Though the primary conflict in Captain America: Civil War is between Captain America and Iron Man, the film spends a lot of time on Daniel Brühl’s Zemo, a mysterious villain whose plan pits the two ideologically-opposed heroes against each other. But his is a plan similar to many other movie villain’s (cough*Lex Luthor*cough), in that it makes no damn sense. He bombs a building dressed as Bucky Barnes in the hope that Captain America will take the side of his old friend and Tony Stark the side of the government pursuing him — a strange leap in logic that luckily coincides with their disagreement about administrative oversight.
Of course, he gets captured only so he can flee again and lure the pair (luckily Cap and Tony come alone) to the tundra to reveal security footage of Bucky killing Tony’s mother (where did he get that footage?) so Tony will snap. It’s a convoluted revenge plan that logically should have gone wrong dozens of times.
