5 Weird Moments In Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2. Zola On Tape

About halfway through the film, the writers apparently decided that this comic book movie was far too realistic, so threw in the most over-the-top comic book element they could find. For reasons of plot, Captain America and Black Widow stumble across a bunker in a disused military training camp containing several dozen 1970s styled computers. It turns out that the bodily Zola, close to death, had his mind transferred onto magnetic tape so that he could exist as a giant supercomputer which our heroes natter with, revealing important information including the villain's dastardly scheme. It's a blatant exposition dump (Zola even admits that he's stalling) that is never mentioned again once the scene ends, meaning this bizarre sequence is wedged between the espionage and action so awkwardly that the tonal shift gave us whiplash. You can forgive a bit of fan service, but they really needed to dial-down the comic book campness and this scene didn't help. Though stylistic, it would have been more unnerving to show Zola trapped on a crumbling machine in a dank hovel, rather than a room so white it was probably designed by Apple. Furthermore, is it really necessary for HYDRA to condemn Zola to existence solely on a medium that could be wiped with a small magnet? We know that he became Cyber-Zola at a time when tape was the best and only means of storing data (assuming the technologically-advanced HYDRA doesn't have something better), but has he really spent four decades refusing to be transferred to a more svelte and robust digital home? They show that modern tech is present in the room to indicate the ongoing involvement of Zola with HYDRA, so it's not as though he's not had the chance to ask. They have the technology, they can reboot him.