teatotally:

In the bank vault scene in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when we first see Bucky, he’s being bombarded with fragments of memories of Steve and his own “death.” When I was watching it recently, I noticed that one of the things he doesn’t do much of at first is blink. When Pierce enters the vault, Bucky’s not even blinking at all, simply staring straight ahead, completely lost in his memories and confusion, and trying to piece things together. But if you look at the gif above, you’ll notice that right after Pierce backhands him across the face, Bucky’s staring off toward the right, unblinking, until he begins to say, “The man on the bridge…”

In the dim recesses of my minor in speech communication brain, I remembered some information about cognitive function and blinking, so I looked up what might be going on in this scene, and it’s really fascinating. Blinking (aside from its physical requirement of keeping the eye moist) is related to certain cognitive processes; most people punctuate their speech with blinking between phrases and at the ends of sentences. People also time blinking so as not to interfere with receiving new cognitive input (less blinking while they’re solving a problem, for instance, and then blinking more when they’re done).

A 1933 study showed that the rate of blinking was low during tasks requiring concentration and intense mental activity. However, “unfocused or rapidly changing internal states such as disorientation, emotional excitement, frustration, and anxiety seem to be associated with high rates of blinking.”

In the above gif, you can see that Bucky doesn’t blink at all while he’s more focused on the memories that are assaulting him, but then as his internal state starts to change and he wants to talk, he blinks repeatedly when he says, “The man on the bridge.” He keeps blinking in quick succession as he remembers Steve saying, “Bucky?” and continues, turning his gaze up to Pierce: “I knew him.” The blinking has slowed at that point.

Once Pierce lies and then starts in on his little carrot speech, Bucky goes back to blinking only when his eyes change focus or he moves his gaze. Sometimes it’s not even a full blink, just a small movement of his eyelids, like below.

An example of these processes the researchers mentioned was: “While searching one’s memory for a name, one tends not to blink; then, when the name is located, blinking occurs.” Bucky basically, throughout Pierce’s bloviating, is continuing to process his internal emotions and retrieve information, so he doesn’t blink much at all. The researchers believed blinking is inhibited when activities are not dependent upon visual input – and here, all Bucky really does is half listen to Pierce yammering, not entirely focused on him, only glancing at him occasionally. And even more interestingly in terms of this scene, the lower blinking rate extends to visual memory as well, not just receiving new input. All those thoughts and feelings roiling in his mind are Bucky’s primary focus, not Pierce’s empty rhetoric. Until…

Bucky says something about Steve, and his memories, again. Then he blinks multiple times in rapid succession.

Here you can see him blink slowly once, turn his attention to Pierce’s face, and then say, blinking rapidly, “But I knew him.” He’s accessed those visual memories, he knows he knows something, and he doesn’t care about the new input from Pierce, so the higher blink rate is indicative of his emotional turmoil every bit as much as that little grimace is.

“The rapid changes in visual input level resulting from the closing and opening of the lids may cause massive interference in visual processing areas.” I mean, all I can do here is make flaily hands while I sit in a bathtub filled with the crystalline tears I’ve cried for Bucky.

When Pierce gives up on the carrot and goes for the stick, Bucky goes back to not blinking much at all. Even when they shove him back in the chair, he doesn’t blink.

I don’t know if Sebastian Stan or the directors knew any of this, or if Sebastian did this blinking thing deliberately as part of his acting process, but damn. He just deserves all the awards for such a subtle, amazing performance here. This incredible fucking movie: 16 months later and we can still find stuff to talk about. It’s agonizing and heartbreaking and I don’t think I’ll ever be over this scene.