Captain America: The First Avenger

"The one who never gives up awakens."

2011 2h 4m EN

👍

7.0

SOLID

🍅

80%

FRESH

👌

METACRITIC

⭐

6.9

IMDB

★7.0TMDB · 23,344🍅80%Rotten Tomatoes●66Metacritic★6.9IMDB · 966,241

ActionAdventureScience Fiction

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

During World War II, Steve Rogers is a sickly man from Brooklyn who's transformed into super-soldier Captain America to aid in the war effort. Rogers must stop the Red Skull – Adolf Hitler's ruthless head of weaponry, and the leader of an organization that intends to use a mysterious device of untold powers for world domination.

“The one who never gives up awakens.”

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Cast

Chris Evans
Captain America / Steve Rogers
Hayley Atwell
Peggy Carter
Sebastian Stan
James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes
Tommy Lee Jones
Colonel Chester Phillips
Hugo Weaving
Johann Schmidt / Red Skull
Dominic Cooper
Howard Stark
Richard Armitage
Heinz Kruger
Stanley Tucci
Dr. Abraham Erskine

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Joe Johnston
Writers: Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Rusty Gilligan
Languages: French, Norwegian, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

$140M budget — tentpole studio territory.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Released 15 years ago.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, Norwegian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Captain America Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

CAST

Did you know

698+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Joe Johnston, shot by Shelly Johnson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Robert Dalva shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Joe Johnston directs. Shelly Johnson behind the camera. Alan Silvestri scores. Robert Dalva cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in French, Norwegian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1$140M budget — tentpole studio territory.
2Released 15 years ago.
3Dialogue crosses 3 languages: French, Norwegian, English.
4Part of the "Captain America Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5698+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
6Directed by Joe Johnston, shot by Shelly Johnson. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
7Original score by Alan Silvestri. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
8Editor Robert Dalva shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
9Chris Evans and Hayley Atwell and Sebastian Stan carry the top of the cast.
10Marketing tagline: "The one who never gives up awakens.".
11IMDB entry: tt0458339 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
1223,344 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
13Classified under 16 themes, including "new york city", "nazi", "superhero", "heroism".
14Released under 19 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Shelly Johnson
Original score: Alan Silvestri
Editing: Robert Dalva
Production design: Rick Heinrichs
Costume design: Anna B. Sheppard
Makeup / hair: Lisa Westcott
VFX supervisor: Vincent Cirelli
Sound: Jason W. Jennings
Stunt coordinator: Matthew Sampson
Runtime: 124 min · 2h 4m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $140,000,000
Box office: $370,569,774
Return: 265% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG-13
IMDB: Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)
Rotten Tomatoes: 80% 🍅 Fresh
Metacritic: 66/100
IMDB rating: 6.9/10 · 966,241 votes
MPAA: PG-13

Awards

4 wins & 50 nominations total

Part of

Captain America Collection

Steve Rogers wields the shield in Captain America: The First Avenger, Captain America: The Winter Soldier and Captain America: Civil War. Then it’s Sam Wilson who unleashes his wings and takes up the mantle in Captain America: Brave New World. Join them as they fight evil global forces.

Also by

Joe Johnston

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

Community reviews

What people are saying

tmdb870696032012-06-05
★ 8.5/10
True to "Captain America," this is the modern (comic book) version of the All American movie. Good guys versus bad guys without a lot of ambiguity. NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. This movie is pretty much perfection for the genre. Entertaining A to Z story with high-end Hollywood professional movie making throughout.
Gimly2018-06-04
★ 8/10
This is a long form review initially published in 2011: Though it ran at over two hours, I did feel that it had plenty of room to go further than it did. I honestly felt like Red Skull could have had a film all to himself, and actually kind of suffered for making him as intriguing as he was. Chris Evans was an interesting choice as the titular role of Captain America, given that he's already played American sweetheart Marvel Super Hero "The Human Torch" in Fantastic 4 and Fantastic 4: Rise of the Silver Surfer. He didn't Oh-My-Gosh blow me away type-thing or what have you, but he was pretty great. So far in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I'd slot Captain America clean in the middle. I liked Iron Man and Thor more, but Iron Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk less. Marvel Studios stated that the movie they wanted to make was set in the 40's, even though the rest of Marvel Cinematic is modern-day. This was 100% the right move to make, why? Not because of the setting, aesthetics or direction, but because it's fuckin' smart. How do you have the world appreciate an Uncle-Sam loving upper-middle class white male military blindly-loyal patriot? You make him fight the God damn Nazis, that's how. It may seem strange, but I actually enjoyed the opening of Captain America the most, which he spends a a meek, asthmatic Steve Rogers, yet to undergo the Deus Ex Machina Super Serum. It really showed the best of Evans acting ability, as well as the writing of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely whom together wrote You Kill Me and The The Chronicles of Narnia Trilogy. I watched it in 3D, which was more bearable than usual. As the films of MCU progress, each of them becomes more and more a prequel to The Avengers, Captain America being the most to date. Despite its almost-entire lack of Avenger cameos, this more than previous films felt like a prequel for what's to come, which is not strictly speaking a good thing. I had plenty of minor issues with Captain America, and though their was quite a number of them, all were minor, and ultimately, the only part of me that regrets watching it was the part that keeps thinking "My fucking God, I have to wait a YEAR before Avengers comes out?!" 79% -Gimly
PolyWogg2019-01-24
★ 8/10
PLOT Steve Rogers, a scrawny young man, wants to enlist in the US Army and go overseas to fight in WWII. But his size and health means his attempts at enlistment always end the same way -- a 4F rating. Until a scientist sees him and recruits him to try out for a special training program to create a super soldier. WHAT I LIKED The Marvel universe sticks pretty close to classic script with him being given a serum that jacks his body into super muscle mode. He's already brave and smart, so it would seem like a no-brainer to send him overseas? But the guy in charge of his training doesn't want him, he's just one man, so Rogers ends up doing public relations back home. And he is quite shocked that the men overseas don't react as positively when they see him as the crowds back home. I really enjoyed the way they handle the first battle scene for him, basically him figuring things out as he goes, a far cry from his battle-hardened approaches later. I even liked his interactions with Agent Carter. I had thought it would be more subtle than it was, and I hoped we'd see a bit more of her operating on her own (after all, they gave her character a whole series on TV!), but she was second fiddle to the hero. WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE The challenge with a lot of American movies of the war is that it is as if they are the only actors in the war, no allies, just them, and that level of nationalistic narrowmindedness is a bit grating. That may be a small gripe when the show is called CAPTAIN AMERICA, not CAPTAIN OF WORKING WITH ALLIES, but still, it's annoying. I also was disappointed there wasn't a lot more on Red Skull. His history, his abilities, other pursuits, all of it was left basically unreferenced. Sure, some of it shows up elsewhere in the Marvel universe, but a bit more crosswalk would have been nice. I felt he really wasn't that well-fleshed out as the uber villain he could have been. THE BOTTOM LINE / TWEET As an origin story, it lacks pizazz