Good evening, everyone. Welcome to the next post in my series covering the Marvel Cinematic Universe. We are now in the third and final phase of the Infinity Saga. The movie that started Phase 3 was “Captain America: Civil War”. Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, this movie stars a whole bunch of people: Chris Evans as Steve Rogers/Captain America, Robert Downey Jr as Tony Stark/Iron Man, Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanov/Black Widow, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Anthony Mackie as 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, Tom Holland as Peter Parker/Spider-Man, and Daniel Bruhl as Helmut Zemo. As the title suggests, the heroes are in a major disagreement with other over the Sokovia Accords. Meanwhile, Zemo is planning something sinister himself. Before I go any further, let’s go to the beginning of the movie.
It starts with a flashback to December 16, 1991. We see Bucky Barnes as the Winter Soldier being brainwashed by Hydra in Siberia. A book containing key words is read to him in Russian. He is then sent on a mission to kill a couple of people (we see who they are later). After the flashback scene, we cut to the Marvel Studios logo. We cut to present day in Lagos, where Wanda is having some coffee while talking with Captain America. Natasha is also at the coffee shop. Falcon is also in Lagos as the four of them are looking for a guy named Crossbones (Rumlow from the previous Captain America movie). Rumlow (Frank Grillo) plans to steal a biological chemical weapon from an infectious disease facility. Captain America arrives and takes care of the guards outside. Falcon and Wanda arrive as well and take care of more bad guys. Cap gets inside and gets more bad guys taken care of while Wanda takes care of the bad gas. Natasha arrives and beats up some guys before being thrown into a van by Crossbones. He sets up a grenade, but she gets out anyway. The four heroes then get to a flea market to fight the guys. Cap get into it with Rumlow while Natasha and Falcon take care of the henchmen and save the weapon from blowing up. Cap takes care of Rumlow for the moment. Rumlow then sets up a self-detonating bomb that Wanda inadvertently throws him to a hospital, killing some innocent people along the way and feeling guilty about herself after the fact. We then cut to a young Tony Stark with his parents before they leave for the Bahamas. It all turns out to be a simulation as the current Tony talks with the students at MIT. He ends his speech by telling everyone that their projects have been funded and being flustered by Pepper Potts’ name being on the teleprompter. Tony leaves for an elevator before a lady named Miriam talks with him about what happened in Sokovia in “Age of Ultron”. She tells him that her son was killed during that battle and she blames Tony for it. At the Avengers facility in New York, the heroes see news footage about the incident in Lagos. Wanda says that it was her fault while Steve tries to reassure her that it’s not entirely her fault. Vision arrives through the walk and tells them that Stark and Ross (William Hurt) want to meet them. Ross shows them footage of the damage caused by the recent battles in the MCU: New York, DC, Sokovia, and Lagos. Yes, the heroes won, but at the cost of people being killed and buildings being destroyed. They are then shown the Sokovia Accords, which basically tells them that they are not private anymore. Ross tells them that if they disagree, the heroes retire. We then cut to Zemo who punches a guy, breaks a wall, and uncovers the same book used on Bucky in 1991. Zemo drowns the guy after he refuses to tell the details of the mission report from December 16 of that year.
While Steve and the rest of the Avengers are discussing what to do with the Accords (with some disagreements), Steve is informed via text that Peggy Carter passed away in her sleep. This causes him and Sam to go to London for the funeral service (he helped carry the casket into the church). Peggy’s great-niece Sharon (Emily VanCamp) gives a speech remembering her during the service. After her eulogy, Steve is even more insistent on not signing the Accords. In Vienna, we see T’Challa and his father T’Chaka (king of Wakanda) at the UN meeting. Natasha is also there for the meeting before it goes awry. A bomb blows up and interrupts the meeting. T’Chaka is killed as a result of this bombing. We cut to Steve and Sharon at a hotel where they talk for a bit about the time when they were neighbors. Steve is shown the footage of the UN bombing and sees Bucky in that footage. T’Challa is sitting on a bench talking about his home country and his father. He then goes to find Bucky, who was allegedly the suspect of the bombing. Natasha tells Steve to back off, but he disagrees and finds Bucky with Sam. Zemo is in his hotel room studying the book that has trigger words for Bucky before being interrupted by room service. Bucky is at a flea market in Bucharest before being suspicious and reads a newspaper about the bombing. We then cut to Captain America at Bucky’s hiding place talking with Bucky. Sam tells Cap that special forces are coming to the hiding place. Bucky tells him that he was not in Vienna. Bucky and Cap then fight the police guys. Steve doesn’t want Bucky to kill anyone during this fight sequence. Bucky then jumps out of the building and then runs into the Black Panther. Cap sees them fighting and jumps to them. A chase then ensues with Cap chasing Black Panther, who is chasing Bucky. Cap takes a van and drives to them. Meanwhile, Black Panther jumps to the fan and is unable to get him off. Bucky then takes a motorcycle and drives for a bit before Black Panther gets him off of it. After this crazy chase, they all get arrested by War Machine and the rest of the police and are sent to Berlin. We see a brief scene with Vision and Wanda at the facility trying some food. Vision tells her that nobody dislikes her. He then tells her that he doesn’t know what the stone on his forehead is. Vision is doing his best to keep her at the facility.
We then cut to Berlin, where Bucky, Steve, Sam, and T’Challa are being sent to a building. T’Challa tells them about him being king of Wakanda after his father’s death and how they will keep Bucky safe. Bucky is put into a special jail cell while the rest are in more comfortable conditions. Stark is at the facility as well as Natasha, Sharon, and Everett Ross (played by Martin Freeman). A chat then occurs between Stark and Rogers in which they discuss the Accords further. Tony tells Steve that Pepper broke up with him because of him continuing to be Iron Man. Steve tells Tony that he knew Tony’s dad Howard back in WWII. Tony tells Steve that he would like to punch him his his perfect teeth. After an argument occurs and Steve doesn’t sign the papers, we cut to Zemo talking with Bucky. The power is then cut out by an e-bomb (which Zemo kept in his hotel room), keeping the others from hearing their conversation. Zemo then opens the book and says the trigger words that cause Bucky to break out of his cell. Steve and Sam try to stop him, but are unable to do that, with Steve being punched down an elevator shaft. Steve gets back up while Bucky is fighting the others. T’Challa fights Bucky for a bit. Bucky then gets into a helicopter, but Steve stops him from flying away (and almost gets killed by the helicopter blades in the process). He is then choked by Bucky and both of them go into the water. They get up and leave the facility to somewhere safe. Bucky gets back to being a good guy and has his arm locked in the scene that was shown in the post-credits scene from “Ant-Man”. Steve is then informed by Bucky that Zemo is headed for the Hydra facility in Siberia. We then see the flashback scene where Bucky makes a car crash into a tree. He gets into the trunk to find Super-Soldier serum that he takes to the facility for evil purposes. Basically, Bucky tells Steve that there are other people like him in Siberia. After that scene, we see Secretary Ross confront Tony about Bucky. Ross tells Tony that he has 36 hours to apprehend Bucky, Steve, and Sam. Tony then goes to Queens, New York where we also see Peter Parker and Aunt May (Tom Holland and Marisa Tomei, respectively) at their apartment. Peter is amazed that Tony is at his home. We see a brief private chat with Peter and Tony where Tony shows footage of Peter in his homemade Spider-Man suit. Tony then uncovers the suit from the attic. Peter then says a variation of “With great power, comes great responsibility”, which was said by Uncle Ben to Peter (offscreen) before Ben died of a gunshot (which was shown in the comics and in previous Spider-Man movies, which I will cover later). After this chat, Peter goes with Tony to Germany, where a big fight will happen later. Back at the Avengers facility, Clint Barton convinces Wanda to escape the facility. Wanda sends Vision down a few levels (and then some) with her powers before leaving with Clint. After a brief scene with T’Challa and Natasha, we see Sharon give Cap and Falcon their stuff back. During this, Sam and Bucky have a funny scene with Sam refusing to move his seat forward. Before Steve leaves, he kisses Sharon and thanks her. The other two guys make fun of him for it. We cut to the airport in Germany where Steve, Sam, and Bucky meet with Clint, Wanda, and Scott Lang (Paul Rudd). Scott is amazed in this scene about Captain America. They then find out that Stark is at the airport with his team, which consists of War Machine, Black Panther, Black Widow, Vision, and Spider-Man (who steals Cap’s shield with his webbing). Steve tries to tell Tony about Zemo and the thing in Siberia, but Tony is not having any of it. Sam tells Steve that the Quinjet is in hangar five. Ant-Man punches Spider-Man and gives Steve back his shield. Steve and T’Challa fight each while Ant-Man and Natasha fight each other somewhere else. In the airport, Spider-Man fights Bucky and Falcon and eventually webs them both. Stark then talks with Wanda and Clint for a moment. Wanda then throws a whole bunch of cars at Tony. Ant-Man gives Captain America a Pym disk, which makes a small truck grow to normal size and explode near War Machine. Team Captain America then tries to get to the Quinjet, but is interrupted by Vision before getting into an all-out brawl with Team Iron Man. This fight is straight out of a big comic book page where everyone fights with each other. Everyone gets to use their skills and powers in this big fight scene. During the scene, Ant-Man rides an arrow to Stark’s suit and messes it up. Ant-Man gets out of there and then grows to a giant version of himself. Spider-Man is able to trip him with some webbing while referencing the AT-AT trip during “The Empire Strikes Back.” While all of this is happening, Steve and Bucky make their way to the Quinjet. They barely make it after Vision almost hits them with a lot of rubble. Natasha is in front of them, but she stops Black Panther enough to allow both of them to get to the Quinjet and fly to Siberia. Scott changes back to his normal self while Tony tells Peter that he is done (he threatens to call Aunt May if Peter gets back up). War Machine chases the Quinjet but gets hit by Vision’s laser beam (which was supposed to hit Falcon) and falls to the ground. Amazingly, Rhodes doesn’t die after that big fall. He does, however, get paralyzed from the waist down. Sam says that he is sorry, but is knocked out by Tony and sent to an underwater prison along with Scott, Clint, and Wanda. A brief disturbing scene happens where the room service lady sees a dead man in a bathtub. Natasha questions Tony about his inability let go of his ego for one second. Tony then flies via helicopter to the underwater prison while seeing some stuff about Zemo.
Meanwhile, we cut to Steve and Bucky arriving at the Hydra facility in Siberia. Bucky gets the door open and they go inside. They make their way to where the other Winter Soldiers are kept cryogenically frozen. Tony then makes it to the prison facility (which is called The Raft) where he talks with Secretary Ross, who is not pleased about the fight in Germany. Clint trash talks Tony for a bit until Tony talks with Sam. Tony messes with the security cameras and convinces Sam to tell him where Steve and Bucky are. Sam tells Tony to go alone and as a friend. Tony suits up and leaves the helicopter behind as he flies to Siberia, as does T’Challa in his own ship. We then see Steve and Bucky go into the facility again where they see Tony, who wants to reconcile with Steve, which they do. The three of them go further into the facility where they see that room with the other Winter Soldiers. Zemo tells them that they died before revealing that he was a Sokovian and that he lost his family during the events of “Age of Ultron”. Tony and Steve are shown footage of the attack that happened in 1991. The footage shows Bucky as the Winter Soldier killing both of Tony’s parents. This makes Tony sad and angry as he asks Steve if he knew this. The three of them then fight after Steve says yes to Tony’s question. The room collapses around them as Steve tells Bucky to get out. Steve fails to tell Tony that Bucky was controlled by Hydra. Bucky climbs up before Tony keeps him in there. They all go down to the floor level, near the snow, where they have the final confrontation. Tony gets double teamed by Bucky and Steve before he recovers and makes Bucky lose the arm. Steve then stops Tony’s laser with his shield while we cut to T’Challa talking with Zemo. Zemo is prevented from shooting himself by Black Panther and he is knocked out. Steve punches Tony for a bit before Tony gets the upper hand for the moment. Tony tells Steve: "Stay down. Final warning".Steve responds wit “I can do this all day”, Bucky disrupts Tony for a brief moment, allowing Steve to slam his shield onto Tony's suit. Tony protects his head before Steve slams his shield onto his chest. As Steve and Bucky are leaving, Tony tells Steve this: "That shield doesn't belong to you. You don't deserve it. My father made that shield." Steve drops the shield and gives it to Stark while Tony struggles with his wounds. We then cut to Zemo in his special prison cell as Everett Ross talks to him for a bit. Back at the Avengers facility, Tony helps Rhodes walk again before getting a package from Stan Lee (who is working for FedEx in this cameo). Stan Lee says that the package is for “Tony Stank”, which is funny as heck. Tony opens up the package and reads a letter from Steve. In the letter, he apologizes for everything that happened, including not signing the Accords and not telling him about his parents sooner. Tony is offered an old-fashioned flip phone to call Steve if he needs him. In the meantime, Steve frees Sam, Clint, Wanda, and Scott from the Raft. After the name montage, we see Bucky get cryogenically frozen in Wakanda while Steve and T’Challa talk for a bit. After the credits, we see Peter back at home discover that Stark put a holographic computer in his web shooters (while making up injuries to keep Aunt May from discovering this). The movie ends with the tease that Spider-Man will return.
Where to start with this one? Even though it is labeled as a Captain America movie, it has pretty much all of the Avengers, plus some extras. The most dramatic confrontations were the ones between Captain America and Iron Man (who are once again played well by Chris Evans and Robert Downey Jr, respectively). The tension between them is felt from beginning to end. All throughout the movie, Steve is insistent on not signing the Accords. This is similar to the actual Civil War story from the comics where Captain America and many other heroes disagree with the Superhuman Registration Act while Stark agrees with it. Obviously, the big difference is that the movie version does not have as many characters. However, that doesn’t mean that the movie was lacking of heroes against each other. T’Challa/Black Panther was introduced to the MCU in this movie. Chadwick Boseman played him spectacularly well. He was the perfect man to play the king of Wakanda. Spider-Man was also introduced to the MCU in this movie. Tom Holland played the character very well. He embodied who Peter Parker was when he was a teenager in high school, not just in this movie, but throughout his time in the MCU. 7 years later, the airport fight scene in Germany is one of my all-time favorite fight scenes in the MCU as well as in any movie. It really felt like a comic book spread page come to life. From Spider-Man fighting Captain America to Ant-Man growing into a giant (and then getting tripped by Spider-Man) and many other fights between different heroes, this scene had it all. The most intense fight scene was, of course, the confrontation between Captain America, Iron Man, and Bucky that happened after Tony saw the footage of his parents getting killed. That fight ended in a big emotional moment where Captain America gives up his shield after Tony said that his father made it. It was a bit of a relief when Tony read the letter from Steve in which Steve apologizes for everything. The phone that was given to Tony will be important in two years’ time. Even with the drama in this movie, there were still some funny moments. From Tony’s quips to the funny interactions between Bucky and Sam to everything involving Scott Lang/Ant-Man (Paul Rudd is the perfect guy for that role) to Spider-Man’s commentary, I had some good laughs while watching Civil War. Every actor and actress played their role well in this movie. Daniel Bruhl was a threatening villain as he got into the heroes’ minds. Major kudos to Joe and Anthony Russo, plus the writing duo of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. I also want to give credit to everyone involved with choreographing the fight scenes. Henry Jackman’s score was great, especially during the intense scenes.
Overall, “Captain America: Civil War” remains one of my favorite movies in the MCU. This movie had major repercussions on the relationship between Tony and Steve, who will eventually reunite with each other in a couple of years. As the result of this movie, Steve and a few others left America and went into hiding for a bit. Bucky is frozen again, but he will remain a good guy for the rest of the MCU. We will have to wait a bit before they all face Thanos. For right now, this series of posts will continue with “Doctor Strange”. I’ll get that post done soon. Have a great weekend, everyone.
(Here are the two videos on "Civil War" by How It Should Have Ended. All credit to them.)
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