In March 1942, during World War II, Nazi lieutenant general and Hydra leader Johann Schmidt steals a mysterious relic called the Tesseract,[b] which possesses untold godly powers, from the town of Tønsberg in German-occupied Norway.

He is recruited into the Strategic Scientific Reserve as part of a "super-soldier" experiment under Erskine, Stark, Colonel Chester Phillips, and British MI6 agent Peggy Carter.

Erskine reveals to Rogers that he was a scientist under Schmidt, until the latter took a prototype version of the super-soldier formula that gave him superhuman strength but painfully changed his appearance.

Senator Brandt has Rogers tour the nation as "Captain America" to promote war bonds while scientists study his blood and attempt to reverse-engineer the formula.

[c] Using information extracted from Zola, the final Hydra stronghold is located and Rogers leads an attack to stop Schmidt from using WMDs on major American cities.

[46] Natalie Dormer portrays Lorraine, a private who attempts to seduce Rogers,[47] and Jenna Coleman appears as Connie, Bucky's date at the World Expo.

In April 1997, Marvel Studios was in negotiations with Mark Gordon and Gary Levinsohn to produce Captain America, and Larry Wilson and Leslie Bohem were set to write a script.

[53][56][57] Originally, the film would stand alone; producer Kevin Feige said "about half" the movie would be set during World War II before moving into the modern day.

[65] On May 5, 2008 (after the success of Iron Man), Marvel announced the film The First Avenger: Captain America (the working title) for release on May 6, 2011 (before being pushed back to July 22).

[66] Louis Leterrier, director of The Incredible Hulk, viewed some of the concept art being created for the film and was impressed enough to offer his services, but Marvel turned him down.

We have to deal with much the same way that Captain America, when thawed from the Arctic ice, entered a world that he didn't recognize," similar to the way Stan Lee and Jack Kirby reintroduced the character in the 1960s.

[71] The creative team opted to not push the title character to fight any members of the Nazi Party like in a usual World War II movie, as their goal was to depict the conflict through the Marvel Universe's "prism".

Although they didn't have problems to feature Nazis in the film, with Feige loving an iconic Captain America cover where the character punches Adolf Hitler out, the team felt that using Hydra as the main antagonists would make them be "true" to the comic book's many aspects.

[79] Director Johnston cited Simon's book Cosmic Motors as a reason to trust his influence, saying "he's sort of the guy I wanted to be when I was designing stuff for Star Wars".

[81] John Krasinski, Channing Tatum, Chace Crawford, Ryan Phillippe, Garrett Hedlund, Michael Cassidy, Patrick Flueger, Scott Porter, Wilson Bethel,[11] Mike Vogel, Dane Cook,[82] Ryan McPartlin,[83] Ethan Peck,[84] Zachary Levi,[85] Glen Powell,[86] Jensen Ackles, Wyatt Russell, and Chris Pratt were also considered for the role of Captain America.

[18] The next day Marvel confirmed that Cooper would portray the younger version of Howard Stark, the character played by John Slattery in Iron Man 2.

[111] To achieve the appearance of the skinny, pre-serum Steve Rogers, director Joe Johnston stated that he used two major techniques: Most of the shots were done by an L.A. company called LOLA that specializes in digital "plastic surgery".

This technique was used mostly when Chris was sitting or lying down, or when a minimum of physical acting was required....[112]Captain America's shield, which serves as both a defensive tool and a weapon, came in four types: metal, fiberglass, rubber, and computer graphics (CG).

The visual effects team had to manipulate his face considerably, as the mask was bulky and they wanted to make it look like tight skin wrapped around a very bony structure.

They thinned out Weaving's cheeks and lower lip, hollowed out his eyes, and removed his eyelashes and nose to make him appear more like the Red Skull character.

[121] Sega announced a video game tie-in titled Captain America: Super Soldier, that was released on July 19, 2011, for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii, and Nintendo DS.

An "insider" speaking to The New York Times explained that the name change in these countries stemmed from cultural and political concerns, though Marvel and Paramount both declined to state an official reason.

[143] At the time of its release, Captain America: The First Avenger became the third highest-grossing motion picture set during the World War II era, after Saving Private Ryan and Pearl Harbor.

The website's consensus reads, "With plenty of pulpy action, a pleasantly retro vibe, and a handful of fine performances, Captain America is solidly old-fashioned blockbuster entertainment.

[147] Roger Moore of the Orlando Sentinel gave Captain America: The First Avenger a positive review, saying, "Johnston has delivered a light, clever and deftly balanced adventure picture with real lump in the throat nostalgia, with Nazis – who make the best villains, and with loving references to Star Wars and Raiders of the Lost Ark.

[150] Karina Longworth of The Village Voice gave the film a negative review, calling it "[A] hokey, hacky, two-hour-plus exercise in franchise transition/price gouging, complete with utterly unnecessary post-converted 3-D".

[162][163] Evans, Stan, Atwell, Toby Jones, and Jackson reprise their roles as Captain America, Bucky Barnes, Peggy Carter, Arnim Zola, and Nick Fury, respectively.

They are joined by Scarlett Johansson, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, and Robert Redford as Natasha Romanoff / Black Widow, Sam Wilson / Falcon, Maria Hill, Brock Rumlow, Sharon Carter, and Alexander Pierce, respectively.

[165][166] Evans, Johansson, Stan, Mackie, Grillo and VanCamp reprise their roles from The Winter Soldier,[167][168] and they are joined by Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark / Iron Man, Paul Bettany as Vision, Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton / Hawkeye, Don Cheadle as James "Rhodey" Rhodes / War Machine, Elizabeth Olsen as Wanda Maximoff / Scarlet Witch, Paul Rudd as Scott Lang / Ant-Man and William Hurt as Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross[169] all reprising roles from previous MCU films.

Chadwick Boseman, Tom Holland and Daniel Brühl also star as T'Challa / Black Panther, Peter Parker / Spider-Man and Helmut Zemo, respectively.