Captain America: Civil War Trailer 2 – Bit-by-Bit

As The Geekiverse previously posted, the second trailer for Marvel’s “Captain America: Civil War” has just been unveiled. It’s really, really good.

We’ll go through the trailer in detail in just a moment, but I just wanted to touch on how I think this trailer did a better job on selling the movie than their previous trailer did. The first full trailer for “Civil War” was good, although somewhat vague. They gave a broad overview of the plot and a glimpse of a coming rift between Tony Stark and Steve Rogers, but this second trailer gives a much clearer picture of why their relationship has fractured, how it’s affected them, and what kind of global implications this is having. There’s also a much more intriguing look at some incredible-looking action sequences. Overall this trailer seems to serve as a better microcosm of the movie I think we’ll be getting. A movie with aggressive and intimate action, dramatic and bitter confrontations, and Steve Rogers struggling to stand strong amid physical and emotional chaos more trying than any he’s faced before.

But now we’ll walk through this trailer, highlighting some memorable bits and compelling details. Possible spoilers to come, just through speculation and a couple light rumors:

“We try to save as many people as we can. Sometimes that doesn’t mean everybody…but you don’t give up.”

As the trailer begins, Captain America gives a poignant statement, encapsulating his balance of realistic practicality and unyielding will for good. He narrates over shots introducing a facility in a remote arctic region. It appears Bucky, the ‘Winter Soldier’, is being held here. If this sequence takes place toward the beginning of the movie, it begs the questions of how Bucky ended up here after being alone and on-the-run after the end of “Captain America: The Winter Soldier”. This could of course be a flashback as well, to when Bucky was still a slave as a bio-engineered assassin.

“New York…D.C…Sokovia…”

After the opening logos, we at last get the return of William Hurt’s ‘General Thaddeus Ross’ (who would’ve thought, out of everyone in the oft-forgotten early MCU film “The Incredible Hulk”, that ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross would be the only character we’d see pop up in another movie?). His return plays into the controversial role the American government will be playing in this film’s plot. Ross reviews footage of several Avenger-related missions that saw heavy collateral damage. The footage becomes difficult for Wanda Maximoff (the ‘Scarlet Witch’) to watch anymore, but the point’s been made: despite the heroic feats performed by these people, there may need to be intervention from a governing force to prevent further civilian casualties.

I suppose this would be a good point to bring up how interesting I find it that this subject matter is being delved into in multiple superhero movies this year. Not only do we have several superhero narratives being released within months of each other that all center around heroes fighting each other over conflicting ideologies (Civil War, Batman V Superman, Daredevil: Season 2), but both Civil War and Batman V Superman feature fallout from excessive damage of battles featured in previous installments affecting the plot of their current installments. Both seem to make great use of the idea, although it’s very interesting that multiple studios are addressing this issue at the same time. 

“Captain, people are afraid.”

Following this conference is a montage of unspecified destruction from this film, including an incident which definitely seems to involve Chadwick Boseman’s T’Challa, the Wakandian prince who will become the Black Panther. In this character’s origin, his father’s death leads to him taking up the mantle as the hero Black Panther, and this loss could be what we glimpse here in what appears to be a deliberate attack on a political office.

“That’s why I’m here. We need to be put in check.”

It’s now that Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark is brought into the situation, shown flying his new Mark XLVI armor, if I’m not mistaken. Stark champions the idea that the heroes have gone too far, run too rampant, and must be kept in check moving forward.

This is an interesting contrast to where Tony Stark began his journey in the first “Iron Man”. Formerly independent and very anti-establishment, Stark’s increased sense of responsibility and the weight of his prior mistakes that have had grave consequences (‘Ultron’ being a big one to note) has led to him taking a very aggressive stance on not repeating his former errors, in the form of government regulation of superheroes.

“Whatever form that takes, I’m game.”

Tony is ready for any effective means of regulating super-powered individuals. Does this involve what appears to be the MCU’s version of ‘The Raft’ super-prison from the comics? I’m inferring that Tony may have been involved in the creation of this new facility, which could be another major point of contention between him and Steve.

“I know we’re not perfect, but the safest hands are still our own.”

One of the bigger factors driving a wedge between Steve and Tony is the involvement of Bucky. While Steve seems dedicated to bringing his best friend back from the dreadful fate he was doomed to for decades, Tony likely cannot sympathize with this motivation. Bucky himself seems intent to kill Stark, which he narrowly misses doing thanks to Stark’s newest portable Iron Man tech, which turns just his hand into an armored weapon from his wristwatch.

“I was wrong about you. The whole world was wrong about you.”

A familiar image from the previous trailer, the conflict between the two heroes boils over as Tony’s best friend Rhodey (played by Don Cheadle) appears to be at serious risk following a battle between the splintered Avengers’ forces at what looks to be their upstate New York facility set up at the end of “Age of Ultron”. As Tony’s dialogue indicates, he’s now convinced that he was wrong about Steve, that he’s not the man he thought he was at all.

“This doesn’t have to end in a fight, Tony.”

Whatever’s going on in this situation is all too interesting to me. Steve approaches a burdened Tony Stark (post-battle with Cap’s force, judging by the similar bruising on his face), and Tony knocks Steve across the room while doing something on a computer console. I initially thought that Bucky was being held in the containment chamber on the right side of the frame, but that’s definitely Bucky near the center of the picture, diving out from behind the chamber instead. So who’s being kept in there? It doesn’t look like any other character we’ve seen in the movie yet. Could it be the as-yet-unseen Baron Zemo? We know he’s in the movie and is being played by Daniel Bruhl. Does Stark have him captive? If so, does he intend to kill him? If so, is Cap trying to stop him?

I’m getting on a tangent with this, but I can’t help but be intrigued by who’s in that urine-soaked glass box.

“You just started a war.”

 

Several incredible new bits are on display next. Bucky and the Black Panther are having a vicious battle on a rooftop, then interrupted by an attack helicopter. Black Panther stands strong however, his vibranium suit making him impervious to the high-caliber onslaught.

We see Scarlet Witch and the Vision at odds as well, with the powerful and spectral Vision somehow being constrained by Scarlet Witch’s powers, which is an amazing sight.

Also amazing to see is Ant-Man being propelled on one of Hawkeye’s arrows into battle, an iconic image from the comics recreated beautifully on screen.

Lastly, Frank Grillo’s ‘Crossbones’ finally makes an appearance. Following up on his pre-guised depiction in “Winter Soldier”, Brock Rumlow is now masked, armored, and powered with some light hydraulics. In the original Civil War run in the comics, Crossbones was a dangerous rogue who ended up having a serious impact on the events, so his presence in this movie could have some very pivotal ramifications.

“I could do this all day.”

My favorite moment of the trailer, Steve echoes his memorable line from “The First Avenger”, which sums up his enduring, plucky spirit. He pushes forward, always the underdog, even as a superhero, as the heroes clash once again.

“Alright, I’ve run out of patience…”

Here it is, the moment we were all waiting for: the debut of the MCU’s own Spider-Man! (affectionately referred to as ‘Underoos’ by Tony). This is a huge moment, and while there has been some dissent online about his suit and his voice, I personally am loving what I’m seeing.

The suit has some subtle but interesting changes from previous iterations. I mean, there’s only so much change you can introduce to this design before it looks too different for a mass audience, but I think they managed to do some cool new things here. First, they go for less of a sleek look that the Andrew Garfield’s Spidey suits had. And though we still have the nice white eyes of Garfield’s, they’re somewhat smaller and more 2D, if you will. His spider logo is smaller and bulkier as well. I think this suit design evokes something of a 1960s Spider-Man vibe. I personally love this glimpse we get.

Also worth noting are his web shooter cartridges on his belt, as well as his emotive & animated eyes, reminiscent of Deadpool. Myself and Geekiverse’s own Beta consider the eyes to be an actual tech feature of this suit. It’s been rumored that Stark tracks Peter Parker down and forms a friendship with him prior to this conflict, and that he ends up giving him a new suit to use. So when Spider-Man first appears in the movie he may have a more makeshift getup, but he may graduate to something much nicer by the end of the film. I had the impression the suit Stark would give him would be more armored like the Iron Spider suit he gives Peter in the comics, but perhaps he instead gives him an advanced yet traditional-looking Spider-Man suit. Either way, I really dig it. I also dig the voice, obviously the voice of a high school kid, since they’re understandably-rebooting the character back to the high school era once again.

So there you have it. This movie’s looking great. Another politically-charged superhero adventure from the Russo brothers. I think the differing viewpoints of the heroes could present a difficult situation for the movie though. While “Batman V Superman” seems to be presenting each hero’s conflicting methods & ideologies in an even way, I think “Civil War” could run the risk of making Captain America out to clearly be in the right, while skewing Tony Stark’s perspective out so it ends up looking misguided, which could take away from the conflict they’re trying to set up for us in the film.

Even with that, there’s just so much to look forward to in this movie. Captain America’s my favorite MCU character, and I’m grateful Marvel has seen to it that one of my comic book idols is in the forefront of excellent comic book cinema these days.

For an even more detailed look at this trailer, be sure to look for our video analysis coming soon!

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