Captain America: The First Avenger/YMMV

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • And the Fandom Rejoiced: With the casting of Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull.
    • And with the announcement that the film would be set during World War Two.
    • There was rejoicing when Joss Whedon was announced to be re-writing the script.
    • The first trailer sold a lot of previously skeptical fans on Chris Evans as Cap.
    • Howard Stark actually getting screen time, a rare thing in any continuity. And then they decided not to do the typical Jerkass version of him some continuities did, and there was much rejoicing.
    • For some, the news that the film would be directed by Joe Johnston, director of the highly underrated WW 2-set superhero movie The Rocketeer.
  • Anvilicious: Power makes good men into great men. It makes bad men worse. So never give bullies power!
  • Awesome Music
    • Alan Silvestri's Captain America March just makes you wanna stand up and salute something. The full thing is finally heard over the credits while numerous wartime propaganda posters appear. Let's hear it for Captain America! (Too bad it wasn't included on the soundtrack album...)
    • The Staaaaar Span-gled MAAANNNN, WIIIITH A PLAAAAAAAAAN!!
  • Base Breaker: Peggy.
    • Her fandom usually focuses on her Badass/Action Girl status.
    • Her hatedom focuses on her Jerkass tendencies which make her Unintentionally Unsympathetic, and her lack of plot-purpose.
  • Complete Monster: Johann Schmidt. It's the Red Skull, people. Is anyone surprised?
  • Demonic Spiders: The Hydra mooks with the arm-mounted flamethrowers. Cap is forced to yield every time they appear, regardless of how much ass he was kicking prior.
  • Ear Worm: "The Star-Spangled Man," brought to you by Alan Menken and |David Zippel.
  • Ensemble Darkhorse:
    • Madame Hydra, from the tie-in video game.
    • Hodge
    • Tommy Lee Jones as Colonel Philips is in full-on jerkass authority figure mode, and is funny as hell.
    • Also, Neal McDonough as Dum Dum Dugan is both visually and character-wise one of the most awesome characters in the film, and provides much badassery while being completely human.
    • Similarly, JJ Feild as Falsworth, who despite having such a small role, is pretty badass and classy.
    • Erskine's also pretty awesome in his own way.
    • The nameless kid that gets thrown into the drink, too.
  • Evil Is Cool: The Red Skull, of all people. It probably helps that he's played by Hugo Weaving. He's a Large Ham Bad Boss and in some ways he's more evil than Hitler, he wears a Badass Longcoat and can fight Captain America (comics) to a stalemate. Note, however, that in between all the For the Evulz plotting, he has one Pet the Dog moment. The cool thing is, it's to the benefit of both his minion and his car.
    • He also wants to kill Hitler and take over everything he has. That's pretty cool in itself.
  • Gratuitous Norwegian: While the words and sentence structure are correct, Norwegian theatres burst out laughing at the way the actors in the Tønsberg church pronounced their lines.
  • Harsher in Hindsight: The movie opens with an attack on Norway. The very day the movie was released, Oslo was bombed in Real Life.
  • Harsher and/or Heartwarming in Hindsight: Captain America's co-creator, Joe Simon, died about five months after this movie's release, but its box office and critical successes likely helped re-assure him of Cap's lasting value before he passed away.
  • He's Just Hiding: Some fans speculate that Red Skull had actually been temporarily banished from the mortal plane than killed. The fact that the way he was disintegrated was similar to the Bifrost travel in the Thor movie supports it.
    • It's not just the Bifrost travel effect. Look closely at the ceiling when the Red Skull first grasps the Cosmic Cube in his bare hand. It temporarily warps to a star-filled view of the same interdimensional void that the Bifrost travels through.
    • It should be noted that its unlikely that he'll return to the regular plane of existence, assuming he survived, as Hugo Weaving stated that he's not likely to return to play the character in future films.
    • Bucky, in following with the comics. They never did find his body in the film, after all. In addition, in the scene where Captain America finds him, he is strapped onto a bed, implying that they may have done some sort of experiment on him or at least planned it.
      • "Some sort of experiment" + "no body" + "plunge into icy river" = "Yeah, there's no way movie Bucky's actually dead." Winter Soldier, here we come!
      • Add to this the fact that Bucky's actor signed a six-picture deal with Marvel Studios, and it's no longer a question of IF he's just hiding. He'll be back.
  • Hilarious in Hindsight: Considering how Hugo Weaving made the phrase "Mister Anderson" memetic, they had a golden opportunity for him to address Captain America derisively as "Mister Rogers". We can only assume they didn't because the scenes where Cap and Red Skull meet aren't the best times to slip so spectacularly hilarious.
  • I Knew It!: The SHIELD agent that welcomes Cap into the 21st Century and is a Suspiciously Similar Substitute of Peggy? Turns out she's Sharon Carter--a close relative and Steve's main Love Interest in the comics.
  • Iron Woobie: Cap. You can tell he's sad about waking up after most people he knew were dead, but he won't let that get in his way.
  • Launcher of a Thousand Ships: The title character himself. He's shipped with Peggy, Howard, all of his Avengers "love interests," Bucky, every single one of the Howling Commandoes...Super-Soldier's a super-suitor.
  • Memetic Mutation:

"You just don't give up, do you?"
"Nope!"

  • Narm Charm: That stupid but oddly charming Hydra salute. Makes for a bit of Fridge Brilliance as the two fists represent the heads in the Hydra motto.
  • Nightmare Fuel: Locked in a metal coffin, screaming in agony...
  • Pet the Dog: The Red Skull giving Dr. Zola the keys to the Hydramobile. Subverted in that act from such a Complete Monster means he is at least in part making sure that his car will be delivered to him at the rendezvous.
  • The Problem with Licensed Games: Actually, it's not that bad! While rough around the edges, and saddled with a slow, uninteresting beginning, the Captain America: Super Soldier game clearly is more than just a meager cash-in like the Thor or Green Lantern games; it's got an imitation of the combat system from Batman: Arkham Asylum and a really huge castle full of HYDRA goons to explore. Of course, it's not quite as good as Arkham Asylum, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.
    • In fact, in the preview of the game, one of the designers even lampshaded this trope and explained that they planned to subvert it.
  • Spiritual Successor: To Joe Johnston's The Rocketeer movie.
  • Trailers Always Lie: Played with. All the scenes in the trailers occur in the movie, but the context of several of them gives them a whole different meaning. In a good way, natch.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer touting the fact that it's the #1 movie in America not only partially spoils a character death, but the final scene in the movie. Not cool, editors. Not cool.
  • Uncanny Valley: In the early scenes, it's quite obvious that the Red Skull is wearing a Hugo Weaving mask over his mutated face. The effect can actually make him look far creepier than his true face ever could.
  • Visual Effects of Awesome: They make Chris Evans look like DJ Qualls. The effect was so good that Roger Ebert couldn't tell which body was Chris Evans' real one!
    • The make-up for the Red Skull is fairly impressive too, especially the Hugo Weaving mask he wears, which has semi-obvious neck flaps and red areas around the eyes which make it more realistic.
    • Never mind that, what about the fact that 90% of the film is in-camera effects?
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