10 Smartest Decisions In Superhero Movie History

5. Arnim Zola Embeds HYDRA Within S.H.I.E.L.D. - Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a pivotal MCU film for one major reason: it revealed that the villainous Nazi offshoot HYDRA has actually been existing parasitically within S.H.I.E.L.D. since it was founded after World War II, courtesy of Swiss HYDRA scientist Arnim Zola (Toby Jones).

As it turned out, HYDRA has been subtly manipulating world events to further its own agenda, all in the quest of ultimately establishing a fascist global government.

The culmination of this plan was Project Insight, which would use three heavily armed Helicarriers to instantly annihilate 20 million people who were believed to be HYDRA's political enemies around the world. With these dissenters dead, HYDRA would be able to take control relatively effortlessly.

As far as megalomaniacal plots for world domination go, this was pretty damn incredible, and the fact that Zola managed to keep his slow-burn infiltration going for 70 years free of major opposition is pretty damn incredible.

Hell, he even defied death himself by having his brain downloaded into a series of supercomputers at Camp Lehigh. Until Cap and Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) showed up and ruined everything, anyway.

Considering that just about nobody, either the movie's characters or viewers, saw this coming, it's pretty impressive that the logic tracks and it doesn't just feel like a contrived ass-pull for shock value. And to think, Zola almost got what he wanted.