<P> Captain America: The Winter Soldier is a 2014 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America, produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures . It is the sequel to 2011's Captain America: The First Avenger and the ninth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU). The film was directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, with a screenplay by the writing team of Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely . It stars Chris Evans as Steve Rogers / Captain America, alongside Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Cobie Smulders, Frank Grillo, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Robert Redford, and Samuel L. Jackson . In Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Captain America, Black Widow, and Falcon join forces to uncover a conspiracy within S.H.I.E.L.D. while facing a mysterious assassin known as the Winter Soldier . </P> <P> A major influence in The Winter Soldier was conspiracy fiction from the 1970s such as Three Days of the Condor, with the script also drawing from the Winter Soldier story arc written by Ed Brubaker . The script was written in 2011, with the Russo brothers entering negotiations to direct in June 2012 and casting beginning the following month . Principal photography commenced in April 2013 in Los Angeles, California before moving to Washington, D.C. and Cleveland, Ohio . While the directors aimed for more realism, with focus on practical effects and intense stunt work, 2,500 visual effects shots were done by six different companies . </P> <P> Captain America: The Winter Soldier premiered in Los Angeles on March 13, 2014, and was released in the United States on April 4, 2014, in 2D, 3D, and IMAX 3D . The film became a critical and commercial success, grossing over $714 million worldwide, and making it the seventh highest - grossing film of 2014 . It also received an Academy Award nomination for Best Visual Effects . A sequel titled Captain America: Civil War, also directed by the Russo brothers, was released on May 6, 2016 . </P> <P> Two years after the Battle of New York, Steve Rogers works in Washington, D.C. for the espionage agency S.H.I.E.L.D. under Director Nick Fury, while adjusting to contemporary society . Rogers and Agent Natasha Romanoff are sent with S.H.I.E.L.D.'s counter-terrorism S.T.R.I.K.E. team, led by Agent Rumlow, to free hostages aboard a S.H.I.E.L.D. vessel from Georges Batroc and his mercenaries . Mid-mission, Rogers discovers Romanoff has another agenda: to extract data from the ship's computers for Fury. Rogers returns to the Triskelion, S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, to confront Fury and is briefed about Project Insight: three Helicarriers linked to spy satellites, designed to preemptively eliminate threats . Unable to decrypt the data recovered by Romanoff, Fury becomes suspicious about Insight and asks senior S.H.I.E.L.D. official Alexander Pierce to delay the project . </P>

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