This film starts with a look at how Steve Rogers, AKA Captain America, is adapting to life in modern day Washington D.C. Two years after the events of The Avengers, Rogers is working for S.H.I.E.L.D. alongside friend and fellow Avenger Natasha Romanoff, AKA Black Widow. One such mission involves the rescue of S.H.I.E.L.D. operatives on a vessel being held hostage by pirates. However, while Rogers is focused on saving the people on the boat, he discovers that Romanoff has gone off to complete her own mission from Director Nick Fury ‒ she is taking information from the computers on a USB drive to later give to Fury. Rogers becomes angry and confronts Fury when they return from the mission; in an attempt to calm Rogers, Fury shows him a secret project that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been working on ‒ Project Insight, a program in which three helicarriers are linked to satellites in order to protect national security by identifying and neutralizing threats as early as possible. Rogers is unimpressed and says “This isn’t freedom. This is fear…”
Rogers seeks out guidance, first going to the Smithsoinan and reflecting on his life at the Captain America exhibit, and then visiting Peggy Carter, who is now in her 90s and living in a retirement home. Next, he finds his new friend Sam Wilson (The Falcon) at the VA speaking to a group of veterans with PTSD.
It can be difficult to adapt to new situations or circumstances in our lives; we may feel isolated or like no one else could possibly understand what we are going through. However, communicating with others will allow us to find common ground in our individual struggles and to lean on each other in order to move forward. Like Rogers, we can often find this support in friends.
Rogers is struggling to adjust to this new world and knows that he needs help to sort out his thoughts and feelings, and he goes to the resources that he has available.
Meanwhile, Fury has become suspicious of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Project Insight; while on his way to discuss his findings with colleague Maria Hill, he is attacked by the mysterious Winter Soldier. Rogers later finds Fury hiding out in his apartment, where he warns Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised and no one can be trusted; he is then shot by the Winter Soldier. While bleeding out, Fury hands Rogers a flash drive containing data that Romanoff stole from the ship earlier in the movie. Rogers is unsuccessful in capturing the Winter Soldier during his attack, and Fury is later declared dead during surgery.
The next day, Rogers is summoned to S.H.I.E.L.D headquarters for a meeting with Defense Secretary Alexander Pierce, who tells Rogers that he needs information in order to find out who killed Fury. Rogers is suspicious, says nothing, and leaves; however, he is met in the elevator by several operatives and realizes that they aren’t going to let him leave without a fight. This initiates the now famous line, “Before we get started, does anyone want to get out?” and Rogers swiftly defeats all of them before speeding off on his motorcycle.
Rogers is forced to choose between loyalty to Fury, who is currently presumed dead, or cooperating with the government – he chooses the difficult path of sticking his to convictions, showing exactly why he is Captain America.
Romanoff joins Rogers, and together they trace the original location of the information in the USB drive, which leads them to Camp Lehigh, where Rogers trained during World War II. When they plug the USB into a computer system on the base, they are greeted by Arnim Zola, a Nazi scientist who was recruited by S.H.I.E.L.D. after World War II and subsequently helped secretly rebuild HYDRA inside S.H.I.E.L.D. Zola taunts them, claiming that HYDRA has had a part in the death of influential figures for decades; however, a missile from S.H.I.E.L.D. destroys the bunker before they can learn anything else.
Romanoff and Rogers rendezvous with Wilson, who uses his Falcon armor to help them figure out HYDRA’s plan, which is to use Project Insight to eliminate current and future threats – millions of people (including Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, and Stephen Strange). When they are ambushed by the Winter Soldier, Rogers realizes that it is his friend Bucky Barnes, who has been experimented on and enhanced over decades.
When he discovers that Barnes is alive, Rogers immediately decides that he will never abandon his friend; in the first film, they’d promised to be there for each other ‘until the end of the line’ and Rogers intends to honor that.
When the three are rescued by Maria Hill, they find out that Fury is alive and has a plan – they are going to use three special chips that would take away S.H.I.E.L.D.’s control over Project Insight. They are ultimately successful in preventing HYDRA’s plan, and while doing so Rogers attempts to reach Barnes again by refusing to fight him and bringing up memories of their past together. He is then knocked unconscious into a river as the helicarrier crashes, and his efforts to spark Barnes’ memory are proven successful when the Winter Soldier rescues him from drowning before disappearing.
Captain America is defined by traits of courage and loyalty – this is echoed in the way he displays unwavering faith that Barnes can be saved, and it is rewarded by Barnes’ actions in rescuing him at the end of the battle. Rogers has also found another true friend in Wilson; at the end of the film when Rogers says that Wilson doesn’t need to join him on his search for Barnes, Wilson replies, “I know. When do we start?”
