Captain America: Brave New World (PG-13)
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Caution: many spoilers!

This is the fourth Captain America movie, and the 35th movie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It came out in 2025, but it's set in 2027. It's the first movie to feature Sam Wilson (formerly known as Falcon) since he became Captain America in the Disney+ series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

It begins with former general (and later Secretary of State) Thaddeus Ross (now played by Harrison Ford, replacing the late William Hurt) being elected President of the United States. He was first seen in the movie The Incredible Hulk, in which he had the military attack the Hulk. He's still suffering the loss of his relationship with his daughter, Betty, who hasn't forgiven him for what he did. Five months after becoming President, he sends Captain America and Joaquin Torres (who was first seen in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier", and is now training to become the new Falcon) to Mexico, to retrieve a sample of a metal called adamantium, which had been stolen by a mercenary group called Serpent, led by a man called Sidewinder (Giancarlo Esposito).

After the mission, Sam takes Joaquin to meet Isaiah Bradley (who was also introduced in "The Falcon and the Winter Soldier"), a former super soldier who had been incarcerated and experimented on by the U.S. government for 30 years, and who is understandably bitter about it. While there, Sam receives a call from President Ross, inviting him and Joaquin to a summit at the White House, and Sam insists he also invite Isaiah. Ross asks Sam to put together a new team of Avengers, as the original team had disbanded. Later, during the summit, several people, including Isaiah, shoot at Ross and other world leaders. Isaiah is arrested, but has no memory of what he had done, or why. Sam is determined to learn the truth and set him free, despite Ross's insistence that he leave the matter alone. Meanwhile, Ross has his security advisor, a badass former Black Widow named Ruth Bat-Seraph, perform an investigation of her own.

During Sam's investigation, he is attacked by Sidewinder, but despite sustaining several injuries, he manages to defeat the mercenary, who is then arrested. Sam gets Joaquin to trace a call that he received on Sidewinder's phone, which leads to a secret facility called Camp Echo One, and the two of them go there to see if they can learn who was behind the attack on the summit. It turns out to be a scientist named Dr. Samuel Sterns (Tim Blake Nelson), who had formerly appeared in "The Incredible Hulk" as Mr. Blue (though I didn't remember the character). Ross has been keeping him prisoner at Echo One for years, since he had mutated when exposed to Bruce Banner's blood, and gained super intelligence. Sterns can determine precise probabilities of how any event will play out, and he has been orchestrating events based on those probabilities to seek revenge against Ross. He has a signal he can use to control minds, such as the attackers at the summit. He had also created pills that Ross has taken regularly for years, to save his life after a heart problem that no other doctors could figure out. Sterns manages to escape before Sam and Joaquin could apprehend him.

Meanwhile, Ross goes to Japan to try to salvage an international deal for the equitable distribution of adamantium, which had been discovered on Celestial Island, which first appeared in the movie Eternals. Prime Minister Ozaki of Japan has reason to believe Ross had been behind the theft of the adamantium, and ends the deal. (Incidentally, it is said that adamantium is even stronger than vibranium, which I doubt is consistent with other Marvel franchises or comics, but I could be wrong. I'm also fairly sure that other franchises that include adamantium did not obtain it from a fallen Celestial, as it is in this movie.) Ross sends Bat-Seraph to Echo One to deal with Sterns, but after his escape, she meets Sam and Joaquin, and they begin working together. Later, there is a race between the U.S. and Japanese militaries to claim control of Celestial Island, and Sterns mind-controls a couple of American pilots to fire on the Japanese. Sam and Joaquin suit up as Captain America and Falcon to try to stop the rogue pilots. They succeed, but Joaquin is badly injured.

Later, Ross holds a press conference at the White House, where his connection to Sterns is revealed. Sterns surrenders himself to the authorities, but his plan is already in motion. It turns out the pills he had made for Ross had been gamma-irradiated, slowly building up in his system over the years. Now when his stress is greatly elevated by the revelation at the press conference, he turns into a red version of the Hulk (something I think everyone knew was going to happen in this movie, though I personally thought it would happen much earlier and be a bigger part of the plot). He goes on a rampage, and Captain America must stop him. Ross eventually returns to normal, and abdicates the presidency, and is then imprisoned in a high security facility called the Raft. Isaiah is exonerated and released. Sam visits Ross at the Raft, and then so does Betty, who reconciles with her father. Sam also visits Joaquin in the hospital, and invites him to join the new Avengers.

In a very ominous post-credits scene, Sam visits Sterns in prison, where Sterns delivers a dire (if vague) warning about an impending threat to the world.

Well, an awful lot of stuff happens in the movie, obviously, and I haven't actually included quite every detail. But far more details than I'm entirely comfortable with. I usually try not to spoil too many plot points in my reviews, but this time, somehow, I didn't feel like I could leave too much out. All in all, I thought it was a pretty awesome movie in a lot of ways. I can understand if some people don't like all the connections to so many other MCU projects that they won't necessarily have seen, but personally I enjoy such connections. I especially liked the fact that the world has finally acknowledged the sudden appearance of a new island appearing in the Indian Ocean, something some people who watched "The Eternals" complained about not being mentioned in subsequent MCU projects (aside from a few minor, Easter egg-style mentions). And I thought the action was great, the drama was great, the interpersonal relationships were great, and... I dunno, I just thought everything about it was great. I wouldn't place it in the first tier of MCU movies, but it's still pretty solid. I definitely think Sam is doing a great job as the new Captain America, and it was nice to see so many characters showing him the respect he obviously deserves. And he and Joaquin are both pretty badass. Oh, and I should have mentioned that there's a Secret Service agent named Leila Taylor who works closely with Ross, as well as being a good friend of Sam's. I kind of feel like maybe I'm forgetting things I wanted to say about it, but I'm not sure.

Oh, and after I wrote my review, I watched Break Room of Geeks's review. I disagreed with almost everything she said about the movie, and I considered not including a link to her review. But ultimately I decided I should, just to have a counterpoint to my own review. But man... I found her review hard to watch. I almost didn't finish it. And it's not that anything she said was wrong, and I'm fine with people having different opinions than mine about movies. I even agreed with some of her complaints, except that nothing she complained about actually bothered me about the movie, even if I think she was right.