Captain America: The First Avenger

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Timing: 2:4 (124 min)

7/10
22600

6.735/10
391532

6.9/10
962000

All about film

Video 25

Photo 149

Actors and characters

Release date

2011-07-22

Country

United States

Production

Marvel Studios, Marvel Entertainment

Genre

Action, Adventure, Science Fiction

Budget

$140 000 000

Revenue

$370 569 774

Website

https://www.marvel.com/movies/captain-america-the-first-avenger

Director

Joe Johnston

Actors

Chris Evans, Hayley Atwell, Sebastian Stan, Tommy Lee Jones, Hugo Weaving, Dominic Cooper, Richard Armitage, Stanley Tucci, Samuel L. Jackson, Toby Jones
All actors and roles (10)

Scenario

Producer

Kevin Feige, Joe Johnston, Stan Lee, Nigel Gostelow, Louis D'Esposito, Alan Fine, David Maisel

Operator

Shelly Johnson

Composer

Alan Silvestri

Artist

Richard Selway, Helen Xenopoulos, Charlotte Leatherland

Audition

Priscilla John, Sarah Halley Finn, Randi Hiller

Editing

Robert Dalva, Jeffrey Ford
All team (592)

• John Favreau was initially invited to direct 'Captain America,' but he preferred to work on 'Iron Man.' Nick Cassavetes could also have directed the film. Louis Leterrier was willing to work on the project, but Marvel Studios turned him down.
• Those who auditioned for the lead role included: John Krasinski, Mike Vogel, Chace Crawford, Garrett Hedlund, Channing Tatum, Wilson Bethel, Scott Porter, Michael Cassidy, and Patrick Flueger. Leonardo DiCaprio, Jensen Ackles, John Cena, and Matthew McConaughey were also considered.
• Captain America was created by writer Joe Simon and artist Jack Kirby and first appeared in the comic book Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941).
• Sebastian Stan was considered for the role of Captain America, but ultimately received the role of Bucky.
• Chris Evans turned down the role three times before accepting it. After that, he met with the director and producer, who convinced him to take on the role.
• To prepare for her role as Peggy Carter, Hayley Atwell trained six days a week.
• Alice Eve and Keira Knightley were considered for the role of Peggy Carter. Emily Blunt turned down the role.
• Worldwide, the film was released with the full title 'Captain America: The First Avenger,' but only in Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine did it appear as 'The First Avenger.'
• When Timely Comics began publishing 'Captain America,' the comic's creators began receiving letters and phone calls with threats from American fans of Hitler.
• Automotive designer Daniel Simon created the retro car Hydra Schmidt Coupe specifically for the film "First Avenger". When creating the film car, the designer was guided by popular models from the late 1940s: Mercedes-Benz 540K, Mercedes-Benz G4, Bentley and Duesenberg.
• Joe Johnston was chosen as the director due to his previous films "The Rocketeer" (1991) and "October Sky" (1999). As for "The Rocketeer", it is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name – a combination of adventure, action, science fiction, and family film.
• The film is called "First Avenger", although it is the last film about a lone avenger, as it was followed by a film about a team of superheroes with comedic elements, "The Avengers" (Joss Whedon, 2012).
• At one time, it was claimed that Edgar Wright (a well-known British director, screenwriter, actor, and producer) secretly rewrote the script for the film, but Wright himself publicly refuted these rumors. Starting in the summer of 2006, Wright worked on the script for a superhero film from "Marvel Comics" called "Ant-Man". In early June 2012, Wright, the future director of the film, spent about a week filming test scenes. He left the project due to "creative differences with the studio" in May 2014. The film "Ant-Man" was released in June 2015.
• Three actors involved in the film had previously worked with Matt Smith on the series "Doctor Who" – Toby Jones (who plays the character Arnim Zola in the film) played the Dream Lord, David Bradley (who plays the guard in the tower) played Solomon, and Jenna Coleman, who plays Connie, played Clara Oswald in the series.
• David Self, who wrote the draft screenplay for the film, named Captain America his favorite superhero of childhood. "My father once told me that one day I would become Captain America myself."
• Initially, the filmmakers intended to include Namor the Sub-Mariner and his cousin, the Prince of Atlantis, in the plot (they were supposed to appear in cameo roles), but later abandoned this idea.
• Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt in the film. He also played Agent Smith in the *Matrix* trilogy (1999, 2003, 2003). Smith is an Americanized version of the surname "Schmidt."
• The last film produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures.
• The events of the film unfold between March 1942 and May 1945 and in 2011.
• David Bradley and Toby Jones had previously worked together on the film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" (Chris Columbus, 2002). Kenneth Branagh also starred in that film and later directed "Thor" (2011).
• Dane Cook, Kevin Jonas, and his brother Joe Jonas auditioned for the role of Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America.
• The design of the Red Skull's flying fortress, which appears at the end of the film, borrowed heavily from the Spriggan from the game "Aero Fighters Assault" by "Paradigm Entertainment" (1997-1998), developed for the "Nintendo 64" platform.
• Hugo Weaving and Stanley Tucci both worked on films in the "Transformers" franchise, although they never appeared on screen together. In the first three films (2007, 2009, 2011), Weaving voiced Megatron, while Tucci only appeared in the fourth film (2014).
• "The Hollywood Reporter" reported that Rosamund Pike and Alexa Davalos auditioned for the role of Peggy Carter.
• The name of one of the film's characters, Jacques Dernier, translates from French as "James Last".
• One fan of the "New England Patriots" football team used technology available to the current generation and placed the face of quarterback Tom Brady on the poster for "Captain America: The First Avenger" (featuring Captain America looking at his shield with the inscription "Vengeance"). This happened shortly before the 2012 National Football League championship game. Brady's team still lost.
• Unlike other actors who have played the Avengers in various adaptations, Chris Evans didn't even have to audition for the role of Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America – the filmmakers were so confident that he was a perfect fit for the role.
• As producer Avi Arad said: "It's interesting to make films about Captain America because he's a man from the past who finds himself in our time. Thus, we see our world through the eyes of a man who considered early 20th-century America to be ideal. But 60 years have passed, and have we become better than we once were?"
• The episode featuring Samuel L. Jackson, filmed in Times Square, New York, serves as a prelude to the events unfolding in "The Avengers" (Joss Whedon, 2012).
• Almost until the very end of pre-production, it was believed that HYDRA would be a distinctly Nazi paramilitary organization, with members wearing uniforms bearing swastikas. Some hints of this remained in the theatrical release of the film, but footage of HYDRA members attacking Allied forces did not make the cut.
• In the first episode of the film featuring Zola and Schmidt, Schmidt examines photographs of the Tesseract, including a fake image of part of the famous carved door of the church in Hillestad, Norway. On the authentic door, the hero Sigurd is depicted helping the blacksmith Regin forge a sword with which he later slays the dragon Fafnir. Zola and Schmidt conduct an experiment with the Tesseract. Later, when Dr. Erskine is talking to Steve in the barracks, Schmidt is shown in the background against an image of Sigurd listening to a bird. The bird instructs him to kill Regin and find a Valkyrie named Brunhild. The story of Sigurd is the Norse version of the story of Siegfried. This opera by Richard Wagner is listened to by Schmidt. According to Wagner, Siegfried was born of incest and is the child of two children of Wotan (Odin).
• Jones tells Dugan in the tank that he studied German for three semesters at Howard University, after which he began studying French. In the version released in Germany, Jones says he studied mechanical engineering at Harvard, but not for long because the female students there were very unattractive.
• When Stark demonstrates his "Reversion" technology, a red painted model rocket with black and white checkered patterns hangs from the ceiling behind the crowd. This is a copy of a rocket from the Belgian graphic novels "Tintin: Destination Moon" and "Tintin: Explorers on the Moon" by Georges Prosper Remi, also known under the pseudonym Hergé (1907-1983).
• After the presentation hosted by Howard Stark, an instrumental arrangement of the song "Make Way for Tomorrow Today" (by Richard M. Sherman) begins to play.
• The Wilhelm scream sound effect: Rogers is pursued on motorcycles by HYDRA operatives, and he is forced to use a flamethrower. The scream occurs when one of the operatives instinctively swerves, loses control of the motorcycle, and is thrown from the saddle.
• Howard Stark transports Captain America behind enemy lines aboard a Beechcraft Model 18 aircraft. Launched into production by Beech Aircraft Corporation in 1937, this aircraft was widely used by both military and civilian aviation for cargo transportation, supply delivery, and evacuation of the wounded.
• Neil McDonough plays a soldier in the 107th Infantry Regiment. In the miniseries Band of Brothers (2001), the actor played a lieutenant in the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment of the 101st Airborne Division, who also fought in Europe during World War II.
• Tommy Lee Jones, playing Colonel Phillips, played Two-Face (also known as Harvey Dent) in the film Batman Forever (Joel Schumacher, 1995). In a 1996 crossover, Captain America from Marvel Comics and Batman from DC Comics clashed.
• At the beginning of the film, the Red Skull wears a mask that is indistinguishable from his appearance before receiving the super-soldier serum. At one point, he removes the mask, revealing skin that is red and as if burned (which the Red Skull, by the way, mentions). In the film "V for Vendetta," Hugo Weaving wears a Guy Fawkes mask for several reasons, one of which is to conceal burns. (Guy Fawkes was an English Catholic nobleman, the most famous participant in the Gunpowder Plot against King James I in 1605. The Guy Fawkes mask design was created in 1982 and has since become an internet meme and a symbol of protest movements.)
• The Red Skull's repulsive appearance is explained by the fact that his body rejected the serum that made him even more insane than before. The same thing happened in the action film "The Incredible Hulk" (Louis Leterrier, 2008) with Emil Blonsky, when gamma radiation transformed him into the Abomination.
• At the end of the film, Howard Stark finds the Tesseract and makes drawings of this artifact, which his son Tony will review midway through "Iron Man 2" (Jon Favreau, 2010).
• In the film, Bucky uses Captain America's shield shortly before falling into the gorge. In the comics, Steve Rogers is killed, and Bucky becomes Captain America.
• During the search for the Tesseract at the beginning of the film, Johann Schmidt kills its guardian in Norway, and splashes of blood get on the badge indicating Schmidt's affiliation with the "HYDRA" organization. The blood falls exclusively on the skull depicted on the badge, as if explaining to the viewer that this is the Red Skull.
• The first appearance of Dr. Arnim Zola in the film (on a television screen) serves as a reminder to the viewer of how this character was depicted in the comics. In the "classic" depiction, Zola is a headless torso with a preserved consciousness, with a video screen on his chest displaying his face. When Zola gathers papers before the Red Skull blows up the base, drawings of this body are visible on the sheets, as if foreshadowing the character's appearance in our time. This happens in Anthony and Joe Russo's "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" (2014).
• Richard Armitage suffers from hydrophobia (fear of drowning), so the episode in which the submarine fills with water was filmed in only three takes.
• Joe Johnston was the artist for Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" (1981), and there are some references to this in "Captain America: The First Avenger" (2011): - The Tesseract "absorbs" Red Skull almost as the Ark killed the Nazis in the Indiana Jones film; - In a fight with Captain America, one of the "HYDRA" agents dies after being hit by an airplane propeller; - Holding the Tesseract, Johann Schmidt, or Red Skull, notes that "...and Hitler's over in the desert chasing magic trinkets."
• When visiting the World's Fair at the beginning of the film, Bucky tells Steve: "The future is coming," foreshadowing Steve Rogers' journey to the future at the end of the film.
• The scene where Steve Rogers, who has already been given the "super-soldier" serum, chases a "HYDRA" agent includes a scene with a taxi door. The car belongs to the "Lucky Star Cab Company" fleet, whose logo is a star around which the company name goes. A similar graphic design will be on the shield from Captain America's arsenal that Steve will become.
• During the tour Steve Rogers went on to raise funds for the war effort and promote war bonds, a burning tank is shown in newsreel footage. It is an American M5 "Stuart" tank with German identification markings painted on the sides. This is how filmmakers in Hollywood did things in the 1940s – lacking German tanks for filming, they would repaint American ones.
• When Steve Rogers bursts onto Times Square, surrounded by S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, an advertisement for Baskin-Robbins ice cream is visible behind Nick Fury. In one of the Baskin-Robbins establishments, Scott Lang, or Ant-Man, will find work after his release from prison in the superhero action film "Ant-Man" (Peyton Reed, 2015).
• The Red Skull, played by Hugo Weaving, searches for a mysterious artifact in the form of a cube. In the science fiction action film "Transformers" (Michael Bay, 2007), Weaving voiced Megatron, a villain who seeks a similar object arriving from space (the AllSpark). Stanley Tucci plays the role of Dr. Abraham Erskine in the film "Captain America: The First Avenger" (Joe Johnston, 2011). In "Transformers: Age of Extinction" (Michael Bay, 2014), Stanley Tucci will play a scientist who will create Galvatron, the main Decepticon prototype, which will contain the mind of Megatron.
• During the World's Fair episode, the viewer sees a man in a glass cylinder. This is the Human Torch, a comic book character who will fight on Captain America’s side.
• John Favreau was initially invited to direct "Captain America," but he chose to work on "Iron Man." Nick Cassavetes was also considered to direct the film. Louis Leterrier was interested in working on the project, but Marvel Studios turned him down.
• Worldwide, the film was released with the full title "Captain America: The First Avenger," but in Russia, South Korea, and Ukraine, it was released simply as "The First Avenger."
• When Timely Comics began publishing “Captain America,” the creators of the comic received letters and phone calls with threats from American Hitler fans.
• Automotive designer Daniel Simon created the retro Hydra Schmidt Coupe car specifically for the film “Captain America: The First Avenger.” When creating the film car, the designer was guided by popular models from the late 1940s: Mercedes-Benz 540K, Mercedes-Benz G4, Bentley, and Duesenberg.
• Joe Johnston was chosen as director due to his previous films “The Rocketeer” (1991) and “October Sky” (1999). As for “The Rocketeer,” it is an adaptation of the comic book of the same name – a combination of adventure, action, science fiction, and family film.
• The film is titled “The First Avenger,” although it is the last film about a solo avenger, as it was followed by the film about the team of superheroes with comedic elements, “The Avengers” (Joss Whedon, 2012).
• For a time, it was claimed that the film's script had been secretly rewritten by Edgar Wright (a well-known British director, screenwriter, actor, and producer), however, Wright publicly denied these rumors. Starting in the summer of 2006, Wright worked on the script for the “Marvel Comics” superhero film “Ant-Man.” In early June 2012, Wright, the future film’s director, spent about a week filming test scenes. He left the project due to “creative differences with the studio” in May 2014. The film “Ant-Man” was released in June 2015.
• Three actors involved in the film previously worked with Matt Smith on the series “Doctor Who” — Toby Jones (who plays a character named Arnim Zola in the film) played the Dream Lord, David Bradley (playing the guardian in the tower) portrayed Solomon, and Jenna Coleman, who plays Connie, played Clara Oswald in the series.
• David Self, who wrote the draft screenplay for the film, named Captain America his favorite superhero from childhood. “My father once told me that one day I would become Captain America myself.”
• Hugo Weaving plays Johann Schmidt in the film. He also played Agent Smith in the “Matrix” film trilogy (1999, 2003, 2003). Smith is an Americanized version of the surname “Schmidt”.
• David Bradley and Toby Jones had previously worked together in “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” (Chris Columbus, 2002). Kenneth Branagh also starred in that film and later directed “Thor” (2011).
• The appearance of the Red Skull’s flying fortress, which appears at the end of the film, borrowed heavily from the Spriggan from the game “Aero Fighters Assault” by “Paradigm Entertainment” (1997-1998), developed for the “Nintendo 64” platform.
• Hugo Weaving and Stanley Tucci worked on films in the "Transformers" franchise, although they never appeared on screen at the same time. In the first three films (2007, 2009, 2011), Weaving voiced Megatron, while Tucci only appeared in the fourth film (2014).
• According to "The Hollywood Reporter", Rosamund Pike and Alexa Davalos auditioned for the role of Peggy Carter.
• The name of one of the film's characters, Jacques Dernier, translates from French as "James Last".
• A fan of the "New England Patriots" football team used technology available to the current generation and placed the face of quarterback Tom Brady on a poster for the film "Captain America: The First Avenger" (featuring Captain America looking at his shield with the caption "Vengeance"). This happened shortly before the championship game of the National Football League in 2012. Brady’s team still lost.
• As producer Avi Arad said: “It’s interesting to make films about Captain America because he’s a man from the past who finds himself in our time. Thus, we see our world through the eyes of a man who considered early 20th-century America to be ideal. But 60 years have passed, and have we become better than we once were?”
• The episode featuring Samuel L. Jackson, filmed in Times Square, New York, serves as a prelude to the events unfolding in "The Avengers" (Joss Whedon, 2012).
• Almost until the very end of pre-production, it was believed that "HYDRA" would be explicitly a Nazi paramilitary organization, with members wearing uniforms with swastikas. Some hints of this remained in the released version of the film, but footage of "HYDRA" members attacking Allied forces was cut.