Film guide · 2016
The whole film, start to finish, told scene by scene in words. Read this and you'll know everything that happens.
Contains every spoiler, up to the ending.
1991, a Hydra base in Siberia. Bucky is brought out of cryo-sleep, and a list of trigger words turns him into the obedient Winter Soldier. On a dark road, he attacks a car and takes something from inside.
Lagos, Nigeria. Steve's team corners Rumlow as he tries to steal a biological weapon. Rumlow blows himself up. Wanda pushes the blast into the air, but it hits a building, killing people including aid workers from Wakanda.
After a speech, Tony is confronted by a woman whose son died in Sokovia. "You murdered my son."
Secretary Ross presents the Sokovia Accords, which would put the Avengers under the control of a U.N. panel. Guilt-ridden Tony is for it. Steve, who wants to choose for himself whom to help, is against it. The team splits.
Then Peggy Carter dies. At the funeral, Steve learns Sharon is Peggy's niece. Inspired by her eulogy, he decides not to sign.
A bomb goes off at the signing ceremony in Vienna, killing King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Security footage shows Bucky. T'Chaka's son T'Challa vows revenge.
Steve finds Bucky hiding in Bucharest. Bucky says he didn't do it. T'Challa, in a black panther suit, joins a wild chase, and they're all arrested.
At a facility in Germany, a man named Zemo, posing as a psychiatrist, reads Bucky the trigger words. Bucky goes on a rampage until Steve stops him. Once himself again, Bucky says more super soldiers are frozen in Siberia.
Steve gathers Sam and Bucky, plus Clint, Wanda and Scott Lang, the Ant-Man, whom Clint brings in.
Tony has Rhodey, Natasha, Vision and T'Challa, and visits Peter Parker, a high-school student in Queens with spider powers.
At an airport in Germany, the heroes clash head-on. Spider-Man snatches Steve's shield, and Ant-Man grows to giant size.
Steve and Bucky escape in a jet, helped by Natasha. Rhodey, chasing them, is hit by a stray beam from Vision and falls, badly injuring his spine.
Sam, Clint, Wanda and Scott are locked in a prison at sea. Tony learns from Sam that Bucky was framed and goes to Siberia on his own.
In the Siberian base, the frozen super soldiers are already dead, killed by Zemo. His real goal was to tear the Avengers apart from within.
Zemo plays a video. That night in 1991, the people Bucky killed in the car were Tony's parents, Howard and Maria. Tony asks Steve if he knew. Steve says yes.
Enraged, Tony attacks Bucky, and Steve and Bucky fight Tony. Bucky's metal arm is blown off and Tony's suit is disabled. Steve drops his shield and leaves, supporting Bucky.
Zemo lost his family in Sokovia. When he tries to take his own life, T'Challa stops him and hands him over to Ross.
Tony receives a letter and an old phone from Steve, promising he'll be there if Tony ever needs him. Steve breaks his friends out of prison.
Tony helps Rhodey learn to walk again with new leg braces.
In Wakanda, Bucky chooses to go back into cryo-sleep until his mind can be fixed. Steve thanks T'Challa for giving them refuge.
Peter discovers that his new web-shooter, a gift from Tony, projects a glowing red spider signal.