The Falcon and the Winter Soldier · Season 1
You see these guys? These are the guys you gotta worry about. I've been stumbling onto their manifestos on message boards. Call themselves the Flag-Smashers.
Is that a new thing? Bad guys give themselves bad names?
There's a lot worse names than that one. But basically, they think that the world was better during The Blip. Trust me, it wasn't.
Trust me. Every time something gets better for one group, it gets worse for another.
[speaking at the Smithsonian] Steve represented the best in all of us. Courageous, righteous, hopeful. [looks at a poster of Captain America] And he mastered posing stoically. [audience laughs] The world has been forever changed. A few months ago, billions of people reappeared after five years away, sending the world into turmoil. We need new heroes. Ones suited for the times we're in. Symbols are nothing without the women and men that give them meaning. And this thing ... [picks up the shield and regards it] I don't know if there's ever been a greater symbol. But it's more about the man who propped it up, and he's gone. So today, we honor Steve's legacy. But also, we look to the future. Thank you, Captain America. But this belongs to you.
Crazy that nobody's gonna be carryin' the shield.
Hey, we went for seventy years without anybody carryin' it when Steve was on ice. So, I think we'll be all right.
That was a different time, Sam. [after a silence] I see you're gonna make me ask. Why didn't you take up the mantle?
When Steve first told me about the shield, the first words I said were, "It feels like it belongs to someone else." That someone else is Steve.
Rule number two?
[mock-considering] What was rule number two?
Nobody gets hurt. It's a big one.
Then why isn't it rule number one?
All right, give me a break. I'm trying, okay? This isn't...[sighs] This is new for me. I didn't have a moment to deal with anything, you know? I had a little...calm in Wakanda. And other than that, I just went from one fight to another for ninety years.
So, now that you've stopped fighting, what do you want?
... Peace.
That is utter bullshit!
You're a terrible shrink.
[voice trembling] I was an excellent soldier, so I saw a lot of dead bodies, and I know how that can shut you down. And if you are alone, that is the quietest, most personal hell.
You know how you call a guy whose wife died a "widower"? Or, if your parents die, you're an orphan. There's no word for someone whose kids die. Because it's the worst thing that could happen.
You don't have to trust Redwing. But I'm gonna go see if he's right. 'Cause I have a feeling they (the Flag-Smashers) might be part of the Big Three.
What big three?
The Big Three.
What Big Three?
Androids, aliens and wizards.
That's not a thing.
That's-that's definitely a thing.
No, it's not.
Every time we fight, it's one of the three.
So who are you fighting now, Gandalf?
Ev- How do you know about Gandalf?
I read The Hobbit. In 1937. When it first came out.
So you see my point?
No. I don't. There are no wizards.
Doctor Strange.
-- is a sorcerer.
Ah-ah. [chuckles] A sorcerer is a wizard without a hat.
I'm Battlestar. John's partner.
"Battlestar"? [yelling to the driver] Stop the car!
[The driver complies and pulls over at an intersection. Bucky gets out of the jeep and starts walking away.]
Look, I...I get it, okay? I get the attitude, I do. You didn't think that the shield was gonna end up here. I get it, Bucky. [to Sam] And I'm, I'm not trying to be Steve. I'm not trying to replace Steve. I'm just trying to be the best Captain America I can be. That's it. It'd be a whole lot easier if I had Cap's wingman on my side.
[scoffs] It's always that last line. [gets out of the jeep and follows Bucky]
Hey, it's Black Falcon! What's up?!
Just Falcon, kid.
No, no. My daddy told me it's Black Falcon.
Is it because I'm black and I'm the Falcon?
[subdued] Well, technically, I mean, yes.
So are you, like, "Black Kid"?
[The kid rolls his eyes and looks away. Sam laughs.]
[to the kid's friend, chuckling] I got him, right?
[in good humor] Whatever, man.
I'm not a killer anymore.
You think you can wake up one day and decide who you wanna be? It doesn't work like that. Well, maybe it does for folks like you.
Why'd you give up that shield?
Why are you making such a big deal out of something that has nothing to do with you?
Steve believed in you. He trusted you. He gave you that shield for a reason. That shield, that is... That is everything he stood for. That is his legacy. He gave you that shield, and you threw it away like it was nothing...
Shut up.
So maybe he was wrong about you. And if he was wrong about you, then he was wrong about me.
...You finished?
Yeah.
All right, good. Maybe this is something you or Steve will never understand. But can you accept that I did what I thought was right?
I've seen that book. It was Steve's when he came out of the ice. I told him about Trouble Man. He wrote it in that book. Did you hear it? What'd you think?
I like 40's music, so...
You didn't like it?!
I liked it.
It is a masterpiece, James. Complete. Comprehensive. It captures the African-American experience.
[nonplussed, having to defend Zemo] He's outta line, but he's right. It's great. Everybody loves Marvin Gaye.
I like Marvin Gaye.
Steve adored Marvin Gaye.
You must have really looked up to Steve. But I realized something when I met him. The danger with people like him, America's Super Soldiers, is that we put them on pedestals.
Watch your step, Zemo.
They become symbols. Icons. And then we start to forget about their flaws. From there, cities fly, innocent people die, movements are formed, wars are fought. [to Bucky] You remember that, right? As a young soldier sent to Germany to stop a mad icon. Do we want to live in a world full of people like the Red Skull?
[Sam, Zemo and Bucky are entering Madripoor. Sam is dressed in a garish suit.]
We have to do something about this. I'm the only one who looks like a pimp.
Only an American would assume a fashion-forward black man looks like a pimp. You look exactly like the man you're supposed to be playing: the sophisticated, charming African rake named Conrad Mack, a.k.a. the Smiling Tiger.
He even has a bad nickname.
So what are you doing here?
I stole Steve's shield, remember? [to Sam] I also took the wings for your ass so that you could save his [Bucky] ass from his [Zemo] ass. Unlike you, I didn't have the Avengers to back me up. So...I'm off the grid in Madripoor.
Hey, don't blow that smoke at me. I was on the run, too.
"Was." "Is." Big difference.
I'm sorry I didn't call. But after the Blip and the chaos, I just...
Look, you know the whole hero thing is a joke, right? I mean, the way you gave up that shield, deep down, you must know it's all hypocrisy.
He knows. And not so deep down.
These quotes come from Wikiquote's The Falcon and the Winter Soldier pages and are available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.
