Captain America: The Winter Soldier - What's on the List?

In the opening minutes of Marvel's upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier (which have been released in much of the world as a preview of the film that starts opening worldwide on Wednesday, March 26), Steve Rogers (Captain America) meets Sam Wilson, who suggests he listen to a Marvin Gaye album, to help get him caught up with the decades he lost while frozen in the ice between World War II and the start of Marvel's The Avengers. Steve removes a small journal from his pocket and says he'll "put it on the list," then scribbles the name of the album -- the Trouble Man soundtrack -- on one of the pages which, presumably, is loaded with things he's been told are required reading/viewing/listening to live in contemporary America. So...what is modern American history, according to the people around Captain America? I Love Lucy The family sitcom, which ran from 1951-1957 and starred Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz, is widely regarded as the best American sitcom ever made (or at least the first truly good one, and the one that set the  bar everything else would try to meet). Because of the production demands of early television, I Love Lucy actually produced 180 episodes during its six-season run, and continued as a series of one-hour specials for three years after the show itself went off the air.

Moon landing The first human-made object to reach the surface of the Moon was the Soviet Union's Luna 2 mission, on 13 September 1959. The United States' Apollo 11 was the first manned mission to land on the Moon, on 20 July 1969. And the Mythbusters determined it was real.

Constructed in 1961, the Berlin Wall separated East Germany from West -- one of the constructs imposed upon the geopolitical landscape by the end of World War II. Western Germany was occupied by U.S. and European interests while the East was occupied by Soviet forces, nominally to prevent Germany from rising to be a global threat again as they had during the first and second World Wars. It was rendered politically irrelevant in 1989 and almost entirely destroyed physically by late 1990, but it remains a powerful symbol of political dysfunction and the philosophical divisions of the 20th Century.

Steve Jobs (Apple) Jobs, an inventor and entrepreneur, was one of the most significant figures in American computing in the 20th and early 21st Century, prior to his death in 2011. In addition to co-founding Apple in 1976, he's often credited with bringing the company back from the brink when he returned to the flailing company in the late '90s and bringing it market dominance by focusing on customer-centric products and services such as Apple stores, smart phones and the app market. He also acquired the company that would become Pixar Animation from Lucasfilm and served as its CEO for years.

Disco A genre of popular music that someone clearly convinced Rogers to add to his list as a joke.

Thai food Better than schawarma.

Star Wars/Trek The two dominant science fiction franchises of the last fifty years, both of which are still active properties today. Star Wars presumably gets top billing because it shares a parent company with Marvel Studios. Nirvana (band) Pioneers of the grunge rock movement of the '90s, Nirvana was formed in 1987 and abruptly ended in 1994 with the suicide of frontman Kurt Cobain. Despite releasing only three full-length studio albums in their seven-year career, Nirvana has come to be regarded as one of the most influential and important rock bands of the modern era. No disrespect to the band, but it seems unlikely they'd be Steve's speed. Nobody recommended The Beatles, Pete Seeger, The Rolling Stones or somebody?

Sylvester Stallone's classic underdog story of a local loser who's given the chance to fight for the world heavyweight championship is as logical a choice as anything on this list. Set against the backdrop of the 1976 bicentennial celebrations, Rocky is the kind of story of  somebody with nothing but heart building himself up into greatness that not only embodies the American dream -- but echoes Steve Rogers's own story in a lot of ways. Of course, [SPOILER ALERT], Rocky doesn't win at the end of the movie; while this bit of realism, and the fact that Rocky still gained the moral victory of being the first fighter ever to go the distance with Apollo Creed and prove to the world that he wasn't a bum, resonated with critics, audiences wanted to see him win the title...so of course there was a sequel. (And another, and another, and another...) Should Cap see Rocky II? Well, according to Rotten Tomatoes, there are only two Certified Fresh (75% or greater positive reviews) Rocky movies...Rocky itself (with 92% positive reviews) and Rocky Balboa (76%), the 2006 franchise revival that starred Heroes's Milo Ventimiglia as Rocky's son. So...watch that second one at your peril, Cap. Certainly it isn't necessary 20th Century canon...but then, neither is most of what's on the list.

Well, Falcon likes it.