Synopsis:

When Disney published Falcon and the Winter Soldier, they attempted to portray the character of John Walker as a villain in post. This involved editing ominous music over scenes that the character is in, to try and drive the point home that you, the audience, are not supposed to root for this guy. This never sat right with me, and apparently lots of other people feel the same way, as John Walker inadvertently became one of the most beloved Marvel characters in fan circles following his role in the show. I've spent the last 14 hours editing Falcon and the Winter Soldier down from a nearly 7-hour series into a tight 2:30 film. This is not a condoning of piracy or an encouragement to watch illegal content. I did this simply as a creative editing/storytelling exercise. My goal for the edit was to shift John Walker to the forefront as the main character and Sam/Bucky as secondaries/antagonists. I found the story to be a lot more compelling this way, as it becomes the story of two men struggling with what it means to take on the burden of the Captain America mantle. When I originally watched the series, I found John Walker to be an interesting character. Putting the music choices of the show aside, when you step back and look at John's actions, he's not some horrible evil racist like the writers painted him to be. From the moment we're introduced to Walker, we're shown a man who is beloved by his friends, family, and country. He's fiercely loyal to the United States of America, and while noble, this character trait ultimately betrays him later on. Sam and Bucky hate him because of the government's choice, not John's, to turn him into Captain America after Sam gave up the shield. This plus the compounding pressure of not wanting to let his country down drives him mad, leading to that short outburst of "DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" early in the series. But he regains control and continues his mission. Even when faced with the temptation of taking the super soldier serum, he never considers doing it for selfish reasons. There's a scene in Episode 4 where Lamar and John are discussing the ramifications of taking the serum. Up until this point, John and Lamarr have been thrown to the dogs by their government, assigned immediately after his induction into the role of Captain America to neutralize a terrorist organization. I found their final conversation in the cafe to be a really investing character moment. WALKER: If you had the chance to take the serum, would you? LAMAR: Hells, yeah. WALKER: You wouldn’t be worried about how it might… How it might change you? LAMAR: (SIGHS) I mean… Power just makes a person more of themselves, right? Karli Morgenthau. Steve Rogers. WALKER: And me? LAMAR: You already have three Medals of Honor. You consistently make the right decisions in the heat of battle. WALKER: Yep. Three badges of excellence to make sure I never forget the worst day of my life. We both know that the things that we had to do in Afghanistan to be awarded those medals felt a long way from being right. Being Cap is the first time I’ve had the chance to do something that actually feels right. LAMAR: But God! Imagine how many lives we could have saved that day if we had that serum. WALKER: I know. I know. This scene reads as introspection between two men under increasing pressure from all sides, debating whether or not to make a choice that would permanently alter the course of history. John's overzealousness and eagerness to get the job done results in his best friend being killed by terrorists, and in a moment of naturally built-up rage, he murders a man who he thinks responsible for Lamar's death. Some claims state that the man Walker killed had surrendered prior to his murder. Taking previous context into account, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Walker, Sam, Bucky and Lamarr are fighting an organization of supersoldiers that want to restore the world to the way it was after half the population disappeared. They used super soldier serum to enforce their demands upon civilians. The man Walker killed said “It wasn’t me!” in reference to the death of Lamar. But here’s the kicker. This man is a super soldier, and reactionary terrorist, in clear shot of innocent civilians. Realistically, if Walker were to stand down, the man would attack him or any civilians within grabbing distance. It makes perfect sense then, that Walker acted immediately and killed the man. He didn't do this because he's racist. He did it because his best friend, who is a black man, was killed by a foreign adversary with performance-enhancing drugs running through his vains. But even after the court hearing and being forcefully removed from the role of Captain America, he doesn't wallow in self-pity. He goes to meet Lamar's family, break the news to them, and apologize profusely for putting their son in harm's way. Then he decides to run solo. He makes his own, weaker version of the Shield, and then rejoins the fight, intending to finish the mission. At the climax of the battle, when given the chance to choose between saving civilians or catching the Flag Smashers, he ultimately made the choice to let the Captain America persona go, and opts to save the civilians. In conclusion, John Walker's story is one of the everyman, who is placed into a position of power, fails horribly, but still gets back up and does his job, even when the entire world is against him. Steve Rogers would absolutely have done the same, albeit with more of a cooled temperance.

Intentions:

With all that being said, my goal for this edit is to re-work the narrative of Falcon and the Winter Soldier to shift focus more to the story of Walker. His rise, fall, and redemption. This includes heavy scene cuts and subplot removals.

Change List:

EPISODE 1 -Cut out most of episode 1 aside from White House Smithsonian scene and reveal of John Walker. -Recorded and masked tv segment announcing the death of Steve Rogers with AI voices from Weights.gg EPISODE 2 -Change Marvel Logos color from red to blue -Cut Locker Room scene for now, it’ll come back later -Replace “Falcon and the Winter Soldier” title with “Captain America: John Walker” -Cut to Locker Room from lingering shot of Bucky -Cut directly to chase in Munich, Germany. -Cut Bucky saying “shit” -Cut “I always wanted to do that” -Cut flower tumble after fall -Cut “I’m ok”. I want to keep the terrorists role minimized and uncomplicated. -Cut thumbs up -Cut “Sorry about Red Wing” “No You’re Not” -Cut “I’m kinda the government” -Cut from “Does he always stare like that?” to “Stop the car”. Really want to play up Bucky’s bitterness about the shield -Cut out first Flag Smashers refuge scene -Cut “Black Falcon” exchange -Cut “This guy bothering you?” cop exchange. Cops are simply there to pick up Bucky. -Cut “soul stare” banter, we go immediately to staring contest. -Cut therapy after “Can’t you understand that I did what I thought was right?” -Cut Heist scene EPISODE 3 -Cut “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM?” -Cut entire Sharon plotline. Go directly from Xemo and Sam encounter to John and Lamar investigating the prison break. Edit death of Mama Donya to be completely silent save for some ambience and a heart monitor flatlining. EPISODE 4 -Cut Wakanda flashback -Cut “you killed Nagel” From here it gets kinda fuzzy. I had to go back and try to figure out how Sam found out about Mama Donya. It’s unclear, so then it was a matter of resequencing as much as I could without losing track of the plot. -Cut the Funeral speech for Donya -Trim Sam/Terrorist conversation -Use of shoddy rotoscope to replace Sharon's name with Joaqin's on the computer. -Cut from “We kill Captain America” to Walker coming to arrest Zemo -Cut “I can’t believe he pulled an El Chapo” -Dubbed editor’s voice to replace Sharon’s voice over intercom, meant to represent Joaqin. New line is “Heads up, Sam: -Cap’s here. It’s either an ambush or a hunt”. EPISODE 5 -Cut a bunch of the fishing boat stuff -Rearrange Walker meeting with Lamar’s family to be earlier on -Cut fixing boat scenes -Cut Bucky apologizing for Sam being a black man carrying the burden of the shield -Streamline Bucky and Sam’s heart-to-heart -Intersperse Training montage with Flag Smashers and John Walker welding EPISODE 6 -Cut from Sam opening the case to immediately flying to save the day -Cut “I thought Captain America was on the moon” -Cut Power Broker vs Rosenthal scene -Completely cut Sam’s speech to the senators. -Hint at Power Broker in after-credits scene.

Special Thanks:

LumdyFox