Trivia / Captain America: The Winter Soldier

• Actor-Shared Background: Dr. Zola says that Natasha was born in 1984 as Scarlett Johansson was in real life.
• Awesome, Dear Boy:
  • In addition to So My Kids Can Watch (see below), Robert Redford wanted to be in this movie so that he could play a villain, since he almost never gets cast as one. Another reason he's mentioned is that he'd never been in such a special effects-heavy movie before.
  • One of the directors has admitted to being a Honest Trailers fan and actually made it his mission to "Honest Trailer-proof" the movie. Turns out he succeeded since the Honest Trailer team admitted they had to resort to nitpicking for comedy's sake.
    Epic Voice Guy: What? We have to be honest. It's good! But since Honest Trailers is a comedy series, get ready... for... nitpicking!!
• California Doubling: Cleveland doubles for Washington, D.C.. You see a lot of Cleveland landmarks during the police chase that Fury is lured into early in the movie (even a directional sign for US 6 appears). Furthermore, there are a lot of tall skyscrapers seen during the police chase and in other parts of the movie. You will never find such buildings in real Washington, D.C. because the Height of Buildings Act of 1910 prevents any building in D.C. from being more than 20 feet taller than the width of the street that said building sits on (the Washington Monument is in fact the tallest man-made structure in the city). The buildings seen in the chases are much too tall for this city to actually be Washington, D.C..
• Cast the Expert: Batroc's moves are pretty convincing — and that's probably because his actor Georges St-Pierre is one of the pound-for-pound greats of MMA: a long-term welterweight champion of the UFC with nine title defenses.
• Conclusion in Another Medium: Inverted. There is a "Where Are They Now?" Epilogue telling the fate of most secondary characters. But if you want to know about the actual consequences of the big reveal of the movie (which, as you may suspect, are not limited to the events of the movie), then follow the Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. TV series. "End of the Beginning" and "Turn, Turn, Turn" are the crossovers with the movie, and the episodes afterwards are the aftermath of the movie.
• Creator's Favorite: In 2024, Chris Evans cited this movie as his favorite Marvel project he's ever been part of.
• The Danza: Georges St-Pierre plays Georges Batroc.
• Dawson Casting: Chris Evans and Sebastian Stan portray a teenaged Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, who were 18 and 19 respectively, in a flashback.
• Deleted Scene: See here.
• Fake Nationality:
  • Georges Batroc is supposed to be Algerian. He's played by French Canadian MMA fighter Georges St-Pierre. It is conceivable that he speaks French, as Algeria used to be a French colony, but even then, he does so without even trying to conceal his accent from Québec.
  • Councilman Singh is Indian. His actor Bernard White is Sri Lankan-American.
  • The Canadian Emily VanCamp plays Sharon Carter, who is an American CIA agent of British descent.
• Inspiration for the Work: In making the film a conspiracy thriller, the writers cited Three Days of the Condor (which also starred Robert Redford), The Parallax View and Marathon Man as influences.
• Method Acting: During the highway battle between the Winter Soldier and Cap, the villain does a knife flip to try and catch Steve by surprise. Reportedly, during all the days before the scene was shot, Sebastian Stan was seen flipping a toy knife until he could perform the action effortlessly.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • The TV spots show a scene where Steve tells Sam that Natasha can be dramatic.
  • One of the trailers features a completely unmasked Winter Soldier in heavy Guyliner picking the shield up from the floor.
  • The film ends with Sam asking Steve when do they start searching for Bucky. The TV spots included an extra line where Steve responds "We just did."
• No Stunt Double:
  • Cobie Smulders performed some of her own stunts in the film, explaining:
  I try to do my own stunts whenever I can. You're only allowed to do certain stunts. There is an amazing team of stunt people that do most of the work in this film. But, I studied a lot of tae kwon do. I also did a lot of training just with weapons because I'm not very comfortable around guns. I had to get comfortable because that's my character's thing... I like to get really physical so I feel empowered when I am on set and even though you don't see it on screen, maybe I am taking people out that you don't see off camera.
  • For the scene where Councilwoman Hawley takes out a room full of mooks before revealing herself to be Black Widow in a Latex Perfection mask, they were going do the fighting with a Stunt Double. Jenny Agutter lobbied to do it herself, citing her ballet training.
• Playing Against Type:
  • The Russo brothers are predominately directors of comedy, particularly episodes of cult favorites Community and Arrested Development, and aren't exactly the obvious first choice to direct a superhero movie, especially one that is noticeably more serious and intense than usual superhero films. According to the Russo Brothers, Kevin Feige was heavily inspired by Community's paintball action spoof episodes, which is how the two ended up becoming hired as directors.
  • Robert Redford joining a superhero film is not the kind of thing one would generally expect from him. He also uncharacteristically plays the villain of the film. Heck, the directors have commented that, in an earlier age, the idea of Redford playing Captain America himself would not have been all that far-fetched. The directors' commentary notes that the style of the movie was inspired by '70s political thrillers, even referring to Three Days of the Condor, in which Redford was the protagonist. In a way, The Winter Soldier is Redford redoing the movie as the guy running a conspiracy instead of the agent being hunted, making this also an example of Playing with Character Type.
• Production Posse: Danny Pudi, from the Russo brothers-directed Community, cameos as a S.H.I.E.L.D. technician. The firm who did all the openings for the Russos' shows was responsible for the end credits. Alison Brie was also in the mix to play Agent 13.
• Promoted Fanboy: Anthony Mackie is a huge fan of the Falcon, and has gushed multiple times about how lucky he's been to get the role. He even expressed disappointment that his costume wasn't the character's classic red and white spandex. It's also heartwarming that one of the things he was emphatic about when joining the project was that he was playing Marvel's first African-American superhero.
• Prop Recycling: When The Winter Soldier blows up the Camaro Natasha's hiding behind, it appears to be a Bumblebee stunt car from Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen painted dark blue. If the scene is watched in slow motion, the car's cross-hatch grille can be seen in the debris from the explosion.
• Real-Life Relative: The woman speaking at the counsel meeting Cap visits? That's the sister of the directors.
• Reality Subtext:
  • Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson have worked on three other movies together and their natural friendly chemistry and close working relationship applies very neatly to Cap and Widow. Likewise, Evans and Anthony Mackie were both in two movies previously, but never worked together. According to Evans, they later ran into each other at the library, struck up a conversation, and just clicked as friends, which probably lends a little verisimilitude to Steve's and Sam's first meeting, too.
  • Captain America's suit gets another revamp for this film, namely a separate helmet that features a chin strap. Chris Evans had found the cowl design from The Avengers to be uncomfortable and it was realized that his face looked puffy without a strap to frame it. The template they developed for this film turned out to be a winner as every other suit Evans wore in the MCU was based on this one.
  • The acrobatic fighting style that Captain America utilizes prominently in this film was directly inspired by Captain America: Super Soldier, the tie-in video game for the first film. As he was lending his voice to the project, Chris Evans was so impressed by the combat gameplay of the final product that he and Joe and Anthony Russo adopted a similar style for the movies. It worked out incredibly well as Winter Soldier received praise from critics and fans for its fight sequences and choreography.
• Scully Box: Given Chris Evans is One Head Taller than Scarlett Johansson and their characters spend a lot of screentime together, there is quite some height disguising - in the mall scenes, Natasha's sneakers look more like heeled boots, while Steve's are regular tennis shoes.
• So My Kids Can Watch:
  • Anthony Mackie did the film so that his son and other African-American children can see that there are superheroes who look like them.
  • Robert Redford said that the first thing that got him interested in the film was that his grandkids liked the movies a lot.
• Swan Song: This film ended up being the last acting role for Garry Shandling, as he would pass away in 2016 from a pulmonary embolism.
• Those Two Actors:
  • This marks the fourth time Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson have appeared together, after The Perfect Score, The Nanny Diaries and The Avengers.
  • Also the third time for Chris Evans and Anthony Mackie (previously appearing together in What's Your Number? and Playing It Cool).
  • And the second time for Scarlett Johansson and Robert Redford (the latter previously directed and acted opposite the former in The Horse Whisperer).
  • Audiences get their first look at Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen as the MCU's Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch; they're the co-leads as husband and wife in Godzilla (2014), opening one month after Cap.
• Uncredited Role:
  • Joss Whedon directed the post-credits scene uncredited.
  • Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Elizabeth Olsen are uncredited as the Maximoff twins in the post-credits scene. Thomas Kretschmann and Henry Goodman are likewise uncredited.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Anna Kendrick, Felicity Jones, Imogen Poots, Teresa Palmer, Alison Brie, Emilia Clarke, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Jessica Brown Findlay, Elizabeth Olsen and Karen Gillan were considered for Sharon Carter before Emily VanCamp was cast. Olsen and Gillan would later go on to portray Wanda Maximoff and Nebula in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
  • Michael B. Jordan auditioned for the role of Sam Wilson before the casting of Anthony Mackie. Jordan would eventually go on to play Johnny Storm in Fantastic Four and Killmonger in Black Panther.
  • Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Kevin Durand and Josh Holloway screen-tested for the part of Brock Rumlow before Frank Grillo was cast.
  • Alec Baldwin was approached for the role of Alexander Pierce before the casting of Robert Redford, but turned it down due to his wife's pregnancy at the time.
  • F. Gary Gray and George Nolfi had discussions with Marvel Studios about directing the movie before The Russo Brothers were hired. Gray turned down the offer in order to helm Straight Outta Compton.
  • M.O.D.O.K. was included in early drafts, with Peter Dinklage being the first choice for the role, but the character was cut from the final draft and replaced by Alexander Pierce. Dinklage went on to play Bolivar Trask in X-Men: Days of Future Past, and with some CGI, made a proper MCU debut as Eitri the Dwarf in Avengers: Infinity War. Also Ivanov in Agents of SHIELD wound up a Composite Character with MODOK later on.
  • Clint Barton had a role in the original script:
    Joe Russo: What it was going to be, we were trying to complicate the relationship between Cap and his S.H.I.E.L.D agent friends. If Hawkeye got a call from S.H.I.E.L.D saying Captain America is a fugitive, would he listen to that call or not listen to that call? That sequence actually was heartbreaking for us to cut it. I think it ultimately might have been a conflict with Renner's schedule. But there was a great sequence where Hawkeye was chasing Cap through Washington D.C. there was an awesome sequence where they confronted each other in a ravine on the outskirts of D.C. and Hawkeye was shooting a series of arrows closing in on Cap, Cap closing in on him. And then Cap took him down and he realized for the first time that Hawkeye was trying to trick S.H.I.E.L.D, where he whispered something into Cap’s ear that Cap had a tracker on his suit and to punch Hawkeye to make it look real, because there was a Quinjet hovering above where they were watching the feedback back at S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • The film's writers hinted that had Coulson not died in The Avengers (or been given his own show), he might have taken Sitwell's place as a HYDRA mole, and possibly being killed there instead, given the fact that a brainwashed Winter Soldier killed Sitwell when he squealed to Steve, Sam, and Natasha. The Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "Turn, Turn, Turn" actually turns this into a Development Gag, by providing the idea that Coulson may be a big part of HYDRA, though Victoria Hand, the one who believes Coulson is a mole, later learns that it was instead John Garrett all along.
  • Originally the opening to the film was going to be a wartime flashback of Steve Rogers fighting alongside Bucky and the Howling Commandos, ending with a reveal that it was All Just a Dream, and Steve looking at a newspaper reporting the death of Dum Dum Dugan. It can be seen here. This introduction would have presumably taken the place of the visit to the Smithsonian and the "End of the line" flashback scene.
  • Baron Wolfgang von Strucker was going to be the Big Bad of the film, rather than Alexander Pierce. Clay Quartermain was also planned to appear, possibly taking Sitwell's place.
  • For the scene where Jenny Agutter's character takes out a room full of mooks before revealing herself to be Black Widow in a Latex Perfection mask, they were going to do the fighting with a stunt double. Agutter lobbied to do it herself, citing her ballet training.
  • The original version of the post-credits scene was going to be a lot longer, and have Bucky spot Steve in the museum after seeing his own exhibit. They ultimately decided against it as it would screw up continuity for whatever film came next.
• Word of God:
  • During his interrogation, Sitwell mentions Stephen Strange as one of the potential threats that HYDRA was targeting. Kevin Feige would later state that while Strange was certainly not the Sorcerer Supreme at this point, he was a brilliant neurosurgeon who is very opinionated and a little arrogant, which is what HYDRA perceived as a potential threat.
  • According to a commentary from the filmmakers, the mask that Black Widow uses is based off the mask that Red Skull used in The First Avenger.
• Written By Castmember: Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson wrote their own dialogue for several scenes they had together.

---