Captain America: The First Avenger is an American superhero movie based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. It was produced by Kevin Feige and directed by Joe Johnston. The film was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. The film is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). It was released on July 22, 2011. The movie was converted to 3-D, but not filmed that way. Filming took place in Los Angeles, and the Northern Quarter of Manchester, England, United Kingdom. The special effects company Lola made the effects for Steve's body before he becomes Captain America.

The film was first shown in the El Capitan Theatre on July 19, 2011. It was first released in the United States on July 22. It was a part of Phase One of the MCU. The film made over $370 million around the world.

Story 
The start of the film happens in the present day. A group of scientists find an old frozen airplane with a man frozen in it, with a shield. The rest of the film happens in World War Two. Johann Schmidt (also called the Red Skull) the leader of a group called HYDRA steals a powerful weapon called the Tesseract.  A man called Steve Rogers wants to join the army, but is too weak and is told he cannot. A doctor called Abraham Erskine lets him join a program that gives him super strength, making him a "super-soldier". Erskine is killed by a man from HYDRA and Steve is made to become an entertainer called Captain America, until he finds out his friend Bucky was taken prisoner by HYDRA. He saves Bucky and the other soldiers, and becomes Captain America. Steve and the rescued soldiers become friends, and they fight HYDRA in World War Two. In one mission, Bucky falls off of a train and it looks like he was killed. Steve discovers that Schmidt and HYDRA are using the Tesseract to make weapons, which he wants to use to win the war. He fights Schmidt, who is killed when he holds the Tesseract. Steve has to sacrifice himself to get rid of the weapons by crashing the airplane they are on into the Arctic. He is found 70 years later, and wakes up. Nick Fury then talks to him about joining the Avengers.

Cast 
Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
Tommy Lee Jones as Col. Chester Phillips
Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt/Red Skull
Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark
Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan
Derek Luke as Gabe Jones
Stanley Tucci as Dr. Abraham Erskine
Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter
Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes
Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
Richard Armitage as Heinz Kruger
Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury

Production

Development
It took a long time for the making of the film to get started. In April 1997 Marvel went to Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to get them to produce Captain America, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem to write a script. In May 2000 they went to Artisan Entertainment to get them to pay for the film, but a lawsuit between Joe Simon and Marvel Comics made the development stop. It started again in September 2003. Marvel was going to give the rights to making the film to Warner Bros. until the producer David Maisel said that they could make it themself. The film was meant to be unconnected to any others, with the first part happening in World War Two and the second part happening in the present day.

Production of the film stopped because of the 2007—2008 Writers Guild of America strike, but a deal was soon made in January 2008 that got development started again. On May 5 2008 Marvel announced the film The First Avenger: Captain America (which it what the film used to be called) for release on May 6 2011 (the film got pushed back to July 22 2011).

Pre-Production
In December 2009, director Joe Johnston indicated that he planned to start filming in April 2010.

In March 2010, it was revealed that Chris Evans would play Captain America and Hugo Weaving would play the Red Skull.

Filming
Filming of the movie began on June 28 2010. It was announced that some of the filming would happen in London in July, with war scenes being filmed in Wales. Some filming also took place at Pinewood Studios, which is a studio in Buckinghamshire.

Release

Theatres
The film was first shown at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood on July 19 2011, and was shown at San Diego Comic Con on July 21 2011. It was released in the US and Canada on July 22 2011.

At home
Captain America: The First Avenger was released by Paramount Home Media Distribution on Blu-ray, Blu-ray 3D and DVD on October 25, 2011.

Release dates

Future

Sequels

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

A sequel to the movie called Captain America: The Winter Soldier was released on 4 April 2014.

Captain America: Civil War

Another sequel called Captain America: Civil War was released on May 6, 2016. It was directed by the Russo Brothers again.

Notes

References

Other websites 
Captain America: The First Avenger's Official website
 
 

2011 movies
Alternate history movies
Captain America movies
Marvel Cinematic Universe movies
Movies set in the 1940s
2010s superhero movies
2010s coming-of-age movies
Movies set in Germany
Movies set in Italy
Movies set in London
Movies set in New Jersey
Movies set in New York City