History Film / CaptainAmericatheFirstAvenger

* AllOfTheOtherReindeer: Even after becoming the peak of human physical perfection, Steve still struggled with gaining respect, with Col. Phillips seeing him nothing more but a lab rat, and soldiers thinking of him as a fool in star-spangled tights. However, once Steve starts using his abilities for more than selling war bonds, his courage, character and prowess gain him deep respect from his peers.

** Col. Phillips oddly has elements of the mainstream version of Nick Fury. Also, in the comics, Phillps chose Steve Rogers personally for being the Super Soldier test subject, while General Saunders was contrary. In the movie, Phillips fills Saunders role as he opposes the choice until being convinced otherwise.

* DueToTheDead: Phillips recognizes what's happening with Steve at the end. Even before Steve says he's gonna have to force the plane down, Phillips leaves and takes Morita with him to give Peggy some last moments alone with Steve. On VE-Day, while everyone else is celebrating, the Howling Commandos have a toast to Steve and Phillips gives Peggy Steve's file.

* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Col. Phillips makes it clear in no uncertain terms that he feels Rogers would be nothing but a hindrance to the cause, and even feels that way to an extent once he undergoes the transformation, but once Rogers succeeds in rescuing 400 allied soldiers from a POW camp against his orders, he gains his respect.

* JumpingOnAGrenade: Pre-Captain America Steve does so in boot camp with what turned out to be a dummy grenade. Phillips threw it as a character test, but was hoping one of his favored men would jump on it, but they all just ran away.

* MotivationalKiss: Steve receives a kiss from Peggy just before he boards the Red Skull's plane. Phillips declines to do the same.

** Col. Phillips refers to Steve in a telegram as Steven G. Rogers, a reference to a storyline where he had fake memory implants of him being a middle class guy from Maryland named Steven Grant Rogers.

** The display also bears the name of Phineas Horton, the inventor who created both the Human Torch and ComicBook/TheVision in the comics. Additionally, Phineas is step-father of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nova_%28Frankie_Raye%29 Frankie Raye]], [[ReallyGetsAround one of]] [[ComicBook/FantasticFour Johnny Storm]]'s ex-girlfriends, and she also appeared in ''Film/FantasticFourRiseOfTheSilverSurfer'' as potential {{love interest}} for Johnny, who was portrayed by Creator/ChrisEvans, who portrays Captain America in this movie.

** Bucky mostly eschews his comic book tights for more sturdy fatigues, however his jacket follows the design of the top of his comic costume. There's also a point in the movie where he picks up Cap's shield, a reference to the fact that he was Captain America for a while in the comics.
** At one point, Steve puts his shield on the front of his motorcycle, much like he did in an earlier made for TV movie in the '70s (yes, even before the '90s movie), as well as the comics.
** During the scene where the soldiers of the 107th escape from the HYDRA base, Dugan can be heard screaming "WA-HOOOOOOOOOOO!" in reference to the battle cry that the comic versions of the Howling Commandos use when going into battle.
** The first we see of Arnim Zola is his face on a television screen. His comic counterpart has a robot body with his face displayed on a screen in his chest. Also, some of the cameras in his lab mimic the design of the "head" his robot body possessed. It's also featured a bit later on: In a blink-and-you'll-miss-it scene, when Zola runs into his office in the Austrian factory, a few frames show him grabbing the blueprints for a strangely familiar android with a monitor on its chest.
** There is a scene where children are eagerly buying the original Captain America comic book that depicts Cap famously punching out Hitler. In-universe, the cover is inspired by Cap punching a Hitler impersonator as part of his USO show. This is later referenced when, while rescuing the American prisoners in Schmidt's HYDRA base, they ask if he know what's he's doing, and Cap responds, "I've knocked out Hitler over two hundred times."

** Steve is given a single shot in the arm which he thinks is the serum but which is actually just penicillin. In the original comic, the serum was just a single shot to the arm as opposed to the dozen plus injections and Vita-Rays.

* NerdActionHero: It's a downplayed example, but a lifetime as a 90 pound weakling means Steve has learned to fight smarter, not harder, and thus he wins the FlagpoleChallenge. There's a reason he leads the Howling Commandos and, later, the Avengers. There's a brain in there. Note he pulls a handful of books out of his footlocker when he gets to Erskine's camp.

** When Steve learns that the angry soldiers he failed to entertain are the 10% not on the casualty list of an operation and that it was the 107th... Bucky's unit.
** During his first face-to-face encounter with Red Skull, when he sees the fist-print impression left in his steel shield after he blocks Skull's punch. Even funnier as just seconds before he demonstrated [[SuperStrength his strength]] to the Skull with a punch... which barely made his opponent flinch and tore a bit of his latex mask.
** Phillips has one when he's interrogating Dr. Zola when Zola says that Johann Schmidt was targeting "everywhere".
** That ''beautiful'' look on the [[spoiler:S.H.I.E.L.D. agent's]] face when Steve says, "The game. It's from May 1941. I know because ''I was there.''"

** Steve is also a talented artist who carries a sketchbook with him. In the comics Steve was a comic artist before volunteering for Project Rebirth and even drew comic books based on Captain America as well as illustrating children's books as his civillian job.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: Character Development turns Col. Phillips into one, starting from the moment Steve surrenders himself to disciplinary action and up to his final scene when he gives Peggy Steve's folder with a heartfelt look of sympathy.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: Bucky and and the 107th Infantry are shown to have lost a battle in an Italian town called Azzano late in 1943. There are several towns called Azzano in Italy, all in the North, which wouldn't be touched be reached by allied forces until 1945.

* BookEnds:

* BraggingThemeTune: "Star-Spangled Man", the song produced for Cap's USO war bonds tour, with a healthy dose of PatrioticFervor added to it.

** Howard Stark is a LargeHam, TheCasanova, and an ahead-of-his-time genius. [[Film/IronMan1 Apparently, these were all genetic traits.]] Also worthy of note, Howard Stark similarly mentions to Steve that he considers himself more of a workaholic and his work takes priority over being TheCasanova, has people in his lab working on a motorbike and [[UnusuallyUninterestingSight attempts to ignore the Vibranium shield completely]].

* WomanScorned: After Peggy stumbles upon the blonde secretary kissing Rogers. If that weren't enough, he further ticks her off by retorting/asking if she and Stark were [[UnusualEuphemism "fondue-ing,"]] which later leads to an awkward situation where, when "testing" if the Vibranium shield could withstand a handgun, she aims for his head. She forgives him later when a film of one of their operations briefly shows that his compass contains a picture of her.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics: Played with. The vibranium shield "completely absorbs all vibrations." [[http://rigil-kent.livejournal.com/90943.html A review]] points out that this should make it unable to ricochet off solid objects, but Cap uses it to do just this as one of his signature techniques. On one hand, Peggy launches a few bullets at him right after he picks up the shield for the first time, and the bullets hit the shield and drop at his feet rather than ricochet with equivalent force. That would argue on the side of vibration ''absorption''. Clearly, the shield is a Vibranium/[[AppliedPhlebotinum Phlebotinum]] alloy of sorts. Then on the other hand, something else happens in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''. When Thor slams his hammer down on the shield, there's a KungFuSonicBoom which would argue vibration ''reflection''. Both of these attacks are directed at the center on the shield.
%% Any further fan wank goes on the Analysis page. We don't want natter on the main page.

* CoolGuns:
** Par for the course, Schmidt uses a Luger, which he later upgrades to be Tesseract-powered.
** The Howling Commandos use Thompsons and M911s.
** Falsworth and his Sten.

* AbortedArc: Both in-universe and a meta example, despite it being a trademark of his backstory and one of the reasons the army is in the supersoldier business, Steve doesn't actually fight any Nazis, just in films and comic books. Justified since by the time he gets sent overseas and begins to take part in the war, Schmidt and HYDRA are much larger threats. Although material in ''Captain America: The Winter Soldier'' shows that the Howling Commandoes did other deployments between their HYDRA attacks.

** It's also not the first time Hugo Weaving has played [[Film/{{Transformers}} a megalomaniacal psychopath]].

** A very long term, ironic example with Red Skull's final bit of dialogue with Steve. Johann claims he has seen the future and that "There are no flags", to which Steve replies "Not my future." [[spoiler:Steve Roger's costume in Infinity War after the events of Civil War is almost entirely black, with the American flag motif gone completely since he is now a fugitive]].

* IsThisThingOn: Erskine taps against a microphone and asks "Is this on?" before holding a short speech and starting Steve Roger's procedure.

** Peggy also undergoes the trope when [[spoiler:the plane crashes into the Arctic and ends Steve Roger's final transmission abruptly.]]

* BulletProofHumanShield: Steve uses one to get out of Schmidt's custody during the assault at the end of the film. This time it's nicely {{justified}} since the gun is a Tesseract-fueled superweapon that only damages the target.

** Peggy Carter violently punches a soldier in the face early in the film without any reprimand. [[JustifiedTrope Somewhat justified]] by the film's time period, as it was considered shameful upon a man to be assaulted by a woman in those days, and punishing Peggy for this would be a tacit admission that this happened ''in the military''. Though, the narrative certainly justifies Peggy's actions also.

* DistractedByTheSexy: After Steve's conversion the HospitalHottie has to get him a new shirt, but simply stares at his chest without handing it over. Eventually Peggy (who'd been doing the same thing) grabs the shirt off her and hands it to Steve.

* DueToTheDead: Phillips recognizes what's happening with Steve at the end. Even before Steve says he's gonna have to force the plane down, he gets out and takes Morita with him to leave Peggy alone with Steve. On VE-Day, where everyone else is celebrating, the Howling Commandos give Steve a toast and Phillips give Peggy Steve's file.

** Played straight with Col. Phillips, once Steve is turned into a Super-Soldier. He thinks little of him and doesn't see much use for Steve outside of being a guinea pig. Though he decidedly changes his tune once Steve rescues the 107th from HYDRA's clutches.

-->'''HYDRA soldier:''' CUT OFF ONE HEAD, TWO MORE SHALL-- ''[[[KilledMidSentence gets shot]]]''\\
'''Colonel Chester Phillips:''' ''[pumps his shotgun]'' Let's go find two more!\\\
'''Red Skull:''' You are deluded, Captain. [[HumbleHero You think of yourself as a simple soldier]], but you are simply afraid to admit that we have left humanity behind! Unlike you, I embrace it proudly! Without fear!\\

'''Red Skull:''' You don't give up, do you?!\\
'''Captain America:''' [[CaptainObvious Nope.]]\\\

* DueToTheDead: Phillips recognizes what's happening with Steve at the end. Even before Steve says he's gonna have to force the plane down, he gets out and takes Morita with him to leave Peggy alone with Steve.

* DisneyVillainDeath: Several HYDRA {{Mooks}} during the FinalBattle. Also, [[spoiler:Bucky, in front of a distraught Steve]] during the train sequence.

** A broken taxi cab door is used as a shield by Cap when he's fighting the HYDRA agent right after getting the serum injection.

* DisneyVillainDeath: Several HYDRA {{Mooks}} during the FinalBattle.

* YellowPeril: {{Averted|Trope}} and {{Defied|Trope}}; In Morita's backstory he endured a lot of harassment for being Japanese after Pearl Harbor, but there's no mention of his race in the movie itself, and he's just as loyal and dedicated to bringing down the Nazis / HYDRA as the other Commandos.

** The [[http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/339/capadvpromo5.jpg/ Howling Commandos]] have not only an African-American member in the form of Gabe Jones, but a Japanese-American member in the form of Jim Morita, as well, despite the fact that the military segregated those minorities at the time. (It wasn't desegregated until under UsefulNotes/HarrySTruman right after the war.) Justified by it being a special unit personally selected by Cap himself (and deliberately composed of people he knew personally), and most the members were clearly not in the same unit before. It's also implied that Gabe Jones was a cook, as most African-American servicemen were in real life.

* PoliticallyIncorrectVillain: Hitler is stated to have sent Schmidt to his position just because he doesn't look like the Aryan ideal anymore. Schmidt himself seems to not be a white supremacist anymore, in that being a super soldier, he thinks ''everyone'' else is now beneath him (hence why he's willing to nuke Berlin along with allied cities).

[[header:[[center:[-'''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse -- Phase 1'''\\
''Film/IronMan1'' | ''Film/{{The Incredible Hulk|2008}}'' | ''Film/IronMan2'' | ''Film/{{Thor}}'' | '''''Captain America: The First Avenger''''' | ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''\\
'''[[Film/IronMan3 Phase 2 >>>]]'''-]]]]]

** When Schmidt tells the Nazi officers, "Gentlemen, you have come to see the results of our work...let me show you," [[spoiler: the seam of his mask is visible just in front of his right ear and going down to his neck.]]

* PowerWalk: An entire liberated POW camp does so, which also serves as a CallBack to the propaganda film Steve participated in earlier in the movie.

* FriendlySniper: James "Bucky" Barnes is one for the Howling Commandos as he manages to snipe a HYDRA mook in the montage.

* FilmAdaptationLiveAction: This adaptation creates an updated OriginStory for Captain America, preparing for his role in the upcoming film, ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}''.