Bucky Barnes (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes is a character portrayed by Sebastian Stan in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film franchise, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and sometimes referred to by his alter ego, Winter Soldier.

Barnes has appeared in seven MCU films, having been a main character in all three Captain America films, also appearing in Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame, and having post-credits scenes in Ant-Man and Black Panther. He is set to star in the television series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

Concept, creation, and characterization
When Joe Simon created his initial sketch of Captain America for Marvel Comics precursor Timely Comics in 1940, he included a young sidekick. "The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team," Simon said in his autobiography. Following the character's debut in Captain America Comics #1 (March 1941), Bucky Barnes appeared alongside the title star in virtually every story in that publication and other Timely series, and was additionally part of the all-kid team the Young Allies. Live-action performances of Steve Rogers in television and film serials began within a few years after its creation, with a 1990 feature film resulting in critical and financial failure, but none of these adaptations included Bucky as a character.

In 2005, Marvel launched a new Captain America series (Volume 5) with writer Ed Brubaker, who revealed that Bucky did not die in World War II. It was revealed that after the plane exploded, General Vasily Karpov and the crew of a Russian patrol submarine found Bucky's cold-preserved body, albeit with his left arm severed. Bucky was revived in Moscow, but suffered brain damage with amnesia as a result of the explosion. Scientists attached a bionic arm, periodically upgrading it as technology improved. Programmed to be a Soviet assassin for Department X – under the code name the Winter Soldier, he is sent on covert wetwork missions and becomes increasingly ruthless and efficient as he kills in the name of the state.

In the mid-2000s, Kevin Feige realized that Marvel still owned the rights to the core members of the Avengers, which included Captain America and his associated characters. Feige, a self-professed "fanboy", envisioned creating a shared universe just as creators Stan Lee and Jack Kirby had done with their comic books in the early 1960s. In 2005, Marvel received a $525 million investment from Merrill Lynch, allowing them to independently produce ten films, including Captain America. Paramount Pictures agreed to distribute the film. In April 2010, Sebastian Stan, who had been mentioned in media accounts as a possibility for the title role in Captain America, was cast as Bucky Barnes. Stan was contracted for multiple films.

Characterization
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Barnes is a sergeant in the United States Army, the best friend of Steve Rogers, and member of his squad of commandos. Stan has signed on for "five or six pictures". He revealed that he did not know anything about the comic books, but watched a lot of documentaries and films about World War II in preparation for the role, calling Band of Brothers "very helpful". About the role, Stan stated, "Steve Rogers and Bucky are both orphans and kind of like brothers. They kind of grow up together and look after each other. It's a very human, relatable thing... I also wanted to look out for how their relationship changes once Steve Rogers becomes Captain America. There's always a competition and they're always one-upping each other. I paid attention to how Bucky is affected by Steve's change and suddenly Steve is this leader".

Bucky re-emerges in Captain America: The Winter Soldier as an enhanced brainwashed assassin after supposedly being killed in action during World War II. Regarding the character, director Kevin Feige said, "Winter Soldier has been methodically, almost robotically, following orders for 70 years." Stan said despite his nine-picture deal with Marvel Studios including his appearance in The First Avenger, he was not sure that Bucky would make an imminent return, and only heard the sequel's official title was "The Winter Soldier" through a friend attending San Diego Comic-Con. Stan endured five months of physical training to prepare for the role and did historical research, stating, "I dove into the whole Cold War thing. I looked at the KGB. I looked at all kinds of spy movies, and all kinds of documentaries about that time, and what it was about. I grabbed anything from that time period. Anything about brainwashing". Stan also practiced daily with a plastic knife in order to be able to do the Winter Soldier's knife tricks without the aid of a stuntman. Regarding Bucky's transition into the Winter Soldier, Stan said, "You know, the truth of the situation is although he looks very different and there's different things about him, it still comes from the same person. I think you'll get to see that no matter what. I think part of my goal here was to make sure that you see an extension of that version but just a different color of that same version in a way. I think he's still the same guy; he's cut from the same cloth". Stan stated he felt the character's introduction in The Winter Soldier was "a preview of the guy", with more aspects of the character being explored in the film's sequel Captain America: Civil War.

This portrayal continues in Captain America: Civil War as an amalgam of Barnes and the Winter Soldier, with Stan saying, "here's the guy when you merge the two. This is what came out. To me, he's never really going to be Bucky Barnes again. There's going to be recognizable things about him, but his path through the [experiences of] Winter Soldier is always going to be there, haunting him." Because of this, the character has more lines in the film than in Winter Soldier. In Black Panther, Sebastian Stan makes an uncredited appearance in a post-credits scene, reprising his role as Barnes, being helped by Shuri to recover from his Hydra conditioning. In Avengers: Infinity War, Barnes is given the name White Wolf by the people of Wakanda, who helped remove his Hydra programming. Barnes is one of the many characters disintegrated by Thanos with the Infinity Gauntlet at the end of Infinity War who then returns to participate in the final battle at the end of Avengers: Endgame.

The character will star in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, an upcoming American web television miniseries created for Disney+ by Malcolm Spellman, based on the characters. The events of the series take place after Avengers: Endgame. The series is produced by Marvel Studios, with Spellman serving as head writer and Kari Skogland directing. Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan reprise their roles as Falcon and Winter Soldier, respectively, from the film series. Daniel Brühl, Emily VanCamp, and Wyatt Russell also star. As of September 2018, Marvel Studios was developing a number of limited series for Disney+, centered on supporting characters from the MCU films, with Spellman hired to write one on Falcon and Winter Soldier in October. The series was officially confirmed in April 2019 along with Mackie and Stan's involvement. Skogland was hired the next month. Filming began in October 2019 in Atlanta, Georgia and was suspended in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Fictional character biography
Barnes was born on March 10, 1917, and is a year older than Steve Rogers. The two became close friends, and Barnes would protect the frail Rogers from bullies. During World War II, Barnes enlists in the U.S. Army, while Rogers is rejected from the service due to his sickly condition. Rogers then becomes Captain America through administration of a super-soldier serum, and in 1943, while on tour in Italy performing for active servicemen, Rogers learns that Barnes' unit was MIA in a battle against the forces of Johann Schmidt. Refusing to believe that Barnes is dead, Rogers has Peggy Carter and engineer Howard Stark fly him behind enemy lines to mount a solo rescue attempt. Rogers infiltrates the fortress of Schmidt's Nazi division Hydra, freeing Barnes and the other prisoners, with Barnes having just been experimented on by Hydra. Barnes becomes part of an elite unit assembled by Rogers, participating in numerous missions against Hydra and the Nazis. During one such mission, Barnes falls from a train, and is again thought to have been killed. However, his experimentation causes him to survive and he is recaptured by Hydra, where he is tortured, brainwashed, and turned into a mind-controlled super-soldier with a robotic arm called the Winter Soldier. Over forty years later, he is used by Hydra to kill Howard Stark and his wife in 1991, stealing a case of super-soldier serum from their car, in an event made to look like a car accident.

In the early 2010s, Nick Fury is ambushed by assailants led by Barnes, still operating as the brainwashed Winter Soldier, which leads Fury to warn Rogers that S.H.I.E.L.D. has been compromised. Fury is gunned down by Barnes, before handing Rogers a vital flash drive. Rogers discovers a Hydra plot to use three Helicarriers to sweep the globe, using satellite-guided guns to eliminate individual who are a threat to it. Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, and Sam Wilson are ambushed by the Winter Soldier, whom Rogers recognizes as Barnes. Hill manages to extract Rogers and his allies. Rogers and Wilson later storm two Helicarriers and replace their controller chips, but Barnes destroys Wilson's suit and fights Rogers on the third Helicarrier. Rogers fends him off and replaces the final chip, allowing Hill to take control and have the vessels destroy each other. Rogers refuses to fight Barnes in an attempt to reach his friend, but as the ship collides with the Triskelion, Rogers is thrown out into the Potomac River. Barnes rescues the unconscious Rogers before disappearing into the woods. When Rogers recovers, he and Wilson decide to find Barnes. In a post-credits scene, Barnes visits his own memorial at the Smithsonian Institution.

Following the devastation of Sokovia by Ultron, Sokovian soldier Helmut Zemo tracks down and kills Barnes' old Hydra handler, stealing a book containing the trigger words that activate Barnes' brainwashing. At a conference in Vienna where the Sokovia Accords requiring superheroes to submit to government control are to be ratified, a bomb kills King T'Chaka of Wakanda. Security footage indicates the bomber is Barnes, whom T'Chaka's son, T'Challa, vows to kill. Informed by Sharon Carter of Barnes' whereabouts and the authorities' intentions to kill him, Rogers decides to try to bring in Barnes himself. Rogers and Wilson track Barnes to Bucharest and attempt to protect him from T'Challa and the authorities, but all four, including T'Challa, are apprehended by the Bucharest police and James Rhodes. Impersonating a psychiatrist sent to interview Barnes, Zemo recites the words to make Barnes obey him. He questions Barnes, then sends him on a rampage to cover his own escape. Rogers stops Barnes and sneaks him away. When Barnes regains his senses, he explains that Zemo is the real Vienna bomber and wanted the location of the Siberian Hydra base, where other brainwashed "Winter Soldiers" are kept in cryogenic stasis. Unwilling to wait for authorization to apprehend Zemo, Rogers and Wilson go rogue, and recruit Wanda Maximoff, Clint Barton, and Scott Lang to their cause. Tony Stark assembles a team composed of Romanoff, T'Challa, Rhodes, Vision, and Peter Parker to capture the renegades. Stark's team intercepts Rogers' group, including Barnes, at Leipzig/Halle Airport, where they fight until Romanoff allows Rogers and Barnes to escape.

Stark discovers evidence that Barnes was framed by Zemo and convinces Wilson to give him Rogers' destination. Without informing Ross, Stark goes to the Siberian Hydra facility and strikes a truce with Rogers and Barnes, unaware that they were secretly followed by T'Challa. They find that the other super-soldiers have been killed by Zemo, who then shows them footage that reveals that the automobile Barnes had intercepted in 1991 contained Stark's parents, whom Barnes subsequently killed. Enraged that Rogers kept this from him, Stark turns on them both, leading to an intense fight, in which Stark destroys Barnes' robotic arm, and Rogers disables Stark's armor. Rogers departs with Barnes, leaving his shield behind. In a mid-credits scene, Barnes, granted asylum in Wakanda, chooses to return to cryogenic sleep until a cure for his brainwashing is found. He is eventually cured, and given the new name, "White Wolf".

When Thanos begins his campaign to obtain the Infinity Stones and destroy half of all life in the universe, Rogers brings Vision (who hosts the Mind Stone) to Wakanda, where he reunites with Barnes, who has been healed by the Wakandans and is given a new robotic arm to enable him to join the fight. Thanos's army invades, and Barnes joins the Avengers and T'Challa and the Wakandan forces in mounting a defense while Shuri works to extract the Mind Stone from Vision. Thanos arrives and is able to obtain the Mind Stone, snap his fingers and teleport away. Half of all life across the universe disintegrates, including Barnes. Five years later, when the remaining Avengers are able to use quantum time travel to steal the stones from the past and create a new gauntlet, Barnes is restored along with the other people who were disintegrated. Sorcerers bring heroes from around the galaxy, including Barnes, to Avengers headquarters in upstate New York, where a time-travelling past version of Thanos is mounting a new attack. After Stark sacrifices his life to defeat Thanos, Barnes attends Stark's funeral. Barnes sees off Rogers, who is sent back in time to return the Infinity Stones and Mjolnir to their original places in time. When Rogers does not return through the time machine, Barnes knowingly points out an elderly Rogers sitting on a nearby bench, having remained in the past to live out a normal life.

Differences from the comic books
The origin story of Bucky Barnes follows that of the comic books, particularly Ultimate Marvel for certain elements like growing up in Brooklyn and Bucky being a childhood best friend of Steve Rogers, rather than a younger sidekick met later, but diverges from there, with "the Winter Soldier play[ing] a major role that's completely different to the comics". In the comic books, Steve Rogers is murdered at the event of the Civil War storyline, leading to Bucky Barnes becoming the next Captain America. In the MCU Rogers survives Civil War, eventually passing the mantle of Captain America to Sam Wilson in Avengers: Endgame.

Reception
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly stated that "Sebastian Stan puts Steve’s old pal Bucky Barnes through a chilling transformation", while Jake Coyle of the Associated Press said the film's biggest misstep was the handling of Stan's Winter Soldier character, and that it was "getting difficult to tell the Marvel movies apart".