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  • Alternative Character Interpretation:
    • Was Alexander Pierce a Well-Intentioned Extremist who sincerely wanted to give the world a newer, better, truer, purer form of freedom, or was he just an ego-maniacal control freak trying to justify what was really little more than a thinly veiled take-over-the-world plot (in short, a literal Nazi)?
    • How much free will does Zola have inside the computer? In the first movie, he was unwilling to sacrifice himself for the cause but in the sequel, he gladly keeps talking to allow a missile to hit his position. Was he really being used by Pierce in much the same fashion that Pierce utilizes the Winter Soldier? Or had he in fact been playing the role of reluctant henchman as far back as The First Avenger while hiding his true nature? Or given that he's now a computer program with access to the Internet, did he simply make a backup copy of himself so that he didn't really sacrifice himself at all?
    • On the topic of Dr. Zola, his depiction in this film raises several interpretations regarding his depiction in the previous one:
      • Was Zola ever really a coward? Or was he just afraid of Red Skull and not much else? Being afraid of someone as Ax-Crazy as Red Skull is pretty reasonable for just about anyone. Plus, Zola seems to drop his sheepish nature as soon as Red Skull is defeated. So maybe he was never a Dirty Coward and more just aware of his physical limitations. It's also worth noting that every time he shows fear in the last film was in situations where anyone would be afraid (such as being held at gunpoint).
      • Zola sold out Red Skull to save his own skin in the previous film, but this film shows that he is a firm believer in HYDRA's ideology. Was Zola planning on rebuilding HYDRA all along, and did he partially sell out Red Skull to achieve such a goal? Or was it something he came up with in between films?
    • More than a few reviewers pointed out that Cap appears to be borderline suicidal through the film, making reckless moves like leaping out of the Quinjet without a parachute, unmasking in front of Batroc and putting away his shield, and not even making an attempt to save himself from the crashing Helicarrier and challenging Bucky to kill him. Connect with his hidden angst about all his dead friends from the past and being a Fish out of Temporal Water, and Steve might be a subconscious Death Seeker.
    • Another interpretation of Steve, and one that the following film runs with, is that he doesn't know what to do with himself if he's not fighting the good fight. Natasha notes that he doesn't seem to be as distressed at the revelation that HYDRA has been active within SHIELD for decades as one might expect and the end of the film directly states that SHIELD's dissolution means that his services as Captain America will be needed in the near future. Was Steve subconsciously happy that HYDRA still existed because it gave him an enemy to fight and did he push to completely scrap SHIELD so no one but him and his close allies would be able to fight them?
    • Is Batroc a Leave No Survivors pirate-for-hire? Or is he a Blood Knight that routinely does Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work jobs for Fury and is plagued by a few Ax-Crazy crew members?
    • Sam Wilson has tinges of not being merely a cheery Token Black Friend but secretly concerned about Steve's psyche from a therapist's perspective. When first meeting, he twice brings up Steve's potential culture shock, then starts looking analytical once Steve responds that the 21st century has its advantages, as though he doesn't believe Steve and thinks he's trying to hide his actual discomfort with the modern day. While Sam doesn't push for that answer, his response of Steve coming to the Veterans Affairs office "to make me look awesome in front of the girl at the front desk" could then be read as a veiled request that Steve seek out some psychiatric therapy, especially considering no such front desk girl is shown.
    • When Cap told Black Widow that their Fake-Out Make-Out wasn't his first kiss since 1945, was he telling truth and he has tried dating in the year or so since he re-awoke? Or was he lying in order to not seem like a closed-off guy?
    • Is the Winter Soldier still Bucky inside despite his memory loss? Or is he, post-memory loss, a completely new person now? Sebastian Stan argues for the former while the directors bring up the possibility of the latter.
    • Nick Fury and his argument about facing the world as it is and not the way we want it to be or would like it to be—Fury as a Strawman trying to justify his actions with a black and white morality, or Fury as a teller of harsh truths? Or, as a Third option, Fury deliberately trying to push Steve's buttons to keep him on his guard?
    • On a lighter note, Fury's line about "the last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye" following Captain Marvel. Genuinely cynical comment about how he can't trust anyone, not even a cat? Or is he being dramatic to make the events of losing his eye sound more impressive than they actually were?
  • Ass Pull: During the climax, Natasha uses a device that allows her to perfectly replicate the face and voice of a World Security Council member, something that had never been previously foreshadowed, in spite of its obvious uses. It was initially shown during a previous scene at Fury's bunker, but the scene was cut out.
  • Award Snub: The film was nominated for a whopping fourteen Saturn Awards, but did not win a single one of them. This is somewhat alleviated with the MCU's other film of 2014 winning some of those awards.
  • Broken Base:
    • Many fans are elated at the inclusion of Natasha as a major character, particularly since the film gave her some very welcome character depth. Others, however, are upset that her involvement effectively subsumed the role of Agent 13 aka Sharon Carter, especially since it had knock-on repercussions for certain plotlines in Civil War and onward.
    • The twist that HYDRA has infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. since its creation. It is loved by many fans for the massive amount of Rewatch Bonus with the very subtle but also well planned Foreshadowing in previous MCU films, as well as taking the entire MCU in a very interesting and unique direction. However, some have argued that the story would have been far more interesting if it had followed through on its initial premise, involving S.H.I.E.L.D. taking morally dubious actions in the name of national security, rather than just revealing that HYDRA was really behind everything.
    • In general, the HYDRA twist can be seen as a thrilling turn of events or an Ass Pull.
  • Complete Monster:
    • Dr. Arnim Zola debuts as a cowardly scientist who joins the Nazis so they'll fund his work. Gleefully making war machines as part of HYDRA, Zola delights in the disastrous results of Dr. Abraham Erskine's Super-Soldier experiment in anticipation of Johann Schmidt turning to his scientific expertise instead, all while mocking his rival over the prospect of his family being executed for his failure. When Schmidt lets Zola in on his plot to Take Over the World, the scientist enslaves and experiments on prisoners of war to build the super weapons necessary for the scheme before betraying his boss to the Allies when it's made clear failure is inevitable. Having become a true believer in totalitarianism, Zola joins the newly-formed S.H.I.E.L.D. and goes about reforming HYDRA within its ranks, all the while masterminding global conflicts to make the people desperate for security. To do this, he abducts and brainwashes people into being "Winter Soldier" assassins, keeping them in stasis and torturously memory wiping them between missions. All of this culminates in a plot to launch Project Insight, which will trap the world in an eternal surveillance state and give HYDRA the ability to slaughter any dissidents, with it being explicitly stated that this will lead to tens of millions of deaths.
    • Brock Rumlow is a S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who is really a member of HYDRA. As a STRIKE commander, Rumlow happily killed HYDRA's enemies for years. When Captain America exposes HYDRA's infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D., Rumlow personally activates Project Insight, a trio of Helicarriers designed to kill millions of people who may threaten HYDRA's power, before killing several S.H.I.E.L.D. agents in the chaos. Barely surviving the battle and becoming severely disfigured, Rumlow abandoned his loyalties to HYDRA and became the Arms Dealer Crossbones, killing rival dealers and attacking several police stations. He then attacks the Institute for Infectious Diseases in Lagos, killing everyone inside and stealing a dangerous bioweapon. When stopped by Captain America, Rumlow sets off a suicide bomb, hoping to kill Cap and the numerous people nearby as revenge for his disfigurement.
    • Alexander Irvine's novelization:
      • Brock Rumlow poses as a S.H.I.E.L.D. agent when in reality he's an assassin for Hydra. Having killed their enemies for years, Rumlow leads the manhunt against Captain America and Black Widow, even witnessing the torture the Winter Soldier endures with no reaction, losing his canon counterpart's only moment of humanity. On the day of the Hydra Uprising, Rumlow personally launches the helicarriers for Project Insight, knowing that doing so will lead to millions of innocent deaths. He is uncaring when confronted with the damage his actions will cause, only bragging to Sam Wilson that Hydra will rule the world.
      • Arnim Zola is the engineer of Hydra's resurgence within S.H.I.E.L.D., having taken it over after Red Skull's demise. Spending decades turning S.H.I.E.L.D. into a front for Hydra, Zola masterminded decades of war and catastrophes to convince the world to willingly hand over free will, with even his own death unable to stop his reign of terror. Zola is also the man responsible for Bucky Barnes' torture and transformation into the Winter Soldier. After uploading himself into a computer, Zola masterminded Project Insight, the systematic murder of millions of innocents who could potentially pose a threat to Hydra's reign over the world, and is so determined to see it succeed that he lets himself be destroyed in a bomb designed to kill Captain America and Black Widow.
  • Crack Pairing:
    • Winter Soldier/Rumlow is popular, despite the fact that the two of them share very little screentime and even fewer words, and the fact that Rumlow is, well, HYDRA, the group that's been abusing Bucky for the last seventy years. For that reason, just as many fics exist where they're paired up as fics where Bucky tracks him down and kills him.
    • Bucky Barnes/Darcy Lewis has hundreds of fics dedicated to it, despite the fact that the two have never even met.
  • Creepy Awesome
    • Arnim Zola's computerized self.
    • The eponymous Winter Soldier himself certainly has this in spades.
  • Critical Dissonance
    • Not the film itself (which received acclaim by critics and audiences alike), but rather, the handling of Black Widow; many professional critics dismissed her as stereotypical eye candy for the male audience, but most of the women in the blogosphere were very impressed with how her character was handled, and she spends far less time in the film doing anything fanservicey, especially compared to previous films (no Lingerie Scene or Male Gaze moment this time around). To put it simply, since she's a pretty girl in an action movie, the critics wrote her off as eye candy even though the film never treated her as such.
    • Henry Jackman's score drew negative reviews, but the general public loved it—particularly the track "Taking a Stand", which served as the music for the appropriately Bond-esque end credits.
  • Draco in Leather Pants: Despite the fact that he was revealed to be a HYDRA infiltrator, Sitwell still gets plenty of love from fans. It's helped by Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. revealing that some HYDRA agents were brainwashed, which could well be the case with Sitwell as he's a loyal S.H.I.E.L.D. agent in the comics, although Avengers: Endgame portrays him as having been a HYDRA mole since at least around the time of The Avengers (2012), and the fifth season of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. features him as a student at HYDRA's academy in a flashback set decades in the past.
  • Ending Fatigue: The climax is split across five settings and can start to wear thin after a while. The majority of critics and fans alike agree that while this is an awesome movie, it's probably too long.
  • Ensemble Dark Horse
    • Georges Batroc, thanks to his performance in the opening act.
    • Despite her minimal screentime, Sharon Carter nonetheless made an impression, and helped Emily VanCamp gain attention from mainstream audiences.
    • Jack Rollins, one of the STRIKE team members, is surprisingly popular for a character with barely any lines, and almost no resemblance to his comic book counterpart. Some element of Evil Is Cool might be involved.
    • Cameron Klein a.k.a. the S.H.I.E.L.D. operative who refuses to launch Project Insight when Steve publicly reveals HYDRA's involvement, even with Rumlow pointing a gun at his head, has won more than a few fans. He even makes a return appearance in Avengers: Age of Ultron on the bridge of The Original Helicarrier in the climax, presumably because of his actions in this film. His name is actually listed in the credits of that film too.
  • Even Better Sequel: Winter Soldier has been considered an even stronger film than its predecessor, already a fan favorite in the MCU. In fact, some critics and fans have been treating it as this to the entire MCU, declaring it the best of the whole series so far. It's also far more successful at the box office than the original.
  • Fandom-Enraging Misconception: Referring to the Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes as a villain is a good way to set off some of the more rabid fans. And Sebastian Stan.
  • Fanfic Fuel: The entire plot of the movie ended up being this. The film only gives glimpses into how HYDRA slowly took over S.H.I.E.L.D. right under Peggy's nose. What mission did the Winter Soldier go on to "shape the century"? What is his relationship with Alexander Pierce and how did the latter brainwash him? And what did the Winter Soldier get up to after the events of the movie?
  • Fan-Preferred Couple: Steve gets a touching reunion with his previous girlfriend Peggy, and has some Ship Tease with Natasha, who steers him towards dating Sharon, but the most popular pairing in the film is Steve/Bucky, to the point it became more popular than the Steve/Tony ship which already had pretty a big comics/movie fandom and was until then the biggest ship of the MCU and Steve's most popular pairing.
  • Fanon Welding: A fan theory suggests that Jules Winnfield from Pulp Fiction is the same person as Nick Fury. This stems from the fact that both characters are portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. Not to mention that Fury's fake tombstone at the end of the film, which is inscribed with a quote from the Bible (Ezekiel 25:17), is the same verse used by Jules Winnfield.
  • Friendly Fandoms: Fans of this film are pretty close to the fans of Frozen (2013), with Steve and Bucky often being portrayed by Anna and Elsa respectively in crossover art and even cosplay.
  • Genius Bonus:
    • The movie makes a great visual metaphor at the end which could be a rebuttal to Harry Lime's famous "Dot" speech in The Third Man. Given said film was one of the earliest cynical spy films, this is entirely possible.
    • Zola's algorithm is an example of statistical binary classification, which has been in use since at least WWII (for detection of hostile aircraft based on their radar signals).
  • Germans Love David Hasselhoff:
    • The Chinese love Captain America because its main message is, as one reviewer puts it, "To love one's country isn't the same as loving one's government." The movie appeals to a Chinese audience tiring of government censorship and propagandist heroes.
    • As for specific characters, the Winter Soldier is also extremely popular on Chinese social media sites such as Lofter and Weibo, to the point that Chinese fans have given Sebastian Stan the nickname of "Chubby Dumpling".
  • Growing the Beard: For the entire MCU. The movies that came before, Iron Man and The Avengers in particular, were considered solidly entertaining, lighthearted action spectacle films, but generally seen as lacking in emotional impact and not having stakes. The Winter Soldier turned things on the head and made long-term changes to the series (such as destroying SHIELD and changing the status-quo), introduced a much darker and serious plot while still keeping the light-hearted elements, and set a trend for more inner-drama and tension in the movies that followed.
  • Harsher in Hindsight
    • In-universe, Nick Fury's memory of how Alexander Pierce turned down a Nobel Peace Prize by saying that "peace isn't a reward, it's a responsibility." The problem is that Pierce's idea of peace is one enforced by HYDRA.
    • Sam mentions that his wingman was shot down by an RPG during a late-night mission. That's pretty tragic, until you see what his flying gear looks like, and then you realize that he had to watch his best friend get shot point-blank with an RPG. Come Captain America: Civil War while in an aerial chase Sam watches Rhodey/War Machine get accidentally shot out of the air by Vision's beam originally meant for himself. Despite being on opposing sides, Sam immediately tries to rescue Rhodey but he crashes into the ground before Sam or Tony can reach him. While Rhodey does survive, he becomes paralyzed from the waist down.
    • The HYDRA reveal gets worse with Captain America: Steve Rogers revealing that Steve was brainwashed into an agent of HYDRA.
    • S.H.I.E.L.D being thoroughly infiltrated by HYDRA and trying to subvert what America stands for becomes much more chilling now that it's increasingly apparent that White Supermacists have been infiltrating local and state level law enforcement agencies for decades.
    • A certain line from Peggy ends up fitting Thanos' decimation of half the universe's population and the ensuing fallout much more than this film's themes of the ancient world against a changing world. So much that this line was used for Avengers: Endgame's second trailer. The line also becomes an Ironic Echo for the side of the fandom that is not happy with the last scene of Endgame, as Steve ultimately rejects her advice to start a new life in the present so he can go back in time.
      Peggy: The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over.
    • On the other end of the spectrum, a lot of the awkward flirting between Steve and Sharon, as well as Natasha's encouraging him to go out with Sharon, becomes a lot harder to watch after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reveals that Sharon, after being left to hang out and dry by The Avengers and forced to be a fugitive after the events of Civil War, becomes bitterly resentful of Steve and has started over as the Power Broker who is willing to sell out state secrets for profit.
    • When Zola reveals HYDRA's survival, Steve states that HYDRA died with the Red Skull. Come Avengers: Infinity War, Steve's statement turns out to be doubly wrong, as Red Skull is still alive on Vormir.
    • After the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal broke in 2018, where it turned out that the latter was collecting data on the former's website about its users and gave that information to U.S. political campaigns (including Donald Trump's) to influence elections, Project Insight from Winter Soldier is that much scarier because it's that much closer to being real.
    • The scene of the Winter Soldier getting manhandled by Pierce in the bank vault was already uncomfortable enough as is due to his submissive response, and led to viewers speculating whether anyone else might have taken advantage of his Extreme Doormat state for other things. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier takes whatever rape subtext might've existed there and upgrades it to unspoken text when Bucky pretends to be the Winter Soldier again and Zemo prostitutes him out as a Sex Slave for intel, insinuating that this was indeed a thing characters had considered doing to him in this state.
    • The Medical Horror montage of Bucky's treatment by HYDRA is grotesque enough by itself, but a brief reference to the Winter Soldier program in Black Widow (2021) implies that his tortures included literal brain dissection. Good Thing You Can Heal.
    • After gloating about how he managed to assist in growing HYDRA within S.H.I.E.L.D over the course of many decades in Camp Lehigh, Arnim Zola expresses an uncharacteristic willingness to die while taking both Steve and Natasha with him, before being destroyed by Alexander Pierce's missile. This becomes a hell of a lot more meaningful in What If...?, where it's revealed that Arnim created several copies of his mind set to be activated at any time, one of which exists in the Siberian HYDRA base. And given that the events of What If branch off from the main timeline, that means he's quite possibly still there.
  • He's Just Hiding:
    • A common fan reaction to computerized Arnim Zola's death, on the grounds that Brain Uploading equals Death is Cheap, which is his standard tactic in the comics.
    • Some fans are hoping this is the case with Agent Sitwell, in part due to some ambiguous tweets from his actor, with messages like Fury Always Has a Plan. It helps that in the comics, Sitwell is currently a zombie.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight
    • In the movie, Pierce wanted Iron Man to appear at his niece's birthday party. In real life, Robert Downey Jr. invited a bunch of kids to his birthday party to watch this very movie. Metawise, it doubles as an Actor Allusion, since Downey actually did a surprise appearance at Jamie Foxx's daughter's fifth birthday party—which was Iron Man-themed, to boot.
    • Sam tells Fury, "I do what [Steve] does, just slower." In the comics less than a year later, Sam was given the mantle of Captain America after Steve loses his powers. And then it came full circle when the same thing happened in Avengers: Endgame.
    • In the UK release, Sherlock is on Steve's To-Do List. Benedict Cumberbatch would portray the titular character in the Doctor Strange (2016) movie. Tony Stark actor Robert Downey Jr. played Sherlock Holmes in the Guy Ritchiedirected films; and both Tony Stark and Stephen Strange are among HYDRA's targets for Project Insight. It looks like HYDRA is so determined to prevent Steve from watching Sherlock Holmes in any form or media.
    • Arnim Zola strongly hints that HYDRA was behind the assassination of John F. Kennedy. The same year, X-Men: Days of Future Past had Magneto charged as the alleged killer, who then claims how Kennedy was a fellow mutant and that he was trying to save him. Aside from Marvel being associated with both films, anyone who knows Magneto's backstory will find this ironic and/or appropriate.
    • As mentioned below, many fans embraced this film as a Spiritual Licensee to the Metal Gear games. Fast forward to Avengers: Infinity War, and Cap is sporting a beard that makes him look an awful lot like Venom Snake.
    • Nick Fury's "The last time I trusted someone, I lost an eye." line becomes rather amusing in light of Captain Marvel (2019), where this is revealed to be Metaphorically True at best. He became affectionate with Carol Danvers's alien cat, Goose, who ended up scratching him and causing an infection that made him lose sight in an eye. Although, granted, explaining that indignity wouldn't make as compelling an explanation. It's even more hilarious if one likes to think that his wording refers to either having trusted Carol or Goose herself, specifically considering his line when using her to devour his attackers: "I'm trusting you not to eat me."
    • In this film, Steve jumps out of a Quinjet without a parachute, to the surprise of his teammates. Eventually, both Natasha and Bucky get in on it.
    • Sam's claim that he's "more of a soldier than a spy" in this film is revealed to entirely true in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, where he has to pretend to be drug lord named Conrad Mack as part of an espionage mission, and can't fool anyone to save his life.
    • Jasper Sitwell offhandedly mentions Stephen Strange as one of the people Zola's algorithm lists as a potential danger to HYDRA, despite it being a couple years before he would become a Master of the Mystic Arts. In What If...?, Strange Supreme ends up trapping a variant of Zola in a pocket dimension to prevent him from stealing the Infinity Stones from Erik Killmonger to use for his own dark designs. Guess HYDRA wasn't too paranoid about the good doctor interfering with HYDRA's agenda after all!
    • When Nick Fury is hiding out in Steve's apartment to warn him about the threat of HYDRA, he uses the phrase "My wife kicked me out" as a Spy Speak term, in case the residence is bugged. Secret Invasion would later reveal that Fury really does have a wife, and one who isn't human at that.
  • Ho Yay:
    • Steve and Bucky:
      • As per usual for a Captain America film, the sheer amount of Ho Yay between the two characters is so huge that Sharon doesn't even seem to be Steve's love interest (and not just because of how Out of Focus she is during the movie). Bucky's death in the previous film revealed to be him having become the Winter Soldier does not diminish the vibes; if anything, it increases them. Their reciprocal declarations of devotion to each other have been described as similar to marriage vows. The fact that Cap spends the entire movie turning down Natasha's offers to set him up on dates, saying he's looking for someone with "similar life experiences", only increases the factor. After this movie came out, the amount of Steve/Bucky Fan Fiction skyrocketed, eventually making the pairing the most popular ship in the entire MCU.
      • "I knew him." Yes, Bucky, yes you did. The Helicarrier battle between them makes it better, with Steve literally begging Bucky not to make him do this. Then when Steve no longer has to fight with the lives of over twenty million people on the line, he drops his shield into the water and refuses to continue their fight, getting the crap beaten out of him in the process, and falls into the Potomac below towards near certain death. Who saves him? Bucky.
      • The tune that plays on Steve's radio when he finds Fury in his apartment is "It's Been a Long, Long Time" (a song about separated lovers pining for one another), which immediately followed by Steve meeting the Winter Soldier for the first time. While it could initially have been dismissed as just a coincidence involving a period song, it comes back in Avengers Endgame for Steve's reunion with Peggy. Although its use there is intended to assert Steve's heterosexuality, it has the side-effect of elevating the Ho Yay for this particular scene into outright Homoerotic Subtext since the song is fully established as Suspiciously Apropos Music.
      • When Natasha is trying to set Steve up with someone, he complains that "it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience." Yeah, Steve, who could you find that grew up in 1920s/30s Brooklyn, fought HYDRA in World War II, was made into a Super-Soldier, and was frozen and thawed in the 21st century? Who could possibly fit that description?
    • Sam/Steve also enjoys widespread popularity. Their first meeting highly resembles a Meet Cute, with the coincidental meeting, playful bantering, and it ending with Sam asking to see Steve again. For his part, Steve's the one who gets Sam's attention and seeks him out, either when he's in danger or just because (after the therapy meeting). For his part, Sam immediately helps Steve with his darker thoughts and puts himself in harm's way when Steve needs help. More than a few netizens (such as this review) have commented that Sam takes all of the usual superhero love interest duties: he's unwaveringly loyal, he gets Steve to open up emotionally, and is generally a nurturing person. And when Steve is hospitalized at the end, Sam is the one watching him sleep at his bedside, waiting for him to wake up. He even put on a Marvin Gaye album.
  • It Was His Sled: Thanks to the meme in which people caption images of a person whispering into another person's ear with "Hail HYDRA", even people who haven't seen the movie know that HYDRA is the bad guys, and that's actually the biggest reveal in the entire movie, if not the entire franchise.
  • Just Here for Godzilla
    • For many comic book fans, the primary reason to watch the movie was the conflict between Cap and the Winter Soldier—or more specifically, the revelation of the Winter Soldier's identity and Cap's reaction to it. Marvel was not blind to this, and took advantage of it by having most of the promotion of the movie focused on Cap and the Winter Soldier. It also did a great job of hiding the mid-plot twist and true conflict of the movie—that HYDRA had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. at its very creation, and therefore the organization is too corrupt to continue on and must be dissolved permanently.
    • Some cinema-goers were surprised to see a sizable number of elderly women in the audience. They were probably fans of Robert Redford and were mainly there to see him play a villain.
  • Like You Would Really Do It: The movie has us believe many characters are dead/will die throughout the film, but many fans are savvy enough to figure out it wasn't going to happen. Nick Fury is the biggest example, though it was a close run thing. On the other hand, they really did go through with the complete dismantling of S.H.I.E.L.D.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Alexander Pierce is the US Secretary of Defense, a member of the World Security Council, and a commanding member of HYDRA, who have evolved from a Nazi science cult to a fascist conspiracy group dedicated to bringing about One World Order under their banner. Pierce had the Winter Soldier assassinate his old friend Nick Fury so Pierce can take control of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Project Insight, intending to use the project to massacre hundreds of thousands, perhaps millions of people, who could stand in HYDRA's way. Along the way he frames Captain America as a rogue agent who has to go on the run, kills his fellow members of the World Security Council, and shoots his housekeeper just for walking in on a meeting he has with the Winter Soldier. And he does all of this with calm, affable composure towards his enemies, attempting to make them understand that Utopia Justifies the Means.
  • Memetic Mutation: See here.
  • Moral Event Horizon: See here.
  • Narm: See here.
  • Narm Charm: Senator Stern's cameo, where he hugs Jasper Sitwell and whispers "Hail HYDRA" to him. It's sorta silly in how obviously villainous it is, and causes Fridge Logic about if HYDRA's members do this all the time, but at the same time it's unexpected, creepy, and can also raise fear in realizing just how far HYDRA has spread. Even the parodies of it manage to be both funny and creepy.
  • Narrowed It Down to the Guy I Recognize: Robert Redford as Alexander Pierce is the Big Bad. To the movie's credit, it barely even bothers trying to pretend he's not a villain. This helps with the reveal of who he's actually working for, which is the real "villain" of the film.
  • Nightmare Fuel
    • A lot of the elements of the Winter Soldier's character and treatment are horrifyingly graphic. The flashbacks of his transformation into the Winter Soldier include a scene of his bloody arm stump being amputated from his point of view. Likely done without anesthesia. And then there's the scene of him having his memories of Captain America wiped via electroshock therapy, which shows him screaming in agony as the machine closes over his face, with the strong implication that this happens frequently for him. When he is awake and conscious in the treatment room, he mostly just sits there dazed, barely reacts to anything around him and meekly takes orders, making it come across like HYDRA is using a mentally handicapped man for their own ends.
    • Music-wise, the Winter Soldier's Theme, especially its first half, is just plain unsettling. It starts with something that sounds like a distorted woman repetitively screaming in an empty hall, which as it turns out is actually a completely warped version of Bucky's scream as he falls off the train during First Avenger. It then goes through grinding mechanical noises and then something like engines powering up and a variety of industrial sounds amongst its ambient background. Overall, it comes off incredibly creepy, and is not a thing to listen to if you're alone in the dark.
  • One-Scene Wonder
    • Arnim Zola's computerized self appears for only three minutes, yet in that time he manages to establish himself as highly creepy and a surprisingly capable Chessmaster who's managed to resurrect HYDRA from within S.H.I.E.L.D. itself.
    • Batroc, the pirate who managed to hold his own against Captain America early in the movie.
    • Senator Stern's cameo is very brief but manages to be one of the most memorable parts of the film due to the sheer Narm Charm and Memetic Mutation surrounding it.
    • The nameless S.H.I.E.L.D. technician who refuses to activate Project Insight, fully expecting Rumlow to kill him for refusing.
    S.H.I.E.L.D. Tech: Captain's orders.
  • One True Threesome: One True Foursome—Steve/Sam/Natasha/Bucky hit the ground running. Any combo between them is also is a pretty popular pairing/threesome in its own right (Sam/Natasha is the least popular of this though, but even that has fans). Sometimes escalates to an OT5 with Hawkeye thrown in for good measure.
  • Paranoia Fuel:
    • HYDRA's been hiding in S.H.I.E.L.D. since its very creation, influencing world events under the justification of protecting people. They had a hand in the death of Howard Stark and his wife. The non-HYDRA members of S.H.I.E.L.D. had no idea at all. Not even Coulson realized his close friend was a mole.
    • It's implied that HYDRA had a hand in making an entire generation live in fear of nuclear attack, and the entire next generation live in fear of terrorism, just so humanity as a whole would be willing to give up their freedom for more safety and security. It's like "My whole life is a lie!" but for the entire planet.
    • Much of this movie's plot was taken from real-life government controversies such as drone strikes and NSA spying, and plays up people's real-life fears about them to their (il)logical conclusion, namely that the information being collected will ultimately be used to assassinate millions of people, the vast majority of whom have no links to terrorist organizations whatsoever.
    • After The Reveal, viewers of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. started to ask themselves if any of the S.H.I.E.L.D. agents they'd come to know and love over the course of the first season were actually HYDRA agents. The paranoia there turned out to be justified, as Grant Ward was revealed as The Mole in the following episode.
    • Who can say that there's no such an organization like HYDRA with similar goals and methods in Real Life?
  • Portmanteau Couple Name:
    • "Stucky," for Steve and Bucky.
    • "Barbershop Quartet" or the "Cap Quartet", for the OT4 of Steve, Bucky, Sam, and Natasha, or the various ships between the four as a collective whole. Also applies to Gen Fic centered on the four.
  • Realism-Induced Horror: Arnim Zola abusing his position in SHIELD to not only recreate Hydra, but also start several wars and even put dictators in power,note  bears an uncanny resemblance to the CIA's activities during the Cold War. Such as the bombing raids in Cambodia, the 1973 Chilean military coup, amongst other shady activities. It makes one wonder if something like this happened in the real world. Especially since it was stated that all this happened because of Project Paperclip.
  • Ron the Death Eater
    • Those who ship Steve with Tony or Bucky have a nasty tendency to accuse Sam of being a HYDRA mole, or depict him as one, despite the fact that Sam was a retired war vet who was never a part of S.H.I.E.L.D., and as such there's no logical way he could have been HYDRA.
    • Bucky Barnes gets some of this from some of the more rabid fans of rival Steve and Natasha ships, who seem to conveniently forget that his Face–Heel Turn was not exactly voluntary and that he was a relatively Nice Guy beforehand, so the idea that he would be an abusive boyfriend is extremely out of character.
  • Salvaged Story:
    • The First Avenger took some criticism for its idealized depiction of the 1940s, a time during which America was still segregated and committed crimes of its own (which could have something to do with the Howling Commandos also being an integrated unit). This is briefly touched upon in The Winter Soldier.
      Nick Fury: You know, I read those old SSR files. "Greatest Generation"? You guys did some nasty stuff.
      Steve Rogers: Yeah. We compromised, sometimes in ways that made us not sleep so well. But we did it so that people could be free. This [Project Insight] isn't freedom, this is fear.
    • There was also some ire given at Steve being perceived as not all that powerful or useful during The Avengers. This film thus ups his abilities to make it clear he really is a super soldier, performing feats such as taking down a Quinjet, smashing through door after door at full speed to catch a target, and literally singlehandedly wiping out a dozen hostile thugs inside a cramped elevator. The movie also opens up Steve's ability to use his shield as an actual weapon, rather than as just a shield, making him more dangerous than movies past. One commercial even made the debate about his power in-universe.
    • There were some complaints in Natasha's prior two appearances of existing as either Fanservice (in Iron Man 2) or as a flat Emotionless Girl (in The Avengers). The movie makes her more personable and human with her interactions with Steve, forging genuine friendships with him and Sam in the process and giving the character more dimension, something not lost on critics upon review.
  • Ships That Pass in the Night:
    • Despite their interactions mostly consisting of her acting as his mission control, there's a number of people who ship Steve with Maria Hill.
    • Due to the lack of interaction between Sharon and Steve, some fans pair her instead with Cameron Klein, the defiant S.H.I.E.L.D. technician after she saved his life from Brock Rumlow.
    • Winter Soldier/Falcon is even more popular, thanks to interviews that their actors do together. This is despite the fact that the characters interact one-on-one for about 15 seconds, a fight ending with the Soldier punting Falcon off a Helicarrier with broken wings. Picks up again (and becomes less crack-y) with the events of Captain America: Civil War, Avengers: Endgame, where they share more dialogue and screen time, and also the press tours, which often see their actors paired up. And with the announcement of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, a six-episode buddy spy miniseries led by the duo, it's safe to say the ship's only going to grow in popularity.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Ever since the movie premiered, there have been... kerfluffles involving every ship associated with Steve Rogers.
    • Months before the film was even released, some rather rabid shippers were already voicing opposition that Winter Soldier would become a potential love interest for Natasha (Black Widow), thus sinking their hopes for a Clint (Hawkeye) and Natasha relationship. This assumption wasn't without some merit, due to him and Natasha having been an Official Couple in the comics, but it became moot after the film revealed MCU Widow and Winter Soldier only met twice in the course of their lives, both times in which he was trying to kill her, to the disappointment of fans who were hoping to see that relationship be adapted to the films.
    • There were even a few who hoped Steve and Natasha might hook up, even though a running gag throughout the film is Nat encouraging Steve to get a girlfriend. Granted there are a few scenes where Natasha seems to be flirting with Steve, trying to get a feel for who he is and if he's her "type". They end up just being friends, which a lot of fans felt was a bit of a shame given that there is genuine chemistry between Chris Evans and Scarlett Johansson, and though the ship didn't reach Fan-Preferred Couple status, it enjoys a level of popularity on par with that of Steve and his canonical love interest Peggy.
    • The massive amounts of Ho Yay between Steve and Bucky resulted in the pairing going from a secondary ship among the fandom to permanently unseating Steve/Tony, which was the most popular post-Avengers ship at the time, resulting in a lot of Tumblr discontent.
    • Another one brewed between Steve/Tony shippers and the Sam/Steve shippers: the former were not happy that Steve went to Sam for help despite knowing him for such a short time instead of Tony, and the implications from Steve/Tony fans that Sam could have been HYDRA rankled the latter immensely. Of course, given he had a limited time window and Sam was already in Washington, D.C., there's the matter of practicality that helps with this case.
  • Signature Scene:
    • The elevator fight. No better way to show how capable Captain America is when nine highly-trained elite soldiers feel the only way to subdue him is to corner him in an elevator while incapacitating one of his arms, and he still takes them all to school, while also showing off his situational awareness abilities. It's so memorable that Avengers: Endgame features a recreation of the moment as a Mythology Gag during the 2012 segment.
    • The highway fight between Steve and the Winter Soldier is praised by many as one of the best action scenes in the entire MCU for its intensity, despite or even because of the lack of overt superpowers involved.
  • Special Effects Failure:
    • A picture-only example. The promotional image for Black Widow is unnaturally slim, to the point of it being relatively obviously photoshopped. A rather strange instance considering Scarlett Johansson has what's largely considered a very nice figure.
    • Likewise, Falcon's poster gives him a massive chest with disproportionately tiny legs. Comparisons are drawn to the work of Rob Liefeld.
    • During the police ambush, when Fury uses the missile launcher in his car to blow up the SWAT van, one can somewhat make out the air cannon used to launch one of the police cars into the air.
    • In the scene where Cap meets with Peggy, the effects used to age Hayley Atwell make her mouth slide around and change size unnaturally. They also do nothing to change her voice, meaning that her entire conversation with Steve is jarring as a young woman's voice comes out of an "old" woman's mouth.
    • The scene where Cap is getting onto the elevator (an outside shot, as we see him from a distance through a window) before he's mobbed by bad guys is obviously greenscreened, as is the scene where he lands on the rooftop after chasing the Winter Soldier.
    • Just before the fighting begins in the elevator scene, Cap confirms the group to be hostile by noticing a CGI bead of sweat coming from one of them that looks unnatural by the time the camera cuts away.
  • Spiritual Successor:
    • In the DVD commentary, the directors explicitly cite Three Days of the Condor as one of the inspirations for this film, even saying that they could have called it "Three Days of Captain America".
    • Fans have come to call this movie the closest they have to a Metal Gear Solid film adaptation. The ship sequence at the beginning of the film is essentially a live-action version of the Tanker level from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. Character-wise, Captain America is seen as an amalgam of the Boss, Big Boss, and Solid Snake, seeing that he's a legendary WWII veteran whose charisma is able to inspire others to rally around him. Meanwhile fans believe the Winter Soldier is partially based off of Raiden, Jetstream Sam, or Gray Fox thanks to his mask, Super-Reflexes, and cybernetic limbs, among other things. Others see him as representative of Quiet due to their shared sniping skills, dark brown hair, eye makeup, and general lack of spoken lines until a dramatic moment near the end.
    • It's also as much a Tom Clancy movie as Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit.
    • It's a closer adaptation of Ian Fleming's Moonraker than the official adaptation was.
    • This film was released following the controversial Superman reboot, Man of Steel. Some fans feel that Chris Evans' Captain America was a more appropriate modern take on the Big Blue Boyscout. By extension this makes it the closest thing to an adaptation of Amalgam's Super-Soldier.
  • Squick: When Nick Fury goes to the retina scan… with the eye under the patch.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Some, such as YouTuber Nando v Movies, have argued that The Reveal of HYDRA having infiltrated SHIELD undermines the ethical question the film poses of "is reduced liberty in the name of greater security worth it", and that the question would have resonated more if SHIELD itself were the antagonists rather than LITERAL Nazis. Indeed, this was actually the main criticism of the film by most critics who gave it a negative review.
  • They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character:
    • Some fans believe that while still a central part of the plot, the titular Winter Soldier is very much Out of Focus for most of the story. In the source material, the Winter Soldier's identity and background are subject to more scrutiny and tied more heavily into the plot. Almost all of it, including his ties to Black Widow, make no appearance in the film (though due to the MCU's time compression—Widow is much older in the comics—there might not even be a connection at all). The acting and design are dead on, but not much is done with the character in order to focus on Alexander Pierce. Still, the film does a good job of setting up possible appearances for future installments, along with the possibility of exploring his past and character in more detail in the sequel. This would mirror the comic story, where Bucky only has his memories restored via Cosmic Cube in the twelfth, final issue of the opening Winter Soldier epic, much like Bucky only realises who he is in the primary stinger of the film. Brubaker then spent the better part of his run with Bucky tentatively on the sidelines before the death of a certain character.
    • Sharon, a huge figure in the source mythos, and who was originally intended to be Steve's love interest, also receives far too little focus, which had significant consequences on her later appearances.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome:
    • Most obviously, the Winter Soldier's metal arm is a downright beautiful piece of work.
    • The fight scenes in general, starting with Steve sprinting around the hijacked ship and demolishing anyone in his way. It's a great reminder that he's faster and stronger than any normal human (without going totally over the top).
  • What Do You Mean, It's Not Political?:
    • Although the directors admit to drawing some inspiration from real life political controversies from The New '10s such as drone strikes and Barack Obama enacting preemptive strikes against potential threats to the US, they maintain that the link between S.H.I.E.L.D.'s secrets being leaked on the internet and Edward Snowden's NSA leaks is an accidental one, as the film's story had already been solidified before that came onto the scene. Ed Brubaker has said the screenplay was inspired by WikiLeaks, and the film winks at this, by showing Julian Assange as either a member or (more likely) a pawn of HYDRA.
    • S.H.I.E.L.D. (and by extension HYDRA) keeping track of everybody in the world by keeping their electronic records under surveillance on everything from bank accounts to social media to voting records and more, which mirrors the revelations of the lengths the NSA has gone to electronically spy on American citizens.
    • This kind of view resonates especially well with viewers from ex-communist countries, where it's been commented that the excessive sharing of personal data on social media is the kind of thing the KGB and its State Sec clones would have dreamed of, and that ironically making that a voluntary choice for convenience's sake in a consumer society works better than outright spying tactics which would just rouse paranoia, whereas similar paranoia about social media spying is more easily dismissed.
    • Another comparison popular in those countries is to how Former Regime Personnel of the old government's political body and State Sec infiltrated the new political structure directly after the regime's fall and the creation of the new, allegedly more democratic systems.
    • The initial plot (before the reveal of HYDRA) could easily be described as "something catastrophic happened in New York, so people in government start arguing that we should give up some freedoms in exchange for safety and stability."
    • Some reviewers have taken Steve's "On your left" comment as being a specific indication of left-wing liberalism. Other right-wing reviewers have retorted that it's about a big-government initiative to take away people's rights in exchange for security, which both the right and the left would might find politically distasteful, albeit for different reasons.
    • Several libertarian parties have taken the events of the plot (particularly, the defiance and rebellion against a powerful government body) as proof that it (and Cap himself) are iconic libertarian masterpieces.
  • Win Back the Crowd: While both Iron Man 3 and Thor: The Dark World were box office hits, with the former grossing a billion dollars worldwide, they received mixed reviews from fans, leaving some people to wonder if the MCU had lost a step or two. Then Winter Soldier came along and renewed their faith.
  • The Woobie: Steve Rogers and the Winter Soldier. Two Fish out of Temporal Water in a world where people everywhere are beginning to reject freedom and hand over control out of fear, both desperately alone, surrounded by people who simply cannot relate to their experiences. And the Winter Soldier never asked to be used as a guinea pig, have his personality repeatedly erased with Nazi science, or be used as a hitman for the terrorist organization responsible as part of their plot to take over the world. To say nothing of being forced to try to kill his best friend in the process.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier Prelude, written by Peter David

  • Complete Monster: Baker is a terrorist leader who wants to use the Zodiac bioweapon for destructive purposes. Breaking into the Willis Building in Chicago, Baker kills a security guard and takes a position at the top of the building, planning to wait until thousands of people are inside before unleashing the Zodiac and killing them all, and possibly more across Chicago. Baker uses the Zodiac as a shield when Captain America attacks, and leaves his henchmen to be caught to enable his own escape, saying that he'll find another target to use the Zodiac on soon enough.

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