Perhaps the single most discussion-inspiring shot in the entire new CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER trailer is this one:
So just who is under that body bag? Most fans seem to think it's S.H.I.E.L.D. director Nick Fury. And I agree...but there's a catch.
The most compelling argument against the body belonging to Fury is that Samuel L. Jackson is confirmed to appear in THE AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON. Yet that doesn't mean it's not him under the sheet. Let's break this down a little bit before I get to my theory.
Many fans suspect (and Robert Redford has all but confirmed) that Alexander Pierce is not who he claims to be. Could he be the Red Skull? Could he be Alexander Lukin? My guess is as good as yours. Whatever the case may be, I predict he will be someone working for HYDRA. I'm convinced HYDRA will have a presence in the film because we know Bucky has to be working for somebody, and having it be HYDRA ties the film in nicely to the first one. This could potentially even be used to explain why the World Security Council, headed by Pierce, was instructed to bomb New York City in THE AVENGERS despite Fury's insistence that the Avengers had it covered.
So what does all of this have to do with Fury? Well, this is Marvel Studios we're talking about. They excel at many things, but perhaps most of all at being unpredictable. Think the Mandarin. Think the ending of THOR: THE DARK WORLD. The odds of THE WINTER SOLDIER ending with Pierce being found out, taken down, and everything working out nicely for everyone is simply nonexistent. There has to be a catch. And his name is Nick Fury.
We've seen from both WINTER SOLDIER trailers now that Fury doesn't appear to be in the best shape. He's caught in some sort of explosion and is seen being operated on in a hospital bed. And you know what? I think it kills him. I think the operation is unsuccessful and that's his body Natasha is crying over. That is, until Fury reveals himself to have faked his death, claiming the body is just an LMD. That's the scene in the shot above. My guess is that he somehow found out about Pierce and decided to work underground when he realized the agency was corrupted. No one knows he's alive except for Steve - which is why "it looks like you're giving the orders now, Captain." When Pierce is found out and taken down, Fury steps back in as head of S.H.I.E.L.D. and HYDRA has been defeated.
Haha. Yeah, right.
The film ends with everything seemingly hunky dory, until the final revelation that Red Skull/Lukin/Whoever from HYDRA has taken the form of Fury and he truly did die that day on the operating table. At some point, Pierce realized people were growing suspicions about him and saw Steve was getting through to the Winter Soldier so he had to come up with a Plan B to get inside the system. So when Fury died, he saw the opportunity to either take over his form himself or have someone else from HYDRA do it and come up with the whole LMD story.
So this theory may seem a bit far-fetched and warrantless, but let me offer you some things to chew on that led me to theorize this in the first place:
- This would explain HYDRA's confirmed presence in the Avengers sequel (Baron von Strucker).
- This statement from Joe and Anthony Russo: "I think, and Kevin [Feige] has said this, it’s as big of a bridge of any of the Phase 2 movies from Avengers to Avengers 2. There’s a significant shift in the universe at the end of this movie. Like all of the Marvel movies it has elements of all of the other films, this one I think has probably the strongest bond between those goals."
- Samuel L. Jackson's contract with Marvel expires soon.
- Phase 2 so far has seemingly followed a theme of false faces. In IRON MAN 3, Trevor Slattery was a false face for Aldrich Killian. In THOR: THE DARK WORLD, Loki used his magic to create false faces throughout (Sif, Captain America, the entire sequence with Thor's hand). Which lends credence to the idea that Alexander Pierce will be a false face for HYDRA in CAPTAIN AMERICA: THE WINTER SOLDIER. Yet, even more importantly, all the Phase 2 movies have been ending with some play on the false faces theme that concludes the film with a cliffhanger, totally unexpected twist. Tony destroys all of his suits, realizing they were nothing but false faces themselves. Loki uses Odin as a false face to take control of Asgard. And, if my prediction comes true, HYDRA uses Nick Fury as a false face to take control of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Just why do they want to do this, you ask?
To convince Tony Stark to build a robot.
Thanks for reading my first editorial on the site, guys! Please let me know what you think of the theory and if you have any cool ones of your own. One thing the trailer definitely did prove is that we're in for a wild ride no matter what.
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