Captain America: The First Avenger

A heavy blanket of snowflakes is pierced through by bright headlights. A scientist makes his way through the precipitation while dressed as warmly as possible. Two more men approach the scientist while wearing identical black cold-weather outfits. He takes them to an excavation site that is easily the size of a football field; there is what looks to be a massive wing and fuselage in the middle of the site. The men in dark suits enter the mysterious craft through the fuselage. They discover the wreckage of a huge, frozen ship inside. One of the men removes some snow and notices an icy shield with the colors red, white, and blue shining on it.

1942, Tonsberg, Norway

Two guardians of an ancient Viking ruin watch as the Nazis take over their town while they listen. Numerous Nazi agents rush in as the front door suddenly bursts open. The explosion kills one of the carers, and the other one cries out for the soldiers to leave him alone. They ignore the elderly man and proceed to unlock each crypt individually. When they reach one, the lid is too heavy to lift. The collapsed entryway reveals a shadowy figure.

High-ranking Nazi and head of the HYDRA group Johann Schmidt (Hugo Weaving) comes casually. After moving across the chamber, he approaches the tomb that is challenging to open and quickly prys the lid open. He discovers inside the ancient Viking's skeleton bones holding a glass cube (the Tesseract). Schmidt is begged by the carer to go. Schmidt scoffs and claims that if this cube weren't a fake, it would be the crown jewel of Odin's treasure. After smashing it to the ground, he approaches to the groundskeeper and inquires about the whereabouts of the genuine cube.

The keeper initially refuses, but after being threatened with damage to his family, he agrees, pointing to a concealed drawer across the room that is a piece of a massive antique carving. When Schmidt prys open the drawer, he discovers the genuine, luminous cube within. After giving the city a shelling order, Schmidt shoots the unfortunate caretaker.

Steve Rogers (Chris Evans), a 20-something, 90-pound, 5-foot-tall asthmatic, anxiously awaits the chance to enlist in the United States Army at a recruitment station in Brooklyn. As this is Steve's fourth unsuccessful attempt to enrol, the army doctor looks through his medical history, which resembles that of a 90-year-old man, and rejects his application as the military 4-F.

Steve visits the theatre after becoming upset. He sees other audience members crying during the pre-show newsreel and envies the enlisted guys. An agitated, loud-mouthed moviegoer starts shouting at the screen. "Start the film now! I wasn't charged to witness this garbage!" When Steve urges the man to stop talking, the man turns around, gets up, and towers over him, surprising Steve. The skinny Steve is brutally attacked by the bully in the alleyway behind the theatre. Despite his valiant efforts to defend himself, Steve is quickly overcome.

The bleeding Steve responds, "I can do this all day," when his opponent questions why he won't just give up. Steve's closest buddy, James "Bucky" Barnes (Sebastian Stan), rushes to the alley. Steve is irritated that Bucky arrived and got rid of the bully just as Steve was regaining his composure. He quickly kicks the bully away and tends to Steve. "Bucky" has now joined the military. His application was approved, and the 107th Infantry was given his assignment.

In a festive mood, Bucky extends an invitation to Steve to go dancing with two girls on a double date. Steve follows along timidly. The four travel to Queens for the World's Fair. Steve observes playboy inventor Howard Stark (Dominic Cooper) trying in vain to display a flying car while Bucky canoodles with his dates. Steve departs from the group and visits a different recruiting office. When Bucky finally gets up with him, he asks Steve how he plans to falsify his application this time. Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci), who is walking by, overhears their chat without their knowledge. The tenacity of Steve fascinates him.

When Steve goes to the recruitment office for his fifth physical, Bucky wishes him luck on his most recent application. When an MP and Dr. Erskine enter the room, Steve is seated on an exam table and starts to feel uneasy. All of Steve's earlier applications are on file with Dr. Erskine. Erskine questions Steve's motivation for enlisting for military service, concerned about his unsuccessful applications, to see if it is merely motivated by a desire to kill Nazis.

The young man, who is serious in admitting that he is not a killer at heart, says that he does not like "bullies," regardless of their nationality, and that he does not seem to care if Erksine is German by birth. Erksine approves Steve's most recent application after being won over by his unwavering conviction and powerful will.

Johann Schmidt delivers the glowing cube to Dr. Arnim Zola, his Hydra weapon expert, in a covert military facility high in the Alps. Schmidt and Dr. Zola are able to power unstoppable energy guns and cannons because to the cube's seemingly endless power.

Steve, meanwhile, has entered basic training under the close supervision of Colonel Chester Phillips and Dr. Erskine (Tommy Lee Jones). He and his battalion are informed that they are potential participants in the most recent government Super Soldier initiative. Dr. Erskine's attention in Steve irks Phillips, who is also unhappy with him. Steve meets Peggy Carter (Haley Atwell), a stunning but ambitious British officer, at basic training. Peggy seems to feel sorry for Steve.

Steve, despite being the smallest and weakest member of the platoon, exemplifies the greatest spirit, selflessness, and ingenuity. In particular, when his platoon is tasked with removing a flag from the top of a tall pole, Steve casually pulls the pin holding it up, taking the flag when the pole crashes to the ground as the other, more physically fit members of the company fail the task one by one. They all scatter as Phillips throws a grenade at the group while performing callisthenics since he is still not convinced. Phillips is taken aback when Steve jumps on top of the grenade by himself and offers to die to save the others before realising that the grenade was a fake. Phillips accepts Erskine's judgement.

Steve and Dr. Erskine had a conversation that night. Dr. Erskine discloses that this is not the first time he has conducted this experiment as the two become close over a bottle of Schnapps. He recounts how Johann Schmidt gave him the assignment to develop a serum that would give a man superhuman power before he immigrated to the US. When Schmidt injected himself with a prototype of the serum that Dr. Erskine planned to use on Steve, the flesh on his body rusted away, turning him into a sinewy crimson skeleton. Steve decides to go ahead with the treatment despite the risk.

The next morning, Steve and Peggy travel around Brooklyn before stopping in front of a historic antique store. Steve identifies numerous locations in Brooklyn where he has been assaulted along the route. She enquires as to his refusal to flee. He replies that he believes running away was a call for further assault.

After exchanging pass numbers with the elderly woman working the register, the two enter the antique store and descend into a hidden military bunker. Peggy guides Steve to the bunker's interior where they see Dr. Erskine and Howard Stark putting the finishing touches on a medicinal capsule and Colonel Phillips mingling with senators and dignitaries. Steve is instructed to take off his shirt and get inside the spaceship. In order to perform the surgery, Stark says that Rogers' key muscle groups will first be injected with muscle re-generators before being exposed to "vita rays."

Erskine has been open about the suffering Steve will experience and says he will survive it stronger. Carter wishes Steve well before joining Phillips in the room with the overhead viewing screen. Steve is placed inside the vita ray capsule after receiving an injection of Erskine's serum into his muscles. Steve screams in pain but also commands them to continue as the capsule lights brilliantly, and the surgery is over fast. The only parts of Steve's anatomy that have been artificially elevated to their highest possible levels are the most visible ones, and when the capsule is shut down, he emerges a foot taller, a hundred pounds heavier, and with solid muscle.

Everyone, including Phillips, exits the viewing chamber to congratulate Erskine on the successful procedure. Heinz Kruger (Richard Armitage), a German spy, is the only dignitary left and he leaves a little satchel on a chair. Later, the spectator area catches fire. Dr. Erskine is fatally shot twice by Kruger as he descends the stairs. Peggy quickly dispatches the guards before pursuing him through the streets. Dr. Erskine is being attended to by Steve as he passes away, but not before he can point to Steve's heart. Steve rushes out of the bunker to catch up with Kruger.

Peggy chases Kruger down in the street and dispatches his getaway driver with ease. Kruger attempts to run over Peggy by robbing a taxi. Steve arrives just in time to prevent her from being struck and murdered by the approaching cab. Steve chases the taxi on foot, moving more quickly than an average person (and not suffering the fatigue even a healthy man would). He hops onto the taxi's roof while demonstrating superhuman agility, evades Kruger's bullets, and the two crash to a rest near the Brooklyn docks.

Steve uses the star-imprinted cab door in front of him as a shield as Kruger fires at him. As Steve approaches, Kruger runs to his Hydra sub, which submerges. Steve swims after the submarine, breaks the glass in the cockpit, and pulls Kruger to the surface. Steve is the first of many, says Kruger, and although Rogers can "chop off one head," two more will grow in its place. Then, after concealing a cyanide pill in a fake tooth, he kills himself and exclaims one final "Heil HYDRA!" before passing away.

Three of Hitler's top officers arrive to inspect Schmidt's operation, and they visit Schmidt and Dr. Zola. They make fun of Schmidt, claiming that the Nazi party no longer views him or HYDRA seriously because of his fixation with magic and the occult, and they jokingly call to him as "The Red Skull," which enrages Schmidt. The three are led to Schmidt's weapons lab where they are shown his unstoppable energy weaponry and a target-filled strategic map of Europe. A target is seen circling Berlin, and one of the three confronts Schmidt. Schmidt vaporises the three Nazi officers in a flash. Schmidt declares that HYDRA is no longer affiliated with the Nazi party and is now at odds with the rest of the world.

The remnants of Dr. Erskine's laboratory are collected by Phillips and Carter the next day. Both are discouraged because Erskine was the only one who could create the serum. Although Steve is anxious to join the battle on the front lines in the European Theater, Phillips would prefer that he serve in his army as a lab rat. A senator approaches Steve while holding a newspaper from the day's events that features a front-page picture of Steve pursuing Heinz Kruger. The Senator and Steve have a mutually advantageous concept, and Steve obtains overnight fame.

Steve joins the USO (United Service Organizations) and traverses the Midwest playing musical numbers and pushing war bonds while wearing a tacky red, white, and blue ensemble and a triangle-shaped shield bearing the American flag. He adopts the title "Captain America," and the programme comprises dancing girls, a song composed especially for him, and a brief scene in which he punches an actor playing Hitler. Overnight triumph for Captain America leads to comic books and old-style movies. His antics generate income for the USO.

Steve will continue to amuse the troops in Italy after being sent there shortly. The grumpy, war-torn men mock him and tell him to leave when he arrives. Carter, who is in charge of the war's European Theatre together with Phillips, meets him shortly after. She explains to him that the guys are dissatisfied since a lot of members of their division, the 107th Infantry, had lost their lives in combat. When Steve finds that Bucky is in charge of this division, he rushes to see Phillips. When Bucky's name is not listed among the casualties, Phillips instructs Steve to return to his role as a cheerleader and movie star.

Carter is questioned by Steve about the whereabouts of the men and Bucky. On a map, she points out a HYDRA weapons complex that is 30 to 40 kilometres behind enemy lines. Over his Captain America outfit, Steve rapidly dons a leather jacket, pair of army-issued pants, and a blue helmet with a white 'A' imprinted on the front. She has a better plan than he has, which is to steal a vehicle and drive into HYDRA's backyard.

In his personal aircraft, Howard Stark flies them both above the battleground. Steve, who assumes that Stark and Carter are dating, timidly conceals his affections for Carter. Steve jumps in as Stark's plane is being attacked by HYDRA anti-aircraft weapons, while the other two manage to flee back to safety. Steve enters the HYDRA base covertly, dispatching multiple security personnel in the process.

Schmidt and Zola are creating enough weaponry inside to destroy all of the world's capital cities. In the holding cells, Steve arrives to see a large number of guys from the 107th who are detained. He releases the guys and instructs them to go in a "messy" manner. The convicts manage to overthrow their keepers, take weapons and tanks, and flee the facility while largely destroying it under the direction of the "Howling Commandos." By using CCTV to observe Steve, Schmidt soon deduces that he must be Erskine's guy. He detonates a number of explosive devices swiftly, destroying the base.

As Steve moves inside the building, he comes across Bucky, who is strapped to an operating table and clearly has been subjected to torture. A large tactical map with identified installations is also displayed on the wall, which Steve also sees. Bucky is startled to realise that Steve is taller than him before Steve frees him and memorises the map.

On a retractable bridge, they come face to face with Schmidt as the two make their way up the catwalks. Schmidt unexpectedly resists being punched by Rogers. Schmidt swiftly pulls off his face as a mask and plays with it when it appears to have broken free from his head. After giving Rogers and Bucky a cold, hard look, The Red Skull quickly boards an elevator. The Red Skull instructs Arnim Zola to take his car and meet him at another Hydra base while he is in the elevator.

While Zola makes her way away in Schmidt's roadster, The Red Skull flees the exploding facility on a peculiarly constructed private jet. To reach freedom inside, Steve and Bucky must pass a substantial barrier. Bucky manages to cross a buckling, quivering support beam and reach safety just before the beam falls into the inferno below. Steve backs up as far as he can and leaps over the blazing chasm because he has no other choice.

Phillips dictates a letter to his typist back at the 107th base camp in which he describes how Rogers vanished the night before and most certainly died in combat. At that point, Agent Carter is chastised by Phillips for creating this loss and is reminded that, unlike the essential Stark, she is subject to punishment. Carter makes an attempt to defend her actions, but Phillips dismisses them outright because losing Rogers—the sole Project: Rebirth test subject to prove successful—would be sufficient grounds for their company to be shut down.

Exactly at that moment, Rogers shows up with around 400 107th survivors who are carrying samples of Red Skull technology, including some assault vehicles, and they rush out of the base. Rogers turns himself in to Phillips for punishment after leaving the house without permission, but he is pardoned. Bucky requests applause for Rogers because he has now successfully assumed the role of Captain America.

The world has heard about "Captain America's" victory on the battlefield, but Rogers does not show up to get his medal from Congress. The reason for this absence is that Steve is in London, where he gives Phillips and Carter his best memory of the HYDRA base map and tells them that he plans to visit those bases and destroy them one by one. He also tells them that he wants to assemble a group of men made up of the prisoners he freed in Italy to carry out this mission.

The Howling Commandos enthusiastically embrace Steve's offer after running into them in a bar. When Peggy walks in wearing a form-fitting cocktail dress, all the men around are taken aback. She brushes off all the males, including Bucky, and makes flirtatious comments to Steve, telling him she would adore dancing with him someday.

The following day, Steve is asked to visit Phillips and Stark at the Brooklyn bunker. Steve is contacted by a stunning female officer who wants to express her gratitude for his service in the nicest way possible. Peggy enters as Steve is kissing the enlisted woman and goes out in a fury. Insisting that he gets jittery around women and questioning why he should apologise if Carter and Stark are seeing each other, Steve apologetically follows her to Stark's lab. The supposed romance is swiftly disproved by Stark, who then summons Steve to his weapons engineering facility.

Steve claims that the triangle shield is a useful tool in the field, but he observes that Rogers has grown hooked to it. Several prototype shields with complex components are on a table, but Steve discovers a simple, round shield on a lower shelf. According to Stark, the shield is comprised of "vibranium," a metal that is lighter than steel, impervious to vibration, and capable of absorbing significant hits. He asks Peggy for her opinion while holding the shield in front of him. She mockingly or playfully fires a.45 pistol clip at the shield, and Steve hides behind it. The shield performs brilliantly in the impromptu test. Steve hands Stark a drawing of a uniform as she leaves.

Steve dons red, white, and blue fatigues, a blue helmet that fits him well, and he carries the newly coloured shield on his back. Rogers becomes fairly adept at using the shield as a projectile weapon and also learns that it can ricochet off multiple surfaces and not lose any velocity as Captain America and his soldiers, including Bucky, advance through Europe, razing Hydra's bases one by one. He spreads word of his exploits to Zola and the Red Skull. The final man still alive at one of Rogers' wrecked facilities is murdered by The Skull, who refers to Rogers as a "simpleton with a shield" in his rage.

Steve and his guys are on a mission to stop Zola on his own train high in the Alps. Cap, Bucky, and Gabe Jones (Derek Luke), three members of the crew, zip-line across a wide abyss and attack the train car in a car. Cap and Bucky are quickly surrounded by well-armed Hydra soldiers. They just manage to fight the soldiers, but Bucky is thrown off the train and falls into a freezing river below. Zola is captured.

Colonel Phillips visits Zola in his prison cell and brings him a steak meal while he is there. Zola declines the dinner because he thinks it must be tainted with poison. Phillips eats it by himself after shrugging. He claims that he transmitted a message that was simple to understand, claiming that Zola had defected, and that it had undoubtedly been picked up by HYDRA. Additionally, he is aware that Zola is a good negotiator because he is the only captive HYDRA agent who hasn't taken his cyanide capsule to prevent him from spilling secrets. Zola gives in to Phillips and provides him with information on the Red Skull's sole remaining HYDRA base out of fear that the lie will lead to the Red Skull killing him.

In a war-torn tavern, Rogers pouts. When Carter shows up, he consoles Steve at the death of his best friend. Steve understands that Dr. Erskine's serum causes dead cells to regenerate back quickly, preventing him from intoxication. The two engage in some light flirtation and discuss dancing again.

In order to defeat Red Skull at his base of operations, Rogers and his squad formulate a strategy. Rogers rides a Harley and charges the base while wearing a new uniform. He avoids HYDRA soldiers and tanks with ease and eventually finds himself inside the base, surrounded by a HYDRA force. He is detained and taken to the Red Skull's personal arsenal. Red Skull enquires as to what makes Steve so unique. Just as members of Steve's crew zip-line into Red Skull's office, Steve adds, "Nothing, I'm just a kid from Brooklyn."

Numerous HYDRA soldiers are killed when hundreds of soldiers led by Phillips and Carter rush the base, setting off a dramatic shootout. Red Skull runs away to his personal hangar, where a massive flying wing propelled by the Tesseract is getting ready to take off. Steve tries to outrun the plane on foot but is unsuccessful. The Skull's roadster receives Phillips and Carter, and the three flee after the aircraft. Peggy stops Steve just as he is ready to run up to the jet and kisses him. Steve leaps from the roadster onto a huge wheel of the aircraft.

He enters the ship covertly and discovers dozens of kamikaze aircraft and missiles, each bearing the name of a significant American city. Soon after the Hydra forces enter the room, Steve engages them in combat, killing multiple men and miniature planes. New York-branded one of the aircraft makes a free fall. Steve takes off after it and manages to seize control of the vehicle, crashing it back into the flying wing after hurling the pilot through its propeller's rear mounting.

Red Skull and Captain America engage in a fistfight in the spacious cockpit. Steve is hit by rounds from Red Skull's cube-energy weapon, but he easily deflects them with his shield. The luminous blue cube is within one of the centre consoles of the cockpit when a projectile is deflected into it. Skull lifts the cube into the air while claiming that the console is broken. Overhead, a gateway suddenly opens, revealing starry space. Brightly glowing, and seemingly in pieces, is the Red Skull.

His remains are carried away into space. The incandescent cube falls to the ground and burns its way through the hull of the aircraft before falling into the water below. With Carter on the radio, Steve is in charge of the aircraft. He informs her that the flying route the aircraft is on will take them to the Eastern Seaboard. Their dance would have to wait, he informs her. He causes the aircraft to plummet and hit a glacier below. Peggy hears nothing but static.

In a hospital from the 1940s, Steve awakens. The Brooklyn Dodgers game's play-by-play is broadcast over an antique radio. As the hospital door opens, he stands up, turns to the windows, and watches. Amanda Righetti, a young nurse who looks much like Peggy, enters. Steve is watching her suspiciously as she waits for his reaction. He queries why a game from May 1941 is being played on the radio, notably one that he is aware of having attended. She takes out a two-way radio from her pocket.

Steve effortlessly throws two towering soldiers wearing black uniforms through a wall as soon as they enter the room. Stepping through the gap, Steve is shocked to see that the supposed hospital is actually a set. In a contemporary building teeming with people in business suits, he finds himself after running through the dim halls and pushing a door open. He leaves the structure and ends up at Times Square about 2011. He looks around, startled by what he sees, and observes as numerous identical black SUVs round him.

Steve is approached by Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson), who speaks slowly to him. He explains to him that he has been frozen in a state of suspended animation for 70 years. He was supposed to be progressively acclimated to contemporary society in the hospital set. As he realises that everyone else he knew in the 1940s is now either long dead or very elderly, Steve lets out a heavy sigh and informs Fury that he had a date.

Steve is in an antique gym in a post-credits scene. He strikes a punching bag so forcefully that it is knocked from its chain and flies across the room. Fury walks into the gym and inquires about Steve's sleep habits. Steve sarcastically queries whether Fury has arrived on another mission. Fury gives a positive response.

All of the superheroes, including Steve/Captain America, Thor from the film of the same name, Tony Stark from the "Ironman" films, Hawkeye, Black Widow, Bruce Banner from "The Incredible Hulk," and other Shield operatives getting ready for combat, appear all at once. He is told by Fury that "they are up." He has finished his personal objective to assemble a team of superheroes, foreshadowing The Avengers.