Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. It is the sequel to Captain America: The First Avenger (2011) and the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. It stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America alongside Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Toby Jones, Jenny Agutter, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson. In the film, Rogers, Natasha Romanoff (Johansson), and Sam Wilson (Mackie) uncover a conspiracy within the spy agency S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing the Winter Soldier (Stan), a mysterious assassin.

Markus and McFeely began writing the sequel around the release of The First Avenger in July 2011. The script draws from the Winter Soldier story arc in the comic books written by Ed Brubaker, as well as conspiracy fiction from the 1970s such as the film Three Days of the Condor (1975). The Winter Soldier explores S.H.I.E.L.D. in a similar way to how the first film explored the U.S. military, after Rogers was shown working for S.H.I.E.L.D. in the MCU crossover film The Avengers (2012). The Russo brothers signed on to direct in June 2012 and casting began the following month. They wanted the film to be a political thriller that focused on topical ideas such as drone warfare, targeted killing, and global surveillance. Filming began in April 2013 in Los Angeles, California, before moving to Washington, D.C., and Cleveland, Ohio. Though the directors prioritized practical effects and intense stunt work to differentiate from previous Captain America portrayals, visual effects were created by six companies for 2,500 shots including the climactic Helicarrier sequence.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered at the El Capitan Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, on March 13, 2014, and was released in the United States on April 4, as part of Phase Two of the MCU. The film received positive reviews from critics, with praise for the performances, action sequences, storyline, and themes. It grossed $714 million worldwide, making it the seventh-highest-grossing film of 2014, and received several accolades including a nomination for best visual effects at the 87th Academy Awards. A sequel titled Captain America: Civil War, also directed by the Russos, was released in 2016.