Biggest Plot Holes In Captain America: Civil War

When it comes to comic book movies, one always needs to approach the proceedings with a certain amount of suspension of disbelief, because...well, it's not like it's ripped from the headlines, you know? Still, there are certain things that catch your attention and make you wonder exactly how some particular plot turn went down. That's not to say that these things completely destroy our appreciation of Captain America: Civil War, but they're definitely moments that made us go, "Hey, wait, did I miss something?" Oh, and just so no one can say that we didn't say it, major spoilers lie ahead.

The event that kickstarts Captain America: Civil War into motion in a big way is the battle against Brock "Crossbones" Rumlow in Lagos, Nigeria, which ends with Rumlow attempting to blow Captain America to Kingdom Come. He fails in his attempt, thankfully, when the Scarlet Witch shifts the blast elsewhere. Unfortunately, her actions accidentally lead to the deaths of several relief aid workers. You know who probably could've saved the day? The Vision, who simply wasn't there. We don't know why he was absent, but if we had to guess, it's because his presence would've changed the equation and prevented that part of the plot from working.

There's no question that the primary "big bad" of Captain America: Civil War is Helmut Zemo, who's spent ages working on a plan to destroy the Avengers by causing conflict within its ranks, resulting in the group disintegrating from the inside. What's confusing, however, is that his plan seems to depend on the Sokovia Accords, which—if we're doing the math right—didn't even come into play until well after his plan started. Maybe we're just supposed to accept that he's fast on his feet and adapted to the situation. Yeah, that's the ticket.

General Ross takes the Avengers for a guilt trip down memory lane, reflecting on the various incidents that have taken place since their inception as a team, focusing on the innocent casualties and damages they inadvertently caused. The Battle of New York is one of his key talking points, although he avoids mentioning how the World Security Council ordered a nuclear strike against the alien invasion in Manhattan, which certainly would've caused far more damage than the Avengers did. Of course, it makes sense that he'd spin his remarks in such a manner as to avoid any mention of that bit, but why didn't someone from the Avengers speak up? Similarly, you'd think that someone, anyone on the team would've noted that Wanda Maximoff's actions, while they did result in civilian casualties, saved even more lives by removing Crossbones' blast from ground level, which was much more populated.

We're led to believe that it was Zemo's big plan all along to tear down the Avengers by turning them against each other. When he shows Tony Stark the video of his parents being slain by Bucky while he was in Winter Soldier mode, Tony snaps. Tempers flare all around, and the Captain America/Iron Man relationship goes up in smoke. Hooray for Zemo! On the other hand, what was Zemo planning to do if Iron Man hadn't flown in when he did? It's not like he had any reason to believe that Iron Man was arriving: it was a spontaneous decision.

Speaking of that fabulous footage of the Winter Soldier taking out Howard and Maria Stark, we can only assume that Ziff Corp must have a camera contract on those woods. It seems pretty remarkable that a random spot in the middle of nowhere should be wired up to the point that every single moment is being filmed. Granted, you might be able to explain this one by suggesting that no assassination is left to chance and that the Winter Soldier knew precisely where the car would end up and, in turn, where he would be dispatching the Starks to the afterlife. But, whew, that's about as convenient as convenient gets.

Howard Stark was a billionaire industrialist and a major weapons manufacturer, and he and his wife were driving by themselves on a dark, woodland road with a trunk full of Super Soldier Serum? If ever there was a good time to say, "You know, it might be worth paying a few bucks of my near-infinite funds to have someone else traveling with me," that really would've been it. We're not saying Tony's dad deserved his fate, but let's be honest: it really didn't have to go down that way. Of course, if things hadn't gone down that way, then we wouldn't have had much of a movie.