Samuel Thomas Wilson is a fictional character portrayed by Anthony Mackie in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) media franchise, based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name and known commonly by his original alias, the Falcon, and later as Captain America. Wilson is initially depicted as a veteran United States Air Force Pararescueman who specializes in the use of an advanced jet pack with articulated wings. A skilled combatant and tactician, Wilson becomes a close friend of Steve Rogers after helping him during the Hydra uprising, and is later recruited by him to join the Avengers.
During the fallout related to the Sokovia Accords, Wilson sides with Rogers and becomes a fugitive. He returns to the fold during the conflict against Thanos, falling victim to the Blip. After being restored to life, he is appointed by the now-retired Rogers to become the new Captain America, and is given a specially made version of the iconic shield. Believing he cannot live up to the mantle, Wilson surrenders the shield to the U.S. government, which appoints John Walker as Captain America. During the ensuing conflict with Walker and the Flag Smashers, Wilson, with assistance from Bucky Barnes, finally accepts the title and passes on his own mantle as Falcon to Joaquin Torres. As Captain America, Wilson comes into conflict with Thaddeus Ross, who is being manipulated by Dr. Samuel Sterns. After stopping Sterns and saving Ross, Wilson begins to reassemble the Avengers.
Wilson is a central figure in the MCU, having appeared in seven films . He is a primary protagonist of the miniseries The Falcon and the Winter Soldier (2021). The character is the first black Captain America in the MCU, and Mackie's portrayal of Wilson has been met with positive reception. He starred as the titular character in the film Captain America: Brave New World (2025)
Fictional character biography Early life and military service Wilson was born and raised in Delacroix, Louisiana, where his family operated a fishing business. He later became a United States Air Force (USAF) Pararescueman and served multiple tours in overseas military campaigns. He was selected to test a prototype military wingsuit alongside his friend Riley due to insurgents' use of RPGs preventing the use of helicopters. However, Riley was killed by an RPG and Wilson was unable to save him. After ending his Air Force service, Wilson became a trauma counselor aiding other returning veterans.
Helping Steve Rogers and becoming an Avenger
In 2014, Wilson befriends Steve Rogers while jogging in Washington, D.C., and later agrees to help him and Natasha Romanoff defeat Hydra. After receiving help from Maria Hill and Nick Fury, the trio travel to S.H.I.E.L.D.'s headquarters, the Triskelion, where they engage Bucky Barnes, who Hydra brainwashed and turned into the Winter Soldier, and Brock Rumlow. In the aftermath, Wilson offers to accompany Rogers in his mission to track down Barnes.
In 2015, Wilson attends the Avengers' party at Avengers Tower in New York City and reports back on his progress in finding Barnes to Rogers. Soon after, Wilson is recruited into the Avengers' new roster at the Avengers Compound alongside Wanda Maximoff, Vision, and James Rhodes.
A few months later, Wilson has a brief altercation with Scott Lang outside the Compound, where Lang takes a device necessary for his own mission. Wilson, impressed by Lang, starts looking for him as a possible recruit.
Sokovia Accords
In 2016, Wilson accompanies Rogers, Romanoff, and Maximoff on a mission in Lagos to stop Rumlow from obtaining a biological weapon. While there, Wilson debuts a bird-shaped robotic drone he has nicknamed Redwing. Later, at the Compound, he becomes the first Avenger to oppose the Sokovia Accords, a new law requiring the Avengers to be supervised by the United Nations that Rogers also opposes but Tony Stark supports. Wilson accompanies Rogers and attends Peggy Carter's funeral. Afterwards, he learns that Barnes is being framed for a bombing in Vienna and informs Rogers and Sharon Carter. Rogers and Wilson attempt to protect Barnes, only to be arrested alongside the Black Panther, T'Challa. When the true perpetrator of the bombing, Helmut Zemo, sets Barnes loose to protect his own escape, Wilson attempts to catch Zemo but is unsuccessful. Later, Barnes tells Rogers and Wilson about five other supersoldiers that he believes Zemo wants to unleash. At Wilson's suggestion, Rogers calls Clint Barton to recruit Lang and retrieve Maximoff. At an airport in Germany, they face off against Stark's faction of Avengers - Rhodes, Romanoff, T'Challa, Spider-Man, and Vision. As Rogers and Barnes escape in a Quinjet, Wilson, Barton, Maximoff, and Lang are captured and incarcerated at the Raft prison, where they are met by Stark, who convinces Wilson to tell him where Rogers and Barnes went in exchange for Stark going alone. Sometime later, Wilson, Barton, Lang, and Maximoff are broken out of the Raft by Rogers.
Infinity War and resurrection
In 2018, Wilson, Rogers, and Romanoff, who have been in hiding as fugitives, arrive in Scotland to rescue Maximoff and Vision from Proxima Midnight and Corvus Glaive, two of the Children of Thanos. Wilson pilots their Quinjet back to the Compound where they meet with Rhodes and Bruce Banner, before heading to Wakanda to get Vision help. They face off in a battle against the Outriders on the Wakandan fields. After the battle is over, they try to stop Thanos upon his arrival from completing the Infinity Gauntlet, but are unable to, and Wilson falls victim to the Blip.
In 2023, Wilson is restored to life and is brought via portal by Masters of the Mystic Arts to the ruins of the Compound to join the battle against an alternate version of Thanos. He alerted Cap to his presence through a speaker saying "On your left," a quote that Steve himself used when outrunning him during their initial meeting in Washington. A week later, Wilson attends Stark's funeral. The next day, with Barnes' approval, he receives Captain America's shield and mantle from an elderly Rogers.
Becoming Captain America Air Force work with Torres
In 2024, Wilson has returned to work as a contractor with the USAF with support from his close friend, USAF first lieutenant Joaquin Torres. He and Torres go on a mission to rescue a captive USAF captain from Georges Batroc in Tunisia. Wilson returns to Washington, D.C. and gives the shield to the U.S. government so it can be displayed in a Smithsonian exhibit dedicated to Captain America, believing that he is not worthy of taking up Captain America's mantle. While there, he reunites with Rhodes. He then returns to Delacroix to help his sister, Sarah, with the family business until Torres tells of him an attack carried out by the Flag Smashers, a terrorist group that believe life was better during the Blip. Wilson also learns that the U.S. government has named John Walker the new Captain America.
Partnering with Bucky Barnes
Wilson returns to the USAF base to meet with Torres, but he is approached by Barnes, who expresses disapproval that he surrendered the shield. Wilson and Barnes are taken to Munich by Torres to intercept the Flag Smashers and their leader Karli Morgenthau, only to discover they all have superhuman strength. Despite receiving aid from Walker and Lemar Hoskins, Wilson and Barnes are overpowered and the terrorists escape. Walker requests the pair join him in aiding the Global Repatriation Council (GRC) to quash the ongoing violent post-Blip revolutions, but they decline and head to Baltimore to meet Isaiah Bradley, a Korean War veteran and super-soldier whom Barnes encountered in battle decades prior, to find out how the Flag Smashers obtained super-soldier serum. They approach Bradley's house and meet his grandson, Elijah Bradley, while Bradley refuses to help them, revealing he was imprisoned and experimented on by the government for thirty years. Barnes convinces Wilson to travel to Berlin and meet with the imprisoned Zemo in an effort to obtain information about the Flag Smashers, during which Barnes secretly orchestrates Zemo's escape. Despite his reluctance, Wilson joins Barnes and Zemo in traveling to Madripoor under assumed names to locate the source of the new super-soldier serum. They learn from high-ranking criminal, Selby, that the Power Broker hired former Hydra scientist Dr. Wilfred Nagel to recreate the serum before the trio is compromised and Selby is killed. The trio are saved by Carter, who agrees to help them after Wilson offers to get her pardoned. They travel to Nagel's lab and confront him, learning that he created twenty vials of the serum before the Flag Smashers stole them. After Zemo kills Nagel and bounty hunters destroy the latter's lab, Wilson, Barnes, and Carter fight the bounty hunters until Zemo acquires a getaway car to help them escape. While Carter stays behind, Wilson calls Torres for intel and tells Barnes and Zemo they need to travel to Latvia to find Morgenthau.
Stopping the Flag Smashers
Wilson attempts to persuade Morgenthau to end the violence, but an impatient unstable Walker interrupts and she escapes. After she threatens Sarah, Wilson meets with Morgenthau, during which she asks him to join her movement. Walker and Hoskins intervene, leading to a fight in which Morgenthau accidentally kills Hoskins. Enraged by his friend's death and having taken the serum, Walker uses Captain America's shield to kill one of the Flag Smashers in front of a group of horrified bystanders, who film his actions.
Following this, Wilson and Barnes demand the shield from Walker, starting a fight in which Walker rips off Wilson's suit wings before Wilson and Barnes narrowly take the shield back. He and Barnes meet with Torres at a GRC refugee camp where Wilson realizes he needs to be Captain America and passes on his Falcon suit and mantle over to Torres. He then revisits Isaiah, but the latter states his belief that a black man cannot, and should not, be Captain America. Wilson returns home to Louisiana and helps fix the family boat, with assistance from several locals as well as Barnes, who delivers a new Captain America suit he acquired from the Wakandans. While training with the shield, Wilson and Barnes agree to work together as friends.
After receiving a lead from Torres, Wilson flies to New York City in his new Captain America suit to save the GRC from the Flag Smashers with help from Barnes, Carter, and Walker. Wilson attempts to reason with Morgenthau one more time but failed, so Carter kills her when she points a gun at him. After carrying out Morgenthau's body, Wilson convinces the GRC to postpone their impending vote to force the relocation of Blip-displaced individuals and make efforts to help them instead. Wilson then visits the Bradley's again, having convinced the government to create a statue honoring Bradley as part of the Smithsonian's Captain America exhibit. He then takes them to see it. Afterward, Wilson returns home and joins his family, Barnes, and his community for a cookout.
Conflict with the Leader and restarting the Avengers
In 2026, Wilson is at Abe's Bar in Baltimore and watches the television as it broadcasts a rally for Ross, who has become the next President of the United States.
In 2027, Wilson and Torres successfully intercept an illegal sale of adamantium in Mexico. Wilson takes Torres to Baltimore and introduces him to Bradley at a gym. At the same time, Wilson receives a call from Ross inviting him and Torres to the White House. He works out a deal where he can bring along Bradley.