tbh I still think Brock Rumlow was an interesting character and upon further examination way more unsettling a villain than most to me because like. Letâs be real, the second you lay eyes on Robert Redford as Pierce monologuing in his pristine suit and glass office high up in the sky he just screams Evil Politician! at you. You can see it coming a mile away. Meanwhile Rumlow isâŚ.Just Some Guy. On the surface, heâs just some side dude. Heâs not enhanced, heâs not in some major position of power, heâs just someone whoâs really good at what he does and seems dedicated enough to the work and functions well with his team. He respects Steve, might admire him even, but not so much that he gets starry eyed like everybody else. Heâs lighthearted but focused, heâs no nonsense, heâs the everyman Steve can relate to way more than spooks like Natasha or Fury.
And okay, maybe what Rumlow does for a living is beat intimidate and kill people, but itâs not like thatâs the primary objective, right, because SHIELD are the good guys and this is what Steve does now, too, anyway; except that Steve doesnât really use any weapons other than the shield, he holds back, he doesnât carry a gun anymore which is usually fine since heâs dangerous enough without it. But when that leaves him vulnerable, heâs covered: Rumlowâs got his six, and he does it well, and he earns some of his trust. This is familiar to Steve.
And maybe Rumlowâs a little too good, fine, maybe he shoots a guy in the head within the first fifteen minutes of the movie when he doesnât necessarily have to and then cracks jokes immediately after but thatâs alright too, because that guy had Steve at gunpoint and that guy was Bad whereas Rumlow is One of the Good Guys just doing his job, right. Rumlowâs joking around because heâs used to the violence, theyâre all used to it, and this is just how it works. Theyâre just soldiers doing the grunt work and following orders, and this is familiar, too.
Except that theyâre not soldiers and this isnât a war, except that the work is for an intelligence agency whose job it is to hoard and steal information and monitor civilians and orchestrate and sabotage and meddle in internal and external state affairs. Except that the Good Guys, in reality, are extremely grey at best. Except that many of the Good Guys turn out to be Nazis on top of everything else, and itâs not that far of a stretch.
But when itâs all starting to unravel, youâre still thinking well maybe some of these guys didnât know. Maybe they didnât do it out of individual belief, and if faced with the right choice, they can be redeemed.
That is until you realize that Rumlow maybe didnât respect Steve and what he did so much as what Steve could do if only Steve werenât âweakâ in other ways, if Steve had chosen the right side. That it not being personal is less a cop out and more a taunt the same way just following orders has always been, for Rumlow and many many men that came before him and will continue to come after. Until the vault when, by the most charitable of interpretations, Rumlow looks at the Winter Soldier letting himself be smacked around and crying and getting shocked like heâs maybe a little unnerved (if not just downright fascinated) by the whole thing, but not enough that it really changes anything for him, because the end justifies the means and itâs not really his problem, anyway.
Until Sam shows up and Rumlow looks at him like a bird of prey and says This is gonna hurt with a fucking smile on his face, and then you think: shit, man, obviously. How was it not clear from the start.
To me, what makes someone like Rumlow a good villain, even a side one, is not that heâs straight up Insane & Evilâ˘ď¸ or suffering from Tragic Backstory Syndrome or all hopped up on magic superstrength juice or whatever, but precisely the fact that heâs Just Some Guy with a cockroach survival mentality who operates well within the established system and just so happens to be really good at his job - a job that he mightâve even joined thinking it was for a good cause, or because he had something to prove, or simply because it gave him one hell of an excuse to be a bully. Because he either wholeheartedly believes in HYDRA or he just doesnât give much of a shit either way so long as he gets his due in the end, and both are just as bad.
Because when you strip away all the grand scale superhero theatrics, youâve seen this before. Youâve seen Rumlows in your school and in your neighborhood and in the military and the cop car patrolling your street. Theyâre the ones who sometimes say or do somewhat offputting shit but you figure itâs fine because theyâre otherwise real nice or charismatic or normal looking, or maybe they work a job thatâs framed as helpful or protective or inherently good despite the power dynamics at play, or they share your background and interests and you chat about the weather being crap this time of year.
And every time one of them turns out to be a violent, hateful piece of shit, youâre still somehow surprised then, too, when you really shouldnât be.
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