The exploits of Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) as the Winter Soldier in the decades between Captain America: The First Avenger and Captain America: The Winter Soldier are some of the most notorious in the history of the MCU. Yet, despite his evil deeds (which he performed under brainwashing and he deeply regrets), Bucky is a beloved character among fans of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He will soon return to headline The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Disney+ TV series alongside Sam Wilson AKA The Falcon (Anthony Mackie).
As seen in Captain America: The First Avenger, Sergeant James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes was born in 1917 and grew up as the best friend (and occasional protector) of Steve Rogers (Chris Evans). Bucky enlisted in World War II, but while he served in the 107th Infantry Regiment, Steve volunteered for the Strategic Scientific Reserve's Super Soldier Program. After the experiment to create a new breed of super soldier proved successful, Hydra attacked the program and killed the inventor of the Super Soldier Serum, Dr. Abraham Erskine (Stanley Tucci). However, Rogers emerged from the experiment enhanced and he took on the name Captain America. After Steve entered the European theater of the war, he rescued the captured 107th from Hydra and was reunited with Bucky, who had been the subject of experiments by Dr. Arnim Zola (Toby Jones). Captain America then led Bucky and the Howling Commandos on a slew of missions against Hydra, until Bucky was lost during a train mission in the Austrian Alps in 1945.
After Bucky was presumed Killed In Action, Captain America himself was frozen in ice in 1945 and wasn't discovered until 2012. After Steve was revived in the 21st century, he joined the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D., respectively. In 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve was shocked to discover that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. since its inception and that the Hydra operative known as the Winter Soldier was actually Bucky, who also survived World War II. Steve made it his personal mission to rescue Bucky and restore his true personality; ultimately, Cap was successful. However, his loyalty to his oldest friend tore the Avengers apart in Captain America: Civil War, after the Winter Soldier was framed by Helmut Zemo (Daniel Bruhl) for the assassination of the Wakandan King T'Chaka (John Kani).
Eventually, Bucky began to piece his old personality and memories back together. After taking refuge in Wakanda (where he was called the White Wolf), Bucky fought alongside the Avengers against Thanos (Josh Brolin) and the Black Order in Avengers: Infinity War. Bucky was among the billions who died thanks to Thanos' Infinity Gauntlet snap, but he was brought back by Hulk (Mark Ruffalo) to fight and defeat Thanos alongside all of the MCU's heroes in Avengers: Endgame. However, despite his recent heroic deeds and his noble path to redemption, Bucky fears that he may never make up for the evil he was forced to commit by Hydra as the Winter Soldier.
When Bucky fell into the Danube River, he survived because of Zola's experiments, which had enhanced his physiology. Sadly, Bucky's left arm was ripped off during the fall. He was found by Soviet soldiers, who turned him over to Hydra's Soviet division. Zola continued to experiment on Bucky to turn him into Hydra's super-soldier; he was grafted with a new, metal prosthetic arm and he underwent severe brainwashing that erased his memories and personality, thanks to a memory suppression machine.
Bucky received extensive combat training and he was turned into a living weapon and assassin for Hydra and the KGB under the designation "The Winter Soldier". Bucky was activated using a precise sequence of trigger words, which, in Captain America: Civil War, Zemo learned were: "Longing. Rusted. Seventeen. Daybreak. Furnace. Nine. Benign. Homecoming. One. Freight Car. Soldier". Bucky's mind was wiped after every mission and, to prevent him from aging, he was routinely placed in suspended animation in a cryostasis chamber. Along with his superhuman physiology, this allowed Bucky to survive for decades into the 21st century.
As the Winter Soldier, Bucky performed over two dozen assassinations for Hydra and the KGB over the next fifty years. As Natasha Romanoff (Scarlett Johansson) told Steve Rogers in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the robotic-armed assassin was considered a ghost story, and "most of the intelligence community doesn't believe he exists."
Perhaps the most fateful kill that Bucky carried out was the assassination of Howard (John Slattery) and Maria Stark (Hope Davis) and the theft of a supply of Super Soldier Serum on December 16, 1991. The Winter Soldier ambushed the Starks as they were driving in Long Island and caused their car to crash. After the Winter Soldier secured the Super Soldier Serum from the Starks' car, he beat Howard, who recognized him as "Sgt. Barnes", to death with his metal arm before he turned his attention to killing Maria. Bucky then destroyed the closet circuit camera recording the double murder before making his escape.
Once Bucky returned to Hydra's Siberian facility, he was used to train the next crop of potential Winter Soldiers that Hydra used the stolen Super Soldier Serum to create. Under Hydra's rules, if the potential Winter Soldiers could defeat Bucky in battle, they would be accepted into the program. However, the new Winter Soldiers proved unstable and caused a riot. They were captured and placed in permanent cryostasis, where they remained even after the Siberian facility was abandoned. Meanwhile, Hydra continued to use Bucky as the Winter Soldier.
In 2009, S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Natasha Romanoff was assigned to escort a nuclear engineer out of Iran. The Winter Soldier was sent by Hydra to assassinate the scientist. As Romanoff recounted her encounter with the Winter Soldier to Steve Rogers, "Somebody shot at my tires near Odessa. We lost control, went straight over a cliff. I pulled us out, but the Winter Soldier was there. I was covering my engineer, so he shot him straight through me."
After the Winter Soldier successfully killed his target despite Black Widow's protection (leaving her with a permanent scar in the process), Natasha went on the hunt of the mystery assassin but came up empty. The Winter Soldier proved to be more elusive than anyone Black Widow had faced up to that point, and they wouldn't meet again until Bucky Barnes was unleashed by Hydra after Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) was targeted for assassination as part of Project Insight in Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
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