Captain America: The First Avenger/Heartwarming

• Steve's Establishing Character Moment:

Dr. Erskine: Do you want to kill Nazis?
Steve Rogers: Is this a test?
Dr. Erskine: Yes.
Steve Rogers: I don't want to kill anybody; I don't like bullies, wherever they come from.

• This conversation between Steve and Peggy just before Steve goes off to rescue Bucky and the other prisoners.

Steve: I thought you said I was meant for much more than this. Did you mean it?
Peggy: Every word.

• Steve launching a one-man assult on a Hydra base just because there's a chance Bucky could be alive in there.
• Erskine telling Steve why he was chosen the night before the Super Soldier procedure.
• Howard Stark searching for Steve at the end of the movie, even though he knows it's hopeless. Especially since he's not very prone to displaying affection in any continuity, and Iron Man 2 shows how he struggled to show affection to his own son.
  • Even more heartwarming when they find the tesseract under the water, but Howard's assistant tells him that there's no sign of Steve anywhere. Howard's response? A defiant: "Keep searching."
  • It goes even further then you remember that Howard was a founding member of SHIELD, and the organization was probably named in Cap's honor.
• The film of one of the team's operations catches a glimpse of Peggy's photograph inside Steve's compass. Peggy's face lit up knowing Steve is still genuinely interested in/attached to her despite the incident with the secretary earlier.
  • Even more poignant is that Steve looks into the camera right after, as if to say, "This is for you."
• It's subtle and rather small compared to the samples above, but there's something poignant about Nick Fury actually showing some emotion for the newly awakened Cap, the very brief question of whether or not he's okay speak volumes... coming from Fury, something as small as that is quite powerful.
• Col. Phillips shooing people out so Peggy can talk to Steve one last time with privacy. Speaks volumes for a man that started out not even liking Rogers (pre or post serum)
• When Steve asks Bucky to join his team by asking if he wants to follow Captain America, in a somewhat jokey tone of voice. Bucky responds that he's not going to follow Captain America, he's going to follow Steve.
• Bucky refusing to leave without Steve when it looks like he's going to be trapped in the exploding Hydra base.
• Erskine and Steve's relationship. You can just see the two becoming closer. In some ways it almost felt like a of a father/son relationship by the end.
• Steve and Bucky's Man Hug the night before Bucky ships out.

"You're a punk."
"Jerk."

• The shot of kids playing with one of them holding a makeshift Captain America shield. He may be gone, but not forgotten.
• Steve looking at his goofy outfit which got him many taunts and such... and then said he actually grew to like it. And while his actual, eventual costume is different, he basically asked Howard to base it on his goofy outfit.
• The Howling Commandos' toast at the end of the war:

Falsworth: To the Captain.

• all five raise their glasses*

• During Bootcamp when we have the exchange on Why Steve vs Hogan so the CO tosses a grenade, and STEVE leaps to cover it, using his body as a shield to protect the trainees who taunted him!
• Schmidt a) didn't have Zola wear a poison tooth, and b) lent him his cool car to escape in. He's probably the closest thing Schmidt has to an actual friend. Poor genocidal maniac, he just wants a hug. And world domination.
  • He also gets visibly angry with Zola when Steve destroys yet another HYDRA project. When a HYDRA soldier is brought before him as well, Schmidt immediately executes him for his failure. Zola, however, just gets berated, and its clear that Schmidt doesn't want to hurt the little guy.
    • However, this could simply be because Zola seems to be the only one capable of producing the advanced weapons and gear HYDRA uses. The Skull likely doesn't want him harmed because he is still useful, rather than because of any friendship.
• The last that we see of Peggy, she's looking at Cap's file while the Strategic Scientific Reserve closes up shop. She opens the file and tearfully smiles at a photo of a pre-Serum Steve, indicating that Cap may be long gone, but she's certainly not forgotten about him.
• Gilmore Hodge, the soldier that disrespected Peggy earlier on and bullied Steve during training, is seen in the background applauding Cap after he brings back the 400 POWs. It's a two second long bit, and Hodge isn't actually the focus, but his body language doesn't imply he's just paying lip service, but thinking a sort of "Well, shit, he is a badass!"

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