- “United we stand. Divided we fall”
- ―Tagline
Captain America: Civil War is an American superhero film, based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. The film is a sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It was produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film is the twelfth installment of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the first installment in Phase Three.
Marvel officially confirmed the film on April 7, 2014, after a 300 million dollar gross in the opening weekend box office for The Winter Soldier.[1] The Russo Brothers returned for the third installment as directors alongside writers Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.[2]
Synopsis[]
Following the events of Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Avengers: Age of Ultron, the collective governments of the world pass an act designed to regulate all superhuman activity. This riot polarizes opinion among the Avengers, causing two factions to side with Iron Man or Captain America, which causes an epic battle between former allies.
Plot[]
The film opens in December, 1991, at a HYDRA base in Russia, where agents are running the Winter Soldier program. They awaken Bucky Barnes, one of the participants and Steve Rogers' best friend from World War II. He is subject to excruciating torture as the agents recondition his brain by reciting trigger words from a HYDRA journal until he is under their control. They send him on an extraction mission to recover a case of super soldier serum from the back of a vehicle.
In the present day, one year after the battle of Sokovia, the Avengers are on a mission in Lagos, facing off against Brock Rumlow and a team of mercenaries, who break into a lab to steal a biological weapon. After a fight, Rumlow taunts Steve that Bucky remembered him, and detonates a bomb strapped to his body. Wanda Maximoff contains the explosion and inadvertently releases it into a nearby building. She looks at the destruction in terror, and Steve calls for assistance.
At MIT, Tony Stark is giving a presentation to students, showing them a projection of the last time he saw his parents before their deaths. Downstairs, a woman confronts Tony after the presentation, telling him that her son was killed in Sokovia during one of the Avengers' battles, leaving Tony with intense guilt, especially when she says that she blames him and the Avengers, not Ultron.
Steve and Wanda are watching news footage criticizing the Avengers when the Vision announces that Tony has arrived, bringing with him the Secretary of State, Thaddeus Ross. Secretary Ross presents the Avengers with the Sokovia Accords, legislation signed by 117 nations that would subject the Avengers to oversight from a United Nations panel, in response to previous incidents involving the team that resulted in mass destruction. The team is divided on the terms and break into debate.
During their debate about the Accords, Rogers learns that Peggy Carter has passed away in her sleep and abruptly leaves for her funeral in London. While there, he learns Sharon Carter was Peggy's great-niece as she delivers a eulogy about how one should never back down from what they believe in. This solidifies Roger's resolve not to sign the accords. Wanda finds herself confined to the facility by Vision, ostensibly for her safety since emotions are running high after what happened in Lagos.
In Vienna, where the signing of the Accords is to take place, a terrorist bomb kills King T'Chaka of Wakanda. When security cameras reveal the suspect as Bucky Barnes, T'Chaka's son, T'Challa, vows revenge. Against Romanoff's advice, Rogers and Wilson decide to go behind Ross' back and bring in Barnes themselves. Following a tip-off by Carter, and a grueling chase, Barnes is captured, and Rogers, Wilson, and T'Challa are arrested for obstruction of justice.
While Barnes is in captivity in Berlin, Rogers and Stark argue about the Accords further, with Rogers nearly convinced to sign until he learns of Wanda's in-house arrest. At a power grid station outside the city, a box sent by Baron Zemo contains an e-bomb, which explodes and shuts down electricity for the entire city, including the cameras and computers that were monitoring Barnes. Barnes is released by Zemo, who uses HYDRA's trigger words to send him on a rampage. Rogers and Wilson intervene just as Barnes is escaping containment, with Rogers attempting to calm Barnes while Wilson chases after Zemo, who is attempting to flee the facility. Zemo escapes, and Barnes nearly gets away in a helicopter before being caught by Rogers.
In a panic, he intentionally crashes the chopper, and as it falls into the nearby river, pulls Rogers in with him before being knocked unconscious by the impact. After coming to his senses, Barnes tells Rogers that Zemo is headed for the abandoned HYDRA facility in Siberia where he and five other Winter Soldiers were created using the Super Soldier Serum he stole in 1991. Believing Zemo intends to release the other Winter Soldiers and unleash them on the world, Rogers calls upon Clint Barton for aid in freeing Wanda, which Barton agrees to since he feels he owes her a debt as her brother sacrificed himself to save his life in Sokovia. He manages to break into the Avengers Compound and convinces Wanda to come with him, who uses her abilities to overpower Vision. Falcon decides to recruit Scott Lang to join the team as well, having been impressed by his abilities following their duel a few months prior. Lang, who is in awe at getting to meet Captain America, quickly and easily agrees to join Rogers.
Back at the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre compound, Stark convinces Ross to give him 36 hours to bring his renegade comrades in and assembles Romanoff, T'Challa, James Rhodes, and Vision. Feeling he is still undermanned, Stark travels to New York City and meets Peter Parker, a high school student who has been using enhanced agility and tensile webbing of his own design to fight crime while disguised as a spider-based hero known as Spider-Man. When Stark asks him why he's doing this, Parker explains that he understands the price of not doing the right thing.
Trying to flee Berlin and reach Siberia before Zemo, Rogers and his team assemble at Leipzig-Halle Airport, where they hope to take a chopper out of the country. When sirens indicate the airport is being evacuated, Rogers instructs his team to suit up and travels to a chopper alone, where he is confronted by Stark alongside his allies. When Rogers refuses to back down, the Avengers get into a massive fight which destroys a large section of the airport.
During the fight, the Avengers decides to buy time for Rogers and Barnes to reach the Quinjet, at the expense of imprisonment. Ant-Man uses his suit to grow gargantuan, which tips the scales and creates enough of a distraction to allow Rogers and Barnes to reach a jet. The two are confronted by Romanoff, but she can't bring herself to take them down and allows them to leave in Stark's Quinjet, while the rest of the Avengers are captured.
As Stark and Rhodes chase the jet, Vision attempts to blast Falcon, who is following them, out of the sky. However, he misses and accidentally hits Rhodes and plummets to the ground. He survives the fall but is left paralyzed. Romanoff, knowing she will be arrested for acting against the accords after Tony gives her a halfhearted warning, goes into hiding. Parker is injured in the fight, and a grateful Stark sends the boy back home, much to the former's dismay until he threatens to call Aunt May if he doesn't listen to him.
Stark finds evidence that Barnes was framed by Zemo, and finds that the rest of the Avengers have been thrown into a top-secret prison called the Raft designed to hold enhanced people. He visits the dismayed former Avengers and temporarily disables security in order to learn from Wilson where Rogers and Barnes are going. He follows the two to Siberia and is shadowed by T'Challa. Rogers and Stark reconcile, and as they explore the facility, they discover that the other Winter Soldiers have been murdered by Zemo who had never intended to release them.
Zemo reveals that he is a Sokovian and wants to punish the Avengers for the death of his family during Ultron's attack. Zemo shows Stark a security video from 1991, which reveals Barnes as the assassin who murdered Stark's parents to steal samples of the Super Soldier Serum from their car. Stark asks Rogers if he knew. Rogers tells him he didn't know Barnes killed them. Not having received the answer he wanted, Stark asks again and Rogers admits that he knew they were murdered. A disillusioned and enraged Stark then turns on both of them, and another fight breaks out. While trying to crush Stark's arc reactor, Barnes' robotic arm gets blasted off by his suit's unibeam.
Rogers finally manages to disable Stark's armor and begins to depart with Barnes. As Rogers leaves, Stark bitterly tells him that his shield doesn't belong to him, but rather his father, who made it. Accepting that he is no longer worthy of it or the title of Captain America, Rogers reluctantly drops the shield and leaves with Barnes. Having succeeded in his plans of ripping apart the Avengers, Zemo waits outside where he meets with T'Challa, and the two discuss vengeance and the terrible things it can lead men to do. T'Challa has decided he will not let his desire for revenge consume him like it did Zemo and the Avengers and prevents him from committing suicide, content on sending him to prison. Under the custody of Everett Ross, Zemo hints that while he may be imprisoned, his grand plan wasn't as much of a failure as Ross suggests it was, knowing that the Avengers may now be irretrievably fractured.
Back at the Avengers facility, Stark builds an exoskeletal frame for Rhodes, to help him regain the use of his legs. Rhodes assures his friend that, despite what happened, like him, he still believes he made the right choice. Stark receives a package containing a phone and a letter from Rogers. In the letter, Rogers apologizes for everything that happened and for not telling him the truth about his parents, as well as noting his regret that he cannot accept the accords. He tells Stark that he knows the day will come when the team will need to assemble and act like one again. When that day arrives, Rogers and his team he freed from prison will be there.
Months later, Barnes and Rogers are granted asylum in Wakanda by T'Challa. Barnes chooses to undergo cryostasis until his brainwashing can be completely removed or suppressed successfully. As Rogers warns T'Challa that the governments of the world will come to Wakanda if they find out Barnes is there, T'Challa dares them to try.
Shortly after the clash, Parker pretends to have injuries about his battle when Aunt May approaches, when she leaves Peter's room he discovers a portable holographic computer that Stark had programmed into his Web-Shooters.
Cast[]
- Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America
- Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark/Iron Man
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
- Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier
- Anthony Mackie as the Sam Wilson/Falcon
- Don Cheadle as James Rhodes/War Machine
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
- Chadwick Boseman as T'Challa/Black Panther
- Paul Bettany as Vision
- Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff/Scarlet Witch
- Paul Rudd as Scott Lang/Ant-Man/Giant-Man
- Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter/Agent 13
- Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man
- Frank Grillo as Brock Rumlow/Crossbones
- William Hurt as Thaddeus Ross
- Daniel Brühl as Helmut Zemo
- Martin Freeman as Everett Ross
- Marisa Tomei as Aunt May
- John Slattery as Howard Stark
- Hope Davis as Maria Stark
- John Kani as King T'Chaka
- Kerry Condon as F.R.I.D.A.Y.
- Stan Lee as a Fed-Ex driver
- Florence Kasumba as Ayo
- Ray Sahetapy as The Auctioneer
Gallery[]
Videos[]
Trailers and Clips[]
Interviews[]
International premieres[]
- April 27, 2016 (Colombia)
- April 28, 2016 (Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Peru, Portugal)
- April 29, 2016 (Spain, Venezuela)
- May 4, 2016 (Uruguay)
- May 5, 2016 (Argentina)
- May 6, 2016 (Canada)
Trivia[]
- The containment unit that Bucky is held in is number "D23", which is the name of the Disney Fan Club.
- Bucky loses his arm in this film, which happens in almost all of Marvel's Phase Two films as their homage to The Empire Strikes Back, including a tactic during the airport battle where Spider-Man, Iron Man, and War Machine take down Ant-Man.
- This is the highest grossing film of the entire Captain America trilogy.
- Each faction's reasons for their choice.
- Pro-Accords
- Tony Stark: massive guilt for the Battle of Sokovia.
- Natasha Romanoff: guilt from her pre-S.H.I.E.L.D. life.
- Vision: Believes the Accords are logically the best choice.
- James Rhodes: A U.S. military officer; loyally follows orders.
- T'Challa: Misguided revenge.
- Peter Parker: Inexperienced superhero and big fan of Tony Stark.
- Anti-Accords
- Steve Rogers: Doesn't trust governments after the HYDRA debacle.
- Sam Wilson: Steve's friend and fellow believer in putting lives above laws.
- Bucky Barnes: Clear his name and stop the other Winter Soldiers.
- Scott Lang: His morals align against the Accords.
- Clint Barton: Has no real reason; he simply joined because Steve called for help before Tony.
- Wanda Maximoff: Tired of being feared and blamed by governments because of her powers. Encouraged by Clint.
- Pro-Accords
- Bruce Banner/Hulk was originally going to appear in the end credits scene but was cut out as they ultimately felt it was too much of a spoiler for Thor: Ragnarok, although he was technically in the movie as in a scene when Thunderbolt Ross was showing footage from the Battle of New York, Hulk was jumping from building to building causing debris to fall and hit people.
- This is the last Marvel Cinematic Universe film to have an individual Blu-ray release and a Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/Digital HD combo pack. Starting with Doctor Strange, all future Marvel Cinematic Universe films will have Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD combo packs and Blu-ray 3D/Blu-ray/DVD/Digital HD combo packs.
- In Spider-Man: Homecoming, some parts during the airport scene in Captain America: Civil War were seen in Peter Parker/Spider-Man's blog.
- In Spider-Man: Far From Home. Quentin Beck is seen at the backstage as Tony Stark delivers his speech for the September Foundation and introduction of BARF.
- This is the first appearance of Tom Holland as Spider-Man.
- Its revealed that Peter has been Spider-Man for 6 months.
- Tony and Steve don't interact, nor does Cap get his shield back until 7 years later, in Avengers: Endgame.
- In the comics, the Civil War also involved the reveal of secret identities of the superheroes.
- This was the second film in the MCU franchise to become the highest-grossing film of the year that it was released in (First one being The Avengers in 2012).
- In a deleted scene, Tony mentioned to Steve that he "missed [his] Lamaze classes", implying Pepper Potts was pregnant in early drafts for the film. In the released scene, Steve asks Tony if he and Pepper are actually pregnant, which Tony quickly shoots down, instead saying they are on a break.
- The presentation footage takes place on December 16, 1991.
- The de-aged, holographic, footage of Tony Stark this film is based on Robert Downey Jr.'s appearance in the 1987 film Less than Zero.
- Steve Rogers says that he and Bucky Barnes are 100 years old, but that can't be true as he said two years earlier in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, that he was 95, which puts Steve at 97 years old and Bucky 97-98 years old, at the time of this film.
- Sharon Carter's quote, "You plant yourself like a tree and you say 'no. You move'", from the funeral scene is repeated by Kamala Khan in the 2020 Marvel's Avengers game.
Future[]
It was revealed in April 2021 that a fourth film was in the works with Anthony Mackie as Captain America and Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, following the finale of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.[3]
References[]
- ↑
Marvel Officially Confirms Captain America 3 Captain America: Civil War on Marvel.com
- ↑ http://variety.com/2014/film/news/anthony-joe-russo-captain-america-3-1201073078/ Directors Confirmation
- ↑ "Captain America 4' in the Works With 'Falcon and the Winter Soldier' Showrunner Malcolm Spellman (Exclusive)" (April 23, 2021).
External links[]
- Captain America: Civil War on Wikipedia
- Captain America: Civil War on Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki
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