Captain America: Civil War Ends A Hidden Trilogy Story Arc

The critically acclaimed Captain America: Civil War concludes a hidden trilogy that has two characters coming to terms with the themes of freedom and accountability.

Hollywood blockbuster trilogies have been commonplace for the last forty years ever since Star Wars first popularized the concept. Some trilogies, such as the Dark Knight trilogy or Lord of the Rings trilogy, have been been critical and box office successes. Others, such as the Matrix trilogy (and likely everyone’s go-to as a terrible blockbuster trilogy) were not as well received. However, all of the aforementioned films had hype surrounding them as trilogies or as the possibility of trilogies. Marvel just released the last film in a trilogy and didn’t even bother to tell anyone. I guess they have other things on their minds.

Themes and Plot Points of Marvel’s Surprise Trilogy

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Steve “Captain America” Rogers is having trouble adjusting to the world. He doesn’t feel like he fits in anywhere except, perhaps, S.H.I.E.L.D.
He begins having trust issues due to lies by Black Widow and Nick Fury. Fury shows Cap “Project Insight”—three super Helicarriers designed to enforce peace. Cap doesn’t like the idea of peace attained through fear.
He and Black Widow learn that Hydra has been infiltrating S.H.I.E.L.D since S.H.I.E.L.D was founded.
Hydra plans on using “Project Insight” and an algorithm created by Arnim Zola to kill off every hero and potential hero on the planet. Thus, eliminating any perceived threat.
Cap then discovers that his childhood friend—Bucky Barnes—survived his apparent death in Captain America: The First Avenger, and is the international assassin known as the Winter Soldier.
Steve refuses to kill his oldest friend and the only tie to his past (notwithstanding the significantly aged Peggy Carter).
Rather than killing Cap, who wouldn’t fight back, the Winter Soldier saves Cap’s life and disappears to try and get his memories back.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

The Avengers attack the last known Hydra base where Baron Strucker has experimented on two humans—giving them superpowers with the use of Loki’s staff, and the infinity gem contained within.
Tony Stark sees the future where his actions have lead to the deaths of all of the other Avengers.
Tony and Bruce Banner discover that the gem inside Loki’s staff is somehow a computer program, and uses it to try to create Ultron—their idea for a sentient artificial intelligence that can protect the world.
It works, except Ultron wants to force humanity to evolve by destroying it.
The rest of the Avengers learn that Tony created Ultron behind their backs, once again teaching Cap a lesson in trust.
After failing with Ultron, Tony and Bruce try again. This time, succeeding in creating Vision—an android with AI who is “on the side of life.”
By eventually creating what he originally set out to do, Tony is vindicated.
However, Ultron is in Sokovia and wants to use the city to destroy the world.
The Avengers stop him, but not without causing massive damage and casualties.

Captain America: Civil War

WARNING: Spoiler information is revealed to those who haven’t seen the film

In trying to stop Crossbones on a mission in Lagos, Cap and Wanda accidentally kill eleven civilians.
Tony is confronted by a grieving mother who lost her son in Sokovia, and it finally hits him that his actions have consequences.
Due to the events in New York, Washington D.C., Sokovia, and now Lagos, the world wants superheroes to agree to only operate in UN sanctioned missions by signing the Sokovia Accords.
Tony, still reeling from the discovery that what he does affects other people, realizes that they need to be held accountable. He thinks that no one can do it better than a worldwide oversight committee.
Cap, on the other hand, has seen what happens when he operates under the rules of a governing body (the Hydra/S.H.I.E.L.D fiasco) and isn’t comfortable with letting other people telling him what to do.
The Winter Soldier apparently blows up the building where the signing of the Sokovia Accords is taking place.
Cap is worried they will kill his friend, so he steps in to prevent that.
The Winter Soldier is captured.
The Winter Soldier escapes.
There are some big fights. It turns out that the Winter Soldier didn’t bomb that building, but he did kill—under mind control—Tony’s parents.
Cap and Bucky fight Tony. They defeat him and escape to Wakanda—where the Winter Soldier decides to go back under deep freeze because he feels that he’s a menace to the world.

Tying Marvel’s Surprise Trilogy Together

Captain America: The Winter Soldier is the setup for Cap’s part in Civil War, starting with his trust issues. The film also demonstrates many of the reasons that Cap will not sign the Sokovia Accords later on: his lack of faith in a government lead agency, and his belief that you cannot force people to be good—it must be a choice.

Avengers: Age of Ultron spends most of its running time listing off Tony’s reasons for Civil War. Tony sees a future in which the Avengers are dead, and it’s his fault. This causes him to act, at times, irrationally in an attempt to prevent that outcome. He wants to create an AI capable of running the Iron Legion to protect the world (not so different from Nick Fury’s idea for “Project Insight”). Or how Tony says it: “I see the world with a suit of armor around it.” Tony and Cap argue over this point, which subtly prevents Cap from having a sense of “belonging” with the Avengers.

Captain America: Civil War is the culmination of the themes and plot points started in the previous two films. Cap is afraid to be under the control of a governmental entity. This is due in large part to the fact that he was previously part of a governmental entity that turned out to be evil. He’s concerned about a repeat of events.

Tony, on the other hand, sees this as a “best of both worlds” scenario in which the Avengers are part of a world organization, and thus more able to protect the world. The guilt over his actions—ones that led directly to the hundreds or even thousands of deaths in Sokovia—has made him realize that he cannot be the judge of whether or not to take action in times of need.

In the end, however, Tony learns that he shouldn’t be working to protect the Avengers and the World. He should be working with the Avengers to protect the world, and that trust would go a long way. Cap realizes that his place is with the Avengers and that they all need to work together. Thus, ending some of the themes we’ve seen building through the three films.

Aside from the theme, these films fit the typical trilogy format in other ways: the first movie sets it up; the second movie raises the stakes; and the final film gives the backstory, and concludes the overall story arc. The Winter Soldier sets up that Hydra is S.H.I.E.L.D. Age of Ultron has the last Hydra base being destroyed—which gets Loki’s staff into Tony’s hands, leading to the creation of Ultron. And finally, in Civil War, the major events of the previous two films lead to the split among the Avengers.

We also get the backstory that the Winter Soldier killed Tony’s parents, and background on the true fallout from Sokovia. Civil War has Bucky choosing to go back into cryogenic stasis until they can find a way to clear his mind. By ending the movie this way, Marvel has ended it’s trilogy by giving the audience some finality with the Winter Soldier story line. However, they’re still allowing themselves to pull him out of deep freeze at some later date. It makes me think that Marvel is fully aware of this hidden structure.

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Marvel’s Surprise Trilogy – How Captain America: Civil War Concludes A Story Arc

By Jp Powell | May 15, 2016