Captain America: The Winter Soldier (2014)

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Much like with 'Iron Man 3,' 'Winter Soldier' is more of an update on the characters involved and the events they find themselves involved in after what by this time is dubbed the "Battle of New York", aka, the climactic events of 'The Avengers.' By this time, the MCU had also come to the small screen in the form of 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' At certain points, the show would cross over with the films; for example, S1/E8 has S.H.I.E.L.D. cleaning up the aftermath of the "Battle of London" seen in 'Thor: The Dark World.'

This film would be a much more in-depth crossover, with events unfolding simultaneously, and it was probably around the point where 'Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.' was most worth watching. Nowadays, the show is more treated like a branched-off timeline from the main events of the MCU and has essentially become altogether unimportant to the overall story, but there for the fans who want to know everything there is to know. It all begins in Washington, DC, where Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) now works for S.H.I.E.L.D. as Captain America, providing them with a true and just super-soldier hero.

When Cap is sent with Agent Natasha Romanoff a.k.a. Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson) and S.T.R.I.K.E. (Special Tactical Reserve for International Key Emergencies), S.H.I.E.L.D.'s counter-terrorism unit, led by Agent Brock Rumlow (Frank Grillo), on a rescue mission to free hostages from a stolen S.H.I.E.L.D. ship. During the mission, to his shock and awe, Rogers learns that Romanoff has been given a secret mission from S.H.I.E.L.D. Director Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is to extract some data from the ship where the hostages are being held.

Feeling his trust in S.H.I.E.L.D.'s transparency shaken, Rogers confronts Fury about the secret data extraction, and is briefed on "Project Insight," which S.H.I.E.L.D. developed after the Battle of New York. It involved three Hellicarriers linked to spy satellites and was meant to preemptively eliminate threats worldwide, lest they end up with another Loki on their hands. The bad news, however, is that Fury is unable to decrypt the data Romanoff brought back for him, leading him to become suspicious of the project, which he doesn't realize S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford) is planning to use to a villainous advantage.

In one of the more major events of the MCU's history, this is the point where S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised by the resurrection of HYDRA, led by Pierce, who also uses the title character, the Winter Soldier (Sebastian Stan) to his advantage, which puts Rogers in a hell of a position, as the brainwashed Winter Soldier just so happens to be his old pal Bucky Barnes, whom he thought was KIA in a mission back in WWII. He was instead found, captured, and put through an MK Ultra-like program, transforming him into a deadly weapon at the saying of key words.

When S.H.I.E.L.D. is compromised, it forces Captain America and Black Widow to abandon S.T.R.I.K.E. and be dubbed fugitives for the first time, although they continue to work together along with Rogers' new loyal friend, Sam Wilson, aka The Falcon (Anthony Mackie) to find answers as to why Hydra has taken control of SHIELD, how they recruited Bucky to work for them, how deep everthing goes and who they can possibly trust anymore. As Cap deals with all of this, he's just barely settling into his everyday "future" life and still adjusting. All in all, it's a solid execution that shows who Steve Rogers really is as the MCU's pure hero.

Another part of this being a major part of MCU history involves the Russo brothers coming into play, who would essentially become the MCU's mainstay writers/directors of the MCU's bigger projects, returning for 'Civil War,' 'Infinity War,' 'Endgame,' 'Doomsday,' and 'Secret Wars.' It seems any time the Russo brothers show up, you're gonna be in for a treat (at least in my humble opinion). After the lesser-quality films 'Iron Man 3' and 'Thor: The Dark World,' it was nice to see this pick things right up and get me excited about what the future of the MCU had in store.

5/5

MID-CREDIT SCENE: Baron Wolfgang von Strucker (Thomas Kretschmann) is at a Hydra lab, proclaiming that the "age of miracles" has begun. Scientists can be seen examining what appears to be Loki's sceptre. Meanwhile, two test subjects are shown caged up, one with super speed and one with telekinetic ability. We recognize them as Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen). This is a tease for who will be featured in 'Age of Ultron'.

POST-CREDIT SCENE: Bucky wanders through a war museum exhibit highlighting Steve Rogers as Captain America and discovers who he really is.

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