FILM · 2014 · USA
Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- Directed by
- Joe Russo, Anthony Russo
- Runtime
- 136 min
- Studio
- Marvel Studios
102 archived facts 7 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
After the cataclysmic events in New York with The Avengers, Steve Rogers, aka Captain America is living quietly in Washington, D.C. and trying to adjust to the modern world. But when a S.H.I.E.L.D. colleague comes under attack, Steve becomes embroiled in a web of intrigue that threatens to put the world at risk. Joining forces with the Black Widow, Captain America struggles to expose the ever-widening conspiracy…
102 Interesting Facts About Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Interesting Facts (79)
- #001
Anthony Mackie's appearance in this film fulfills his dream of playing a Marvel comic book character. He wrote a series of email requests to Marvel asking to play any comic book character in a film. Although the studio repeatedly told him they would respond in time, Mackie's emails caught the attention of producer Kevin Feige, who later offered him the role of Sam Wilson, also known as Falcon.
- #002
Unlike other films in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, this film kept the use of visual effects to a minimum wherever possible. Anthony Mackie explained: "What the Russos did was so great that they wanted to stay in live action, which is a dying art form. If they could do it, they did it. If we could do it, we did it. They wanted to do as little CGI as possible. That's why the film looks so great."
- #003
Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson wrote their own dialogue for many of the scenes they shot together.
- #004
At around the 2-hour mark, at the end of the film, Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo) is shown to be burned but alive, being treated by some doctors as he is taken away in an ambulance. In the comics, Crossbones (Rumlow's villain alias) had his face severely burned, which required him to wear a mask.
- #005
In the Marvel comics, a Canadian agency called "Department H" is briefly mentioned by Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson); it is the organization that experimented on Wolverine and gave him his Adamantium-bonded skeleton. It is also the organization that created the Canadian superhero team Alpha Flight.
- #006
At around the 2-minute mark, the "catch-up" list Captain America keeps beside Chris Evans varies from country to country: * All versions - Thai Food, Star Wars, Star Trek, Nirvana (Band), Rocky (1976) Rocky II (1979)?) and Troubleman (Soundtrack). * USA - I Love Lucy (1951), Moon Landing, Berlin Wall (Up + Down), Steve Jobs (Apple) and Disco. * UK - The Beatles, Sir Sean Connery and Sherlock (2010). * Australia - AC/DC, space travel, Steve Irwin, Skippy (1968) and Tim Tams. * Italy - Vasco Rossi, Ferrari's F1 Grand Prix victories and Roberto Benigni. * France - 1998 World Cup, Louis de Funès, Coluche, The Fifth Element (1997) and Daft Punk. * Russia - Yuri Gagarin, Vladimir Vysotskiy and Moscow Does Not Believe in Tears (1980). * Brazil - Wagner Moura, Ayrton Senna, Xuxa and Mamonas Assassinas. * South Korea - Oldboy (2003), Dance Dance Revolution, 2002 World Cup and footballer Park Ji-sung. * Spain - Rafael Nadal, Chupa Chups (a popular candy brand), Héroes del Silencio (Band), 1978 Constitution and writer and Nobel Prize winner Camilo José Cela. * Mexico - Nobel Prize winner Octavio Paz and astronaut Rodolfo Neri Vela. * Latin America - Shakira, the Chilean Miners' Rescue and Maradona's Hand of God (the football match between Argentina and England during the 1986 FIFA World Cup).
- #007
At around the 33-minute mark, the laser cutter Nick Fury uses to escape from his wrecked SUV into the sewer has the same blue beam used to access the plane buried in the ice in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011). The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode Providence (2014), which aired right after the film's release, revealed that these were invented by Fitz.
- #008
At around 1 hour 55 minutes, as the Helicarriers search for their targets, one of the monitors shows a wireframe model of the old Stark Tower in New York City, now bearing the Avengers sign. In the same image, on the right, there is a mugshot of Tony Stark as a H.Y.D.R.A. target.
- #009
At around 1 hour 27 minutes, a scientist at the Winter Soldier's birth is played by the writer of the Winter Soldier comic book.
- #010
Sebastian Stan underwent five months of physical training and historical research to prepare for the role of the Winter Soldier: "I dove into the whole history of the Cold War: I looked at the KGB. I looked at every kind of spy movie and every kind of documentary about that period and what it was about. I caught everything from that period and everything about brainwashing."
- #011
At around 1 hour 3 minutes, Black Widow mentions "Operation Paperclip," a real-world reference to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) program under which more than fifteen hundred German scientists, technicians and engineers from Nazi Germany and other foreign countries were brought to the United States to work after World War II.
- #012
At around the 5-minute mark, the scene in which Captain America jumps out of the plane without bothering to use a parachute is a tribute to a similar scene in the first issue of the "The Ultimates" comic book.
- #013
Falcon's flight equipment bears a Stark Industries logo, indicating that the company is its manufacturer.
- #014
(Around 16 minutes) When the Helicarriers first appear, Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) tells Captain America (Chris Evans) that Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) "insisted on making some changes in the thrust systems once he got a closer look." In The Avengers (2012), Iron Man struggled to restart the damaged propeller-based engines of the earlier-generation Helicarrier. The new Helicarriers use repulsor technology instead of propellers to generate lift.
- #015
Asked why Tony Stark, Bruce Banner or any of the other Avengers are not called in to help Captain America or Black Widow in the film, the writers explained that the film takes place over only three days, so the characters had no chance to contact them.
- #016
Hayley Atwell was aged using computer graphics for the role of the elderly Peggy Carter. Co-director Anthony Russo noted that "all of the old people have looked the same in movies since the 80s when you go down the make-up route," while co-director Joe Russo said: "We changed her face and her muscle structure and all of those things that change when you age."
- #017
According to Chris Evans, Steve Rogers continues to adapt to the modern world that began in The Avengers (2012): "The problem is less about his shock at the technology and more about social differences. He went from the 1940s to today. He comes from a world where people trusted a little more, where the threats weren't as deep. Now it's harder to say who's right and who's wrong. The actions you take to protect people from threats can compromise things. Freedoms and privacy — that's hard for Steve to accept."
- #018
(Around 1 hour 50 minutes) The list of targets selected by the Helicarriers includes Tony Stark and President Matthew Ellis from Iron Man 3 (2013).
- #019
A deleted scene explains why Captain America had to borrow his old uniform from the museum. He allowed S.T.R.I.K.E. to follow him in his new suit as far as the basketball court, while he returned to the hospital in normal clothes.
- #020
Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernández) mentions some of H.Y.D.R.A.'s high-risk targets that it is keeping track of. These include Bruce Banner (The Hulk), Dr. Stephen Strange and "a man in Cairo." The latter is most likely Marc Spector/Moon Knight, an Avengers team member who had not yet appeared in the films.
- #021
While writing the script, there was a very high chance Hawkeye would be in the film. However, the writers felt too many characters were being introduced and did not want Hawkeye there without depth. Instead, they decided to write a small scene mentioning Hawkeye and where he was, which was shot but ultimately not included in the film.
- #022
Samuel L. Jackson described Nick Fury's predicament this way: "Almost everything that comes out of Nick Fury's mouth is a lie in some way. He has to ask himself whether he's lying to himself too."
- #023
Comic book writer Ed Brubaker was both pleased and surprised by the adaptation of the Winter Soldier story and by his own involvement with the title, including Bucky Barnes's return as the Winter Soldier: "I had to go to Marvel Studios and read one of the later drafts of the script. I went to dinner with the directors Joe and Anthony Russo, talked about the project and gave them feedback on what I liked, what I didn't like or what parts didn't work. So I read the script. It was great. The tone and the Bucky thing are so perfect that seeing it turn out the way I wanted made me very excited."
- #024
One of the first deleted scenes to surface was a short, painful conversation between Natasha and Nick Fury about his decision not to include her in his survival plan. Scarlett Johansson suggested cutting it because it broke the film's momentum, and the scene's main idea still comes across without needing to be explained. However, the scene also introduced the photostatic veil, the high-tech mask that allows Natasha to impersonate the female council member and enter the Triskelion.
- #025
(At about 1 hour 7 minutes) When Alexander Pierce, played by Robert Redford, opens the refrigerator, a jar of Newman's Own Sauce is visible on the shelf, a clear tribute to Redford's longtime friend and two-time co-star Paul Newman.
- #026
(At about 18 minutes) The writer and director of The Avengers (2012) and Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015) plays the man in the Captain America T-shirt walking down the escalator with a small boy at the Smithsonian Institution.
- #027
A deleted scene shows Maria Hill and Sitwell conversing after Cap's escape, ending with her being put under investigation because of her mild taunt that Rogers tends to inspire loyalty.
- #028
The elevator fight, in which the Strike Team tries to capture Cap, is a tribute to the Civil War story, in which Cap refuses to go along with the government's plan to register all superheroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. They try to take him into custody.
- #029
(at around 1h 30 mins) The photo of Alexander Pierce Robert Redford from 1992 is a still image of Redford from Sneakers (1992).
- #030
(At about the 34-minute mark) When Steve Rogers enters his apartment, a copy of the book "All the President's Men" can briefly be seen on his bookshelf. Robert Redford was the producer and star (alongside Dustin Hoffman) of the film adaptation of that book.
- #031
Kevin Feige chose Joe Russo and Anthony Russo to direct the film based on two back-to-back episodes of Community (2009) that impressed him: season two, episode twenty-three, "A Fistful of Paintballs," and season two, episode twenty-four, "For a Few Paintballs More."
- #032
Joss Whedon directed the mid-credits scene featuring Baron Strucker, Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch.
- #033
(at around 1h 30 mins) As a security guard at the Smithsonian Institution, who notices the original Captain America costume is missing and says "I am so fired."
- #034
The outfit Nick Fury wears in his final scene in this film is the same one he wears in the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. first-season finale "Beginning of the End" (2013), down to the sunglasses and beanie.
- #035
When Steve Rogers is shown touring the Captain America exhibit at the Smithsonian, there is a museum panel titled "Welcome Back Cap." and a message thanking Captain America for his service to the country. The message is signed by President Matthew Ellis, first portrayed by William Sadler in Iron Man 3 (2013).
- #036
This is the first Captain America film in which Steve Rogers never uses or even touches a firearm.
- #037
According to producer Kevin Feige, every Marvel Cinematic Universe Phase 2 film pays tribute to Star Wars in the form of a character losing an arm: * In Iron Man 3 (2013), Aldrich Killian loses an arm during his fight with Tony Stark. * In Thor: The Dark World (2013), Loki creates an illusion of cutting off Thor's arm on Svartalfheim. * In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Bucky loses his arm when he falls from the train. * In Guardians of the Galaxy (2014), Gamora cuts off Groot's arm during the group's first scuffle on Xandar.
- #038
Before his death in The Avengers (2012) and his subsequent resurrection in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013), Marvel considered revealing Phil Coulson as a H.Y.D.R.A. Agent. He would have played the role that Sitwell has in the finished film.
- #039
Producer Kevin Feige described this film as "a 1970s political thriller masquerading as a big superhero movie."
- #040
Co-director Joe Russo is a big fan of the YouTube channel Screen Junkies. One of its segments is called Honest Trailers, which features fake movie trailers that poke fun at the films they appear with. Russo aimed to make this film "Honest Trailer-proof." However, Screen Junkies released an Honest Trailer for it in August 2014, and the Russo brothers appeared in a special video on 16 April 2016 to discuss it with YouTube channel host Hal Rudnick and Honest Trailers writers Dan Murrell and Spencer Gilbert.
- #041
The Winter Soldier's mask, much like Cap's look, is the exact inverse of Captain America's mask. The Winter Soldier's mask covers the lower part of his face (and his eyes when he wears goggles), while Cap's leaves his lower face and eyes exposed.
- #042
At one point, the writers had proposed sparing Arnim Zola by revealing that the computer in which he housed his memory could transform into a mobile robotic body. Marvel vetoed the idea, on the grounds that it was too silly.
- #043
In his first comedic incarnation, Falcon had the superpower of telepathically communicating with birds. The film version, much like the Marvel Ultimate comics version, gives Falcon no superpowers at all.
- #044
When Steve Rogers finds the wounded Nick Fury in his apartment after Hydra agents attack Fury, the music playing is "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (or "Kiss Me Once and Kiss Me Twice" - 1945). It was the same song heard in the final scene of Avengers: Endgame (2019), when we see Rogers reunited with a young Peggy Carter.
- #045
Chris Evans said the following about this film in 2024: "This is my personal favorite Marvel film that I've been a part of. And that goes not just for the film itself, but for the experience. I was very nervous on the first film. You know what you're stepping into, you know what Marvel expects from it. As a result you're playing defense; you're playing not to lose. When Winter Soldier came around, we were all kind of playing to win. It was my first film with the Russos. There was a lot to prove, to make your mark, taking more risks. The character felt more fleshed out. It was a really exciting time, and I think they nailed it. So for me, it was one of the more satisfying experiences in my Marvel run."
- #046
At roughly the 33-minute mark, after Agent 13 finishes a phone call and has a brief exchange with Steve Rogers in their shared hallway, she explains the call by saying, "My aunt's kind of an insomniac." This reveals that Agent 13 is actually named Sharon Carter and that her aunt is Peggy Carter, Steve's former love.
- #047
Although Captain America never holds or uses a gun in this film, he is sometimes seen wearing a holstered pistol on his belt.
- #048
At roughly the 2-minute mark, the list of things Captain America missed includes the Moon landing. In the Marvel storyline "House of M" (an alternate reality in which Magneto and the mutants rule the Earth), Cap was the first human to set foot on the Moon.
- #049
At around the 1-hour mark, when Captain America and Black Widow enter the H.Y.D.R.A. base, photographs of three S.H.I.E.L.D. founders can be seen. They show Tommy Lee Jones, Hayley Atwell and Dominic Cooper, who appeared in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
- #050
The film's writers appear as two S.H.I.E.L.D. interrogators.
- #051
The score from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) is initially heard while Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson are running in Washington, D.C.
- #052
In Captain America #180 (December 1974), Steve Rogers is seen in civilian clothes jumping onto cars. A passerby says he must be Robert Redford.
- #053
The quote from Ezekiel 25:17, "The path of the righteous man," on Nick Fury's gravestone is the first line of the same Bible verse that Samuel L. Jackson's character Jules recites in Pulp Fiction (1994).
- #054
In the commentary, the producers say that the mask Natasha Romanoff uses is based on the mask worn by Red Skull in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), showing another connection between H.Y.D.R.A. and S.H.I.E.L.D., even though Red Skull's mask in the first Cap film was latex. It even shows him pulling it off with the latex sticking to his face and it shifting around his eyes after Cap punches him.
- #055
At roughly 1 hour 2 minutes, Black Widow says "Shall we play a game?" in Dr. Zola's lair. This was a line taken from WarGames (1983), a film about war simulation programs run by a national defense computer that nearly trigger a nuclear war.
- #056
In the scene where Steve (Chris Evans) and Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) talk to Arnim Zola (Toby Jones) in computer form, Zola changes the present time to suit H.Y.D.R.A.'s needs. During this conversation, a photo of the Winter Soldier aiming an assault rifle is seen directly before an image of a newspaper carrying the headline that Howard and Maria Stark died in a car accident. In this film, it is revealed that the Winter Soldier was responsible for the deaths of Howard and Maria Stark.
- #057
The dialogue between Pierce and Natasha concerns the potential leak of the entire S.H.I.E.L.D. database. The database ran for longer, and Pierce stated that he did nothing to stop it because once the Helicarriers were fully operational, it would not matter if the public knew of HYDRA's existence.
- #058
Before settling on a darker military outfit, several of the proposed Falcon costumes had a more armored look complete with a helmet. At least one of the outfits also kept Falcon's red-and-white color scheme from the comics as well as the gold forehead emblem he wears on his mask.
- #059
The name "exo-7" for the prototype wings used by Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, is a pun on the French pronunciation "exocet," the name of a species of flying fish with bright wings.
- #060
The Russo brothers considered using the "Captain America" march for the moment when Steve Rogers steals his old Captain America costume from the Smithsonian Institution for the final battle against HYDRA, but ultimately decided it was not necessary because the film's tone was different from Captain America: The First Avenger (2011).
- #061
According to the filmmakers' DVD commentary, in the scene where Black Widow uses a phone recording of her own voice as a trap against the Winter Soldier, she was actually supposed to place her boots behind a car as the trap. On set, however, Scarlett Johansson asked the filmmakers why Natasha would have to walk barefoot in the next part of the film. The filmmakers thought about it and, at Johansson's request, decided to remove the shoe trap and replace it with the phone.
- #062
There are two clips of Nick Fury racing through crowded streets after his SUV is attacked, in which he passes the street (E 9th) and the intersection (E 9th and Euclid) where the street battle scenes in The Avengers (2012) were shot. There is also a very brief clip of him driving his car on the street where those scenes were filmed. Several buildings from The Avengers (2012) are visible. Additionally, the domed-style bank Bucky goes to for his treatments is the same building from The Avengers (2012) where Captain America is blown into the air when the alien grenade explodes.
- #063
In the opening scene aboard the Lemurian Star, Captain America's shield has faded red and blue colors. When the shield is next seen after the mission on the ship, it has its original solid red and blue colors. Since it is never seen again after the ship mission, there is no explanation for what happened to the first shield. It is presumed that it was painted in muted colors for camouflage and repainted in its original colors after the night mission.
- #064
During his ambush, Fury tells his car's computer to attempt a "Vertical takeoff" but the computer responds that the flight equipment was damaged. In the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013), Coulson's car "Lola" was also capable of flight.
- #065
At about 13 minutes in, the Triskelion's coordinates (corrected from an impossible southern longitude to a western longitude) are 38N 53'33.78" 77W 3' 38.91". This places it on Theodore Roosevelt Island in the Potomac River in Washington DC, along with the shown view of the Abraham Lincoln Memorial to the southeast.
- #066
At about 1 hour 15 minutes, while Black Widow and Captain America interrogate Sitwell, he says that S.H.I.E.L.D. knows everything about them, even their S.A.T. scores. In The Perfect Score (2004), Scarlett Johansson and Chris Evans conspired with a group of high school students to steal the answers to the S.A.T. exams.
- #067
At about 1 hour 15 minutes, while Jasper Sitwell is being interrogated, he tells Captain America and Black Widow that the Helicarriers participating in Project Insight will kill many people. Among these names he mentioned Dr. Stephen Strange and Dr. Bruce Banner. Bruce Banner is better known as The Incredible Hulk, while Dr. Strange is the protagonist of Doctor Strange (2016). They are the main characters of "The Defenders" in the comics.
- #068
At about 14 minutes, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) justifies his misdirection during the hostage rescue mission: "The last time I trusted somebody, I lost an eye." In Captain Marvel (2019), it was shown that Fury lost his eye when Goose the Cat, a Flerken he befriended while helping Captain Marvel during the Kree-Skrull Wars, scratched it, not because someone betrayed him. So Fury lies again! However, during the climactic fight between Captain Marvel and the Krees, Fury tells Goose he's putting his trust in her as they escape the chaos, so Fury is being truthful that he trusted someone and it cost him his eye; he's only not telling Captain America who he trusted was a Flerken or a cat.
- #069
At around the 34-minute mark, when Steve secretly enters his apartment through the window, Mike Durant's book Night Stalkers can be seen beneath a horizontal stack of books. Durant served as a Chief Warrant Officer in the Army and was imprisoned in Somalia during the Battle of Mogadishu in 1993. He was released after eleven days in captivity. Black Hawk Down (2001) depicted the events of the battle and Durant's capture.
- #070
Arnim Zola's computer scene was heavily reworked and was completed only two weeks before the film's release. The directors said the scene was initially much more surreal and over-the-top, but that it did not match the grounded tone of the rest of the film. The finished version of Arnim Zola's computer was made much more restrained.
- #071
At around 16 minutes, Tony Stark is partly credited by Nick Fury for the new repulsor engines (the technology Iron Man uses). Despite this, Zola's algorithm targets him to be killed by the same helicarrier he helped design (1 hour 53 minutes).
- #072
At the beginning of the film, when Cap lists everything he missed while he was asleep, the first five list entries differed depending on where the film was released. In the United Kingdom, audiences discovered he missed The Beatles, the 1966 World Cup Final, Sean Connery and 'Sherlock.' In the United States, audiences learned he missed 'I Love Lucy,' the fall of the Berlin Wall, Steve Jobs and disco. Finally, French audiences learned that Cap missed the 1998 World Cup, Daft Punk and The Fifth Element.
- #073
In this film, the characters accuse each other of lying (or rightly call each other out) at least eight times. Steve blames Nick after learning that Natasha had her own mission; Natasha blames Steve when he conceals information about Nick; Pierce blames Steve for the same reason. Steve tells Natasha to stop lying while they try to find where the flash drive is. Members of the World Security Council accuse Nick of lying about his agenda regarding the opening raid; Natasha complains that she has lied for both the KGB and Hydra; and she later tells the Senate subcommittee that Hydra lied to them, and they point out that she played a major role in telling them.
- #074
Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) is revealed to be Agent 13. In the post-credits scene of Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), the SHIELD agent present when Captain America wakes up uses Code 13 to warn the other agents of his escape.
- #075
Natasha Romanoff disguised herself as Councilwoman Hawley by wearing a holographic mask of her. Holographic masks were used in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2013) by Agent 33/Kara to impersonate Agent May (among others).
- #076
Although some scenes throughout the film feature vehicles made by other automakers, the main close-up scenes (with normal vehicles) feature vehicles made entirely by GM (General Motors). Opening running scene: Black Widow's Chevy Corvette Stingray (she picks up Steve Rogers for a mission); car chase: Nick Fury's Chevy Tahoe, several older-model police-package Chevy Impalas; highway attack scene: Falcon's latest-model Chevy Impala; Captain America and Black Widow going to New Jersey: Captain America "borrows" someone's Chevy Truck to get to the old base in New Jersey.
- #077
When Steve discovers that the Winter Soldier is Bucky, he says, "Bucky?" Bucky replies, "Who the hell is Bucky?" This exchange is taken directly from Ed Brubaker's comic book story "The Winter Soldier," which forms the basis of the film.
- #078
Cap asks Sam Wilson whether he "needs a medic." As an Air Force PJ (pararescueman), Sam is (or at least was) not only a military medic but also a civilian-licensed paramedic.
- #079
Director Joe Russo cited the famous bank robbery scene in Heat (1995) as a major influence on the film's action scenes, calling the heist "the most intense eight minutes of filmmaking I've seen in a movie theater." The action scenes were also influenced by the vault heist sequence in Mission: Impossible (1996); Russo explained: "very likable characters are put in impossible situations that the audience is put on the edge on how they'd escape."
Production Story (1)
- #080
Sebastian Stan pitched a standalone Bucky film to Marvel Studios. He envisioned it as a small-scale thriller in the vein of Sicario (2015), and explained, "We keep a real small budget. It's about a guy who thinks he recognizes someone from his past that had something to do with when, you know, he was brainwashed, and he gets obsessed with this person. He goes on a whole journey to try to figure out who this person is. It's a thriller."
Behind the Scenes (3)
- #081
During filming, Sebastian Stan would walk around all day rehearsing his movements with a plastic knife because he wanted his movements to look natural.
- #082
To avoid spoilers and preserve secrecy, the film's working title during shooting was "Freezer Burn."
- #083
Anthony Mackie likes to say "cut the check!" when something goes right or a scene is completed. The phrase caught on during filming and soon everyone on set was saying it. According to the directors, however, he overdid it so much that it began to lose its effect after a while.
Characters & Cast (5)
- #084
At around the 2-hour mark, Nick Fury's "grave" bears the inscription "The path of the righteous man. Ezekiel 25:17." This is Jules Winnfield's (Samuel L. Jackson) favorite line in Pulp Fiction (1994). The actual text of Ezekiel 25:17 in the Christian Bible, however, reads: "And I will execute great vengeance upon them with furious rebukes; and they shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall lay my vengeance upon them."
- #085
Sebastian Stan signed a nine-film contract, but according to him, when production on this film began he was told nothing about which films would be included. Stan only realized he was playing the lead role of the Winter Soldier when the title was officially announced at San Diego Comic-Con 2013.
- #086
Anthony Mackie took the role of Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, partly to give African-American children another black superhero they could enjoy in the Marvel Cinematic Universe besides War Machine in the Iron Man films. However, he was unhappy with the modern approach to the Falcon costume because he wanted the red spandex look from the comics. Instead, this film adapts Falcon from Marvel Comics' Ultimate Marvel imprint, where he appears as a special operations soldier equipped with a unique winged flight harness, goggles and much lighter dark colors.
- #087
Although Georges St-Pierre plays a French/Algerian character, he delivers his lines in his native French-Canadian accent.
- #088
Near the beginning of the film, in an aerial shot of Washington, D.C., the camera lingers on a shot centered on the Watergate complex, where in June 1972 President Richard Nixon's Committee to Re-elect the President (the Plumbers) broke into the Democratic National Committee headquarters, igniting the Watergate scandal that exposed Nixon's use of intelligence agencies to gain political power. Robert Redford played Bob Woodward in the famous Watergate scandal film All the President's Men (1976). The Watergate complex also appears at 45:52, right after Steve Rogers enters the glass elevator following his meeting with Alexander Pierce, played by Redford.
Easter Eggs & References (8)
- #089
In some scenes, Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, wears a necklace with an arrow on it. This is a nod to her teammate Hawkeye, but it also fueled suspicion that they were lovers. The necklace was Scarlett Johansson's idea.
- #090
(At about 2 minutes) When Rogers first talks with Wilson, he mentions some of the differences between his own time and the modern era. He remarks, "No polio is great." This is a nod to Captain America (1990), in which Steve Rogers had polio before entering the experiment to become Captain America, played by Matt Salinger.
- #091
DIRECTOR_CAMEO Joe Russo: (at about 1 hour 26 minutes) the doctor who treats Natasha, played by Scarlett Johansson, after she and Steve, played by Chris Evans, are brought to the safe house by Maria, played by Cobie Smulders.
- #092
The cargo ship Batroc hijacks was originally named the "Lemurian Star." This is a reference to Lemuria, the sunken continent that is home to the Deviants, a superhuman race created by Jack Kirby.
- #093
The title "Winter Soldier" is assumed to refer to Bucky's nickname, the Cold War, or to how he is kept in cold-based suspended animation between missions. In the commentary, however, it is said to actually refer to an eighteenth-century quote from Thomas Paine: "THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman." Therefore, thematically, the "winter soldier" is the Captain, not Bucky.
- #094
(Around 1 hour 40 minutes) Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) says, "What if Pakistan marched into Mumbai tomorrow?" This dialogue is a reference to the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks carried out by a terrorist group in Pakistan at the Hotel Taj Palace in Mumbai on November 26, 2008.
- #095
A previous comment noted that the elevator fight scene in the film is a deliberate reference to a scene in Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995). That film also starred Samuel L. Jackson as Zeus.
- #096
When Steve hides the flash drive in the vending machine, he hides it behind Hubba Bubba bubble gum. "Hubba Hubba" was used by some military personnel during World War II to express approval. It was a slang term used in the 1940s to refer to a woman. When Agent Romanoff appears behind Steve as he searches for the flash drive, she is most likely blowing a bubble with the gum.
Deeper Meaning (5)
- #097
The shopping mall that Black Widow and Captain America visit to trace the source of the encrypted USB drive is the Tower City Center in Cleveland, Ohio. The building's exterior and hall were used as the opera house where Loki confronts German opera patrons in The Avengers (2012).
- #098
While fighting the Winter Soldier, Captain America needs every resource available to him, including his iconic shield, which gets far more use in this film. The shield is traditionally used mostly as a defensive weapon, but in this film the filmmakers wanted to explore using it more as an offensive weapon. The shield has two handles, and Steve Rogers can grip them to use it in an eastern-style form of combat.
- #099
The Winter Soldier lands only nine blows with his metal arm in the entire film: one punch to Captain America in the street fight, one backhand to the doctor repairing his arm, and seven blows to Captain America in the final fight, all of which are blows that Cap let him land. All his other strikes are either blocked or delivered with his non-metal arm. Like Cap, he mainly uses his metal arm as a shield to block.
- #100
Sebastian Stan, as Bucky Barnes / the Winter Soldier, has only 13 lines of dialogue over the course of his screen time.
- #101
Because Sebastian Stan could not grow his hair out in time for the film between projects, he had to wear extensions to play the Winter Soldier. The only time in the MCU that his long hair is natural rather than extensions is the sequel Captain America: Civil War (2016). The Winter Soldier's long hair is long enough to imply that HYDRA cared so little about his personal grooming and upkeep that they did not bother to cut it.
Life & Family (1)
- #102
(at around 15 mins) Nick Fury relates a story of his grandfather being an elevator operator. In real life, Samuel L. Jackson's grandfather was an elevator operator.
Related pages
- The Shallows — Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes up in the facts on that page
- Scarlett Johansson — Captain America: The Winter Soldier comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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