10 Most Nonsensical Plot Holes In The MCU

In Captain America: Civil War, Colonel Helmut Zemo stages an elaborate plot to avenge himself against the Avengers, having learned that Captain America’s childhood friend was the Hydra assassin that killed Iron Man’s parents.

The trouble is, the rest of Zemo's master plan to obtain the hard evidence he needs - from the Winter Soldier himself - only works because the story says it does. Under the slightest scrutiny, the whole thing falls apart like wet cake.

At every step, Zemo’s plan relies on something happening that he has little to no control over. That the Joint Terrorism Task Force can find Barnes when no one else has. That if they do, they’ll capture Barnes without killing him and bring him to Berlin (where Zemo’s keeping an EMP device). That if they do, they’ll fly in a psychiatrist that Zemo can easily replace despite looking nothing like him. That, if they do, he can easily escape JTTF HQ and, despite his cover being blown, can travel to wherever else he needs to go to do whatever else he needs to do (because until he speaks to Barnes, Zemo has no idea what further steps he’ll need to take to reach his goal).

Finally, his plan revolves, pure and simple, around the Avengers being that easy to turn against each other. He has no way of knowing that, independently of his plan, the Sokovia Accords has already split the team along party lines, much less that it’ll be Team Cap vs Team Stark; and he has no way of knowing that Rogers has enough of a connection with Barnes that he’ll side with the brainwashed terrorist who killed his old war buddy over that war buddy’s only son and the rule of law.

You know what would have made sense? Zemo using his peerless planning skills and vast resources to locate and capture the Winter Soldier himself. But then we wouldn’t have had as many cool set pieces, would we?