With a few exceptions, 2014 was a great year for superhero movies, and one of the best reviewed films in the genre was Captain America: The Winter Soldier. As a high-paced, action-packed political thriller, it not only changed the status quo of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but was also enjoyed by both hardcore comic book fans and regular movie goers alike. However, while it may be one of the better offerings in the MCU, it also happens to be filled with more mistakes than any other movie this year.
Captain America: The Winter Soldier was named the most mistake-ridden movie in 2014 by MovieMistakes.com. With 53 total mistakes, it has more than double the amount than the #2 movie, Divergent. You can check out the full list there, but most of the entries on this list are continuity mistakes, i.e. visual errors within the film that weren’t caught during the time of shooting. For instance, Steve Rogers and Natasha Romanoff are talking to Arnim Zola in an underground room when HYDRA launches a missile at them, but when they pull themselves out of the rubble, they’re on ground level again.
However, there are other types of screw-ups. There are a few character mistakes, such as Arnim Zola telling Steve and Natasha that he was captured in 1945 even though he was apprehended at the same time that Bucky "died," which was in 1944. Factual errors include listing Washington D.C.’s latitude and longitude both as North/South, even though longitude is East/West, and the highway where Nick Fury’s intense chase happens as Highway 6, which is located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio. Other errors include brief moments of crew people and equipment being visible, and audio issues, specifically when a line of dialogue Nick Fury delivers to Alexander Pierce near the end of the film doesn’t match his mouth movements.
At the time of this writing, visitors to the site voted Captain America: The Winter Soldier’s best mistake to be when Steve is driving a blue Chevrolet Silverado with Natasha. The gear is in the locked position, which means that their truck was probably towed rather than driven. In terms of the best movie mistakes of 2014, voters gave the Captain America sequel 25th place for the scene when Winter Soldier is tossing a grenade at the spot he thinks Natasha is located. The car that he’s hiding behind has a water trail near it, however, several seconds later when Natasha ambushes him, he throws her up against that car, and the water trail has disappeared. What happened to the water, guys?
It is amazing that so many slip-ups made it into the final product, especially compared to the amount of mistakes in the other movies on the list. Its fellow Marvel Studios project Guardians of the Galaxy only had three mistakes…three! Cap blows that ragtag group of troublemakers out the water! Nevertheless, Captain America: The Winter Soldier proved to be a success, so while some may be consciously looking out for these mistakes during their next viewing, for most people this won’t affect their enjoyment of the film. Remember, this is about a juiced-up super soldier who’s fighting a guy with a metal arm! Everything’s relative.
