Captain America: The Winter Soldier

It is the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay by the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.

It stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Jenny Agutter, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson.

In the film, Captain America joins forces with Black Widow (Johansson) and Falcon (Mackie) to uncover a conspiracy within the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier (Stan).

Markus and McFeely began writing the sequel around the release of The First Avenger in July 2011. The script draws from the Winter Soldier story arc in the comic books written by Ed Brubaker as well as conspiracy fiction from the 1970s such as Three Days of the Condor (1975).

The film explores S.H.I.E.L.D., similarly to how the first film explored the U.S. military, after Rogers was shown working for the agency in the MCU crossover film The Avengers (2012).

The Russo brothers signed to direct in June 2012 and casting began the following month. Filming began in April 2013 in Los Angeles, California, before moving to Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, Ohio.

The directors used practical effects and intense stunt work, but also 2,500 visual effects shots created by six companies.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 13, 2014, and was released in the United States on April 4, as part of Phase Two of the MCU.

The film received critical acclaim, with praise for the performances, direction, action sequences, visual effects, story, stunts, tone, and themes. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects.

It grossed $714 million worldwide, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2014. A sequel titled Captain America: Civil War, also directed by the Russos, was released in 2016.

During a mission alongside Agent Natasha Romanoff and S.H.I.E.L.D.’s counter-terrorism S.T.R.I.K.E. team led by Agent Brock Rumlow to free hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel from pirates led by Georges Batroc, Rogers discovers Romanoff has another assignment: to extract data from the ship’s computers.

Returning to the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.’s headquarters, Rogers confronts Director Nick Fury and is briefed about Project Insight: three Helicarriers linked to spy satellites, designed to eliminate threats preemptively.

Unable to decrypt Romanoff’s data, Fury becomes suspicious about Insight and asks senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official and Secretary of Internal Security Alexander Pierce to delay the project.

On his way to rendezvous with Maria Hill, Fury is ambushed by assailants led by an assassin called the Winter Soldier. Escaping to Rogers’ apartment,

Fury warns him that S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised but is shot by the Winter Soldier before handing Rogers a flash drive containing the ship’s data. Fury is pronounced dead during surgery, and Hill recovers the body.

Pierce summons Rogers to the Triskelion. When Rogers withholds Fury’s information, Pierce brands him a fugitive. Hunted by S.T.R.I.K.E., Rogers meets with Romanoff.

Using the data, they discover a secret S.H.I.E.L.D. bunker in New Jersey, where they activate a supercomputer containing the preserved consciousness of Arnim Zola.

Zola reveals that after being captured by Rogers during World War II, he was recruited to S.H.I.E.L.D., where he secretly reformed Hydra within its ranks, sowing global chaos using the Winter Soldier as their primary assassin.

The pair narrowly escapes death when a S.H.I.E.L.D. missile destroys the bunker, and they realize that Pierce is Hydra’s leader within S.H.I.E.L.D. Rogers and Romanoff enlist the help of VA employee and former USAF pararescueman Sam Wilson, whom Rogers befriended, and acquire a powered “Falcon” wingpack used by Wilson while he was in the Air Force.

They capture S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Jasper Sitwell, a Hydra mole, forcing him to divulge that Zola developed a data-mining algorithm that can identify individuals becoming future threats to Hydra.

The Insight Helicarriers will sweep the globe using satellite guns to eliminate the threat. Sitwell is killed in an ambush by the Winter Soldier, whom Rogers recognizes as Bucky Barnes, his longtime best friend previously thought dead;

He had survived due to Zola’s experimentation and has been repeatedly brainwashed and cryogenically frozen to perform Hydra’s missions.

Hill manages to extract the trio to a safehouse where Fury, who had faked his death, plans to sabotage the Helicarriers by replacing their controller chips.

After the World Security Council members arrive for the Helicarriers’ launch, Rogers broadcasts Hydra’s plot to everyone at the Triskelion.

Romanoff, disguised as one of the Council members, disarms Pierce. Fury arrives and forces Pierce to unlock S.H.I.E.L.D.’s database so Romanoff can leak classified information, exposing Hydra to the public. Following a struggle, Fury fatally shoots Pierce.

Rogers and Wilson raid two Helicarriers and replace the controller chips, but Barnes destroys Wilson’s suit and fights Rogers on the third. Rogers fends him off and replaces the final chip, allowing Hill to take control and have the vessels destroy each other.

Rogers refuses to fight Barnes in an attempt to reach his friend, but as the ship collides with the Triskelion, Rogers falls into the Potomac River.

Barnes rescues the unconscious Rogers before disappearing into the woods. With S.H.I.E.L.D. in disarray, Romanoff appears before a Senate subcommittee to defend her and Rogers’ actions.

Fury, under the cover of his apparent death, heads to Europe to pursue Hydra’s remaining cells. Rogers and Wilson decide to find Barnes, while Rumlow, who was a Hydra agent, is hospitalized following the Triskelion’s destruction.

In a mid-credits scene, at a Hydra lab, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker and his scientists examine an energy-filled scepter and two test subjects:

One with superhuman speed, the other with telekinetic powers. In a post-credits scene, Barnes visits his own memorial at the Smithsonian Institution.