14

Referring to the scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier where 'Cap and company infiltrate that S.H.I.E.L.D. ship which had been taken over by terrorists. There was a fight towards the end of that scene (before 'Cap links up with Widow as she's downloading files) where 'Cap fights a terrorist.

This particular terrorist "gave as good as he got" against 'Cap for far longer than he should have been able to do, provided he was simply a "normal man" and not a superhero. He actually made it a competitive fight for a bit before 'Cap prevailed, even knocking 'Cap down once or twice if memory serves.

I want to know whether this terrorist was some "special" terrorist (i.e. had he been altered, given some kind of serum, was he "turbo-charged" in any way, etc) or was he simply at the upper-scale, fighting ability-wise, of a normal guy?

If the guy was some kind of supervillian that I just don't know about, I'll accept that he was able to compete with 'Cap for a bit. If he wasn't, I think they screwed up with the script in making the guy so strong. While I think there might be circumstances where a normal guy with superior fighting skills could do well against 'Cap for a bit (for instance, surprising him or blindsiding him or whatever), this didn't appear to be one of those circumstances.

Anyone know the answer? Can someone explain?

Improve this question
2
  • Related: scifi.stackexchange.com/q/71863/23386
    – Napoleon Wilson
    Commented Nov 3, 2014 at 10:11
  • 9
    just out of curiosity, why do you keep spelling his name with a leading apostrophe ('Cap)? Shouldn't it be Cap. or Cap'? (Or just Cap, since it's a nickname, not an abbreviation -- that would be Cap'n.)
    – KutuluMike
    Commented Mar 21, 2016 at 0:23

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
21

He's a supervillain you're not familiar with. He's Batroc the Leaper, a villain from the comic books. He's a goofy acrobatic martial artist (specifically, he uses savate) who primarily fights Captain America, and has a French accent in the comics. He is a mercenary with a deep sense of honor, which they depicted in the film, and his martial arts style and skill enabled him to stand his ground against Captain America longer than most.

This io9 user post provides a lot of comics background on the events of the film.

Improve this answer
3

The guy was just an incredible athlete. He was played by Georges St. Pierre, a real life UFC champion, so basically, he's just absolutely amazing at martial arts and close to peak physical condition. Remember, as incredible as Cap is, he's technically not super-human. He's as strong and as fast as a human can possibly be, not above.

Improve this answer
5
  • 1
    While I've seen it stated that he's not super-human before, I'm still wondering how he was still alive after being frozen for 70 years ...
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
    Commented Apr 6, 2014 at 1:45
  • 1
    @Paulster2 you forgot to mention Captain's jump scene where he doesn't even used parachute. Which shows superhuman strength.
    – Ankit Sharma ♦
    Commented Apr 8, 2014 at 9:27
  • @AnkitSharma ... you're right, but the post above was before I saw the movie. Now I know :-)
    – Pᴀᴜʟsᴛᴇʀ2
    Commented Apr 12, 2014 at 19:03
  • 2
    @AnkitSharma: The jump doesn't take anything superhuman. It's the sudden deceleration at the end that does the damage. ;-)
    – DevSolar
    Commented Apr 24, 2015 at 9:40
  • 1
    In the comics, Cap is peak human most of the time but in the movies there's some good evidence that he's something more than that. His 40 foot jump in the rafters in the first movie as one example.
    – userLTK
    Commented May 29, 2016 at 8:25
1

I only add more information about Batroc, the Leaper.

Both he and Captain America are still human, but while Captain America has peak human condition in every aspect (strength, agility, speed, stamina), Batroc has only near peak condition which makes him almost, but not quite as powerful as Captain America.

Both are deadly for their normal human opponents. But in the comics Batroc likes fighting against Captain America very, very much to the point of addiction because he finally found a worthy opponent from which he can learn more and work on his style. While Captain America ultimately prevails every time, Batroc makes the duels very challenging and both fighters seem to respect each other.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .