Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
During World War II, a frail man is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America to stop the Red Skull from using the Tesseract for world domination.
The story
In 1942, during World War II, a frail man named Steve Rogers is recruited into a secret super-soldier program. After undergoing a transformation that grants him superhuman abilities, he becomes the hero known as Captain America. Alongside his allies, he must confront the Red Skull, a villain seeking to harness the power of the Tesseract—a mysterious relic with immense energy—to achieve world domination. The film follows his journey as he fights to protect his country and his friends from the growing threat of the Hydra organization.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
In 1942, Steve Rogers, a frail man, is transformed into the super-soldier Captain America. He joins forces with allies like Peggy Carter and the Howling Commandos to combat the Red Skull, who seeks to use the Tesseract for world domination. After a series of battles, including a mission to rescue Bucky Barnes and the capture of Arnim Zola, the team faces the Red Skull's final stand. During a confrontation on a super-bomber, the Tesseract is released, and the Red Skull is pulled into space. Rogers crashes in the Arctic and is frozen for decades. He awakens in the modern day, in a 1940s-style hospital room, and eventually finds himself in contemporary Times Square, where he is informed by Nick Fury that he has been asleep for nearly 70 years.
- First release year
- 2011
- Runtime (minutes)
- 124
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Joe Johnston
- Writers
- Christopher Markus · screenplay; Stephen McFeely · screenplay
- Cast and characters
- Chris Evans · Steve Rogers / Captain America; Tommy Lee Jones · Chester Phillips; Hugo Weaving · Johann Schmidt / Red Skull; Hayley Atwell · Margaret "Peggy" Carter; Sebastian Stan · James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes; Dominic Cooper · Howard Stark; Toby Jones · Arnim Zola; Neal McDonough · Timothy "Dum Dum" Dugan; Derek Luke · Gabe Jones; Stanley Tucci · Abraham Erskine
- Genres
- superhero; action; adventure; war
- Themes
- patriotism; sacrifice
- Tone and mood
- heroic; nostalgic
- Premise and plot tags
- origin story; superhero; war
- Source material / true-story basis
- Marvel Comics
- Franchise connections
- Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)
- Reception
- The film was commercially successful and received positive reviews from critics who praised the lead performance, the period setting, and the direction.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 66 · scale: 100 · review count: 43
- Production trivia
- The film was originally titled 'The First Avenger: Captain America'.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…