Now that Captain America: Brave New World is playing worldwide, there’s no better time to look back at the title character’s extensive history in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, be it the Steve Rogers or Sam Wilson version. If any character has a vast number of iconic moments, both big and small, it’s Cap. It says a lot about the character’s prominence in the MCU that moments such as him taking the bolt out of the bottom of the flagpole in Captain America: The First Avenger, his interrogation of a HYDRA agent alongside Black Widow in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, and his entrance in Avengers: Infinity War all just missed the cut.
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Not to mention, the Sam Wilson Cap gets a neat moment towards the beginning of Brave New World when he flies at supersonic speed down to the ground, tells a few adversaries to “Wait for it.” And, before they can even ask what they should be waiting for, a shockwave pushes them all back on their butts. As you might guess, it’s not easy to rank Captain America moments with so many good ones, but here’s our list.
10) Returning from the Rescue Mission in Captain America: The First Avenger
An early MCU installment that has only gotten better over time, Joe Johnston’s Captain America: The First Avenger is one of the overarching franchise’s few bonafide masterpieces. From the accurate and visually stunning recreation of 1942 America to a memorable antagonist performance by Hugo Weaving, it all works.
There are also a few scenes that really get the heart pumping, and more often than not they don’t even feature action. For instance, the moment when Rogers returns to the base camp with Bucky Barnes and the remainder of the 107th Infantry Regiment. The set piece that preceded it was exciting, sure, but the sight of him marching towards the superior officers who told him such a feat was impossible is top-tier superhero movie stuff.
9) Cap vs. Cap in Avengers: Endgame
The 2019 Cap versus 2012 Cap fight in Avengers: Endgame works because, well, it’s Captain America fighting Captain America. But it also makes sense. Even back in 2012, Steve Rogers knew Loki had the ability to transform himself into other individuals as a form of trickery.
The fight is well-choreographed and is even peppered with fun little moments like 2019 Rogers saying he knows when the 2012 one says he can “do this all day.” Endgame is riddled with fun little callbacks, and this fight is one of the best. The whole larger scene that surrounds it is tense, with the group racing to secure the tesseract, and who better to slow Captain America down than Captain America himself?
8) Tearing Apart a Log in Avengers: Age of Ultron
Like the other Avengers movies, pretty much every character gets a moment to shine. This includes Steve Rogers in Avengers: Age of Ultron. In Joss Whedon’s disappointing but still entertaining sequel, Cap gets at least two moments that stick in most viewers’ memories, and they both involve Tony Stark.
The first takes place in the opening, when he scolds Stark with “Language!” The second is about midway through the film and has the edge because it foreshadows the following year’s Captain America: Civil War. Rogers and Stark spend much of Age of Ultron arguing, and things reach a head when they’re at Clint Barton’s family home chopping wood. Frustrated, Rogers grabs a thick log and with his bear hands rips it in two.
7) “On Your Left” in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
The opening scene of Captain America: The Winter Soldier is great because in just a few minutes it both establishes Sam Wilson as a presence in the MCU and fully defines his relationship with Steve Rogers. They’re both competitive people, but the competition is entirely of the friendly variety.
The two have a rapport that enlivens each of their shared scenes, and that starts from the very first time they’re on-screen together. Not many movies have been able to so clearly define a character dynamic with a single scene, but Winter Soldier is absolutely one of them. Not to mention, Wilson adding a suggestion to Rogers’ list of pop-culture to catch up on since being dethawed is a nice touch.
6) Crashing the Plane in Captain America: The First Avenger
Steve Rogers putting his life on the line is a concept that’s going to pop up quite a bit here. It’s a major part of his character and was oft utilized during his/Chris Evans’ time in the MCU. It never got old, but it was also never done better than the first time out the gate in Captain America: The First Avenger.
What’s great about Rogers’ final (1940s) scene in The First Avenger is two-fold. For one, even with superpowers, he doesn’t know he’s going to live. He fully thinks he’s going to die and is crashing the Red Skull’s warhead-laden plane into the ice anyway. Two, by doing so, he’s choosing the safety of humanity over living a life with his one true love: Peggy Carter (with whom he shares the MCU’s most compelling male-female dynamic).
5) Summoning Mjรถlnir in Avengers: Endgame
It was a moment the MCU had been building towards for four years, ever since the contest scene in Avengers: Age of Ultron. There’s only one scene in Avengers: Endgame that produced more cheers in crowded theaters than the shot of Thor’s hammer, Mjรถlnir, flying through the air and landing in…Captain America’s hand.
Like Thor, the audience had a feeling Cap was the one member of the Avengers (not counting Vision) who had the capability to wield the hammer. After all, he made it wriggle in Age of Ultron, while neither Tony Stark and his armor nor Bruce Banner and his temper could get it to even budge. Like the aforementioned cheer-producing scene (which we’ll get to in a bit), this was a scene that felt well-earned.
4) Elevator Fight in Captain America: The Winter Soldier
If there’s a no-holds-barred, bone-crunching fistfight in the MCU, it’s the elevator fight in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It’s a perfectly paced scene. Rogers enters the S.H.I.E.L.D. elevator alone. Then Brock Rumlow and another “S.H.I.E.L.D.” agent enters. Then another and another and another. Before he knows it, Rogers is in an elevator heavier than Mjรถlnir.
But it doesn’t take Rogers to catch up to what’s really happening. Alexander Pierce has sent all of these men to apprehend him, and the bead of sweat rolling down one of their scalps is the only hint he needs. The line that kicks off the wall-smashing clash, “Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?” serves that purpose perfectly. It shows the audience and the HYDRA agents around him that he’s aware of who they really are, he’s aware of what they’ve been sent to do, and he’s confident that Pierce should have sent more of them.
3) Dummy Grenade in Captain America: The First Avenger
Like the same film’s third-act plane crash scene, Rogers throwing himself over what he thinks is a live grenade in Captain America: The First Avenger is a perfect display of the character’s bravery. Even when he isn’t super-powered, he’s the type of man who doesn’t hesitate when an opportunity arises to save those around him, even if it costs him his life.
The grenade scene is one of the MCU’s best, Captain America-related or otherwise. It’s a great bit of character defining and is also punctuated with a nice moment between Stanley Tucci’s Dr. Abraham Erskine and Tommy Lee Jones’ Colonel Chester Phillips. The former has his suspicion confirmed that Rogers was the right choice, and the latter begrudgingly has to admit the same to both Dr. Erskine and, one gets the feeling, himself.
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2) “I Can Do This All Day” in Captain America: The First Avenger
The First Avenger is so chock-full of sublime character-building moments that it’s truly hard to pick which one is best. But the edge goes to the one that has received callbacks over the years. “I can do this all day” is the film’s earliest display of Rogers’ ability to charge into a seemingly insurmountable situation with confidence and bravery.
There’s no chance Rogers will win the fight against the big bully who couldn’t keep his mouth shut during the war effort advertisement. Rogers doesn’t like bullies, and it doesn’t matter if they’re going to put him in the hospital, he’s going to stand up against them because it seems no one else will. It’s a theme that continues throughout the remainder of the film…he just moves up a tier from movie theater jerk to red-faced Nazi with laser weapons.
1) “Assemble” in Avengers: Endgame
It was the moment everyone had been waiting for. The “Assemble” scene in Avengers: Endgame doesn’t just stand as Cap’s best moment…it stands as the entire MCU’s best moment. And that likely will never change. Theaters across the globe were filled with cheers, and for good reason, as the single-word line of dialogue is well-earned. Not to mention, Evans’ delivery of it is note-perfect. The word isn’t yelled, it isn’t whispered, it’s said with a mixture of exhaustion and battle-readiness.
People had been expecting Rogers to say the word in the first film, but he didn’t. He didn’t say it in Age of Ultron. He didn’t even say it when the gang goes up against Thanos for the first time in Avengers: Infinity War. It seems he was saving it up for a moment that came after a horrible loss for the entire world followed by a rousing moment of resurrection-inspired hope renewal. The man knew how to pick a moment.
What are your favorite Captain America moments? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section!
