The Sokovia Accords split the Avengers in half, and Captain America: Civil War spends 147 minutes making that split hurt. Joe and Anthony Russo direct from a screenplay by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. Chris Evans leads as Steve Rogers; Robert Downey Jr. opposes him as Tony Stark. The film is the sequel to The First Avenger (2011) and The Winter Soldier (2014), and the 13th entry in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Trailer, via Marvel Entertainment.
The Bomb in Lagos
The inciting incident is a mission gone wrong. Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Sam Wilson and Wanda Maximoff stop Brock Rumlow from stealing a biological weapon from a lab in Lagos. Rumlow blows himself up. Maximoff diverts the blast and destroys a nearby building, killing several Wakandan humanitarian workers.
Thaddeus Ross, the U.S. Secretary of State, then tells the team the United Nations is preparing the Sokovia Accords, a panel to oversee and control the Avengers. Stark backs oversight, weighed down by his part in creating Ultron and the devastation of Sokovia. Rogers trusts his own judgment over that of politicians.
That disagreement is the engine, and the film never lets it idle.
Two Men, Two Reasons
Stark’s guilt is the fulcrum. Anthony Russo said the character’s egomania let the writers bring him “to a point in his life where he was willing to submit to an authority, where he felt it was the right thing to do.” Joe Russo added that the visions Stark saw in Age of Ultron left him with a guilt complex that “drives him to make very specific decisions.”
Rogers gets the lonelier arc. Anthony Russo described taking the character from “the most ra-ra company man” to “a somewhat willing propagandist” to “an insurgent.”
| Steve Rogers | Tony Stark | |
|---|---|---|
| Position on the Accords | Against | For |
| Stated reason | Faith in his own judgment | Guilt over Ultron and Sokovia |
| Faction role | Leader | Leader |
The film also refuses the easy exit. The directors said they never planned to kill Rogers, calling that “an easy ending.” Their question was harder: “can these important relationships ever be repaired? Is this family broken permanently?”
Zemo, Vienna, Bucharest
Helmut Zemo tracks down Barnes’ old Hydra handler, kills him, and steals a book of trigger words that activate Barnes’ brainwashing. At a UN conference in Vienna to ratify the Accords, a bomb kills King T’Chaka of Wakanda. Security footage points to Barnes. T’Chaka’s son, T’Challa, vows to kill him.
Sharon Carter tells Rogers where Barnes is and that the authorities mean to kill him. Rogers goes to bring in his childhood friend himself. He and Wilson track Barnes to Bucharest and try to shield him from T’Challa and the authorities. All four are taken by Bucharest police and James Rhodes.
Three threads carry the back half:
- Zemo’s theft of the trigger words, which arms the final act.
- The Vienna bombing, which turns T’Challa against Barnes.
- The Bucharest chase, which puts Rogers and Wilson on the wrong side of the authorities.
What Holds and What Doesn’t
The cast runs deep. Chadwick Boseman arrives as T’Challa, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, Paul Bettany as Vision, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton, Don Cheadle as Rhodes, Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Anthony Mackie as Sam Wilson, Emily VanCamp as Sharon Carter.
The film’s real subject is not the Accords. It is whether two men who have fought on the same side can look at each other afterward. Civil War answers that with a brawl between former allies, which is the promise of the tagline — “United we stand. Divided we fall.” — and also the limit of the movie. The political argument gets raised and then gets buried under punching.
That is the trade the Russos make, and mostly it works. The character work is sharper than the set pieces, and the film is more interested in Stark’s guilt than in any panel of overseers. Evans and Downey hold the middle, and the film trusts them to do it.
The Accords are the pretext. The rupture is the point.
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