MCU: 10 Things You Learn Rewatching Captain America: The Winter Soldier

2. The Action Feels Genuine

Captain America The Winter Soldier Elevator
Marvel Studios

The Winter Soldier's finale does devolve somewhat into a typical CGI spectacle, but for the vast majority of the film the opposite is true. Fight scenes are well choreographed, there's a genuine threat to the violence and, between Bucky and Cap, a clear and compelling emotional current.

One only need mention the film's stunning elevator sequence to illustrate its quality when it comes to action, which makes for one of the tensest encounters the MCU has ever seen. The unease increases as more and more bodies pile into the elevator, with the viewer alerting to the intentions of Cap's coworkers only as he does, making what seemed at first to be a fairly innocuous scene of transition a pivotal and devastating moment, with Pierce's role now fully disclosed.

There are plenty of other sequences of note, including the pivotal highway scene involving Sam Wilson, Steve and Nat against The Winter Soldier and his mercenaries, but perhaps the film's best comes in its final sequence. This is the moment the franchise had been building towards since Bucky fell off of Zola's train in The First Avenger, and Steve's attempts to rekindle his memory are heartbreaking, with the Captain delivering those famous, devastating words to his former comrade: "Then finish it. Because I'm with you to the end of the line."

When it comes to the MCU, there isn't a friendship stronger than theirs, and it shines through Winter Soldier's action as much as it does its dialogue.

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WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well. In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.