We’re just a day away from the debut of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier, the second Disney+ exclusive series set within the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Before its two protagonists, Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), dealt with the series’ globe-trotting adventure, the grave cosmic threats of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and a tiff between the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War, it’s worth acknowledging the film that first saw them share the screen — 2014’s Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Winter Soldier has popped back up into the pop culture consciousness pretty regularly in the years since its debut, both for the approach it took to its ensemble of Marvel Comics characters, and for its impressive technical and narrative craft. While the MCU has expanded to bigger and more bombastic storytelling since Winter Soldier, the film still remains one of the franchise’s best — and probably one of its most important.
