As if in response to the Fourth of July, AICN has posted the rest of their extensive and detailed set report of Captain America: The First Avenger. Proceed with caution, the spoilers are a-plenty.
The folks over at AICN got the full tour of the studio, starting with a full dive into the room that houses all of the production art for the film.
When I entered the door labeled “Frostbite Art Department,” (Frostbite being the codename for the shoot) I was witness to a long rectangular room with every square inch of wall space plastered with production art. If one started at the right spot and walked clockwise around the room one could see the entire movie beginning to end in art form.
Some fans reacted negatively to the news that the Cosmic Cube (a mystical object that allows anything that the holder can imagine come into reality) would be heavily used throughout the film on the grounds that it is “too fantastical” for a movie centered around World War II.
Others reacted sourly because it sounds too much like a certain green ring that crash landed at the box-office all too recently.
Worry not fans of reality, Quint got the inside scoop on that as well.
If you paid attention during Comic-Con you’ll remember that the footage Joe Johnston brought involved Hugo Weaving procuring the Cosmic Cube. In the early books the Cosmic Cube gave the Red Skull the ability to conjure anything with a thought. This version doesn’t do that, but it apparently gives The Skull an advanced form of weapons knowledge.
Article Continues BelowSo this world will be a little more sci-fi-ish than I expected. There are giant tanks that fire what looked to be energy blasts or plasma shots, sleek guns that looked like a combination of WW2 weaponry and blasters and transportation devices that were a mix of the technology of the time with a bigger, sci-fi edge.
One of these devices was a massive machine called The Orbital Bomber, a stealth bomber looking ship that is so massive it houses seven more aircraft that will detatch and enter battle during the climactic battle sequence.
The Red Skull’s group, for those uninitiated, is called Hydra and the logo is a red skull with octopus-like tentacles underneath. Because of the edge the Cosmic Cube gives them the war is now radically shifted in the Reich’s favor.
He also got to look at some crucial scenes that showcase important aspects of Steve Rogers’ character including his urging desire to be able to serve his country. In one clip, the experiment that turns ‘Scrawny’ Steve Rogers into a super-soldier appears to have gone wrong.
During the experiment, Rogers experiences incredible pain and his body is so stressed that his life is in danger. Erskine and Howard Stark move to stop the transformation before it completes, but Rogers screams from inside the chamber “No! I can do this!” taking the pain and risk because it’s the only way for him to serve his country.
Following that excerpt was another one detailing a fist-to-fist brawl between Cap and Red Skull.
And the fight was surprisingly brutal. It didn’t feel overly choreographed and featured a lot of close hand to hand fighting.
The action of the scene began with The Red Skull and Cap falling over at the same time on the flight deck of the Orbital Bomber. Cap’s shield is at his feet, upended. He rolls forward and grabs it, sliding his left arm into the leather straps and punching forward at the now standing Red Skull with the shield.
Red Skull blocks the punch and lands his left fist into Cap’s gut and in one fluid movement grabs the shield, pulling it free of Cap’s grasp, and swats him with it.
The blow sends Cap crashing backward into some machinery, sparks flying on impact. The Red Skull doesn’t let up and pushes forward with the shield. Cap grabs it and they’re locked together for a moment. Red Skull shouts something like, “You wear a flag on your chest and think you fight for the future of your country. I’ve seen the future. There are no flags!” Cap shouts back, “Not my future!” and pushes back, catching Red Skull off guard.
With a mighty heave Cap rams The Red Skull into a chair near the windows, causing another explosion of sparks as the chair itself collides with the control panel. Immediately the Red Skull sends a boot flying at Cap’s face, sending him backwards as air and fog rush about the room.
The Red Skull grabs at a railing just as his feet upend and he’s struggling against a giant suction. They didn’t say what happened, but it’s clear the windows were blown out and the air is rushing out, trying to pull both men out with it. So, the Red Skull was pulling a Total Recall, holding on for dear life.
Not only did they get to take a glimpse at these sure-to-be-awesome pivotal scenes, but they also got filled in on the rest of the story as well. We’ll go ahead and put another spoiler warning here just in case you’re squeamish.
Feige filled us in on some story elements, including a really cool way for Johnston to incorporate a bit of the classic comic book into the slightly more grounded movie version. After Cap is born, the project is sabotaged and Rogers is kind of lost. He’s big, he has great strength, but those who had plans to train him to use it are now gone or scattered. Tommy Lee Jones doesn’t like him much and wants to study him, but a US Senator thinks there’s a better use for him.
Cut to Cap at war… but when the camera pulls back we see that he’s on a stage, not the front lines, as a camera crew films a war bond newsreel promo. This Captain America is used as an icon, a symbol of the allied war effort and does touring shows. In these shows the boots are bright red (and look more like Cap’s comic pirate-looking boots), his costume is more like the original run of Captain America comics and his shield is that classic police-badge shape, not the upgraded circular shield.
And for those who are familiar with the cover of the first Captain America comic….
They’re going to use this traveling war effort stage show to recreate the cover of Captain America #1, where Cap punches out Hitler.
And the he continues to describe Cap’s post-USO career.
The utilitarian Cap costume you see in the trailers come to play when Rogers has to go on a rescue mission. They didn’t say it, but I think his longtime friend Bucky might be in trouble and his first boots-on-the-ground mission takes him into a massive Hydra factory to rescue some POWs.
Now, Hydra begins as a special weapons division of the Nazi party, but when Schmidt gets his hands on the Cosmic Cube that morphs into the more sci-fi powerhouse that Hydra will becomes in the movie.
And perhaps the most exciting piece of news to date, after much speculation about where a Captain America sequel could possibly go after he is unthawed in the 21st century, we are told not to “count out” the possibility of another WWII era Captain America.
Interestingly enough, Feige told us that we shouldn’t count out seeing more WW2 themed Captain America stories on the big screen since the movie takes place over a period of about 3 years. So even though we all know Cap ends up in the ice if there’s a call for more WW2 Cap adventures there’s plenty of missions we don’t see. I found this very exciting, especially since Feige said that he loves Ed Brubaker’s use of WW2 in his Captain America stories, where the first few pages of one of his comics would be a WW2 adventure and that would inform the modern day storyline being told in the book.
Exciting. Do you think a Captain America sequel would do well in WWII? How about a Godfather 2-esque juggling of the past and present? Tell us your thoughts in the comments!
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