By Graham Osborne
Films; it seems like everyone has an opinion on how to do them better than those jumped up filmmakers with their multi-million dollar budgets, fancy computer graphics and incredibly attractive actors swanning around. To be honest I’m no different, well except that I have a degree in film making, so I feel slightly more validated than those punks with their blog posts when I say that I can fix this sort of thing.
So to kick off a new regular feature round these parts, the first film I will attempt to fix will be Captain America: The First Avenger. So, without further ado, let’s see how to make this better…
Films; it seems like everyone has an opinion on how to do them better than those jumped up filmmakers with their multi-million dollar budgets, fancy computer graphics and incredibly attractive actors swanning around. To be honest I’m no different, well except that I have a degree in film making, so I feel slightly more validated than those punks with their blog posts when I say that I can fix this sort of thing.
So to kick off a new regular feature round these parts, the first film I will attempt to fix will be Captain America: The First Avenger. So, without further ado, let’s see how to make this better…
For the most part, I liked Captain America. The characters were likeable, it did a good job setting the scene for The Avengers and it helped introduce the non-comic reading world to Captain America. What rankled me though, was the ending. I felt that there wasn’t any reason for Captain America to stay in the plane when there were plenty of escape pods to ensure he could get away.
To start with, I would have the conversation between Peggy and Captain America earlier, during the scene where they are chasing the plane in Red Skull’s car. The reason for this will become clearer later, however it sets up for a bittersweet scene later in the film where we see Peggy waiting outside the club she said they would meet. It would help show that the intervening years between the loss and subsequent discovery of Captain America may not be filled with joyous moments, more precisely, the Cold War beginning to loom on the horizon with the fall of the Third Reich. Someone could theoretically replicate the Super Soldier Serum, should the Russian’s achieve it before the west do so, who knows what could happen. That’s an awful lot to fit into what would be a very short scene within the film, most of it would be conveyed sub-textually, used as a throw out to anyone who knew about the subject.
To start with, I would have the conversation between Peggy and Captain America earlier, during the scene where they are chasing the plane in Red Skull’s car. The reason for this will become clearer later, however it sets up for a bittersweet scene later in the film where we see Peggy waiting outside the club she said they would meet. It would help show that the intervening years between the loss and subsequent discovery of Captain America may not be filled with joyous moments, more precisely, the Cold War beginning to loom on the horizon with the fall of the Third Reich. Someone could theoretically replicate the Super Soldier Serum, should the Russian’s achieve it before the west do so, who knows what could happen. That’s an awful lot to fit into what would be a very short scene within the film, most of it would be conveyed sub-textually, used as a throw out to anyone who knew about the subject.
With that little side plot tied up, let’s move on to the heart of the what I’d like to see changed; the Plane scene. As it stands, Captain America infiltrates Red Skull’s Über-Plane, has a fight and then watches as Red Skull gets transported to another dimension while Captain America crashes the plane in the Arctic. For the most part, I see this as playing out the same way, with a few crucial differences:
At some point, we see Captain America throw his shield at Skull, however it misses and hits the control panel of the plane instead. This causes the plane to head into a dive, with no possibility of recovering from it. Red Skull, enraged by this, takes the Tesseract and attempts to harness the power of it to disintegrate Captain America. However, he fails to do so and simply creates a portal to another dimension and begins to get sucked in. Seeing this, Captain America launches himself at Red Skull in an attempt to wrestle the Tesseract away from him but fails; only succeeding in getting himself dragged into the parallel dimension as well.
At some point, we see Captain America throw his shield at Skull, however it misses and hits the control panel of the plane instead. This causes the plane to head into a dive, with no possibility of recovering from it. Red Skull, enraged by this, takes the Tesseract and attempts to harness the power of it to disintegrate Captain America. However, he fails to do so and simply creates a portal to another dimension and begins to get sucked in. Seeing this, Captain America launches himself at Red Skull in an attempt to wrestle the Tesseract away from him but fails; only succeeding in getting himself dragged into the parallel dimension as well.
The plane then proceeds to crash and is later recovered by Howard Stark. Where they reclaim the Tesseract and Captain America’s shield. This could be used as the reason why we see Captain America’s shield in Iron Man 2, however I like to think that it was locked up inside a S.H.I.E.L.D. safe vault and maintain the belief that it was a prototype in Tony Stark’s lab.
We then cut to the present, where we see the research team from the beginning of the film observing the Northern Lights and commenting on how they are acting strangely. We are then treated to a flash of light and see a shape falling from the heavens. It’s Captain America and Red Skull.
Using this event, we can link the Avengers prequels together more so than before. Thor’s exile in Thor and journey through the Bifröst along with Mjölnir caused a great disruption along the fabric of existence and rippled through to the dimension where Captain America and Red Skull had been suspended since their fight.
We then cut to the present, where we see the research team from the beginning of the film observing the Northern Lights and commenting on how they are acting strangely. We are then treated to a flash of light and see a shape falling from the heavens. It’s Captain America and Red Skull.
Using this event, we can link the Avengers prequels together more so than before. Thor’s exile in Thor and journey through the Bifröst along with Mjölnir caused a great disruption along the fabric of existence and rippled through to the dimension where Captain America and Red Skull had been suspended since their fight.
Needless to say, S.H.I.E.L.D. is called out to investigate this paranormal occurrence. This is where I can’t quite decide what should happen next. Either Red Skull should be captured or he should escape.
Should he escape? One could argue that his enhancements from the Serum would allow him to survive in the cold for longer than an average human, therefore allowing him to find safety before succumbing to hypothermia. This also naturally sets itself up for a sequel in which Red Skull returns after biding his time and building up a new army to fight Captain America. On the other hand, should he be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., then he would be taken to a holding facility where he could either be released by Loki or escape in the chaos of what happens during The Avengers.
Regardless of how Red Skull gets loose, expect to see him return to fight Captain America another day, while also possibly teaming up with other Bad Guys from the Marvel roster to challenge the Avengers in bigger, more elaborate plans...
And that is how I would have ended Captain America: The First Avenger.
I’m sure you’ll have your own views about what should have happened that probably differ to mine. So, I’ll simply say that this is my interpretation of how I would have done it; all opinions are my own and are not necessarily shared with anyone else on this site.
Check back soon, when I’ll be trying to fix another film. I won’t tell you what it will be, but keep checking the website for clues…
Should he escape? One could argue that his enhancements from the Serum would allow him to survive in the cold for longer than an average human, therefore allowing him to find safety before succumbing to hypothermia. This also naturally sets itself up for a sequel in which Red Skull returns after biding his time and building up a new army to fight Captain America. On the other hand, should he be captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., then he would be taken to a holding facility where he could either be released by Loki or escape in the chaos of what happens during The Avengers.
Regardless of how Red Skull gets loose, expect to see him return to fight Captain America another day, while also possibly teaming up with other Bad Guys from the Marvel roster to challenge the Avengers in bigger, more elaborate plans...
And that is how I would have ended Captain America: The First Avenger.
I’m sure you’ll have your own views about what should have happened that probably differ to mine. So, I’ll simply say that this is my interpretation of how I would have done it; all opinions are my own and are not necessarily shared with anyone else on this site.
Check back soon, when I’ll be trying to fix another film. I won’t tell you what it will be, but keep checking the website for clues…
RSS Feed
