Captain America: The Winter Solider was a tremendous critical and financial success for Marvel Studios. It was far from a certainty that a superhero as “meat and potatoes” and overtly American as Steve Rogers, could become a world-wide success. It surpassed all expectations.

In addition to being a solid film, the story beats within the movie have had a ripple effect on all of Marvel’s subsequent films and TV shows. Down the road this film will be seen as a time when Marvel Studios took their film-making into yet another gear.

A large reason for the success was due to the vision of co-directors Anthony and Joe Russo (Community) who took a lot of the shine off of their Marvel film and added a new layer of reality to the hero and the world that he inhabits. There is more brutality and realism in the fighting style than in any previous of the studio’s movies. This additional grit really puts the characters in more peril and it’s the closest we will get to Marvel street-level combat on film. (There are several upcoming Marvel shows that are coming to Netflix which will address more ground-level conflicts as well on TV.) Well with the upcoming release of the Captain America: The Winter Solider Blu-ray, it’s a great time to take a look behind-the-scenes to see how they pulled off the great fighting and action sequences that make the film so memorable:

Cap & Winter Solider Fight Training:

Black Widow Fighting Style and Stunt Double:

The Falcon/Anthony Mackie:

Gag Reel:

Maria Hill and Jasper Deleted Scene:

The Hunt for Cap:

Alexander Pierce threatens Black Widow:

Captain America: The Winter Solider will be available on Blu-ray and DVD on September 9th, 2014.

Source: Marvel