Random MCU Movies Touched On Serious Real-World Issues (12 items)

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  (#1) Iron Man

  • Robert Downey Jr., Terrence Howard, Jeff Bridges, Shaun Toub, Gwyneth Paltrow, Faran Tahir, Paul Bettany, Leslie Bibb, Jon Favreau, Clark Gregg, Samuel L. Jackson

  Tony Stark's entire arc revolves around him becoming an increasingly better person after decades of being a self-absorbed playboy and arms manufacturer, profiting off his involvement with the military-industrial complex. His starting point, before his abduction, shows Tony trying to sell the Jericho missile to the US military for use in Afghanistan. In his pitch, he tells the top brass, "Find an excuse to let one of these off the chain, and I personally guarantee you the bad guys won't even want to come out of their caves."

  After discovering the real-world consequences of his war profiteering - namely, that weapons his company made were being sold to terrorists and being used in mass genocides - Tony's perspective changes and his aim becomes a drive to help, partially fueled by the horrors for which he himself was responsible. This is not a lesson his rival, Justin Hammer, has learned in Iron Man 2. Hammer is like a poor man's Tony Stark, and tries to use his own robotic creations for military contracts. The plan ends up failing spectacularly.

  But there is one through-line across both films: There will always be someone looking to make money off war and suffering. And in the real world, you'll rarely find a man in Tony Stark's position who's willing to put his foot down and demand change.
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  (#9) Avengers: Endgame

  • Robert Downey Jr, Josh Brolin, Mark Ruffalo, Tom Hiddleston, Chris Evans, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Chris Pratt, Elizabeth Olsen, Benedict Cumberbatch, Evangeline Lilly, Karen Gillan, Anthony Mackie, Tom Holland, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Paul Bettany, Scarlett Johansson, Jon Favreau, Gwyneth Paltrow, Sebastian Stan, Don Cheadle, Pom Klementieff, Paul Rudd, Brie Larson

  Amid the epic battle scenes and long-awaited superhero team-ups, the final two Avengers films are filled with small, poignant moments of humanity and pain that paint a stark portrait of suffering in the face of loss and tragedy. As Thanos strives to halve the population of the universe - under the self-deluded guise of being a savior - he leaves swaths of casualties and broken families in his wake.

  Long before he snaps his fingers and instantly dissolves half of the beings in the universe, he was already going from planet to planet ruthlessly slaying millions with his armies. The painful tendrils of this villainy can be seen in Gamora - who was "adopted" by Thanos after he offed her family - as well as Drax, who is driven by an undying need for revenge over the execution of his family. 

  The ramifications of real-world genocides are mirrored in the film's portrayal of how trauma can change the course of people's lives. The pain of real genocides still lives on in the children and grandchildren of those impacted by them, in the same way that Thanos's genocidal actions inexorably changed those whose lives were uprooted by them.

  Even in a more direct sense, the pain and psychological trauma of genocide can be seen in Endgame when, five years after the Snap, Steve Rogers attends group therapy sessions where people lean on one another to find comfort and support while struggling to deal with their unimaginable losses.
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  (#3) Captain America: The Winter Soldier

  • Scarlett Johansson, Cobie Smulders, Samuel L. Jackson, Robert Redford, Elizabeth Olsen, Chris Evans, Emily VanCamp, Hayley Atwell, Stan Lee, Gary Sinise, Georges St-Pierre, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Jenny Agutter, Tom Morello, Sebastian Stan, Toby Jones, Garry Shandling, Anthony Mackie, Frank Grillo, Thomas Kretschmann, Danny Pudi, Alan Dale, Callan Mulvey, Steven Culp, Nestor Serrano, Maximiliano Hernández, Eddie J. Fernandez, Branka Katić, Ed Brubaker, Dominic Rains, Bernard White, David Cohen, Henry Goodman, Evan Parke, Pat Healy, Aaron Himelstein, Patrick Michael Strange, Robert Clotworthy, Wendy Hoopes, Chin Han, Zack Duhame, DC Pierson, Andy Michaels Jr., Chad Todhunter, Ethan Rains, June Christopher, Shannon Edwards, Vincent Riviezzo, Paul J. Porter, Joel Thingvall, Jeremy Maxwell, Salvator Xuereb, Stephen McFeely, Emerson Brooks, Al Sotto, Adetokumboh M'Cormack, Logan Fry, Brent Reichert, Brian Duffy, Bernard Zilinskas, Dan Anders, Shawn Gonzalez, Travis Bush, David Gragg, Annette Lawless, Rydell Danzie, Joel Shock, Jon Sklaroff, Andrew Knode, Matthew Skomo, Brent McGee, Scott Lockhart, Gozie Agbo, Troy Bogdan, Kriz Chris Henri Harriz, Xavier Wolf, Robert P. Thitoff, Aswan Harris, Sharyn Kmieciak, Jody Hart, Demetrice Nguyen, Deezy, Raiden Integra, Tom Shafer, Michael Simpson Jr., James Lewis, Johanna McGinley, Paul Nandzik, Roshawn Franklin, Christopher Markus, Joseph McCaughtry, Les Mahoney, Edward Pfeifer, Neal McNeil, Sharita Bone, Cullen Chambers, Rachel Camacho, Jordan Michael Coulson, Ricardo Chacon, Alan Davis, Orlando McNary, Diedra Arthur-O'Ree, Rod Fielder, James Howard, Nicolas Bosc, Earl Rorer, Abigail Marlowe, Sue Danna Myer, Christopher Kaczmarek, Jennifer Lavi, Jason Speer, LaTrallo Presley, Michael V. Chastain, Angela Russo-Ostot, Dot Gregory, Andrew Constantini, George Ludden, Katana Martinez, Rachel Herrick, Derek Hughes, Nicholas Gibeault, Jason Klingensmith, Gabriella Sagnes, Brian R. Moore, Kayla McDonald, Charles Wittman, Jeff Seich, Adrian Denzel, Kris Leiter, Jason L. Wang, Christopher Warner, Nate Hatton, Brittany Buck, Jose W. Byers, Marse Ratliff, Rick Dremann, Ben Atkins, Guy Cusson, Shaira Barton, JoAnna Leigh Gerondale, Kimberly Pal, Lucas Lind, Charlene May, Rasik Ohal, Theresa Wylie, Dante Rosalina, Terence O'Rourke, Ulysses E. Campbell, Bryan Geary, Cullum Andrews, Bill Kennedy, John Fecek, Ann Russo, Thomas R. Baker, Brett R. Miller, Colin Botts, Tara Kodosky, Carmen Gangale, Chris Jameson, Christina Shaffer, Allan Chanes, Cristee Brianas, Eric Lee Huffman, Andrew Kiser, Christopher George Sarris, Phil Mallon, Griffin M. Allen, Joe Rosalina, Lauren Gabbard, Trent Rowland, Davis Aguila, Britney Meeks, Michael Debeljak, Dean Barlage, Ray Hodge, Danea Rhodes, Paul Roberts, Jenna Hoskins , Michael De Gues, Anne Grimenstein, Inder kumar, Sage Porter, David Hill, Jason G. Sarris, Nicole Tubbs, Terry McConnaughey, Dyrell Barnett, Robert B. Schneider IV, Sandhya Chandel, John Brooks Jr., Carmen Dee Harris, Jeremy Michael Burns

  The Winter Soldier may be the most subversive and politically charged film in the whole of the MCU. One of the primary elements of the story involves S.H.I.E.L.D. building a trio of heavy-duty helicarriers linked up to spy satellites that can eliminate threats to America with surgical precision from the sky. Everyone can be located and targeted for termination remotely at any time. This obviously does not sit well with Steve Rogers or Nick Fury.

  S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Secretary of Internal Security Alexander Pierce is led to believe that Cap has secretly been in league with a mysterious rogue assassin known as the Winter Soldier, and he is forced to go on the run while avoiding security cameras and surveillance tech. Throughout the movie, the real threat is the inevitable overreach of technological infrastructure and the creation of a surveillance state - which many argue has already become a reality in countless countries across the globe.

  Additionally, The Winter Soldier serves as a fierce condemnation of the corruption and creeping influence of fascism in the halls of government in the real world. This is evident in the shocking reveal that Hydra (the MCU's quasi-Third Reich analog) has installed operatives into the highest levels of Washington, DC - including Senator Stern and Alexander Pierce himself, who is revealed to be behind the Winter Soldier's actions.
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  (#8) Iron Man 2

  • Robert Downey Jr., Gwyneth Paltrow, Don Cheadle, Scarlett Johansson, Sam Rockwell, Mickey Rourke, Samuel L. Jackson, Clark Gregg, Jon Favreau, John Slattery, Garry Shandling, Paul Bettany

  Giving Tony Stark some sort of vulnerability seems to be the driving motivation for the writers of every film he appears in - whether it's a physical vulnerability (like his need for an arc reactor to keep his heart going in Iron Man), or a psychological vulnerability, like his emotional difficulties in Iron Man 3. However, for Iron Man 2, the filmmakers decided to delve deep into the character's increasing alcohol dependency.

  Loosely inspired by the 1979 Invincible Iron Man comic storyline "Demon in a Bottle," Tony becomes an increasingly reckless alcoholic when he discovers that the palladium used in his lifesaving arc reactor in his chest is also poisoning him. If he takes it out, he's toast; if he leaves it in, he's toast. Unwilling to tell anyone about his problems, Tony instead accepts what he thinks is his inevitable fate and indulges in booze and debauchery at the expense of his relationships.

  After getting drunk while wearing the Iron Man suit at what he thinks will be his last-ever birthday party, Tony ends up getting into a fight with his best friend, James Rhodes, wearing a prototype armor suit. This leads to Tony having his suit confiscated and losing his friend. The film serves as an examination of the consequences of vice, told on a superhero scale. It's only when he turns to Nick Fury and works through past emotional issues with his late father that he is able to overcome his own demons.
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  (#2) Captain America: Civil War

  • Chris Evans, Robert Downey Jr., Scarlett Johansson, Sebastian Stan, Anthony Mackie, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Chadwick Boseman, Paul Bettany, Elizabeth Olsen, Paul Rudd, Emily VanCamp, Tom Holland, Frank Grillo, William Hurt, Daniel Brühl

  In the first act of Civil War, the Avengers find themselves in Lagos, Nigeria, in an effort to stop terrorists from swiping a biological weapon from a lab. In the ensuing conflict, Scarlet Witch telekinetically redirects an explosion that would have wiped out her comrades, but inadvertently takes out a number of Wakandan humanitarian workers. It leads to public outrage over the Avengers operating without permission on a global scale - not to mention severe guilt for Scarlet Witch.

  The conflict, however, mirrors the real-world debate over interventionism and America serving as a world police force, operating with semi-legal jurisdiction in countries across the world under the pretense of protecting global peace. The debate over American interventionism has raged for decades, with arguments for and against isolationism and increased oversight, all of which play out to different degrees in Civil War, and it adds a uniquely distinct realism to the drama. It's not about good guys versus bad guys, but rather nuanced political philosophy.

  The events in Lagos lead to a call for the Avengers to be overseen by a panel of United Nations politicians who will control the authorization of future operations. Tony Stark and Steve Rogers find themselves divided, with Stark arguing that oversight is important for transparency, while Rogers argues that politicians with potential ulterior motives shouldn't dictate when or how the Avengers save the world.

  This, too, reflects the long-fought argument over government oversight of organizations, such as the Center for Disease Control or the World Health Organization, and the question of whether or not those organizations' efforts are impacted by the politicians who may or may not dictate their objectives.
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  (#12) Ant-Man

  • Paul Rudd, Michael Douglas, Evangeline Lilly, Corey Stoll, Bobby Cannavale, Michael Peña, Tip "T.I." Harris, Anthony Mackie, Wood Harris, Judy Greer, David Dastmalchian

  When Scott Lang is released from prison after being convicted of white collar cybercrime, he tries to go straight and get a real job at Baskin-Robbins. Because of his record, he applies under a fake name, but gets the job and is a model employee. However, after it's discovered that he's an ex-con, he's immediately fired from his job. In an effort to pay child support, he has to resort to burglary because he can't find a legal way to make ends meet.

  While in Ant-Man this concern simply serves as a catalyst for the story, and to get Scott into Hank Pym's home, it's a surprisingly astute observation on the hiring discrimination that many people face after serving time, and the subsequent recidivism that often occurs when those same people feel they have no legal recourse or options for living a life on the right side of the law.

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