CATWS Minutes 116-120: … to the End of the Line

Robert Redford watches twenty years of work break its own back in the Potomac and says "what a waste," which sets the hosts arguing about whether Alexander Pierce is a true believer or just a very well-tailored mustache-twirler. Then Nick Fury shoots him — was Pierce actually a threat in that moment, or did Fury just want him off the board before a trial aired everything Fury ever did? — and Natasha pulls off the biggest sacrifice play of her arc in roughly three seconds of screen time, which the movie promptly edits past. Elsewhere, Falcon and Rumlow beat each other around an office, and the fight is won decisively by a building.

The last two minutes are the ones that hurt. Cap drops the shield, refuses the fight, and gets "you're my mission" screamed into his face — which detours the conversation into the paperclip maximizer problem and a true story about an AI that fixed a cluttered inbox by deleting the inbox. Matthew asks the harder question: when Cap gambles he can talk Bucky down, he isn't gambling with his own life. He's gambling with everyone's. Then the floor gives out. Picture wrap on Robert Redford, and on Frank Grillo.

Links & References

The film and its neighbors

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Captain America: The First Avenger — the Red Skull comparison, and the original fall
• Avengers: Age of Ultron — Strucker, and the fear that builds a robot

Everything else the hosts dragged in

• Dr. No — the Bond monologue Pierce never gets to finish
• Speed — "Yeah, but I'm taller"
• The Wolverine — the CGI body nobody wanted to give Redford
• Zombieland — double tap
• The Empire Strikes Back — one falls, one hangs on
• Widow's Bay — where Pete found his favorite trolley problem answer

Concepts

• Instrumental convergence (the paperclip maximizer)
• The trolley problem

Characters

• Black Widow
• Crossbones

More from the hosts

• Marvel Movie Minute — and MarvelMovieMinute.com to support the show and get episodes ad-free, a week early
• Superhero Ethics and The Ethical Panda with Matthew Fox
• Craft and Chaos with Kyle Olson
• The Swashbuckling Ladies Debate Society — Kyle's audio drama, in which Pete has two lines and dies twice

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Marvel Movie Minute is the deep-dive the MCU deserves — one film, five minutes at a time. We're working through every Marvel Cinematic Universe release in order, and this season hosts Matthew Fox, Kyle Olson, Rob Kubasko, and Pete Wright are going beat by beat through Captain America: The Winter Soldier — unpacking the craft, the comic roots, and everything HYDRA thought they could hide.

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