“It doesn’t just suddenly all come back to him, just because he(Bucky) is learned certain things about himself. It’s not like he immediately has all these emotions and feelings and point of views about people and families that he’s dealt with — or Steve. The knowledge is there, but the emotions aren’t explored yet, which also makes it very interesting to play.” Sebastian Stan.
I love to see this quote paired with this moment because you can really see what Stan was talking about here.
And it makes 100% more sense than the
bullshit “I think (You think???? You wrote the movie) then he remembers
more than he remembers here” comment from Markus.Everything in this scene, including the
actual dialogue (that Markus presumably wrote?) suggests that Bucky does indeed
remember, but chooses to lie because, for him, it always ends in a fight, and the
less people get involved the better are the odds of no one else getting hurt aside
from Bucky himself.But seeing Steve clearly throws him off balance. He
stays there, rooted to the spot, staring at Steve’s back for several precious
seconds when he knows he doesn’t have time to spare, when the sensible thing to
do would be to just go before Steve notices him. But he can’t. It was one thing
to look at pictures of Captain America from newspaper clippings and museum
flyers, it’s definitely another to have him standing there in the room.And then Steve turns, and Bucky panics,
and he lies, very badly, in a last desperate attempt to stave off everything
Steve represents. “I read about you in a museum”. “I don’t know [why I saved
your life]”. But he does know. That’s why he gets progressively more pissed off as
Steve keeps pressing him for answers, keeps refusing to go along with the
charade. it was easy to stay away, to keep his distance, when Steve wasn’t a solid
presence a few feet from him. It was easy to pretend all those happy memories
from a lifetime before belonged to a man long dead.But now that Steve is here, Bucky knows that he won’t
be able to pretend anymore. He won’t be able to convince himself that he’s ok
with never seeing Steve again. That he doesn’t miss him. That just the sight of
Steve doesn’t make him long for all the things he doesn’t think he’s allowed to
have anymore: friendship, family, love. He won’t be able to convince
himself that he’s ok with Steve thinking him dead, or a traitor, or a
criminal. ”I wasn’t in Vienna. I don’t do that anymore” is the first thing he
says unprompted. He didn’t have to say anything, Steve didn’t ask about that.
But it matters to Bucky what Steve thinks of him. It matters so much that he’s outright
offended that Steve would worry that “[he’s] gonna kill someone”, and he takes
the time to not only scare the shit out of Steve in retaliation, but also to
pause, look him right in the eye, and tell him, pointedly: “I’m not gonna kill
anyone”. (It matters so much that later, on the plane, he will all but beg
Steve to please, please tell him that he’s still worth something.)And when the police breaks in, it’s instantly clear
that Bucky still knows how to anticipate and take advantage of Steve’s every
move. As demonstrated by him kicking the bomb toward Steve so that he can cover
it with the shield, throwing Steve at the policemen, and even, yes, throwing
the policemen down the stairwell knowing that Steve will catch them.It’s a good thing Sebastian Stan came up with his
own interpretation of the character’s state of mind and motivations, as it’s
clearly thanks to him and his performance alone that Bucky’s characterization
manages to be both compelling and coherent throughout the course of the movie.
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