Captain America's Shield

Triskelion

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s new headquarters, called the Triskelion, is revealed for the first time in this film. Built from the ground up on Theodore Roosevelt Island, the Triskelion is the largest building in Washington, D.C. The building holds the expanded base of operations for S.H.I.E.L.D., as well as the World Security Council. This is where Nick Fury and his agents are based, as well as Alexander Pierce, a high-ranking S.H.I.E.L.D. official who is also the head of the World Security Council.

Energy batons and S.T.R.I.K.E.

S.H.I.E.L.D.'s newly introduced S.T.R.I.K.E. team utilizes a stealth weapon called the energy baton that can take out enemies quietly and effectively. The batons are about 18 inches in length with a point that extends another foot. The S.T.R.I.K.E. team, like a SWAT team or a Navy SEAL team, engages in undercover missions, so they need specialized armaments. The energy baton sits in a holster on the hip, but when taken out and deployed it's like a powerful high-tech Taser that incapacitates adversaries with one touch and takes them out of the game.

The stealth suit

Steve Rogers, aka Captain America, works for S.H.I.E.L.D. now. And out of necessity, his red, white, and blue costume was replaced with a suit that allows for more stealth. As a result, the new suit is a darker blue with just a touch of red detail on the sides and the star on his chest is now silver instead of white. This new outfit has an antiballistic component, like Kevlar, that offers Captain America valuable extra protection. The suit is bulletproof and the meshlike fabric also resists knife penetration. Captain America's helmet no longer has ear coverings and is designed to match the style of his stealth suit. It also has a built-in communication device. It's sleeker, a little tighter, and much more modern.

The shield

Captain America's distinctive shield is as much a signature for him as the hammer is for Thor, but when Captain America is on a stealth mission, an appliqué goes over his shield to subdue the red and make it less of a target. In Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America uses his shield more and also uses it as an offensive weapon, rather than just to block blows defensively. He strikes opponents with it and has the ability to use its two inside handles in an Eastern fighting style that neutralizes opponents.

Going the distance

Co-director Joe Russo says, "What's great about Cap, and I think what people really respect about him as a superhero, is that he has a code and that code is represented by his shield. Steadfast, immovable. The shield is primarily a defensive weapon, but we also wanted to explore its offensive capabilities in this movie. There are two handles on it, so Cap can hold one of the handles and snap it at his opponents, in a manner inspired by an Eastern style of fighting. Not unlike a nunchaku. The shield really represents who he is. How he uses it expresses his psyche."

The Cap's new fighting style

Steve Rogers' style of fighting also got an upgrade. His fighting style was very 1940s old-school kick and punch, but now Rogers has upped his game by mastering fighting techniques like kung fu, mixed martial arts, jujitsu, and Krav Maga.

The Widow's Cable

Black Widow uses her Widow's Cable in Marvel's Captain America: The Winter Soldier in a new way: She swings from it. The cable is part of the Widow's Gauntlets, which also house her distinctive Widow's Bite. Black Widow also wears her wristbands almost all of the time, as they allow her increased flexibility in her fighting style.

Falcon makes his debut

Falcon has the ability to fly with a special suit that was developed by military ops and kept under wraps. Part of the suit's construction is a jet pack that provides the thrust that keeps Falcon aloft. The wings attached to the suit are like gliders, and they let Falcon control his flight direction. When Falcon is doing maneuvers, he always has at least one hand on the wings for navigation. Falcon wears goggles to protect his vision while in flight.

Shot with a handheld

Directors Anthony and Joe Russo wanted to bring a real-world grounding component to the franchise and make it feel like you're actually there. So they chose to shoot the majority of the film with a handheld camera, which gave them the freedom to follow the action more specifically than a locked frame would have.

Learning to fly

Although Anthony Mackie did not do any specific training or any skydiving to play the airborne Falcon, he did work out a regimen that simulated the feeling of flight. "I did a lot of diving into swimming pools," says Mackie. "I would go up 10 feet, 20 feet, and dive off of diving boards, just to get that feeling."

Training and stunts

"It was very important to us that all of the actors trained rigorously for the film because we wanted the audience to see our actors executing the action in the film," says Anthony Russo. "Audiences want to feel that energy and see a fluid fighting technique up on the screen."

"These guys worked their butts off training for this film, training for months and training for these specific sequences, over and over," relates Joe Russo. "Everything you see in the film, anytime their faces are on camera, those are the actors and they're actually doing the things that they're doing."

Crafting the story

The creator of the comic Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Ed Brubaker, was a huge Captain America fan as a kid. He had every issue of Captain America from #100 on. But he was troubled by issue #99, where Captain America and Bucky Barnes were blown up by Baron Zemo and Bucky died. He was a big Bucky fan and decided at the age of eight that if he ever got to write a Captain America comic, he was going to bring Bucky back.

The Winter Soldier

"The Winter Soldier is like a negative image of Captain America," says co-screenwriter Stephen McFeely. "Steve Rogers was asleep for 70 years while the Winter Soldier was killing people for 70 years. One represents the government and the other has spent 70 years undermining governments, killing presidents and important political figures."

Chris Evans on the Captain

Chris Evans, who plays Captain America, thinks the grounded and gritty tone of the script plays to the strengths and sensibilities of our hero. "Cap doesn't fly. He doesn't shoot lightning bolts. He punches and kicks. So with that type of combat, to make it cool you have the liberty to get grittier … a little more documentary style, and it just has a rougher feel as opposed to most superhero films that tend to be a bit glossier."

State of affairs of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"At the end of Marvel's The Avengers, Nick Fury clearly disobeyed the World Security Council, which when we last saw them were sending a nuclear missile into Manhattan," says producer Kevin Feige. "Luckily, Iron Man diverted that nuke and it didn't go off, so Nick has gotten a little bit more clout within S.H.I.E.L.D. Because of this growing clout, he has been able to install people that are much closer to him now and they're working on various programs that will help tighten the security of the world."