It has been 12 years since the Marvel Cinematic Universe released its best movie for pure cinematic action, and nothing has touched it in the years since. The MCU officially began in 2008 with Iron Man, which at the time seemed like a strange superhero to start with but ended up being the perfect launching point for the MCU. Throughout the years, there have been high points and low points, and there have been some massive fan favorite moments, especially when it all tied together in Avengers: Endgame. However, nothing has matched the highest of highs when it comes to pure action as Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier hit theaters on April 4, 2014, and it presented a movie that proved the MCU could be more than just superhero action. A spy espionage thriller at heart, this MCU movie also had some of the best action scenes from any MCU movie, and nothing released then has really touched it.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Remains an Untouched MCU Masterpiece
It has been 15 years since Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved that the MCU was more than just superheroes flying around and using their powers to fight villains. When released, fans realized this was something special and it was above and beyond anything the MCU had released to that point. This was a movie that felt at home with any espionage movie and could sit alongside something like Mission: Impossible, but with heroes who wear costumes instead of spies working undercover.
There were a lot of big moments in the movie, such as Cap actually taking down attacking jets, and the huge moments (such as Cap jumping from an elevator and falling several stories, just to get up and run off. However, with Robert Redford turning in a brilliant performance as Alexander Pierce, the traitor and leader of HYDRA, and Chris Evans at his all-time best as Captain America, there was a lot to love about this movie. It also works great as an espionage movie, where the traitors to the country actually infiltrate the U.S. government at its highest levels, and then start to assimilate the agencies into a force that is meant to take over the country’s governing bodies.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a huge success, making $714 million at the box office, and it was proof that the solo movies could work just as good as the event movies where the heroes all teamed up together. However, its biggest selling point, and what still holds up today, is how the action scenes in this movie stand up against anything the MCU has done since, including the work in event films like Avengers: Endgame.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier Has Several Action Scene Masterpieces
There are a lot of incredible fight scenes in movies like Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, as well as solo releases like Thor: Ragnarok and the Guardians of the Galaxy movies. However, the problem with those movies is that so much of the action uses CGI that it really just becomes a blue of high-octane action scenes that all ends up blending together in the end. That isn’t what Captain America: The Winter Soldier was all about. This was a spy movie and it used as much practical action as it could.
The best scene in the movie might be the smallest and most personal. This was when Steve Rogers gets onto the elevator with several SHIELD agents who he realizes at the last minute are actually HYDRA agents betraying the country. This includes Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo), who later became Crossbones in Captain America: Civil War. When Cap figured it out, he counted heads and gave them all a chance to back out of it. When they didn’t, Cap then took down all 10 agents, including Rumlow, before escaping.
There was another scene that was a car chase, where Nick Fury was on the run and HYDRA agents were attempting to kill him. This was a great car chase that rivals the more realistic moments from The Fast & the Furious franchise, and it all ended with Fury going head to head with the Winter Soldier himself. Yes, there was CGI used here, but this was played as an actual car chase and gunfight that worked so much better than superheroes flying around blasting each other with energy rays.
There was also the incredible highway chase where Winter Soldier attacks Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon, and even though this had four people involved, it was as personal and intense as anything in an MCU movie. When it all ends with the one-on-one fight between Captain America and Bucky Barnes just exchanging blows while Cap tries to talk his old friend down, it was a masterfully choreographed fight scene that didn’t need CGI.
It also should have come as no surprise, since the first scene in the movie showed Captain America, Brock Rumlow, Black Widow, and more, as they went in at night to rescue a ship. Forget the first scene with Cap jumping out of the plane, and just move to the ship where Captain America and Batroc go to battle while the SHIELD agents take on a scene that would feel at place in a regular war movie, and Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved from the start that it wasn’t playing around. Nothing the MCU has done since has touched the pure action in this film.
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