[Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers drive up to New Jersey pursuing a lead.]
Where did Captain America learn to steal a car?
Nazi Germany. And we're borrowing it, get your feet off the dash.
[smirks, slowly taking her feet down]
Alright I have a question for you. Uh, which you do not have to answer. I feel like if you don't answer it though, you're kind of answering it-
[About Steve kissing her]
Was that your first kiss since 1945?
Well, it kinda sounds like that's what you said.
No, I didn't. I just wondered how much practice you've had.
Everybody needs practice.
That was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead.
[Chuckles]
Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience.
Well, that's alright, you just make something up.
I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.
That's a tough way to live.
It's a good way not to die, though.
You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is.
Yeah. Who do you want me to be?
[Chuckles]
Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.
Black Widow You doing anything fun Saturday night?
Well, all the guys from my barbershop quartet are dead, so…no, not really.
Rumlow Coming up by the drop zone, Cap.
Black Widow You know, if you ask Kristen out, from Statistics, she'll probably say yes.
Black Widow Too shy, or too scared?
Too busy! [Jumps out of the jet]
SA STRIKE Agent
Was he wearing a parachute?
Rumlow [Smiles]
No. No, he wasn't.
[Captain America faces the Winter Soldier aboard the third Project Insight Helicarrier]
You know me.
Winter Soldier [Attacks him]
No, I don't!
Bucky, you’ve known me your whole life. [Receives fresh blow from Bucky without fighting back] Your name is James Buchanan Barnes.
Winter Soldier [Hits him again]
SHUT UP!
[Takes off his mask and drops his shield out of the Helicarrier]
I’m not gonna fight you. You’re my friend.
Winter Soldier [Pushes him to the ground]
You’re my mission! [Mercilessly punches him repeatedly across the face] YOU'RE... MY... MISSION!
Then finish it. [The Winter Soldier gets ready to punch him again, holding his fist up] 'Cause I’m with you to the end of the line. [The Winter Soldier looks stunned and hesitates]
[Knowing that he is a wanted man, Captain America leads an infiltration of the Triskelion and accesses the base's PA system.]
Attention all S.H.I.E.L.D agents, this is Steve Rogers. You've heard a lot about me over the last few days; some of you were even ordered to hunt me down. But I think it's time you know the truth. S.H.I.E.L.D is not what we thought it was; it's been taken over by HYDRA. Alexander Pierce is their leader; the S.T.R.I.K.E and Insight crew are HYDRA as well. I don't know how many more, but I know they're in the building. They could be standing right next to you. They almost have what they want; absolute control. They shot Nick Fury, and it won't end there. If you launch those Helicarriers today, HYDRA will be able to kill anyone that stands in their way...unless we stop them. I know I'm asking a lot, but the price of freedom is high; it always has been. And it's a price I'm willing to pay. And if I'm the only one, then so be it. But I'm willing to bet I'm not. [Turns off the intercom]
Falcon [Impressed]
Did you write that down first, or was it off the top of your head?
List [Mid-credits scene: At an underground HYDRA lab, Baron Wolfgang von Strucker is talking with a HYDRA scientist]
It's over. Fury has released everything to the public.
Strucker Everything he knows about.
List Herr Strucker, if they get word of our work here, if they find out we serve HYDRA...
Strucker HYDRA, SHIELD, two sides of a coin that's no longer currency. [They walk over to the corner of the lab where Loki's scepter is being kept] What we have is worth more than any of them ever knew. We've only scratched the surface and already... there are other facilities doing HYDRA's good work around the world. We'll feed them to Captain America and his colorful friends. Keep them off our scent.
List What about the volunteers?
Strucker The dead will be buried so deep their own ghosts won't be able to find them.
List And the survivors?
Strucker The twins. [referring to Pietro and Wanda Maximoff, aka Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, being kept in glass cells each exhibiting their powers, Pietro having superhuman speed and Wanda having telekinetic powers] Sooner or later they will meet the twins. It's not a world of spies anymore, not even a world of heroes. This is the age of miracles, doctor. There's nothing more horrifying than a miracle.
[Wanda is telekinetically holding a cinder block before destroying it.]
[Natasha Romanoff and Steve Rogers drive up to New Jersey pursuing a lead.] [About Steve kissing her]
Was that your first kiss since 1945?
Well, it kinda sounded like that.
No, I was just wondering.
That was not my first kiss since 1945. I'm 95, I'm not dead.
[Chuckles]
Believe it or not, it's kind of hard to find someone with shared life experience.
Well, that's alright, you just make something up.
I don't know. The truth is a matter of circumstances, it's not all things to all people all the time. And neither am I.
That's a tough way to live.
It's a good way not to die, though.
You know, it's kind of hard to trust someone when you don't know who that someone really is.
Yeah. Who do you want me to be?
[Chuckles]
Well, there's a chance you might be in the wrong business, Rogers.
[Steve meets Peggy Carter once again]
You should be proud of yourself, Peggy. [Looks at Peggy's family photos by her table bedside her, showing her with her husband and children.]
Carter Mm. I have lived a life. My only regret is that you didn't get to live yours. [sees Steve disappointed] What is it?
For as long as I can remember I just wanted to do what was right. I guess I'm not quite sure what that is anymore. And I thought I could throw myself back in and follow orders, serve. It's just not the same.
Carter [Chuckles]
You're always so dramatic. Look, you saved the world. We rather…mucked it up.
You didn't. Knowing that you helped found SHIELD is half the reason I stay.
Carter [Takes Steve's hand]
The world has changed and none of us can go back. All we can do is our best, and sometimes the best that we can do is to start over. [Starts to cough, Steve turns to get her some water and goes to hand it to her]
Carter [Looks at him, surprised]
Steve?
Carter You're alive! You…you came, you came back!
[Upset, but hides it]
Yeah, Peggy.
Carter [Begins to cry]
It's been so long… So long.
Well, I couldn't leave my best girl. Not when she owes me a dance.
[Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff have booted up an old computer in an abandoned WWII S.H.I.E.L.D base for information... and discover that the computer AI is Dr. Arnim Zola's preserved consciousness.]
How did you get here?
Dr. Arnim Zola Invited.
It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic values.
Zola They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.
HYDRA died with the Red Skull.
Zola Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.
Zola Accessing archive. [The computer screen shows them old footage of the Red Skull and the original S.H.I.E.L.D founders] HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed. [The computer screen shows field reports with photos of the Winter Soldier, carrying out top-level assassinations for HYDRA]
That's impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you.
Zola Accidents will happen. [The computer screen shows them HYDRA had killed Howard and Maria Stark making it look like a car accident, along with the recent death of Fury] HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum. [In anger Steve suddenly smashes the computer screen. Zola's face reappears on another] As I was saying…
Zola Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.
What kind of algorithm? What does it do?
Zola The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it. [Bunker door starts to close; Steve throws his shield to keep it open, but it bounces off and the door closes]
[Checks her phone]
Steve, we got a bogey! Short-range ballistic. Thirty seconds, tops.
Zola I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. [Steve pulls out a grate in the floor and jumps through it with Natasha] We are, both of us, out of time.
[The missile hits, reducing the bunker to rubble]
[Talking about Fury's death.]
I know who killed Fury. Most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists. The ones who do call him the Winter Soldier. He's credited with over two dozen assassinations in the last fifty years.
Five years ago I was escorting a nuclear engineer out of Iran, somebody shot out my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff, I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me. [Pulls up her shirt to show him the bullet wound on the side of her belly] A Soviet slug, no rifling. Bye-bye bikinis.
Yeah, I bet you look terrible in them now.
[Smirks]
Going after him is a dead end. I know, I've tried. [Holds up the flash drive] Like you said, he's a ghost story.
[Takes the flash drive]
Well, let's find out what the ghost wants.