Captain America: The First Avenger


Captain America: The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America. Produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, it is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The film was directed by Joe Johnston, written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely, and stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Dominic Cooper, Toby Jones, Neal McDonough, Derek Luke, and Stanley Tucci. During World War II, Rogers, a frail man, is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull from using the Tesseract as an energy source for world domination.
The film began as a concept in 1997 and was scheduled for distribution by Artisan Entertainment. However, a lawsuit disrupted the project and was not settled until September 2003. In 2005, Marvel Studios received a loan from Merrill Lynch, and planned to finance and release the film through Paramount Pictures. Directors Jon Favreau and Louis Leterrier were interested in directing the project before Johnston was approached in 2008. The principal characters were cast between March and June 2010. Production began in June, and filming took place in London, Manchester, Caerwent, Liverpool, and Los Angeles. Several different techniques were used by the visual effects company Lola to create the physical appearance of the character before he becomes Captain America.
Captain America: The First Avenger premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Los Angeles on July 19, 2011, and was released in the United States on July 22, as part of Phase One of the MCU. The film was commercially successful, grossing over $370 million worldwide, and received positive reviews from critics, who praised Evans' performance, the film's depiction of its 1940s time period, and Johnston's direction. Two direct sequels have been released: Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War.

Plot

In the present day, scientists in the Arctic uncover an old aircraft with someone frozen inside and a circular shield. In March 1942, during World War II, Nazi lieutenant general and Hydra leader Johann Schmidt steals a mysterious relic called the Tesseract, which possesses untold godly powers, from the town of Tønsberg in German-occupied Norway.
In New York City, Steve Rogers is rejected for U.S. Army recruitment due to his small stature and poor health. While attending the Stark Expo, an event held by famous engineer Howard Stark, Rogers attempts to enlist again. Overhearing Rogers tell his best friend, James "Bucky" Barnes, that he wants to fight for his country, Dr. Abraham Erskine allows Rogers to enlist. He is recruited into the Strategic Scientific Reserve as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under Erskine, Stark, Colonel Chester Phillips, and British MI6 agent Peggy Carter. Phillips is not convinced by Erskine's claims that Rogers is the right person for the procedure until Rogers selflessly jumps on a grenade as part of a test. Erskine reveals to Rogers that he was a scientist under Schmidt, until the latter took a prototype version of the super-soldier formula that gave him superhuman strength but painfully changed his appearance.
Schmidt and Dr. Arnim Zola harness the energies of the Tesseract to fuel Zola's inventions and Hydra's planned worldwide offensive. Schmidt discovers Erskine's location and sends an assassin, Heinz Kruger, to kill him. Erskine and Stark put Rogers through the super-soldier treatment, injecting him with the formula and dosing him with "vita-rays". After Rogers emerges from the experiment taller and more muscular, Kruger kills Erskine and flees with the last vial of the formula. Rogers pursues and captures Kruger, but the assassin avoids interrogation by killing himself with a cyanide capsule. The vial is destroyed during the chase. With Erskine dead and his formula lost, U.S. Senator Brandt has Rogers tour the nation as the mascot "Captain America" to promote war bonds while scientists study his blood and attempt to reverse-engineer the formula. In 1943, while on tour in Italy performing for active servicemen, Rogers learns that Barnes's unit is MIA following a battle against Schmidt's forces. Rogers has Carter and Stark fly him behind enemy lines to mount a rescue. Rogers infiltrates Schmidt's fortress, frees Barnes and the other prisoners, and confronts Schmidt. The latter escapes, but first he removes a mask to reveal his red, skull-like visage that has earned him the sobriquet "Red Skull".
Rogers recruits Barnes and other freed prisoners to form the Howling Commandos. Stark outfits Rogers with an upgraded uniform and a circular shield made of a rare, nearly indestructible metal called vibranium. Rogers and his team sabotage various Hydra operations while he and Carter begin to fall in love. In 1945, the team assaults a train carrying Zola. They capture him, but Barnes falls from the train to his apparent death. Using information extracted from Zola, the final Hydra stronghold is located, and Rogers leads an attack to stop Schmidt from using weapons of mass destruction on major American cities. Rogers climbs aboard Schmidt's super-bomber as it takes off. During the subsequent fight, the Tesseract is freed from its container, and Schmidt picks it up, opening a portal into space through which he is pulled. The Tesseract burns through the plane and falls into the ocean. Seeing no way to land the plane without risking its weapons detonating, Rogers radios Carter to say goodbye before crashing in the Arctic. After the war ends, Stark recovers the Tesseract from the ocean floor but is unable to locate the aircraft, and Rogers is presumed dead.
Rogers awakens in a 1940s-style hospital room, which he grows suspicious of after hearing a radio broadcast of a 1941 baseball game that he remembers attending in person. He escapes from the room and finds himself in contemporary Times Square, where S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury informs him that he has been asleep for almost 70 years. In a post-credits scene, Fury approaches Rogers and proposes a mission with worldwide ramifications.

Cast

  • Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America:
A frail young man who is enhanced to the peak of human ability by an experimental serum in order to aid the United States war effort. Evans, who previously worked with Marvel as the Human Torch in the Fantastic Four film series, said he declined the part three times before signing a six-picture deal with Marvel, explaining that, "At the time, I remember telling a buddy of mine, 'If the movie bombs, I'm f—-ed. If the movie hits, I'm f—-ed!' I was just scared. I realized my whole decision-making process was fear-based, and you never want to make a decision out of fear. I can't believe I was almost too chicken to play Captain America." Evans ultimately agreed to the role, saying, "I think Marvel is doing a lot of good things right now, and it's a fun character. ... I think the story of Steve Rogers is great. He's a great guy. Even if it just a script about anybody, I would probably want to do it. So it wasn't necessarily about the comic itself." Regarding the extent of the character's abilities Evans remarked, "He would crush the Olympics. Any Olympic sport he's gonna dominate. He can jump higher, run faster, lift stronger weight, but he can be injured. He could roll an ankle and be out for the season. He's not perfect, he's not untouchable. So a lot of the effects, if I'm going to punch someone they're not going to put them on a cable and fly them back 50 feet, but he's going to go down, probably not getting back up, which I think humanizes it. It makes it something that, again, I think everyone can relate to a little bit more, which I really like." Evans did daily high-weight training and stuck to a high-calorie diet to get in shape for the part. Theater actor Leander Deeny was Evans' body double in some shots for Steve Rogers' pre-transformation physique, and also appears as a bartender.
  • Tommy Lee Jones as Chester Phillips:
A colonel in the United States Army and member of the Strategic Scientific Reserve who heads the project to create super soldiers. The character was updated from the comics, where Phillips was the one to recruit Rogers to join Project Rebirth that made him Captain America. Jones described the character as "the one you've seen in a thousand movies: the gruff, skeptical officer overseeing a team of talented, slightly sarcastic, specially talented soldiers".
  • Hugo Weaving as Johann Schmidt / Red Skull:
Adolf Hitler's head of advanced weaponry and commander of the terrorist organization Hydra whose own plan for world domination involves harnessing the power of the magical object known as the Tesseract. Weaving stated that he patterned Red Skull's accent on those of Werner Herzog and Klaus Maria Brandauer. About the character, Weaving remarked, "I think the major difference between Skull and Cap, they've both had the serum, and the serum seems to augment certain qualities that each of them have. Cap is much more in tune with other people I think. Schmidt is in tune with himself, and his own needs, and his own ego, so I suppose it augments that. From that point of view, they're quite opposite."
  • Hayley Atwell as Margaret "Peggy" Carter:
An officer with the Strategic Scientific Reserve who works with Phillips on the super soldier project. Regarding her preparation for the role, she said, "I'm training at the moment six days a week to make her a bit more military and make it convincing that I could kick butt." About the character, Atwell stated, "I likened her character to that famous Ginger Rogers quote. She can do everything Captain America can do, but backwards and in high heels. She's an English soldier through and through, although she always looks fabulous. She might stand there with a machine-gun shooting Nazis, but she's obviously gone to the loo beforehand and applied a bit of lipstick. She doesn't need to be rescued. That's exciting to me – her strength." She added, "I think she's quite stubborn, a slightly frustrated woman who struggles with being a woman in that time. But more importantly she's a modern woman and she sees something in Captain America that she relates to, and becomes kindred spirits. He treats her very differently to how she's been treated by lots of men, in this kind of dominated world she lives in. So she's very much a fighter."
  • Sebastian Stan as James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes:
A sergeant in the United States Army, Rogers' best friend, and member of his squad of commandos. Stan signed on for "five or six pictures". He revealed that he did not know anything about the comic books, but watched a lot of documentaries and films about World War II in preparation for the role, calling Band of Brothers "very helpful". About the role, Stan stated, "Steve Rogers and Bucky are both orphans and kind of like brothers. They kind of grow up together and look after each other. It's a very human, relatable thing... I also wanted to look out for how their relationship changes once Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. There's always a competition and they're always one-upping each other. I paid attention to how Bucky is affected by Steve's change and suddenly Steve is this leader".
  • Dominic Cooper as Howard Stark:
The father of Tony Stark who worked on various government projects dating back to the World War II era. About the role, Cooper stated, "It's an opportunity where you can see his future because I know the guy who becomes my son and I see myself as an older version in Iron Man 2 which is great for an actor to have those tools. All I know of him is that he's a fantastic engineer and inventor and a very slick Howard Hughes type that's into aviation and women!"
  • Toby Jones as Arnim Zola: A biochemist for the Nazi party.
  • Neal McDonough as Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan:
A member of Rogers' squad of commandos. McDonough wore the character's signature bowler hat and said he grew Dugan's trademark mustache. About his role in the film he remarked, "Oh, I'm going to see a lot of action. the go-to guy, so I'm very happy with that." McDonough was signed on to appear in multiple projects for Marvel, not limited to films.
  • Derek Luke as Gabe Jones:
A member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Luke said he was cast without a script or much of a description of the character. As to why he took the part, "I just believed that Marvel was doing some really great work, great messages in films. The good versus evil and I was just like, 'How can I be down?
  • Stanley Tucci as Abraham Erskine:
The scientist who created the Super Soldier Serum. Tucci said that what drew him to the role was the opportunity to do a German accent, which was something he always wanted to try.
Samuel L. Jackson reprises his role as Nick Fury, the director of the super-spy agency, S.H.I.E.L.D. Kenneth Choi appears as Jim Morita, a Japanese-American member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Choi said he was the last actor to audition for the part and that he read sides from Saving Private Ryan. About his preparation for the role, Choi said, " did a lot of WWII research especially in regards to the 'Nisei' soldiers, or Japanese-American soldiers. I wanted to get as much true, real-life information for a guy like Jim Morita fighting in WWII. I felt that if I had built a factual basis for him, I could then let go and permit the character to exist in the Marvel Universe, which allows for a lot of imaginative circumstances." Bruno Ricci stars as Jacques Dernier, a French member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Ricci auditioned for and got the part while filming the French series The Hawk. JJ Feild appears as James Montgomery Falsworth, a British member of Rogers' squad of commandos. Feild called his part in the film "a very physical job. I play one of the Captain's sidekicks so I've been running around shooting things and blowing things up and trying to look cool for about a year." Additionally, Richard Armitage portrays Heinz Kruger, the Red Skull's top assassin, Lex Shrapnel portrays, a candidate for the super soldier program, Michael Brandon portrays Brandt, a United States Senator who recognizes the PR potential of Captain America. Jeff Goldblum had originally been approached to play the part; he later played Grandmaster in Thor: Ragnarok. David Bradley appears as the church keeper where the Tesseract is held. Natalie Dormer portrays Lorraine, a private who attempts to seduce Rogers, and Jenna Coleman appears as Connie, Bucky's date at the World Expo. Laura Haddock, who would go on to portray Meredith Quill in Guardians of the Galaxy, has a brief appearance as an autograph seeker. Guardians of the Galaxy writer/director James Gunn jokingly claimed that this was Peter Quill's grandmother. Stan Lee has a cameo appearance as a general.