A new Captain America: Civil War trailer hit the internet today, and we have a breakdown as intense as the forthcoming fight between Steve and Tony.
At a rate of about 45 seconds an hour, Donya Abramo and I spent all day stopping, starting, rewinding, and speculating about the new Civil War trailer. What you’ll find below is a lot of educated guessing about what will happen in Captain America 3.
I’d say prepare yourselves, but you know. This is Steve and Bucky we’re talking about here. It’s going to hurt no matter what.
The trailer starts off with a wide shot of the frozen tundra and a mountain range in the background. Inside a building, a pair of armed men open heavy steal doors. They have a patch on their arm that reads, “Russian Armed Forces,” along with the Russian flag. The RAF was formed after the breakdown of the Soviet Union, which means when we see Bucky coming out of his cryogenic state, it’s likely to be a flashback to the first time he’s been woken since that point.
The next real shot shows Steve turning after looking at a monitor showing a deserted room or passage. It seems he may be looking for Tony, who, when we piece this scene together with what we saw in the first trailer, has tracked down Steve and Bucky. There’s also another shot of the three of them in this same room, which contains a tank of some sort in the background. More on that later.
Moving forward in the trailer but probably back in time for the movie, Thaddeus Ross shows footage from the events in New York, Washington D.C., and Sokovia, provided by the United Nations, as evidenced by the logo in the top left corner. At the table, we see Scarlet Witch, who is upset at footage of Sokovia where Quicksilver, her brother, died, plus Steve, Natasha, and Falcon. Another attendee could possible be Rhodey, though we only get the back of his head and a shot of a ring on the middle finger of his left hand.
It’s possible the room they’re in is at Avengers HQ considering one of the shots we see later on, but if they are in the United Nations building, it gets blown up in the next few frames (above), as we see a conference room with the UN logo on the podium in the center. T’Challa (Black Panther) is on the ground, and it’s likely he’s there because the Sokovia Accords are being voted on. He is, after all, a leader and representative of his country, Wakanda.
“Captain, people are afraid,” Ross says, and we hear Tony responding with, “That’s why I’m here.” As a loud-and-proud #TeamTony supporter, I have to remind everyone that he may be an a-hole, but he’s not 100% a dick. As we’ll see throughout this trailer, editing makes a huge difference in how dialogue and fight scenes can be interpreted, and it’s possible Tony’s line comes from another place in the movie. Or, you know, maybe not and he is just being a dick.
When Iron Man launches himself out of the helicopter, it’s during what looks to be a stormy evening, which plays into a few shots further along in the trailer. Here we do get a nice overall look at Tony’s new suit, which plays with the Bleeding Edge armor seen in the comics. There doesn’t seem to be any particular significance surrounding the use of this armor for the film, but it’s nice to be able to put a name to it regardless.
“We need to be put in check. Whatever form that takes, I’m game,” Tony says, which is cut over the top of a large ship emerging from the ocean. A helicopter is landing on top of it during that same stormy evening, and this shot paired with the dialogue makes us think it could be the MCU’s interpretation of The Raft, a S.H.I.E.L.D. prison much like The Fridge, which we saw in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 1.
We next see Tony inside a circular room, which seems to house multiple prison cells. Is this for superheros who won’t comply with the Accords, or is this for the true villains of the world? Considering how beat up Tony looks, this may be toward the crux of the film, potentially even after the main fight with Steve and Bucky.
At this point the action really kicks off into high gear, with Bucky on the motorcycle being chased by Black Panther, who is being chased by Captain America. We’re thinking Bucky is on the run for being framed for the United Nations bomb, since T’Challa was there and this is the only reason we’ve been given so far for why Black Panther could possibly be going after him. He catches up pretty quickly, too, as Black Panther knocks him off the bike with a powerful swipe.
Amid scenes we’ve already seen, like Tony putting on the gauntlet as Bucky shoots him or Cap running through the Institute for Infectious Disease (IFID) as bombs go off, we get a few shots that are too quick and out of context to really dive into. However, we do see War Machine get blown out of the sky, with the insinuation that Bucky was the one to pull the trigger (but, again, that could be clever editing). The shot that hit him was large and bright white in color. Trying to match up the timeline (which has become the bane of our existence today), it looks like this is taking place during or at the end of the fight at the airport.
One of the most interesting parts of the trailer is the line, “The whole world was wrong about you,” which sounds like it’s come from Tony and being said to Steve. However, Donya and I are in agreement this could actually be Tony speaking to Bucky near the end of the film. As we know, Bucky isn’t a bad guy, and soon the rest of the world will realize this, too. If this is Tony speaking to Bucky, know that I will be crying buckets and buckets of tears in the theatre.
Following a shot of Bucky at the airport (“Flughafen Leipzig/Halle” is an airport in Schkeuditz, Germany) and Black Widow taking down soldiers with Cap outside the IFID, we get a scene between Natasha and Tony, where he says, “They’re comin’ for ya,” and she responds, “I’m not the one that needs to watch their back.” The big question here is who she’s talking about. At first I thought she could be upset with Tony, but now I’m wondering if she could be talking about Team Cap. Have they done something to push her over the line? Or maybe she’s talking about another player entirely, like Ross and the United Nations? Note that Tony’s arm is in a sling here, too.
“This doesn’t have to end in a fight, Tony,” Steve says, and this is where we really hammer home the idea that editing can change the entire message of a trailer. Before Cap says Tony’s name, he’s standing in an apartment that looks like the one we can assume Bucky is staying in from the first trailer. In that case, he’s probably talking to Bucky before the police offers attack his home. “Tony” sounds like it’s from another scene entirely, and it’s paired with Cap looking at Tony while they’re in that same room with the monitor and the tank from the beginning of the trailer.
More than likely this is after Rhodey has been hit, as you can tell from Tony’s face that he’s extremely upset. He punches Steve, though another cut shows Tony has probably hit him more than once (since he’s falling the opposite way when he does finally hit the ground). The tank looks empty behind them, and you can just barely see Bucky in the background.
Black Panther continues to chase after Bucky, and we get an amazing scene of the two of them going after each other. It’s interrupted when a helicopter (why are there so many helicopters!?) tries to gun them down, and in case you were wondering, yes, T’Challa is bulletproof (thanks, vibranium!).
Natasha looks on as the airport is engulfed with explosions beneath her. Back in the room where Ross was showing some of the Avengers the footage of previous incidents, we see Scarlet Witch taking down Vision. It looks like Hawkeye is at her feet, and this is the point at which we’re wondering if it could be the Avengers’ headquarters.
In the next scene Hawkeye is just fine as he shoots his special new arrow, sending Ant-Man right through Iron Man’s fingers. Ant-Man riding on Hawkeye’s arrows is straight from the comics, so it’s awesome they’ve decided to include that shot.
Crossbones makes a tiny cameo in this trailer where he’s fighting Cap, and his armor is seriously intense. He punches Cap across a marketplace, but this is nothing compared to the fight between Steve, Tony, and Bucky.
“Stay down,” Tony says, pointing the repulsor at Cap. “Final warning.”
“I could do this all day,” Cap says, swaying a little on the spot.
Do you need a moment? I need a moment. Let’s just take a moment.
Okay, if you can look past the pain and heartbreak of this fight, you’ll notice the mountains in the background, which means this building is most likely in Russia as well. Could Bucky and Cap be returning to the scene of his containment? Perhaps Tony tracked them down to that location after they left the States.
In the final shots we get the lineup going head to head, but then we get a definite highlight of the entire trailer, which is the first shot of Spider-Man in an MCU movie. Hallelujah! Tony calls him out, and he steal Cap’s shield then handcuffs him. It’s somewhere before the fight actually happens, but it’s impossible to tell the entire context yet.
The last interesting tidbit here is the sound Spidey’s eyes make as he squints. These expressive eyes are certainly something different for this costume (at least in the live-action versions), and the audio attached to the movement sounds a bit mechanical. Since Tony seems to already know Spider-Man somehow, we’re seriously wondering if he had a hand in creating any part of the suit. In the comics, Tony creates the Iron Spider suit for Peter, and it’s as badass as it sounds.
And if you’re worried about the look of the suit in the trailer, keep in mind this is a first look and was probably as close as they could get to a finished project for this cameo. We’re hoping the final version looks a bit better, too.