The famous airport battle between the Avengers in Captain America: Civil War was planned out by the movie creators using action figures. The third installment of the MCU's Captain America trilogy debuted in 2016, finishing out a financially and critically successful series of movies for Chris Evans' star-spangled hero. With a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, Civil War became one of the best received movies in the MCU.
The airport fight is one of the most gripping moments in the Marvel movie, as the viewpoints of Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) and Steve Rogers (Evans) collide. The disagreement first stems over Stark's decision to sign the Sokovia Accords, a multinational agreement that all superheroes must be put under the control and direction of a United Nations panel. Stark is still reeling from the news of an accidental civilian death that happened the previous film Avengers: Age of Ultron. Rogers disagrees that they should cede control over their own actions. Each member of the Avengers, and a few non-Avengers like Spider-Man, have to decide who is right, and Stark is under pressure to bring Rogers into the authorities without anyone being killed. This sets the stage for an incredibly entertaining and emotionally charged fight scene that split Earth's Mightiest Heroes.
In a video by Corridor Crew, stunt coordinator and Winter Soldier double James Young reveals that the airport fight scene was initially planned out through weeks of sitting at a table and playing with action figures. Young explains how he sat down with directors the Russo Brothers, Marvel president Kevin Feige, and the VFX and stunt heads while the group used toys to talk through every possible scenario in the fight. They even experimented with who is on who's side in the confrontation, changing the team line-ups to see what felt best. Read Young's full quote on the planning process below.
"We designed this fight over a long period, even before we started physical prep, like actually going in and starting previses [VFX previsualizations]. Myself and Sam Hargrove the coordinator of the movie, we sat with Kevin [Feige], Joe and Antony [Russo], Dan DeLeeuw and ... the head of VFX and we sat down for a week, maybe two weeks at first, six, seven hours a day at a table with the figurines ... and basically the first week was like 'alright, let's talk about the team makeups in terms of story and let's put these guys against each other and come up with a list of hundreds of things that could happen.' Like we just came up with just a massive amount of lists of 'what if Natasha fought Cap' and she originally fought him on the roof, we actually shot the fight, so yea these teams changed constantly."
Feige and his team eventually settled on Captain America being backed by Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan), the Falcon (Anthony Mackie), Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner), Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Ant-Man (Paul Rudd). Team Iron Man included War Machine (Don Cheadle), Black Panther (Chadwick Boseman), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Vision (Paul Bettany), and a young Spider-Man (Tom Holland). The final version of the Civil War battle that made it to the theaters is full of shocking and also hilarious moments, as many of the characters are meeting each other for the first time. For instance, at one point mid-fight, a confused Falcon disgustedly asks Spider-Man if the string web he's spraying everywhere is coming from his body.
The brainstorming process for such a complex fight montage would no doubt have been difficult, given how many characters and super-abilities were in the mix. As Young, Feige and the Russo brothers whittled down their lists, the most compelling cinematic Civil War moments likely started to emerge, such as Ant-Man reversing his typical move and turning himself into a giant. What's more, seeing Spider-Man use a few rebel tactics from Star Wars to bring the giant Ant-Man down was a fan-favorite moment. When it's so easy for a major blockbuster's fight sequences to become repetitive or cliché fight scene, the imagination and thematic thought behind Captain America: Civil War's major ensemble battle is just one reason behind its huge success.
Source: Corridor Crew
