably would have wanted to do it. It didn't have to be about a comic book. He's a great character to play. He's just a comic book character."
- #036
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(At about the 39th minute) While chasing H.Y.D.R.A. Agent, after being injected with the super soldier serum, Steve opens the door of a taxi. The taxi company is the "Lucky Star Cab Company," and its name is arranged around a star for a logo that resembles and foreshadows the iconic shield Steve will eventually use as Captain America.
- #038
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(At about 50 minutes) During Captain America's war bond drive, the burning tank in the background of the black-and-white film is an M5 Stuart tank painted with a German emblem. This is accurate for 1940s Hollywood filmmaking, since there were no real German tanks, so they would paint US vehicles with the German seal.
- #039
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(At about 1 hour 2 minutes) In the tank, Gabe Jones (Derek Luke) tells Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan (Neal McDonough) that he studied German for three semesters at Howard and then switched to French because the girls were much prettier. He was referring to Howard University, a historically all-black private university founded in Washington DC in 1867. In the German version, he says he studied mechanical engineering at Harvard but did not last long because the girls were too ugly.
- #040
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The film shares several similarities with Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), on which director Joe Johnston worked as art director: Red Skull's consumption of the Tesseract in his hand closely resembles the way the Ark of the Covenant kills the Nazis; Captain America throws a HYDRA soldier into an aircraft propeller; and after taking the Cosmic Cube, Johann Schmidt/Red Skull remarks on Adolf Hitler's habit of "searches for trinkets in the desert."
- #041
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At roughly the 8-minute mark, while searching for the Tesseract at the start of the film, Johann Schmidt shoots the man hiding it and blood splatters onto his HYDRA pin. The blood lands only on the skull portion of the HYDRA pin, foreshadowing his reveal as the Red Skull.
- #042
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In the comics Captain America was frozen for only about twenty years and was revived in 1964. Because this film was released in 2011, the story had to be changed so that Captain America was close to seventy years old.
- #043
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Baron Zemo and Baron von Strucker initially appeared as secondary villains working under Red Skull, but the writers removed them from the script for fear they would be wasted in such small roles. Strucker was used in the post-credits scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014) and had a brief role in Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), while Zemo became the villain of Captain America: Civil War (2016), though not as a HYDRA agent.
- #044
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At roughly 1 hour 18 minutes, when Steve discovers the round metal shield in Howard Stark's development office, he asks what it is made of. Vibranium is a fictional element in the Marvel universe that comes from the country of Wakanda, home to another Marvel Comics superhero, Black Panther. Black Panther first appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe in Captain America: Civil War (2016) before starring in Black Panther (2018); since the Panther suit is also made of vibranium, he was the only one who could damage Steve's shield.
- #045
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According to producer Avi Arad, "Captain America's greatest opportunity is to come back today as a man out of time and look at our world through the eyes of someone who thought the perfect world was small-town America. Sixty years pass and who are we today? Are we better?"
- #046
British Olympic decathlete Daniel Awde was Chris Evans's double for the role of Captain America.
- #047
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The special forces unit Captain America assembles and leads is a mix of characters from Marvel Comics' World War II-era titles: the 1960s war title "Sergeant Fury and his Howling Commandos," about an elite special forces infantry unit, and the 1970s "The Invaders," about a superhero team operating under Captain America's command during the war. The first title contributes most of the soldier characters, while the second includes Captain America, Bucky and James Montgomery Falsworth, who appears in the comics as the British superhero Union Jack.
- #048
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Throughout the film Steve uses a handgun while fighting Skull's forces. In the comics he used a handgun until he realized his new shield, given to him by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, could be thrown and used as a weapon, after which the shield replaced the handgun.
- #049
This is the last Marvel Studios film distributed by Paramount Pictures.
- #050
Reb Brown and Matt Salinger, who had played Captain America in earlier adaptations, each contacted the producers separately in hopes of landing a small role in the film.
- #051
This is the fifth live-action adaptation of the superhero. The first was the 1944 serial Captain America; the second was the 1979 television film Captain America and its sequel Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979); and the fourth was the 1990 theatrical film Captain America.
- #052
It is the fifth installment of Phase One of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Chronologically, it is the first film on the Marvel Cinematic Universe timeline.
- #054
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At around the 17th minute, Arnim Zola's first appearance, as an image of his face on a television screen, evokes the "classic" comic-book Zola. Zola's body was a headless hulk containing his preserved consciousness, with a display screen on its chest showing an image of his face. As Zola gathers his papers before the Red Skull's base self-destructs (at about 1 hour 3 minutes), the schematic of that robotic body can be seen as he packs it, suggesting the possibility of his reappearance in modern times (which is what happened in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)). In this film he appears on a computer screen in an abandoned SSR base.
- #055
The giant aircraft at the end is known as a "flying wing"; it is all wing, with no fuselage or tail. Companies began experimenting with them in 1910, and during World War II Americans, Canadians, Germans, Russians and Britons tried prototypes, but none ever truly reached operational status. The first genuinely operational flying wing was Northrop Grumman's "B2 Spirit" stealth bomber.
- #056
Joe Johnston was chosen to direct the film because of his earlier work on the period films The Rocketeer (1991) and October Sky (1999).
- #057
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At around the 43rd minute, Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) is called "Red Skull" only twice in the film. The first is when the Führer's representatives come to shut down H.Y.D.R.A., and the second is in the letter from Adolf Hitler read by the German S.S. officer.
- #058
Edgar Wright was said to have secretly rewritten the film, but he publicly denied it. Wright wrote his own Marvel Studios film, Ant-Man (2015), but left before the film was finished due to a dispute with Marvel.
- #059
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Until a very late stage of pre-production, H.Y.D.R.A. would have been an overtly Nazi paramilitary organization, with swastikas on its uniforms. That outcome is nevertheless still present in the final version. A deleted scene also shows an H.Y.D.R.A. tank openly attacking the Wehrmacht, in addition to the Allies' 107th Infantry Regiment at Allonzo in Umbria, Italy.
- #063
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The first Captain America comic book plays a small role in the film. In real life the film draws inspiration from the comic book, while in the film the comic book was inspired by "real life."
- #064
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Howard Stark's flying car appeared in Agent Carter (2015), where it was finally in perfect working order. The vehicles were also used by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the Marvel Comics universe (built by Tony Stark) and appeared in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013).
- #065
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The names of the three Germans with whom Schmidt tests the Tesseract weapon — Roeder, Hütter and Schneider — are inspired by three members of the legendary electronic group Kraftwerk.
- #066
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At around 1 hour 35 minutes, Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones), Peggy (Hayley Atwell) and Captain America (Chris Evans) are chasing H.Y.D.R.A. In the plane, in Schmidt's (Hugo Weaving's) car, Colonel Phillips presses a red button marked "K" surrounded by the German words "Gefahr Nicht Drucken," which translates into English as "Danger Do Not Press," sending the car speeding faster down the runway. In Men in Black (1997), Tommy Lee Jones' character "K" warns "J" never to touch the red button, and later in the film tells him to press the little red button, sending their car speeding down a tunnel. Coincidentally, his character's name in that movie was "K," while the button he pushes to make the car go faster in this movie has the letter "K" on it.
- #067
Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, both Jewish, created Captain America as a direct response to their disgust at the actions of Nazi Germany. The character is thought to have been inspired by the folkloric Golem, a super-powerful being created by a rabbi to protect against anti-Semitic violence. Simon initially named the character "Super American" but decided: "No, it didn't work. There were too many 'Supers' around. 'Captain America' had a good ring to it. There weren't many captains in comics. It was that easy. My boyfriend's name was Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, who was the star of our high school basketball team." He made his debut in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), famously punching Adolf Hitler. Although the comic was an instant success, selling nearly a million copies, Simon and Kirby received numerous written threats over the character, and police were sent outside the offices of Timely Comics (later Marvel) for protection. According to Mark Evanier, Kirby's longtime assistant, Kirby was told that three thugs were in Timely's lobby "to show what real Nazis would do to their Captain America," so Kirby "rolled up his sleeves and went down," by which time the men had fled. New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia personally contacted Simon and Kirby to express his support. MLJ Magazines (later Archie Comics) felt that Cap's original triangular shield looked too much like the costume of their own star-spangled character The Shield, so Simon and Kirby replaced it in the second issue with the now-iconic circular shield. Eighteen-year-old Stanley Lieber (later known as Stan Lee) got his first writing job on the third issue, the first to show Cap using his shield as a thrown weapon. Cap was the most successful patriotic superhero of World War II, with his comics consistently selling nearly a million copies a month, more than the likes of Time magazine, and inspiring numerous imitators. The character, and the superhero genre in general, fell out of favor after the war, and his comic was cancelled after issue 78 (September 1954). Lee and Kirby reintroduced Cap in The Avengers #4 (March 1964), earning him admiration among a new generation of fans.
- #068
The film is set between March 1942 and May 1945, and in 2012.
- #069
Hayley Atwell trained six days a week to prepare for the role of Peggy Carter.
- #070
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Although Abraham Erskine is still a German refugee, the film adds the fact that he had to test the serum on Johann Schmidt in Germany before he fled.
- #072
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At around 11 minutes, when Bucky takes Steve to the World's Fair near the beginning of the film, he says "We're going to the future," foreshadowing that he and Steve Rogers will in fact travel to the future over the course of their stories.
- #073
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The final post-credits scene shows that Samuel L. Jackson shot a scene for this film in New York City's Times Square, which serves as the beginning of The Avengers (2012).
- #074
James Payton reprised the role of Adolf Hitler in The Monuments Men (2014).
- #075
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At around the 11th minute, in the room where Stark demonstrates his Reversion technology, you can see a red rocket model hanging from the ceiling behind the audience, with a black-and-white checkered stripe in its center. This is the rocket from the Belgian comic books "Tintin: Objectif Lune" and "Tintin: On a marché sur la Lune," written by Georges Prosper Remi (a.k.a. Hergé).
- #077
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At around 1 hour 20 minutes, the sniper rifle Bucky uses to save Cap is a 1941 model Johnson rifle with a heavily modified telescopic sight. During World War II it was considered superior to the M1 Garand and was accepted in limited numbers by the US Marine Corps.
- #078
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The costume Bucky Barnes wears in the accelerating H.Y.D.R.A. sequence looks very similar to the costume he wears in the comics (except for the mask).
- #079
Screenwriter David Self, who wrote the draft of the script, claimed that Captain America was his favorite childhood superhero: "My dad told me I could one day be Captain America."
- #080
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Scarlett Johansson was said to be playing Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, in this film. The role would most likely have been Amanda Righetti's S.H.I.E.L.D. role, the agent who poses as Steve's nurse at the end of the film.
- #082
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The film depicts HYDRA as Red Skull's invention and as acting as the Third Reich's weapons division. However, in the series "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Gideon Malick (of the World Security Council) reveals that HYDRA is an ancient organization predating Red Skull by far. The organization's original purpose was to find and rescue the first inhuman, "Hive" (whose base form was a humanoid Hydra). As Hydra grew, it adopted many different ideologies and even split into factions. (Very similar to "The Hand" in "Iron Fist.") Red Skull joined the ideologies of power, world domination and total order (which suited the Third Reich), eventually became leader and opened the organization to the public.
- #083
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The plane Howard Stark uses to fly Captain America behind German lines is the Beechcraft Model 18, also known as the "Twin Beech." First built in 1937, this aircraft was a real multi-role light transport widely used by the US Army Air Forces and numerous civilian companies to carry cargo, supplies and wounded personnel.
- #084
Dum Dum Dugan appears once again in the MCU in Agent Carter (2015).
- #085
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During the bond rally musical numbers, Captain America repeatedly "knocks out" an actor playing Adolf Hitler by throwing a fake punch at his chin. This was inspired by the cover of the first issue of "Captain America Comics" (published in December 1940, a year before the attack on Pearl Harbor), which depicted Captain America flooring Hitler with a single punch. In the film this is reversed, so that the musical numbers inspired the first "Captain America" comic book cover.
- #086
Joe Johnston also directed The Rocketeer (1991). In that film the hero, Cliff Secord, finds a rocket pack created by Howard Hughes and thereby becomes the Rocketeer. In this film Captain America gets his iconic shield from Howard Stark, a character who closely resembles Howard Hughes.
- #088
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The film's final scene shows Captain America waking up and questioning where he is, then attempting to escape from S.H.I.E.L.D. The facility, where he learns he is in a very different world, adapts story elements from Ultimates #3 (May 2002), in which the Ultimate Marvel counterpart does the same after waking up, and Nick Fury appears in both versions.
- #089
Captain America: The First Avenger is the last solo Avengers film released before the team film The Avengers (2012).
- #090
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The sound of the Hydra weapons in this film is the same as the sound of the staff Loki uses in The Avengers.
- #091
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WILHELM SCREAM: (at about 1 hour 30 minutes) Rogers is being pursued by HYDRA. Soldiers on motorcycles, however, unleash a flamethrower defense. One screams as he turns the wheel, loses control and is thrown head over heels.
- #092
Jon Favreau was initially chosen by Marvel Studios to direct this film (he considered making it a buddy comedy), but chose to direct Iron Man (2008) instead. Nick Cassavetes was also considered to direct this film and was selected in December 2004 as the director of Iron Man (2008).
- #093
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On the maps at HYDRA headquarters, the northernmost target appears as Peenemünde. Located almost north of Berlin, it was the center of Von Braun's V2 rocket program.
- #094
At one point Steve Rogers tells Peggy Carter that he is not much of a dancer. In reality, Chris Evans is a trained ballet dancer and uses the necessary basic training to help him get in shape for his roles in the film.
- #095
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The average American soldier in World War II stood 5'8" tall and weighed one hundred forty-four pounds. Captain America stands 6'2" tall and weighs two hundred forty pounds, making him much larger than most military men of the time.
- #096
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Red Skull returns in Avengers: Infinity War (2018).
- #097
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Rogers' line "I can do this all day" would later be revisited in future MCU productions such as Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
- #100
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In the final post-credits scene, the baseball game on the radio in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s waiting room — the game Steve Rogers says he attended — was played on Sunday, May 25, 1941. The Brooklyn Dodgers beat the Philadelphia Phillies 8-4, and Pete Reiser's inside-the-park grand slam in the sixth inning provided the margin of victory.
- #101
Chris Evans admitted that one reason he initially hesitated to play Captain America was his thinning hair. He explained: "I'm afraid this [role] could last up to 10 years, so I could be playing this character until I'm 40. I have to be like this superior man. He can't be bald. How horrible would it be if this superior man had male pattern baldness?"
- #102
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While showing off the shields, Howard Stark jokes: "Hydra's not going to come after you with a pocketknife." Atop the plane, one of the Hydra pilots attacks Rogers with a small knife.
- #103
The film takes place seventy years before The Avengers (2012).
- #105
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Early in the film, Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is beaten up outside a cinema. During this fight, he is seen holding a trash can lid as a shield, a not-so-subtle nod to his future role as Captain America. We also hear the MCU's first use of Captain America's signature catchphrase, "I can do this all day."
- #107
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The idea that Red Skull was an original test subject for the Super Soldier Serum and that it horribly disfigured him actually comes from Captain America (1990). In the comics, the Skull did not have the Super Soldier Serum in his body until his mind was transferred by Zola into a clone of Steve Rogers' body (Captain America Vol. 1 #350).
- #108
Three actors in this film played characters alongside Matt Smith in Doctor Who (2005): Toby Jones (Dr. Zola) as the Dream Lord, David Bradley (the Tower Keeper) as Solomon, and Jenna Coleman (Connie) as Clara Oswald.
- #110
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Red Skull enters New York as the target of his final play. The word "Ziel," which means "target" in German, appears on screen. It is also the Dutch word for "soul." In Avengers: Infinity War (2018), we discover that after Red Skull's apparent death in this film, caused by the Space Stone inside the Tesseract, he became the guide to the Soul Stone.
- #112
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When Steve Rogers' (Chris Evans) enlistment in the U.S. Army is first approved, his documents are filmed in close-up to show his "1A" status. This is a semi-subtle nod to his role as the "first Avenger" in the MCU.
- #113
Neal McDonough played a soldier in the 107th Infantry. In Band of Brothers (2001), he played an officer in the 101st Airborne Division, which fought across Europe during World War II.
- #116
Director Joe Johnston spent one day shooting with 3D equipment and found it nightmarishly cumbersome. The film was shot conventionally and later converted to 3D.
- #117
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Chris Evans wore prosthetic feet in the final scene, in which he runs through present-day New York.
- #118
Captain America's shield is made of proto-adamantium, a never-replicated combination of vibranium, a steel alloy and an unknown catalyst.
- #120
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All three Captain America films feature Captain America falling into a body of water: the Arctic Ocean in this film, the Potomac River in Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014), and possibly the Spree River in Captain America: Civil War (2016).
- #122
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Red Skull (Hugo Weaving) seeks the Cosmic Cube, a powerful artifact. In Transformers (2007), Weaving voiced Megatron, who sought a similar cosmic cube-shaped relic (the AllSpark). Stanley Tucci appeared in a similar scientist role in Transformers: Age of Extinction (2014), creating the man-made Transformer Galvatron, Megatron in a new body.
- #123
Richard Armitage and Hugo Weaving appeared in The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey (2012). That film also featured Martin Freeman, who later appeared in Captain America: Civil War (2016) and Black Panther.
- #124
The film closely follows Captain America's origin story as depicted in Captain America #109 (January 1969), written by Stan Lee and drawn by Jack Kirby. This was the third comic to show Cap's origin, after his first issue, Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), and Tales of Suspense #63 (March 1965).
- #125
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Hayley Atwell's screen test for the film was the final scene, in which Peggy Carter speaks to the dying Steve Rogers over the intercom. It reduced the crew to tears.
- #126
Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Neal McDonough, JJ Feild and Kenneth Choi reprised their respective roles in the tie-in video game Captain America: Super Soldier (2011).
- #128
Kevin Feige said, "Casting Captain America was very hard and took a long time. I started thinking, 'Are we not going to find Captain America, and if we can't get Captain America, what are we going to do with the Avengers? Will everything fall apart?'".
- #129
Chris Evans said the hardest part of gaining weight to play Captain America was the high caloric intake required: "Just eating all the time. It sounds good, but it's not like cheeseburgers. You have to eat these bland, plain pieces of chicken and rice. You're so toxic that it's a pretty uncomfortable feeling."
- #130
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Cap frees the "Howling Commando Squad" from the HYDRA base in Italy, Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan (Neal McDonough) turns as everyone leaves the cell, sees Morita and says, "What, now we release everyone?!" Morita (Kenneth Choi) replies, "I'm from Fresno, ace!" The entire US Army, especially those serving in Italy, knew that the battalion of Japanese-American soldiers stationed in Italy was the most decorated battalion of World War II. As a Howling Commando, Dugan should have known this.
- #131
"Dum Dum Dugan" was one of the many alliterative names Stan Lee devised for his characters. Lee admitted that doing so helped him remember the names.
- #132
Hugo Weaving had to spend three and a half hours in the makeup chair every day to have the Red Skull prosthesis applied.
- #133
The film's release date, July 22, 2011, is the same date on which Captain America (1990) was released on home video in the United States in 1992.
- #135
Stanley Tucci, Toby Jones and Natalie Dormer all appeared in The Hunger Games film series.
- #136
Joe Johnston was hired by Walt Disney Pictures to direct the film, based on his work on The Rocketeer (1991), another 1940s adventure film with a similar premise.
- #137
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Steve Rogers enters Times Square and is surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, a large Baskin-Robbins advertisement is visible behind Nick Fury — the same franchise where Scott Lang (Ant-Man (2015)) found a job after getting out of prison.
- #138
John Hinckley Jr. claimed that in 2011, while periodically receiving unsupervised leave from the psychiatric hospital where he had been confined since his 1981 assassination attempt on then-President Ronald Reagan, he went to see the film at a local movie theater. However, after he was dropped off at the theater, Secret Service agents observed him secretly going to a bookstore to look at books about Reagan and assassins. To maintain the illusion that he had watched the film, he later told several people how much he had enjoyed it. The film he claimed to have seen was Captain America.
- #139
It is the only film in Phase One of the MCU with a subtitle ("The First Avenger").
- #140
David Bradley and Toby Jones appeared in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets (2002) and worked with Sir Kenneth Branagh, the director of Thor (2011).
- #142
Marvel Comics published a four-issue comic book prelude titled "First Vengeance," written by Fred Van Lente and drawn by Luke Ross and Neil Edwards, along with a two-issue adaptation of the film written by Peter David and drawn by Wellinton Alves, Anderson Silva and Manny Clark. It was director Joe Johnston's second film adapted from a comic book, after The Rocketeer (1991).
- #144
Derek Luke was cast without a script or much indication of what his character would be.
- #145
It was shot under the working title "FrostBite."
- #147
Chris Evans is the fourth actor to play Captain America, after Matt Salinger in Captain America (1990), Reb Brown in Captain America (1979), and Dick Purcell in Captain America II: Death Too Soon (1979) and Captain America (1944).
- #148
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the Expo, Howard Stark demonstrates his semi-functional "Reversion" technology. It is an obvious precursor to Tony Stark's perfected "Repulsors" for the Iron Man armor. Both have an orange glow when working.
- #149
Universal was developing a Captain America film in the early 1980s. The proposed actors were Jeff Bridges as Captain America, Clarence Gilyard Jr. as Falcon and Peter Fonda as Red Skull. Bridges played Obadiah Stane in Iron Man (2008).
- #150
Hugo Weaving's nose had to be digitally removed for his Red Skull makeup.
- #152
It was Hugo Weaving's second consecutive collaboration with Joe Johnston, with whom he had previously worked on The Wolfman (2010).
- #154
This is Chris Evans's only solo film in the Captain America role. The two sequels paired him with other superheroes.
- #155
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the start of the film, Red Skull wears a mask version presumed to be his normal human appearance before taking the Super Soldier serum. He later removes the mask to reveal his red flesh. He had mentioned at the start of the film that he already had "burns." Hugo Weaving appeared in V for Vendetta (2005) as V, an anarchist who wears a Guy Fawkes mask for various reasons, including to conceal the burns covering his body.
- #156
Joe Johnston had previously directed The Rocketeer (1991), another comic book film produced by Walt Disney Pictures. That film also featured Jennifer Connelly, who voiced U. I. in Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017) as "Karen" in Peter Parker's Stark Technologies Spider Suit and also played Betty Ross in Hulk (2003); and her husband, Paul Bettany, voiced Jarvis and played Vision in the Iron Man and Avengers films.
- #157
One of the opening scenes, set in Norway during World War II, was shot on the first day of filming.
- #158
Contains a major spoiler — show
At about one hour in, Captain America passes two rows of Rolls-Royce Avon jet engines. These were developed in 1945 and closely resembled engines developed by Nazi Germany.
- #160
A Captain America film was announced in 2000 as one of several co-productions between Marvel Enterprises and Artisan Entertainment, but before Artisan closed in 2004, a year after its acquisition by Lionsgate, the studios produced only two films together: The Punisher (2004) and Man-Thing (2005).
- #161
With this film, the Marvel Cinematic Universe surpassed $2 billion in global box office revenue.
- #162
It is the third lowest-grossing MCU film worldwide, after The Marvels (2023) and The Incredible Hulk (2008).
- #163
Kevin Feige said several different methods were proposed for creating the skinny Steve Rogers. Marvel considered having Chris Evans first gain weight physically and then lose it physically, as in Cast Away (2000), but the schedule did not allow for it. A fully CGI Evans was created, but it was also deemed "creepy."
- #164
Captain America co-creator Joe Simon felt the hero needed a strong villain, based on the success of the Batman comics. He first got the inspiration to create Red Skull after seeing a cherry on top of a hot fudge sundae.
- #165
Contains a major spoiler — show
The name of the character Jacques Dernier translates from French to English as "Jack Last."
- #166
It is the sixth highest-grossing World War II film worldwide, after Oppenheimer (2023), Dunkirk (2017), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Pearl Harbor (2001) and The King's Speech (2010).
- #167
Until Ant-Man (2015), Captain America was the last solo Avenger not to appear in a Marvel Cinematic Universe film before his own solo film.
- #168
Before Chris Evans was cast, Matthew McConaughey, Josh Brolin, Leonardo DiCaprio, Brad Pitt and Jason Lewis were said to be playing Captain America. Brolin eventually played Thanos, and McConaughey was offered the roles of Doctor Strange in Doctor Strange (2016) and Ego the Living Planet in Guardians of the Galaxy: Vol. 2 (2017). He turned down the latter in favor of The Dark Tower (2017), which also starred Marvel regular Sir Idris Elba.
- #169
The soldier Peggy punches for making a pass, Er Gilmore Hodges, may or may not be a tribute to baseball player Gil Hodges, who played only for the Brooklyn Dodgers (Steve's hometown; he is a big Dodgers fan). Hodges played from 1943 to 1963 and missed two years, from 1944 to 1945, due to his Army service in World War II. He played for the Dodgers from 1943 to 1961, until their move from Brooklyn to Los Angeles and the New York Mets. He died in 1972 and was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame by the veterans committee in 2022.
- #170
Fans suggested Jackie Earle Haley to play Red Skull.
- #171
It is the first Marvel Studios film based on a character from the Golden Age of Comic Books.
- #172
Coinciding with the film's release, Marvel Comics published the first Captain America Omnibus in 2011.
- #173
Chris Evans trained for three months to play Captain America.
- #175
The Red Skull prosthesis consisted of seven pieces.
- #176
The Tesseract does not damage the wooden crate Red Skull finds it in in Norway, but at the end of the film it melts the metal floor of the Valkyrie, causing it to fall into the ocean. This is not just a plot device to send the cube to the bottom of the sea; it follows the logic of the state of the Infinity Stones: in the ancient temple the Tesseract was inert or dormant, while aboard the ship, after Zola's energy-extraction machine collapsed and it interacted directly with Red Skull, it entered a state of overload and critical reaction and released massive thermal radiation capable of melting the hull.
- #177
It is Laura Haddock's first film. She later played Peter Quill's mother Meredith in Guardians of the Galaxy.
- #178
Contains a major spoiler — show
Colonel Phillips (Tommy Lee Jones) is responsible for administering a series of tests to select the ideal candidate for a special government program, and despite his own doubts, he is reluctantly persuaded by a subordinate to choose Steve Rogers. In Men in Black (1997), Zed is responsible for administering a series of tests to select the ideal candidate for a special government program, and despite his own doubts, he is reluctantly persuaded by his subordinate Agent K (Tommy Lee Jones) to choose James Edwards.
- #179
Contains a major spoiler — show
Captain America is equipped with two of the most definitive American objects of the 20th century: a flathead Harley-Davidson and a 1911 model .45-caliber pistol.
- #180
It is Hugo Weaving's second comic book film after V for Vendetta (2005).
- #183
Ethan Peck stated that he was considered for the role of Steve Rogers/Captain America.
- #184
Both Tommy Lee Jones (Colonel Phillips) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor) appeared in the Men in Black series. Jones played Agent K in the first trilogy, and Hemsworth played Agent H in the spin-off Men in Black: International (2019).
- #185
The initial reaction to Chris Evans being cast as Captain America was negative. Many fans thought he was too skinny and still remembered him as Johnny Storm from the Fantastic Four films. Among the names fans preferred were Channing Tatum, Mark Valley, Sam Worthington, Milo Ventimiglia and Mike Vogel.
- #186
Hugo Weaving's niece, Samara Weaving, later joined the MCU as Emma Frost in Untitled Marvel X-Men Film (2028).
- #187
Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan were both born in 1982, but four months apart. Atwell was born on April 5, and Stan on August 13.
- #189
Neal McDonough (Dum Dum Dugan) appeared in Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) alongside Garry Chalk, who played Dum Dum Dugan in the TV film Nick Fury: Agent of Shield (1998).
- #190
Bret Harrison was suggested by fans to play Bucky.
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