Warning: This post contains spoilers for "Captain America: Civil War."
"Captain America: Civil War" is a resounding success for Marvel. What could've been a two-and-a-half-hour boxing match is instead a compelling, layered exploration of justice, vengeance, and freedom. The emotional moments hit as hard as the punches.
One of the best examples of this is a line of dialogue that occurs late in the film between rival heroes, Falcon (Sam Wilson) and Iron Man (Tony Stark). Audiences may have missed this brief moment, but it was one of the film's best. If you've seen the film, read on to see what it was and why it worked so well:
Last chance to head back before spoilers!
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The exchange takes place after the huge confrontation in the airport, in which Iron Man and his allies clash against the full force of Team Captain America. Buckey and Captain America escape thanks to a shocking heelturn from Black Widow, but Wanda, Hawkeye, Ant-Man, and Falcon are all captured.
When Tony speaks with Falcon in the prison specifically built for the Avengers who sided with Captain America, Sam rebuffs him, asking: "Are you supposed to be the good cop?" Tony tries his usual glib charm to get Falcon to reveal Cap's whereabouts before a furious Sam snaps and shouts, "You'd have to go full Mark Furhman on my a-- to get information out of me!"
The incredibly timely line of dialogue is heavy with real-world parallels of justice and prejudice and mometarily stuns Tony. Why does it work so well?
Mark Furhman is the former L.A.P.D. detective called to testify against O.J. Simpson in the "trial of the century," the infamous 1995 double-homicide case in which retired football superstar O.J. Simpson was charged with murdering his ex-wife, Nicole Brown. Furhman invoked his fifth amendment rights and declined to answer when asked if he'd ever planted or manufactured evidence in the case, touching off long simmering suspicions that the L.A.P.D. unfairly targeted African Americans in the city.
What both grounds "Civil War" and simultaneously allows it to soar above similar action fare like "Batman v Superman" is how it embeds heartfelt, genuine emotional beats into a story about battling demigods in spandex. Falcon's line of dialogue comes from the heart, tying his story arc into the film's larger messages of justice, control, and freedom. The racial dynamics between himself and Tony only add to the emotional weight of the line.
"Civil War" screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely spoke to Vulture about the cultural significance of the line, with Markus saying: "It also reminds you that this is taking place in a world that you know, as opposed to a world where it’s just totally disconnected from your reality."
The brief moment shows why "Civil War" is so great. As the stakes in "Civil War" rose higher and higher, directors Joe and Anthony Russo remained focused on the heroes' internal conflicts and how, unresolved, they turned into the confrontations that nearly tear the Avengers apart.
