The Captain America Scene In Avengers: Endgame That Has MCU Fans Scratching Their Heads

Longtime fans of Steve Rogers, aka Captain America (Chris Evans), and his journey in the Marvel Cinematic Universe were undoubtedly overjoyed to see him wield Mjolnir, the hammer of Thor (Chris Hemsworth), to fight Thanos (Josh Brolin) in "Avengers: Endgame." However, at the end of the film, Cap takes responsibility for returning the Infinity Stones to their proper places in the timeline, and we quickly discover that he didn't return as he was supposed to. Instead, he appears to Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) and Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) as an elderly man, one who had lived out his days with Peggy Carter (Hayley Atwell) while he was "doing time as a Capsicle," as Tony (Robert Downey Jr.) would put it.

Steve's final act as Captain America was to pass the mantle and his shield on to Sam, who had his own struggles with taking on that persona in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier." Steve had an incredibly long and tough life, and we were able to see him grapple with and grow through many moral questions. The beginning of this growth could be seen in "Captain America: The Winter Soldier," where we see Steve having to lie to his superiors and fight against STRIKE due to them being HYDRA agents.

The fight between Steve and the HYDRA agents in the elevator during "Captain America: The Winter Soldier" is one of the MCU's most well-known scenes, prompting a callback in "Avengers: Endgame," although it left some fans scratching their heads.

During "Avengers: Endgame," when the team travels back in time to the events of 2012's "Avengers" in order to obtain the Mind Stone from Loki's (Tom Hiddleston) scepter, Steve has a little bit of a run-in with his former self after getting into an elevator with the same entire HYDRA team from "Captain America: The Winter Soldier." This time, instead of fighting his way out, Cap whispers "Hail HYDRA" into Jasper Sitwell's (Maximiliano Hernández) ear. He is then able to walk out of the elevator unharmed, leaving Sitwell and his team looking stunned.

Some fans on Reddit think that this is rather unbelievable — it shouldn't be that easy to say "Hail HYDRA" and get out of any situation. Redditor u/kspi7010 was quick to defend it, however, noting that the phrase is something that no non-HYDRA member should know and that HYDRA has really never been a place where you question superiors. Redditor u/sillyadam94 agreed, saying that the entire HYDRA team was probably utterly surprised that Captain America himself was in on the deception of SHIELD. Based on Sitwell and Rumlow's (Frank Grillo) expressions, this is likely the case.

It's also possible that this scene is a nod to the Marvel Comics "Secret Empire" run, as pointed out by u/maxim-19, where there actually is a Captain America loyal to HYDRA. Either way, this was an efficient and humorous way for Cap to get out fast with the scepter.