Continuity mistake: After Steve and Sam finish their jog, Sam is lying against a tree. When Sam says to Steve that he ran thirteen miles in 30 minutes, his hand is placed on his leg. In the next shot, his hand has suddenly moved way further up his leg. (00:01:25)
Continuity mistake: There is a sweat stain on Sam's jumper after he finishes jogging with Steve. As he lies against a tree, the stain is around the neck area and some of it is partway down his jumper. When Steve helps him up, the stain has reduced to just sweat around his neck. (00:01:40)
Factual error: As Captain America and the S.H.I.E.L.D team heads to the S.H.I.E.L.D ship, Lemurian Star in the Indian Ocean, both coordinates are North. Longitude has to be E/W and the coordinates link to the Arabian Sea, to the north of the Indian Ocean. (00:03:30)
Factual error: Just before they start to discuss the Mobile Launch Platform that has been hijacked in the Indian ocean, their GPS position is displayed on the bottom right corner of the screen INDIAN OCEAN Lat: 16N 55' 12.06" Long: 72N 56' 7.09 Longitude should be East/West, not North/South, plus the notation is incorrect. It should have been 16°55'12.06"N, 72°56'7.09"E. (00:03:43)
Continuity mistake: When Steve leaps from the helicopter and onto the boat, he lands in the water. As soon as he gets on board the boat, he is completely dry. (00:05:00)
Revealing mistake: After Steve has made his way onto the boat, he hits two of the terrorists with his shield then continues running and starts a fight with another three terrorists. When Steve punches the third terrorist, his hand only goes as far as his knee. With the terrorist lying on the floor, the punch could never have hit him, but the terrorist is still knocked out anyway. (00:05:50)
Continuity mistake: When Steve is on the boat, and knocks out all the terrorists, one last terrorist points a gun at him before being shot by Rumlow. In the first shot, the terrorist is standing in front of Steve, but by the next shot, he is suddenly standing behind Steve. This has nothing to do with the camera angles. (00:06:45)
Continuity mistake: After Steve has taken out all the terrorists guarding the boat, the other SHIELD agents land on the boat in parachutes. As soon as Romanoff lands on the boat, she continues walking with Steve and begins conversation. From the reverse angle, Romanoff is visibly in front of Steve, but from the sudden following shot from the side, she is suddenly standing behind him. (00:06:55)
Continuity mistake: After all of the SHIELD agents have landed on the boat, the various hostages are shown in the kitchen held at gun point by the terrorists. The first shot shows a male hostage tied up at the very back at the room with his head slightly shifted to the right. In a sudden close-up, just before the shot pans over to Agent Sitwell, that same male hostage at the back of the room no longer has his head shifted whatsoever. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: After the SHIELD agents have rescued the hostages, Steve begins a fight with one of the terrorists who tells him to take off his helmet. Steve takes it off and drops it beside him, leaving it on the floor. After Steve kicks the terrorist and runs over to him, you'll see in the next shot, that the helmet is still right beside him, despite his run. (00:11:35)
Continuity mistake: When Steve is fighting the terrorist who told him to remove his helmet, the fight begins out in the open. Steve is then shown in one shot kicking the terrorist enough times he falls back into a compartment with loads of weaponry. Then in an instant, they are suddenly back to fighting out in the open and most certainly not in the compartment. This has nothing to do with the angle of the camera. (00:11:45)
Continuity mistake: When Steve and Romanoff are lying against the knocked over blinds after dodging the grenade, there is a box shown with some papers in it between them. The first shot shows a white piece of paper sticking furthest out of the box. Next shot, the furthest piece of paper sticking out of the box is now a peach coloured piece of paper. (00:12:45)
Continuity mistake: After Steve and Romanoff dodge the grenade the terrorist throws at them. Romanoff is shown to be lying against some knocked out blinds that are closed in. In the next shot the blinds are suddenly closed out and her head is now only lying against half of them - the other half of her head is shown lying against the wall. Steve's facial expression also differs between shots, and Romanoff's head moves position. (00:12:45)
Factual error: The location in DC has latitude and longitude both as N/S - longitude is an east/west factor. (00:13:05)
Continuity mistake: When confronting Nick Fury about Black Widow's mission aboard the Lemurian Star, Cap puts his hands on his hips. In the next shot, his hands are down at his sides. The two shots alternate several times, showing the error. (00:14:20)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where Nick Fury is showing Steve the new Helicarriers, just as Nick says "The satellites can read a terrorist's DNA before he steps outside the spider hole", the two are shown turning around. Nick is shown turning around almost completely and Steve is shown only turning half way. In the next shot, Nick is suddenly turned only half way, facing Steve. (00:16:20)
Character mistake: When Steve is at the Smithsonian, he reads the biography of his friend Bucky. At the start of the description, the bio reads "Born in 1916...", but at the bottom of the description, it reads "Bucky Barnes: 1917 - 1944." (00:18:35)
Continuity mistake: When Steve is talking with Peggy, just as Peggy says "My only regret is that you didn't get to live yours", there are a few vertical line shaped creases on her pillow. The shot then cuts over to Steve, but when the shot cuts back to Peggy, the vertical crease furthest away from Peggy has decreased and the vertical crease in the middle of the creases has slightly increased. (00:19:40)
Continuity mistake: After Alexander Pierce has finished having a conversation with the World Security Council, he goes over to Nick Fury and starts talking with him. When Pierce says "Nothing some earmarks can't fix", his head is shown to be perfectly forwards and still. Next shot, his head is suddenly shifted to the right a bit. (00:23:30)
Continuity mistake: When the police ambush Fury, one of the police cars rams Fury's car from behind and its hood is wedged underneath Fury's rear bumper. But when Fury puts the car into drive to flee from the police, the police car has suddenly backed up a few feet. Fury's AI accelerates the car forward but doesn't move the police car that's blocking Fury in from in front either, and this can be seen because the battering ram is still next to the driver side window. (00:27:50 - 00:29:50)
Answer: Here's what he said in an interview: The thing with him is, you don't know if he's making up a story to get you to do a certain thing or if he's actually giving you a piece of himself. The great thing for me about that particular story is that is what my grandfather did when I was a kid. He actually ran an elevator in a hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn. That was his job. I used to go down there and sit in the elevator with him while he took people up and down. He got tipped that way and had money in his pocket or in a bag - and a little gun. He always had a pistol with him, some brass knuckles. I did not write that, it was just in there. It totally just happened that way. I chuckled about it. I was trying to figure out if I had talked about my grandfather in some interview somewhere years ago or something and somebody read it and put that in there. I never found out if that was the case. I think it's a true story for him.