CAPTAIN AMERICA The Winter Soldier: Insane Deta...

CAPTAIN AMERICA The Winter Soldier: Insane Details, Easter Eggs And Things You Missed | MCU INFINITY SAGA

 

Whenever someone says that the MCU movies are just theme park rides, I point them to Captain America: The Winter Soldier.

The political spy thriller is filled to the brim with subtext, social commentary and easter eggs that easily make it one of the best movies that Marvel has ever made.

What’s more, the film gets even better after you’ve binged the Infinity Saga and find the best details that only come to fruition after you’ve seen every movie from Iron Man all the way up to Far From Home. Some of these easter eggs may have popped up in other videos but I guarantee there’s a couple here that you haven’t seen before so make sure you stick around until the end.

There will be Heavy Spoilers here so if you aren’t fully caught up on all 23 films then I highly recommend that you snap yourself out of here as we will be talking about a lot of the major moments in the movies.

Parallel Shots

In The Winter Soldier, we learn that Bucky survived his fall in the prior film. He was found by Hydra and experimented on leading to him becoming a twisted version of Captain America. Instead of a shield, he has a metal arm but there are also some amazing shots laced throughout the movie that subtly hint at the similarities between the two.

If you’ve been watching our other breakdowns then you’ll know we always examine the parallels between certain moments and though your brain might not notice them, your subconscious definitely does. This allows you to draw conclusions over the character’s arcs and no more are these examples more present in Captain America and the Winter Soldier.

The angle in which Cap was first created also mirrors the angle in which we approach Bucky as we join him having his memory wiped.

A shot of Bucky also mirrors one from Cap’s final journey in The First Avenger and the two both visit the howling commandos display in the film wearing similar clothing.

Throughout the adventures, there have been shots that have purposely been chosen to show the similarities between the two and I believe that these have been put in place to show how they basically mirror images of one another.

Similar to Cap, Bucky is a man out of time that has been selected for specific missions and thanks to his super soldier serum he completes them with ease. However, whereas Cap was working predominantly for S.H.I.E.L.D, Bucky was working predominantly for Hyrda…who also just so happen to be within S.H.I.E.L.D.

Anyway, these are some amazing little parallels between the two that remind you of just how similar they are and why Cap would eventually go against the Avengers to save his friends in Civil War.

Civil War Links

Civil War itself also has several callbacks to this film, most namely the interactions between Bucky and Cap.

Steve asks says you know me in Winter Soldier before asking do you know me in Civil War.

He also tries to tell him that he’s his friend when calming him down which is too a reason that he gives Stark as to why he’s protecting the character.

Bucky even puts his arm around a skinny Steve and says come on man and leads him away which is also similar to how the two left at the end of Civil War.

Other Hero Similarities 

These aren’t the only shots in the movie that reference other heroes either. In our Iron Man 3 video, we discussed how Tony and Cap both had pretty similar arcs throughout their trilogy. I don’t wanna just recap what I said there but this film reminds us of Cap’s sacrifice at the end of The First Avenger. He kept a photo of Peggy as he crashed the Hydra plane on what was seemingly a one-way ticket and this was echoed in Tony who tried to reach out to Pepper as he potentially flew to his death to get the nuke away from New York in the Avengers.

Whereas Tony got to go home to her, Steve was frozen in the ice and it would take a long long time before he was able to truly hold Peggy in his arms once more.

Peggy Carter

Speaking of a long long time, we actually hear the song Long Long Time by Kitty Kallen playing in Steve’s apartment in the movie and this song returns for the final dance between him and Peggy at the end of this movie.

In Winter Soldier we actually learn that Peggy has dementia and during her conversation with Steve there are a lot of things that hint towards his actions in Endgame.

Firstly she says the best thing we can do is start over and Steve would also of course do this in Avengers Endgame. Now depending on what time travel theory you subscribe to for Endgame, also may add some cool little details here.

Whilst the Russos disagree, the writers of the movie say that Steve always went back and lived out his life with Peggy and this is why her husband’s identity was hidden throughout this movie. Peggy reacts in a way that seems to be almost how she would’ve reacted upon seeing him return at the end of that movie and it is possible that this was deliberately set out like this. The writers themselves said that they planned out Steve’s time travelling all the way back in the First Avenger and that this is why they laced so many lines about the last dance throughout it.

Though it contradicts the understanding of how the Russos’ laid out time travel in Endgame, if Steve was always meant to go back then this would mean that no branched timelines would be created and thus this line still rings true.

During Civil War we also learn that Agent 13 is actually the niece of Peggy Cart…wait you kissed your own niece…whut.

However, there’s also a line that hints towards this in Winter Soldier when Sharon says that she’s been on the phone with her aunt who has insomnia. Insomnia is a common symptom of dementia and this is a nice little hint that Marvel knew what they were doing with the character.

Return of Zola

Peggy isn’t the only character alongside Bucky to return from The First Avenger either and in the movie, we meet the A.I. recreation of Arnim Zola.

Zola had his consciousness uploaded to a machine after defecting to the US and building Hydra within Shield. This machine was actually shown in the background of Endgame and Zola was seen for a split second in the film when Steve and Tony were sneaking around the base in which the Zola reveal is located at.

Cap, of course, uses the knowledge that he gained in this movie to discover where the compound is and then he carries this across to Endgame too.

In addition to all this, Zola’s appearance as a screen was actually hinted at in the First Avenger with a nice bit of foreshadowing that suggested the way that things we going to happen.

I told you these Marvel guys don’t miss a beat.

The Starks 

When Zola is presenting elements of the past, most namely the death of Howard Stark we get a quick flash of a newspaper and can see that it was released December 17th 1991. This is a date that has been something that has appeared throughout the MCU and it was even in Iron Man 1 with a similar report. In Civil War, we see the CCTV footage is dated the 16th of December so they were killed at this point and then the newspaper was released the following day.

This is likely also when Steve learned that Bucky had killed the Starks which of course was a big point in Civil War.

Speaking of Howard, In The First Avenger he remarks that Hydra won’t be coming at them with a pocket knife, however in this film, the Winter Soldier literally attacks them with a pocket knife at one point.

Name-Drops

Some more cool little Easter eggs that we’ve noticed throughout our MCU binge-watch are some other characters pop up. Matthew Ellis appears for a split second as a target for Hydra – we learned in Iron Man 3 that he was the President and this is a nice carry-over for this film. Maria Hill is also spotted for a split second during this targeting scene and we also get a quick glimpse at Tony Stark who is sitting in the remodelled Avengers Tower.

Dr Strange is also name-dropped as a target by Sitwell and I dunno…something about this guy doesn’t sitwell with me…ey…you having that.

There’s actually a hint that Sitwell is a two-faced character early on in the MCU as when he first appeared in Thor he was shown in a way similar to how Gemini symbols often appear which can be a symbol of duality.

Senator Stern from Iron Man 3  also appears and there are some really nice carryovers from the other films.

Attack on Fury

Now whilst the Hydra twist is one of the biggest whuuuttt moments in the MCU, there are some minor clues that things are up with them way before we find out.

For example, when Nick Fury is shot in Cap’s apartment, the radio responder to Agent 13 seems to know that this happens before he’s even told it, showing that it was indeed an inside job.

If you watch the MCU in chronological order too, Captain Marvel inevitably pops up before this film.

In that film, Fury tells Carol that his friends call him Fury and his enemies call him Nick.

In the movie Alexander Pierce calls him Nick and not Fury, suggesting that he is indeed a bad guy.

The Lift Scene

When Captain America gets onto the lift before the big action scene, there are a couple of things that hint that something is up with those that also get onboard with him.

This scene has been picked apart a lot but one thing I haven’t seen anyone point out is that we can see the men in suits wearing tactical boots instead of formal shoes. As they’re just in an office building they wouldn’t need to wear these unless they were gearing up for a fight.

A cool little detail happens when Rumlow hits him with an electrified stun stick, when doing this both of them shake as the current passes through the two showing that he was getting hurt just as much as Cap was.

The location itself actually holds a lot of significance too. As cap enters it we can actually see the Watergate complex in the background of it. This is of course where the infamous Watergate scandal happened that eventually led to the President resigning. Watergate involved the government spying on its own people similar to how Hydra do and this little easter egg is a nice hint towards the movie’s plot.

An elevator scene just like this would reappear in Endgame however, Steve would use the things he learned in this movie to stop a fight from breaking. The hail Hydra line is still hilarious to me.

If you’ve read Secret Empire you’ll know why because, man the Internet did not like that.

 

On Your Left

The movie of course opens with us being introduced to Sam Wilson with Cap doing Laps around him and saying On your left.

Maybe…maybe his nickname should be Laps…instead of Cap…nevermind.

This of course makes a big return in Endgame but one that you might not have noticed is that when Sam approaches old man Rogers at the lake bench, he does it from his left.

Other Avengers

Along with Sam, Nat plays a big part in this movie as well and she arguably becomes Steve’s closest ally. She, of course, doesn’t wanna get rid of being BFFs with Hawkeye though and you might have noticed in the movie that she has an arrow necklace which is a call back to Clint.

Importance of Fury

Nick Fury of course plays a big part too. Not only is his death instrumental to some of the events in Agents of Shield but the lines that he drops also play a much larger part in the overall universe.

When first introducing Cap to the Helicarriers he says that Stark helped them to build rotorless ones. Throughout our breakdowns, we’ve often talked about how Tony learns from his mistakes and some great examples are how he uses a nano shield in Endgame after using a nano one in Infinity War caused him to deplete his armour.

In The Avengers we saw that he and Steve both wasted valuable time trying to restart one of the engines and this led to Tony becoming stuck in one and almost dying. Here the engines are now rotorless so that this can’t happen in the future.

Fury also talks about how the last time he trusted someone he lost an eye and this of course happened in Captain Marvel after he told Goose that he trusted him.

Alexander Pierce too discusses a mission in Bohgatar in which Fury played a big part.

In Captain Marvel, we learned that Fury’s missions tended to all be set in countries with a B and he said so far he’d been to Belfast, Bucharest, Belgrave, and Budapest.

Links to Hulk

When explaining how he was able to fake his own death, Fury mentions that Bruce Banner worked on a toxin that slowed his heart rate. In the incredible Hulk, we learned an elevated heartbeat was one of the main factors that unleashed the Hulk so it makes sense that he would have spent time trying to perfect a device to stop any chance of the rage monster coming out.

Cap also jumps out of a plane with no parachute at the start and I think this might actually also be a nod to the Incredible Hulk in which Bruce did the same before landing in Harlem.

He also did it in Ragnarok to a much funnier effect.

Lasting Damage

At the end of the movie the Triskelion is destroyed and a subtle nod to this actually pops up in Spider-man Homecoming. When the class are on their field trip to Washington they pass a sign that says Triskellion cleanup. This shows that the damage caused by the buildings collapse and the helicarriers have caused long-lasting damage.

Character Note on Nat

Another consistency that I love is that Natasha has a habit of putting her feet up. She does this in the car and also later in Endgame at several points when she’s near a table.

Do not tell Quentin Tarantino.

Natasha also tells Steve that he’s a horrible liar after he says he doesn’t know what Fury was doing in his apartment. Pierce later asks him the same question and he answers with the same thing but in a slightly different way, likely taking advice from Nat.

How it Ends

The movie ends with the forces of S.H.I.E.L.D. taking down Hydra but it sort of feels like a big loss. Nick Fury has to fake his own death and at his grace, we actually see on his tombstone that the quote is the same one that Jules drops in Pulp Fiction from Ezekiel 25:17.

Maria Hill gets a job at Stark Industries and she actually has to take a lie detector test probably because they know she’s a spy and as we learned, Hydra agents are everywhere.

Bucky ventures to the museum to learn more about his past and we can see that the Captain America mannequin has been removed after Cap took his uniform back. I hope Stan Lee didn’t get fired for this but it’s a nice little consistency that ties the film together.

And that’s our entire list. I know the movie is packed with easter eggs and there’s been a tonne of breakdowns on them so I hope you had fun with this and got to see some ones that you hadn’t noticed before.

Obviously, I’d love to hear your thoughts on the Easter eggs and if there are any that we missed.

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