The New Captain America Has an Odd Message for Our Political Moment
Briefly

Captain America: Brave New World marks a thematic departure as its climax features President Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross, played by Harrison Ford, transforming into the Red Hulk during a press conference, wreaking havoc on the White House. The film employs a paranoid thriller style, drawing parallels to its predecessor, Captain America: The Winter Soldier. With elements such as brainwashing and a black-site prison, the narrative also connects to character Isaiah Bradley, highlighting themes of government malfeasance and systemic injustice. This movie arrives in an age of heightened political scrutiny, casting its messages in a different light compared to earlier periods.
In a classic paranoid thriller like They Live or The Parallax View, the hero is a white man who discovers that the world he thought he knew is rotten to the core, controlled by forces whose existence he never expected.
The movie's climax features Harrison Ford's president Thaddeus 'Thunderbolt' Ross transforming into the Red Hulk in the middle of a Rose Garden press conference and promptly laying waste to his surroundings.
Read at Slate Magazine
[
|
]