Captain America has long captivated us as readers of comic books.
And there's good reason for this. He's a strange figure, as captivating as he is iconic. And I think the Real Captain America movie needs to set the record straight on him.
Now that we have Bucky being at the forefront of the upcoming Captain America 2 movie, I think we have escalated to where we can begin to really explore the Cap mythos with freedom.
Some will say this is a treatment for a partial reboot of the Captain America franchise, but it's not.
Here's the first 20 minutes or so of the script Marvel needs to wonder about...
Marvel should either call it Captain America 3: Man Of Time Rises or Captain America 3: Captor Of Sin....
And it should be directed, ideally, by Martin Scorsese.
(the character Rosenbell is used by the express permission of it's creator, Jacky Timlish.)
Our movie begins with a shot of some grassy hills. It is a beautiful day, the sun is out and birds and crickets are all chirping together. We slowly pan in on a solitary man and horse lazily sauntering along. It smells like America.
Slowly, also, we hear a wandering cowboy kind of song being coarsely sung by the man, it becomes more clear and we hear the words go like this....
CAP: Just a lonely nomad, with a shield of wood
riding thru this land, making sure you're good
I'm Captain America, not the Captor of Sin
And when I knock, you'd better let me in
He trails off and takes a deep breath of the clean American air. He reaches down and gives the horse a scratch on the chin
CAP: Ha, haha. Rosenbell, what a morning. Old chum...
Rosenbell chuckles and lifts his chin to the blue sky, laughing and chuckling.
A lone fugitive butterfly lands on his nose and he chuckles some more. Rosenbell is so happy right now, this is the perfect moment he has dreamt of his whole loyal life. He can't stop chuckling and being happy about it.
The camera passes a log by the side of the path, with something disgusting kind of under it. We get the feeling it's some kind of human remains, but never get a clear look at it.
CAP: Wait, who am I?
Close up of Cap's face, looking at something in pure horror. His mouth is open in a frozen grimace. OMD's Electricity starts playing....from the beginning with the synths and the drum beating...
When the actual song kicks in, cut to Cap digging his heels violently into Rosenbell's flanks and punching him in the back of the head, and as Rosenbell darts into full on gallop, Cap lets out a deep, terrified, RRRROOOAAAAR, he is leaning down like a jockey and punching and punching the horse, Rosenbell. Rosenbell is terrified and running as fast as he can, his eyes are bulging and we get the feeling his heart is about to explode. He is crying and whimpering as Cap repeatedly punches him.
CAP (weeping and gurgling, but angry, between punches to Rosenbell's now bleeding head):
I never told you to wear it!
never said... never told you to wear it...
OMD's Electricity keeps playing over all this, fading out after the second chorus or so, as the scene switches to Cap crouched in a tree, naked, except for his wood shield on his back. he is clearly hunting something or someone, and moves along the branches like a panther about to pounce on it's prey.
Rosenbell is waiting safely under the tree and we pan over to the object of Cap's attention, a young farmgirl, working in a nearby field. She is dressed in a loose, shapeless brown gown and wears a bonnet, she is turned to us and intently picking something from a bush she is crouched next to.
Cut back to Cap who was a crazy look on his face and is holding a small yet thick and sturdy branch in his mouth, much like a pirate would hold a dagger. It has been carved to a nasty looking point.. He suddenly leaps from the tree and with lightning reflexes, closes the distance between himself and the girl, tackling and subduing her.
As he pins her, he straddles above her and tears off the bonnet, violently grabs a fistful of hair at the back of her head, and with his other hand pulls the branch out of his mouth and jabs it against her throat...
CAP: Who are you?!
the girl is screaming, she is about 12 and she is in shock and screaming. She is thrashing about so much tho that we can’t get any clear look at her features.
CAP (jabbing the branch further against her throat): Stop it, missy, I'm not here to hurt you. Get a hold of yourself. I'm Captain America and I just need to make sure...
Who are you?
BUCKY (the girl. as the branch presses dangerously down into her throat, she goes completely stiff and stops screaming. she barely opens her mouth as she answers him.) Bucky. Barnes, my daddy's Coriander Barnes, farm's across the bridge.
Cap's eases up on the branch in her neck, his body becomes relaxed and he sits up straight and begins to laugh, a deep laugh at how foolishly he over reacts sometimes. he stands up, brushes the twigs and dirt off his naked kness and offers the girl a hand up, shaking his head at himself.
CAP: I'm sorry, little lady. Old habits. Captain America, at your service...
the girl takes his hand and is shaking, terrified still. she looks over at Rosenbell and their eyes meet. Closeup of Rosenbell as his eye twinkles and he nods his head. She nods back and makes an odd gesture with her tongue on her teeth which we now see have tiny black gems embedded in them, like a Cash Money grill. but with tiny black gems instead of big diamonds. She suddenly seems in control of herself, reaches out and pats Cap on the chest muscle.
BUCKY: Well, I suppose, you got something to talk to my
daddy about.
(Cap reaches down and retrieves her bonnet and hands it to her bashfully)
CAP (baffled at the girl’s intuition): Umm, yeah, actually, I was about to say.
BUCKY (cutting him off) First off, put some clothes on, Mister, my daddy don't take kindly to naked guys jumping out of the trees and all that.
(she gestures down at Cap’s nakedness, laughing dryly.)
Nope, not on my daddy's farm, no way.
She laughs and turns her back to let Cap get dressed.
We cut to the three figures, the lone man, the young girl and the horse, in the still dead of night walking together over a bridge towards a homestead. Her daddy's house is like a cross between Little House on the Prairie and some Viking's thrall. It is built of enormous planks of wood that reach up two or three stories in places and there are fences with goats herded into them and pools of mud and hay scattered around. Celtic Frost's Innocence and Wrath plays...
There are a number of women with scimitars and shotguns draped over their backs patrolling the area. There are huge bonfires and spears with skulls pierced at the end and vultures sitting atop them. there are sandbags piled up to make little machine gun nests and a filthy man is being crucified naked and ignored.
A gang of barbarian women are hunched over a small block of asphalt, throwing dice and laughing, drinking bawdily. As our trio approaches them to reach the homestead, one rises up, she wears a Confederate uniform and would be gorgeous except for how dirty and unkempt she is. Instead of a shotgun, she has two assault rifles and wears a belt of the skulls of men. She is Peggy Carter. She glares at Cap.
PEGGY: how's your ass, farmer boy? feelin better? hahahaha
The cluster of barbarianettes all laugh along gutterally but keep playing their gambling and drinking, cursing loudly like pirates or bikers in 80's movies bars. Cap blushes and pointedly ignores her, hoping to reach the homestead without incident. She walks up to him and gives him a shove.
Cap stops and turns to face her. Suddenly the music comes to a grinding stop...and the Barbarianettes go silent and everyone, including Rosenbell and Bucky are staring at the confrontation.
CAP: Jesus, Peggy, I really don't have time for this. I have business here, with Farmer Barnes, so just back off. Not everything’s about you and your breasts, you know...
He doesn't get a chance to finish his sentence tho as Peggy shoves him even harder this time and he falls face down in a pool of mud. Rosenbell immediately huffs and we cut to him and hear a horrendous, flesh curdling cracking sound. It is the sound of his spine as he lifts himself up to stand upright. He snarls at Peggy and pulls from his backpack a long, sturdy branch, sharpened to a nasty point. It pains him beyond belief to stand on his hind legs and we can see it in the horse's face and his tender eyes too. Even worse, we see that his hooves have split to accommodate little bloody baby fingers growing out of them. This is how poor Rosenbell is able to hold the stick and threaten the gorgeous Peggy Carter.
PEGGY (turning to face Rosenbell): god, you're so retarded. sit back down, you dumb, old billygoat. He doesn't even like you, he never has...
Rosenbell's eyes go crazy, he gives off a low moan, and he rushes Peggy, his joints cracking unnaturally the whole time and with a huff, chest butts her against a wall of skulls. She is clearly very scared of Rosenbell and winded from his attack. Rosenbell steps back to impale her on the branch he'd been hiding in his backpack, when suddenly, Cap's wooden shield knocks it out of his hand and both weapons clatter to the ground uselessly.
CAP: Leave her alone, Rosenbell, this isn't your fight. Besides, she isn't worth it. C'mon, we have to speak with Farmer Barnes, it's getting late. Fetch my shield, and leave that stupid stick on the ground. you know the rules, Rosenbell...
Rosenbell for a moment, flares at Cap's dismissal, but quickly realizes his place and drops back down to four legs, his spine cracks back in a sickening jolt and his baby fingers resume the shape of hooves. He trots over and picks up the shield with his mouth and brings it to Cap's outstretched arm.
The Barbarianettes go back to their gambling and joking, heavy metal starts playing again. This time, Destruction's Beastial Invasion...
and we see the three heros approach the Barnes Castle's open front gate. A troop of guards rushes out, and quickly surrounds them in a circle, prodding them with spears thru the gate which slams shut behind them.
We pan back to Peggy, still pushed up against the wall of skulls, with a nasty look on her gorgeous face.
PEGGY: stupid, retard horse...
and she pulls a dagger from her belt and throws it. it flies wildly thru the air and cleaves Rosenbell's abandoned stick lying on the ground directly in two.
PEGGY: [frick] with me
And her eyes are consumed with black hatred and love for Captain America.
Next, it cuts to the cavernous throne room of Farmer Barnes, which looks like a cross between a high class Monte Carlo casino in the 50‘s and a Viking throne room. Farmer Barnes sits majestically on an immense chair made from the bones of giants. Long tapestries hang from the ceiling to the floor behind him, American flags. Farmer Barnes is dressed in a loose fitting suit and holds a pitch black cane that has a blinking eye set into the ball that your hand curls around.
We cut to Cap, leaned back on a pile of luxurious furs, a bottle of wine in one hand, the other arm around a gorgeous woman in a long black formal dress and diamond necklace and earrings. two other women are on either side of his head, dressed in the same black gowns and diamond jewelry. they are nuzzling his head, petting him and laughing at his jokes. Cap takes a long pull from the bottle and pulls the girl his arm is around closer to him. Yet another two, even more gorgeous women, dressed exactly the same, appear, offering Cap grapes, sweet meat and platters of white powder, cut into lines.
CAP (pushing away the drugs with a disgusted look on his face. He is in the middle of explaining something to Farmer Barnes. Rosenbell and Bucky are waiting in the corner, at a hard stone table with a loaf of stale bread and a bottle of runny, bitter wine sitting between them. Rosenbell is bored and Bucky is pretending to mess with her fingernails, while crossing and uncrossing her legs seductively at the circle of guards standing around them. They do their best to ignore her, but they hate when she does this.): so, that's right, Farmer Barnes, an armada of Nazis, on their way here right now, as we speak. They have the Tome of Attilan and numerous demons bound to their service. The hideous Flying Baron Zemo is at the helm of this, and his sniveling henchman, the Dreaded Arnim Zola. and who knows what horrors the two of them have cooked up. You need to abandon your farm now, and get fair Bucky to safety. She is not safe, Zola is determined to make her his Eternal Wife.
Farmer Barnes nods, knowingly.
CAP: I will take her, escort her to Dallas, the roads are still open and there's a chance we can lose their scent out there. The fate of the country hangs in the balance, Farmer Barnes, it's our only hope, you gotta believe me... I've seen Zemo at work, and it's not pretty. (He stares off for an uncomfortable silence into the blazing fire of the throne room's titanic hearth. and from the fire we begin to see what looks like two figures writhing around on each other. We can't tell at first if they are fighting or having sex, the brutality is so intense. it begins to solidify and there are brief cuts of the hooded Zemo seemingly raping a young boy. we never get a glimpse of his face tho. Zemo has cut a whole in his hood where his mouth is and the last brief cut is of Zemo's greasy, inhuman lips caught in the throes of orgasm, quivering and slobbering.)
(Cuts back to the throne room of Farmer Barnes)
CAP: As for you, I suggest you get to Colorado as soon as possible, and speak to Agent Fury, there's a lot you,ve been out of the loop on this whole time...
FARMER BARNES: And what of, all this...? (pointing at the luxurious Viking throne room around him)
CAP: With all due respect, sir. If Zemo manages to capture Bucky, I don't think any of....
(the conversation loses intelligibility as we cut to Bucky and Rosenbell at the table. We still hear the voices but they are all “Wah Wah Wah” like how grown ups talk in Charly Brown cartoons. We see Bucky's fingers slip a note across the table. One of the guards turns in response but he lifts her skirt up a couple inches and he quickly looks away in fear. Rosenbell nods and looks very hard at the folded piece of paper. He sweats and his eyes bulge, he can't breathe, and he starts bleeding at the nose from the effort. but he manages to see thru the paper and read the note, which says "Is Steve safe? We need to find him, I've been having those dreams again" There are hearts and stars drawn randomly around the written words.
Rosenbell nods and we see a tear roll down his noble horse face. He looks over at Cap who is still squeezing the woman in the dress tightly to him and still locked in conversation with Farmer Barnes, gesticulating and pantomiming like a maniac, a scene of former glory. Rosenbell shakes his big horse head, as if to say, no, obviously Steve is anything but safe. He looks back at Bucky, three more horse tears roll down his hairy face and once again he nods wisely, this time agreeing, they need to find him.)
cuts to more music. it is the Cure's Holy Hour....
As the opening titles and logo begin rolling, over imagery of a gigantic Captain America floating in space with his arms and legs outstretched to make an X shape. like a gigantic jumping jack. And whole planets are the size of basketballs to him. We see his face a couple of times and he is beaten and run down, he hasn't shaved and he constantly looks panicked and unable to breathe. He is dressed in classic Captain America costume, except with one difference--- he wears some metal codpiece contraption that is clearly bound to him with chains and massive locks. Instead of being blue to match the costume, it is a gun metal grey and clearly Cap is being forced to wear it and unable to escape it.
Once during the titles, he balls up his fist and in a weird frustration brings it down upon the closest planet, smashing it to small pieces entirely. We feel the pain of a million deaths. The Real Captain America tho, just turns away distractedly and in a fit of hurried annoyance. And we focus on his tortured face, underneath the filthy mask, dirty from floating thru space for what seems like an eternity...
so I'll put up the next 20 or 30 minutes sometime soon, but basically, this is the Cap movie to end all Cap movies and it leaves the door open to lots of revisiting his exploits in WW2 and his relationship with Bucky back then too, as opposed to now.
This is actually part of a 2 movie thing that Marvel should be making to carry Cap to new areas and reintroduce newer ideas into what kind of things end up happening to Captain America. The whole series of movies needs to be directed by Martin Scorsese and Nick Cage will of course play a major role in them somehow, probably as Baron Zemo but it depends on what ideas he himself has for the movies.
Cap will of course be Chris Evans and Haley Atwell will retain the right to play Peggy. Bucky will be an unknown 12 year old young girl playing the role.
Rosenbell will be embodied by Steve Buscemi. Brent Spiner who played Data on Star Trek will play the role of Bucky’s father/tormenter, Farmer Barnes. Either him or Micheal Dorn, Worf, on the same series.