Captain America: Civil War Moments We Didn't See Coming

Now that all the dust has settled, the shield has been put down, and the War Machine has gone on standby, it's time we scan the battlefield of Captain America: Civil War for all the parts we weren't expecting. Marvel always brings out the big guns whenever it's time for the Avengers to assemble, and Civil War didn't disappoint. Despite the trailers showing us the likes of Black Panther, Spider-Man, Ant-Man, and lots of superhero-on-superhero violence, there were still tons of sequences and events we didn't see coming in Captain America: Civil War. Major spoilers ahead!

We all knew Brock Rumlow would return after Captain America: The Winter Soldier and seek revenge against Steve Rogers and Sam Wilson as the nefarious Crossbones in Civil War. What we weren't expecting was to what end, or how he'd go about it. Crossbones assembled a group of (presumably) mercenary soldiers to steal military-grade hardware, eventually getting the attention of Cap and the rest of the Avengers. Finally, after years of waiting and planning, Rumlow had a chance at a face-to-face (or face-to-whatever was left of his) with Rogers. Rumlow got Cap's attention by name-dropping Bucky, and surprised us all with his ultimate goal: detonating a suicide bomb to take out Captain America and any unfortunate souls who happened to be nearby. Luckily for Cap and all the bystanders, Scarlet Witch was able to minimize casualties by sending the blast into a nearby building. A dozen Wakanda relief workers (and Crossbones) died, which is unfortunate—but still preferable to the deaths of hundreds of bystanders in a crowded marketplace. Even considering the alternative, the United States government and the United Nations weren't happy about the casualties.

You know what's more surprising than a deformed HYDRA mercenary blowing himself up to kill Captain America? Vision wearing clothes and acting like he's not a maroon-and-green-skinned synthetic being with an Infinity Stone shining out of his forehead. Nevertheless, he's still an awesome character, and we loved his attempts to break the ice with his friends at Avengers HQ. It's fun to watch Ultron's former ultimate body try to blend in, and these scenes showed he's making progress—especially when it comes to witchcraft, if you catch our drift.

We all knew Prince T'Challa of Wakanda would don the Black Panther's Vibranium-laced garb in Civil War, but we didn't have any clue how badass he'd be. After Captain America and Bucky tried to escape platoons of police out to kill the Winter Soldier, Black Panther showed up and completely changed the game. The second he appeared, struck that Bruce Lee-esque pose, and flaunted his Vibranium claws, we knew it was about to go down between Bucky and T'Challa. Throwing Captain America into the mix only made the fight better, especially during the movie's epic highway chase. We can't wait to see T'Challa's standalone film.

As with Black Panther, the Civil War trailers made it clear that Spider-Man would line up to join the big fight. Rumors ranged from Peter Parker having a small cameo to him being an integral part of the plot. All eyes were on Civil War to see how Marvel Studios would handle their own take on the amazing web-slinger, and they did not disappoint. True to form, Spidey hurled nerdy insults and observations while fighting Captain America's half of the Avengers. His Empire Strikes Back reference made us cringe at how young he is—but it's all in good fun.

To our delight, Ant-Man proved the arguable MVP of the big airport fight between the dueling members of the Avengers. During the segment we saw in the trailer, where Captain America had his shield stolen by Spider-Man, Ant-Man was there the whole time—and the second he surprised Spidey, the grand Civil War battle erupted. After backup arrived for Iron Man and Captain America and fists started flying, Ant-Man came around again, catching a ride on an arrow Hawkeye fired at Iron Man—giving him an opportunity to creep into Iron Man's armor, ruining his armor's circuitry and disabling some of his weapons from the inside.

Finally, in one of our favorite moments from the entire movie, Ant-Man surprised everyone by showing off another aspect of his powers and becoming Giant-Man, towering over a battle jam-packed with superheroes and stealing the spotlight—which makes perfect sense for a not-quite-reformed thief like Scott Lang.

Bucky has been through a lot. He enlisted, fought alongside Captain America against HYDRA, sacrificed himself to save his best friend, fell off of a moving train presumably to his death, and lost an arm—and that was just the start of his troubles. Decades later, we learned that Bucky was experimented on and brainwashed into becoming an elite soldier for the same evil group he swore to stop. Repeatedly frozen and thawed, psychologically tortured, and brainwashed against his will to do nothing but kill targets for HYDRA, he still found himself someone's pawn even after most of the organization was destroyed or imprisoned. And, as we were surprised to learn halfway through the movie, Bucky wasn't the only Winter Soldier—HYDRA's remnants still controlled a handful of other superpowered assassins capable of toppling entire governments.

While Bucky being just one of several Winter Soldiers was a surprise in itself, we had our expectations confounded again. Instead of a massive throwdown pitting Captain America, Bucky, Iron Man, and possibly Black Panther against Helmut Zemo and his group of super-soldiers, we discovered that Zemo put a bullet in each of the other Winter Soldiers' brains, and his ultimate goal was to divide the Avengers from within. After the shock of the other Winter Soldiers and their anticlimactic demises, we ended up with a raw, emotional battle between Iron Man and the two war buddies.

The big conflict surrounding Civil War boils down to differences of opinions between super friends, meaning there really wasn't any major villain in the movie. The character pulling the strings and pitting the Avengers against one another is Helmut Zemo. Comics fans remember longtime Captain America adversary Baron Zemo as a criminal mastermind intent on world domination and all the usual bad guy stuff, but the Marvel Cinematic Universe version of the character just wants revenge against the Avengers—the group he (understandably) holds responsible for the deaths of his family in Sokovia.

When Zemo thinks he's succeeded in destroying the Avengers, instead of checking an item off his payback list and setting about taking over the world, he listens to an old voicemail from his wife one last time before trying to commit suicide—which is really a pretty lame way for a supervillain to go out. There's bound to be collateral damage and innocent lives lost whenever the Avengers fight, but they're fighting for the greater good, and we hate to say it, but Zemo's family probably would've died anyway if the Avengers hadn't been around to stop Ultron (not to mention HYDRA, Loki, and every other potentially cataclysmic event and villain in the MCU).