[Inside a HYDRA facility]

JOHANN SCHMIDT: Are you ready, Dr. Zola?

Dr. ARNIM ZOLA: My machine requires the most delicate calibration. Forgive me if I seem overcautious.

JOHANN SCHMIDT: And are you certain that those conductors of yours can withstand the energy surge long enough for a transference.

Dr. ARNIM ZOLA: With this artifact, I am certain of nothing. I fear it may not work at all. [activates the machine.] Twenty percent... Forty... Sixty... Stabilizing at seventy percent.

JOHANN SCHMIDT: I have not come all this way... [he turns the dial to 100 percent] ...for safety, Doctor!

[The machine shakes but eventually stabilizes. After successfully collecting the power from the glowing Tesseract using Zola's machine, Schmidt and Zola look at each other]

JOHANN SCHMIDT: I must congratulate you, Arnim. Your designs do not disappoint. Though they may require some slight reinforcement.

Dr. ARNIM ZOLA: The exchange is stable. Amazing! This energy where its collected could power my design, all my designs. This will change the war.

JOHANN SCHMIDT: Dr. Zola, this will change the world.

[Cut scene into a military training camp. We see a women, brunette, dressed in a military uniform. Margaret Elizabeth "Peggy" Carter]

PEGGY CARTER: Recruits, attention! Gentlemen, I'm Agent Carter. I supervise all operations of this division.

GILMORE HODGE: What's with the accent, Queen Victoria?Thought I was signing up for the U.S. Army.
PEGGY CARTER: What's your name, soldier?

GILMORE HODGE: Gilmore Hodge, your Majesty.

PEGGY CARTER: Step forward, Hodge. [Hodge steps forward] Put your right foot forward.

GILMORE HODGE: Are we dancing? Cause I got a few moves I know you'll like. [suddenly Peggy punches him hard in the face]

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: Agent Carter.

PEGGY CARTER: Colonel Phillips.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: I can see that you are breaking in the candidates, that's good. [looks at Hodge] Get your ass up out of that dirt and stand up in that lineup at attention until somebody comes and tells you what to do.

GILMORE HODGE: Yes, Sir!

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: [addressing the new army recruits] General Patton has said that wars are fought with weapons but they are won by men. We are going to win this war because we have the best men. And because they're gonna get better. Much better. The Strategic Scientific Reserve is an allied effort made up of the best minds in the free world. Our goal is to create the best army in history. But every army starts with one man.

[Cut to training montage of Steve Rogers training with the recruits.

TRAINER: Rogers! Get up from there.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: [addressing the new army recruits] At the end of this week we will choose that man. He will be the first in a new breed of super-soldiers. And they, will personally escort Adolf Hitler to the gates of Hell.

[Cut back to training montage]
TRAINER: Pick up the pace, sweeties. Let's go, let's go. Double time. Come on, faster, faster. Move. Move. Squad halt. [everyone stops near a pole with a flag at its peak] That flag means you're only at the half way point. First man to bring it to me, gets to ride back with Agent Carter. Move, move! [every soldier tries to get up the pole but fails] Come on, get up there.
That's what you got? This army is in trouble. Get up there, Hodge. Come on, get up there. Nobody's got that flag in seventeen years. Come on, come on, fall in. Let's go, get back in formation. [Steve looks at the base of the pole and its peak] Rogers! I said, fall in.

[Steve takes out one of the large bars that make the pole stand tall. The pole drops on the ground and Steve takes the flag. He gives it to the trainer and joings Peggy on the ride home.

STEVE ROGERS: Thank you, Sir.

[The recruits are doing jumping jacks]

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: Faster ladies, come on. My grandmother has more life in her, God rest her soul. Move it! [He then talks to Erskine] You're not really thinking about picking Rogers, are you?

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: I am more than just thinking about it. He is the clear choice.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: When you brought a ninety pounds asthmatic onto my army base, I let it slide. I thought, what the hell? Maybe he'll be useful to you, like a gerbil. I never thought you'd pick him. [referring to Steve] Stick a needle in that kids arm and it's gonna go right through him. [watching Steve struggling whilst training with the other new recruits] Look at that? He's making me cry.

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: I am looking for qualities beyond the physical.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: Do you know how long it took to set up this project?

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: Yes, I know.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: And all the groveling I had to do in front of senator whats-his-name?

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: I know. I am well aware of your efforts.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: Then throw me a bone. Hodge passed every test we gave him. He's big, he's fast, he obeys orders. He's a soldier.
Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: He's a bully.

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: You don't win wars with niceness, doctor. [he takes a hand grenade] You win war with guts. [he throws the grenade at where the new recruits are training] Grenade! [all the soldiers move away quickly but Steve jumps on top of it covering it with his body]

STEVE ROGERS: Get away! Get back! [waits for the grenade to go off but nothing happens]

Soldier's voice: It's a dummy grenade. [Steve looks at Phillips and Erskine]

STEVE ROGERS: Is this is a test? [Peggy smirks in her corner. Erskine looks at Phillips as to confirm his point about choosing Steve]

Col. CHESTER PHILLIPS: He's still skinny.

[Steve and Erskine are back in their chambers, with a bottle of alcohol next to them]

STEVE ROGERS: Can I ask you a question?

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: Just one?

STEVE ROGERS: Why me?

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: I suppose that is the only question that matters. So many people forget that the first country that the Nazi's invaded was their own. You know, after the last war the... my people struggled. They... they felt weak. They felt small. And then Hitler comes along with the marching and the big show and the flags and the... and the... [he waves his hand] And he... he hears of me, my work and he finds me. And he says, you... he says you will make us strong. Well, I am not interested. So he sends the head of HYDRA, his research division. A brilliant scientist by the name of Johann Schmidt. Now, Schmidt is a member of the inner circle and he's ambitious. He and Hitler share a passion for a cult power and Teutonic myth. Hitler uses his fantasies to inspire his followers. But for Schmidt, it is not fantasy. For him, it is real. He has become convinced that there is a great power in the earth, left there by the gods, waiting to be seized by a superior man. So when he hears about my formula and what it can do, he cannot resist. [flashback of how Schmidt takes Erskine's formula and injects himself with it] Schmidt must become that superior man.

STEVE ROGERS: Did it make him stronger?

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: Yes. But, there were other effects. The serum was not ready. But more important, the man. The serum amplifies everything that is inside. So, good becomes great. Bad becomes worse. This is why you were chosen. Because a strong man, who has known power all his life, will lose respect for that power. But a weak man knows the value of strength, and knows compassion.

STEVE ROGERS: Thanks... I think.

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: Whatever happens tomorrow, you must promise me one thing. That you will stay who you are. Not a perfect soldier, but a good man. [Steve holds up his glass to toast]

STEVE ROGERS: To the little guys. [just as Steve's about to drink from his glass]

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: No! No! Wait! Wait! What I am doing? No! You have a procedure tomorrow. No fluids. [he pours the contents of Steve's glass into his own]

STEVE ROGERS: All right. We'll drink it after.

Dr. ABRAHAM ERSKINE: No! I don't have procedure tomorrow. Drink it after? Drink it now!