8 Ways The Winter Soldier Could Dominate The Marvel Cinematic Universe

5. His Believability

MCU movies are not made to be believed, as it were, but some convoluted and confusing villain arcs (looking at you, Iron Man 3) ruin the immersive experience that the more successful films of the franchise give the viewers. The Winter Soldier, despite being as implausible as his counterpart, contributes to the Captain America sequel€™s successful suspension of disbelief. Unlike, for example, Aldrich Killian, the Winter Soldier has pretty clear motivations throughout the movie, as do most brainwashed assassins with no unique thought or opinion, generally. This helps in keeping the film relatively streamlined and uncluttered despite Alexander Pierce€™s SHIELD shenanigans going on around him. In-universe, and with respect to the HYDRA plot, his existence is perfectly believable, smoothly integrated, and even hinted at subtly in the first Captain America movie, instead of something like Malekith and the Aether that seemed to come jarringly out of left-field. The Winter Soldier€™s modus operandi€”down and dirty, machine guns and fistfights galore€”contribute to his believability as well. Despite the relative simplicity of his character€™s motivations and methods, though, there is no way he feels underdeveloped, courtesy of a few excellent moments of humanization and an ending open for further exploration. It seems a simple point, but given some of the MCU€™s bizarrely convoluted villain plots, it€™s a welcome change.