Captain America: The Winter Soldier

***Captain America: The Winter Soldier*** is a 2014 superhero movie and a sequel to the 2011 movie _Captain America: The First Avenger_. Directed by the Russo brothers, it is the ninth movie of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

## Plot

Two years after the Avengers saved New York City from Loki and the Chitauri, Steve Rogers/Captain America (Chris Evans) is still trying to adjust to modern life after being frozen in ice for 70 years. He works for the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. with fellow Avenger Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson). During a morning run, Steve makes friends with veteran Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie).

Captain America and Black Widow go on a mission to stop pirates from taking control of a S.H.I.E.L.D. ship. As Captain America fights and defeats mercenary Georges Batroc (Georges St-Pierre), Black Widow extracts data from the ship's computers. Steve goes to Fury, angry he wasn't told that Natasha had a different mission than him. Fury tells Steve about Project Insight, a plan by S.H.I.E.L.D. to use satellites and Helicarriers to kill people who they think are threats. Fury tries to decrypt the data Natasha brought him, but when he can't, he asks senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) to delay Project Insight.

Fury is driving around Washington D.C. when he's suddenly attacked by a group of men disguised as officers. Fury uses his modified smart car to fight back and drive away, but is caught off guard when he sees a mysterious man in a black mask, called the Winter Soldier, who is the leader of the attackers. Fury ditches his car and heads to Steve's apartment, where he warns him that S.H.I.E.L.D. is in trouble and gives him a hard drive. The Winter Soldier appears and shoots Fury, apparently killing him. Steve's neighbor "Kate" comes and reveals herself as Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp), a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent assigned by Fury to protect Steve. Steve chases the Winter Soldier and is shocked by the Winter Soldier's enhanced strength.

Pierce asks Steve to tell him what was on the hard drive Fury gave him, but Steve refuses. Angry, Pierce tells S.H.I.E.L.D. that Captain America is an enemy and orders them to hunt him down. Now on the run from S.T.R.I.K.E., Steve meets Natasha and they work together to decode Fury's hard drive. The drive leads them to the army base in New Jersey where Steve was trained in the 1940s. The two of them find a secret bunker with a supercomputer that contains the consciousness of scientist Arnim Zola (Toby Jones), who was thought dead in the 20th century. Zola tells them that he rebuilt the evil organization Hydra from within S.H.I.E.L.D. so they could cause chaos, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. is filled with Hydra double agents who use the Winter Soldier as their main assassin. Steve and Natasha escape the bunker before it's destroyed by a S.H.I.E.L.D. missile. They quickly figure out that Pierce is actually Hydra's leader while pretending to be one of the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D.

Not knowing who to trust anymore, Steve and Natasha hide in Sam Wilson's house. Sam tells them that he has a "Falcon" wingpack that he used during his time in the military and they decide to recruit Sam to stop Hydra with them. They kidnap Hydra mole Jasper Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez) and force him to tell them Hydra's true plan: to hijack Project Insight by using an algorithm made by Zola to find threats to Hydra and use the Helicarriers to kill them even before they commit any crimes. The Winter Soldier and his men return and ambush the group, killing Sitwell. After a fight, Steve unmasks the Winter Soldier to reveal James "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan), Steve's best friend who was thought killed in the 1940s, but was secretly kidnapped by Hydra and brainwashed to follow their orders.

Fury's close friend and S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Maria Hill (Cobie Smulders) takes Steve, Sam, and Natasha to a safehouse where Fury is still alive, having faked his death to go undercover. Fury gives them controller chips that they can use to disable the Helicarriers before Hydra can use them. Steve tells Fury that he plans to completely destroy S.H.I.E.L.D. to stop Hydra from ever forming again. They all go to S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, where Steve tells everyone the truth about Hydra and their plan and Natasha leaks Hydra's files to the public. Fury fights and kills Pierce for his betrayal. Meanwhile, Steve and Sam are able to get inside two of the three Helicarriers and disable them with the controller chips. On the third Helicarrier, Bucky appears as the Winter Soldier and tries to stop Steve, but Steve inserts the final controller chip and foils Hydra's plan. Steve refuses to fight Bucky and tries to make him remember that he's his best friend. At first, Bucky resists and attacks Steve, but soon realizes the truth. As Steve falls into the Potomac River, Bucky saves him from drowning and disappears.

After the battle, Hydra is no more and S.H.I.E.L.D. is mostly destroyed. Natasha appears before the Senate, while Fury plans to go to Europe to stop any of Hydra's remaining cells. Steve tells Sam that he wants to find Bucky, and Sam insists on joining him.

In a mid-credits scene, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kreitschmann) experiments on a test subject with super-speed (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and another with telekinetic abilities (Elizabeth Olsen). In a post-credits scene, Bucky visits his own memorial at the Smithsonian.

## Cast

- Chris Evans as Steven Rogers / Captain America
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes / Winter Soldier
- Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce
- Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury
- Toby Jones as Arnim Zola
- Thomas Kretschmann as Baron Von Strucker
- Aaron Taylor-Johnson as Pietro Maximoff / Quicksilver
- Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch
- Garry Shandling as Senator Sterns

## Infobox (film)

- **name**: Captain America: The Winter Soldier
- **image**: Captain America The Winter Soldier logo.png
- **producer**: Kevin Feige
- **music**: Henry Jackman
- **cinematography**: Trent Opaloch
- **studio**: Marvel Studios
- **distributor**: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Walt Disney Studios
Motion Pictures
- **runtime**: 136 minutes
- **country**: United States
- **language**: English
- **budget**: $170–177 million
- **gross**: $714.4 million