Yesterday, I was flipping channels on the TV and came across Captain America: The Winter Soldier. It's like Ocean's Eleven or Ocean's Thirteen or Barney Miller for me; I can always drop what I'm doing and watch Barney Miller.
I came in late in the movie, at the part where HYDRA was makng itself known. Alexander Pierce (Robert Redford, playing well against type as the villain) revealed himself to the World Council, and armed HYDRA goons were stomping into SHIELD headquarters to take it over, while other embedded HYDRA double agents turned on the legit SHIELD agents around them. Captain America found a microphone and sent a message over the loudspeakers to all within hearing: That HYDRA has infiltrated SHIELD, and we need to stop them; we need to stop them here, we need to stop them now, we need to stop them today. Now I know I'm asking a lot, he said, and I may be the only one in the fight. "So be it," he said, "but I'm betting I'm not."
Cut to: Chiel HYDRA goon Brock Rumlow strides into the control center and demands that some guy sitting at a console launch all of SHIELD's helicarriers, which HYDRA intends to deploy around the world for its purposes. This is no armed agent; he's a tech guy who pushes buttons. And he's scared. Really scared. He gasps for breath, and he's sweating, and there's all these emotions shifting across his face, and he knows he might die in this very moment.
And he swallows, and says, "I'm not going to launch the helicarriers. Captain's orders."
Rumlow pulls a gun on him and puts it upside his head and orders him again to launch the helicarriers. Which prompts Sharon Carter to pull a gun on him. And then everybody who has a gun is pulling it on everybody else. And our tech guy is really scared now, but he still refuses. Rumlow tells Carter you don't know what you're doing; Carter tells him it depends on what side you're on and tells him to stand down.
Rumlow hesitates. Then he puts his gun down ...
... and drops to the floor, pulls a knife from a pocket on his pants and slashes at Carter, and it's on. Everybody who has a gun is now shooting at everybody else, and our tech guy is crawling under the console as far as he can to get away from the crossfire. Rumlow takes a moment in the confusion to launch the helicarriers himself.
My wife was wandering in and out of the room, doing chores, and noticed I was watching The Winter Soldier again, and I described to her what I just described to you. But now I'm seeing it in the context of what's going on in our country and it made me cry. It made us both cry. Hell, it's making me weep as I write this. Because it all came down to a guy who, at the risk of his own life, said I'm not going to do the wrong thing today, By God, we need that. We need more of that.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier is well-regarded as the best of the Captain America movies and is arguably the best of all the Marvel movies. This moment is one reason why.
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