Captain America: Civil War
A short while later, while our heroes are in Lagos, Nigeria, our heroes are there to stop Brock Rumlow aka Crossbones from stealing a biological weapon from a lab. The heroes succeed in retrieving the weapon but Crossbones commits suicide-by-bomb attempting to take Captain America with him, but Wanda subdues the explosion and Crossbones and telekinetically lifts him into the air only to unintentionally have him blow up beside a building and kill many Nigerian innocents. This subsequently causes the government to take action and sends in the Secretary of State (Thunderbolt Ross) to pay a visit to the Avengers and introduce them to the Sokovia Accords.
The Sokovia Accords are government-sanctioned legal documents that provide regulation and accountability for superpowered individuals, namely the Avengers and to establish that said individuals are not permitted to take the law into their own hands due to past occurrences such as the Battle of New York, the Triskelion incident in Washington D.C, and recently Sokovia. This causes the Avengers to become divided and there are those that support the Accords (Tony, Vision, Rhodey, Natasha) and those that don’t (Steve, Lang, Barton, Wanda, Sam).
Also to fuel the fire is the framing of Bucky by blowing up the U.N. in Vienna and an unidentified person impersonating Bucky which catches Captain America’s attention. Bucky is a criminal because of what he did as an agent of Hydra but Steve makes it his duty to protect his friend which in turn makes him a criminal as well. Steve and Bucky are apprehended and taken to the Joint Counter Terrorist Centre Building in Berlin, Germany.
Simultaneously, a man by the name Helmut Zemo from Sokovia kills and impersonates the psychiatrist who was supposed to question Bucky but instead reads off trigger words that rewire Bucky psychologically into the Winter Soldier. Bucky attempts to escape the building but is stopped by Rogers and both fall into a river. Bucky then wakes up in an empty warehouse with his arm trapped in a clamp to ensure the safety of Sam and Steve who question him about what Zemo was after. Bucky replies that there are more Winter Soldiers like him in a Siberian Hydra base and Zemo wanted the location of that base.
Bucky, Steve, and Sam prepare to go after Zemo despite the fact that they are not authorized to do so. That and the fact that Steve is helping Bucky is why Thunderbolt Ross gives Stark 72 hours to bring them in and so when Steve attempts to use a Quinjet at Leipzig/Halle airport in Germany, Stark intercepts along with War Machine, Black Widow, Vision, Spider-man, and Black Panther. Black Panther aka Prince T’challa, son of T’chaka, king of Wakanda, is involved because he thinks that it was Bucky who was responsible for the attacks in Vienna and the death of his father. T’challa simply seeks vengeance, nothing more, nothing less. Spiderman aka Peter Parker is brought in simply because Tony was made aware of his existence in New York and simply thought to just recruit the kid for numbers’ sake, however, the inclusion of both these characters in the MCU meant great anticipation from fans as to how they will be further expanded upon in future films. On the opposing side is Steve, Falcon, Hawkeye, Wanda, Bucky, and Ant-Man.
A climactic battle ensues and Steve and Bucky manage to get on the Quinjet and make their way to Siberia. Iron Man discovers that Bucky is innocent and convinces Sam to give him their destination and so Tony flies to Siberia to the Hydra base where Steve and Bucky went, finds them and explains he believes Bucky’s innocence. Shortly after however, they find Zemo who had murdered the remaining Winter Soldiers and explained that the reason he brought them there is to have them fight against each other. Zemo shows footage of a video of Bucky murdering Stark’s parents after which Tony becomes enraged and attacks Bucky and Rogers. A fight ensues and ends in a stalemate with Captain America throwing his shield aside after Tony remarks that he doesn’t deserve it and that it doesn’t belong to him because Howard Stark made it.
Oh and not that anyone really cares but Rhodey is handicapped because he fell to the ground from quite a high distance during the Leipzig battle. The fall really should have killed him but hey that’s Marvel and we love Marvel. The fates of the remaining heroes last showed Cappy breaking into the Raft (the submersible prison the heroes were imprisoned in for illegally helping Rogers) indicating he broke his teammates out (Barton, Lang, Wanda, Sam); Tony, Rhodey and Vision are at Avengers HQ, and Natasha is in exile. In two post-credits scenes, Bucky is shown to be in Wakanda given refuge by T’challa because T’challa knew that Bucky had been a victim and so he wishes to help him, and Peter Parker is back in his apartment in New York City playing around with a beacon that shows a Spiderman face which Tony gave to him. Civil War served as a major milestone as the close of one chapter in the MCU and the beginning of the next. Phase 1 and 2 are over and another one begins with the introduction of a brand new superhero of whom we have never seen the likes before.