The Setup:
Set during the later part of the War on the Eastern Front in the old ruins of an ancient castle. Arnim Zola and the Red Skull had been planning to activate a mystical doomsday device to annihilate the advancing Soviet Army, leaving millions of German troops free to head to the Western Front, where they would outnumber the allied armies several times and push them back into the Atlantic. Due to the combined efforts of the Howling Commandos, The Invaders, Cap and Bucky, the Red Skull had failed. Both he and Zola had died – though an entire copy of each’s personality, thoughts and memories had been saved – but not without cost. Cap is seriously injured, with Bucky in even worse shape.
The Finale:
EXT. The Castle – Day – Snowing
Cap staggers out and walks across the vast whiteness ahead of him, with Bucky’s limp body flung across his shoulders. He is battered, bloodied and bruised, the strain of his fight with dozens of German troops and then the Red Skull having taken its toll. And yet he soldiers on, determined to reach his extraction point.
But courage and fortitude can only take him so far, and super-soldier or not, his body’s gone through plenty of Punishment. He struggles to keep his knees from buckling, struggles not to drop Bucky. He pauses for a second to catch his breath, then drops all his weapons, though he opts to keep his shield.
FOCUS ON Cap’s siderarm as it hits the snow, LINGERING as Cap walks off with reduced weight into the distance, growing more and more blurry..
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
Dearest Margaret… I’m sorry.
Had everything gone as I’d hoped, had I been lucky…
CLOSE UP on Cap’s red leather boots as he walks on not snow, but the icy surface of a frozen lake. A single, tiny crack forms as he takes a step.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
…These words would have been known to no one but me
But since you are reading these words, it means I couldn’t
Live up to my promise.
The cracks grow larger and larger with each steps, but Cap isn’t in a condition to notice.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
It means that I never came back.
The ice CRACKS, though its sound doing so is faint and dim. Cap and Bucky plunge into icy water.
EXT. FIELD EAST OF THE CASTLE
A few thousand SOVIET TROOPS advance toward the Castle, having broken through the last of the SS troops resisting them. The commander on the field is the sharp featured, bald headed COLONEL VASILY KARPOV. His adjutant, a kind-looking young officer of impressive build known as CAPTAIN IVAN PETROVICH approaches him.
PETROVICH
(Speaking Russian)
Sir, we’ve found a small unit of American troops
in need of med-
KARPOV
(Speaking Russian, Interrupting)
Is Captain America among them?
PETROVICH
(Speaking Russian)
No, sir. But they need help, may I order them to be taken
Back to division headquarters for treatment?
Karpov looks at the young officer, as if about to rebuke him. But he relents, giving an approving nod. Petrovich salutes him and walks off, issuing order for the surviving Holwers to be treated. Karpov surveys the carnage dealt to the German troops guarding the Castle. He says nothing, but it is obvious he feels a measure of admiration and envy for whatever soldier could achieve that.
BELOW THE LAKE – LOOKING UP
Bucky and Cap SINK motionlessly. Cap is weighed down by his Shield, still strapped to his back. He drops faster than Bucky.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
I didn’t want to be a war hero.
I didn’t want to be on recruitment posters.
Never one to stay down for long, he tries to swim back upward, but he can’t. He decides to let the Shield go, he struggles with the straps on his chest that go around his back keeping his Shield in place. By this point he’s too week, and the freezing water isn’t doing him any favors, but he doesn’t give up, clawing at the straps with one hand and trying to swim upward with the other arm, looking up at Bucky as he grows further and further.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
I didn’t want fame, glory or medals.
I just wanted to be a soldier, to do the right thing.
That was all I ever wanted… Until the day I met you.
And with that, Rogers is completely submerged in dark waters, having fought to swim to the top till the last moment.
EXT. LONDON - OSS HEADQUARTERS – DAY
INT. OSS OFFICE
All the spies and officers have momentarily dropped what they were doing to watch as a morose looking Sgt. Fury - returned from the Soviet’s custody and dressed in official Army Dress and with a bandage covering his wounded eye - stands facing a shocked Peggy Carter, herself in uniform.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
I love you, Peggy. I’d wanted to enjoy a
World without war with you.
Fury hesitantly hands her the letter and she takes it with trembling fingers.
EXT. ARLINGTON CEMETARY - DAY
The surviving Howlers, the surviving Invaders, General Philips and Peggy stand surrounding two graves with empty caskets representing Bucky and Cap in them, they are themselves surrounding by a large crowd of mourners.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
I wanted for my strength to wane, for time
To curve my back. I wanted to grow old with
You, watching the kids we’d have grow up in
This Beautiful land of ours, and never tell them
Of these Terrible times we’ve lived through.
But though we are deprived of what we should
Have had I want you to be strong, for our time in
This life might be at an end, but we will be together
In the next.
Peggy drops a pocket watch into the grave. A family heirloom of hers she’d often give Cap before a mission to remember her by.
STEVE ROGERS (V.O.)
Yours, now and forever. Steve.
EXT. CENTRAL PARK
A twenty foot memorial statue of Captain America holding his SHIELD has been erected in his honor. It is not the red, white and blue fatigues he wore, but it has the classic look with the scaly top and protruding wings on his cowl. Though romanticized, it accurately depicts his character.
Impeccably dressed men and women walk about around it, speeding up till they are a blur and slowing down to depict the changing fashion as the decades pass; the fifties, the sixties up until the present day.
CUT TO CREDITS
*******************************************
The Coda:
INT. SHIELD JET – NIGHT
Nick Fury, older but not old enough for nearly seventy years to have passed, sits by himself in a seat near the cockpit. He’s on the phone, talking to someone at SHIELD’s main headquarters in New York City.
NICK FURY
I want the whole nine years; cardiologists,
trauma surgeons, the best of everything.
Get the Pyms, too. And Bruce Banner.
Whoever is on the other line has some objection to Fury’s last sentence.
NICK
Regardless of whatever else he is, Bruce Banner
knows the most about the science behind Project
Rebirth than any man alive. Get him out of
containment and brief him on the situation.
Try not to get him mad.
Fury ends the phone call, just in time for the Pilot to speak through the intercom.
PILOT (V.O.)
Director Fury, we’re to land in two minutes sir.
Fury remains silent as he takes a sip from a glass of Whiskey in his hand.
EXT. RUNWAY – NIGHT
The Jet descends and touches down on the tarmac. Once it has come to a stop, Fury emerges and walks down the stairs that have come out the jet. The Jet bears the SHIELD emblem, as does a nearby warehouse.
INT. WAREHOUSE
Fury walks silently toward the center of the facility, flanked by the Russian SHIELD liaison. Upon reaching their destination, we see it is a large block of ice, about fifteen feet in diameter, surrounded by large quantities of dry ice to keep it from melting.
At the center of the block is the body of an athletic man in a blue uniform, with a large metallic disc partially attached to his back.
CLOSE UP ON Fury as his stern demeanor gives away… Breaking into a large, cocky, shit-eating grin.
FIN