WARNING: This article contains major spoilers for Avengers: Endgame, now in theaters.
Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice earned harsh criticism for its dour tone and characterization. Among the film's widely panned moments was when the Dark Knight was stopped from striking the fatal blow with a kryptonite spear by the Man of Steel's mention of "Martha," coincidentally the name shared by their mothers. What was intended as an emotional turning point instead became a laughable exchange that spawned a meme. Interestingly Avengers: Endgame carves out a similar moment in which a namedrop saves a hero's life.
However, in this case, the execution is better, resulting in Endgame hitting the target that Dawn of Justice missed.
In Batman v Superman, it felt like dumb luck that the Man of Steel said "Don't let him kill Martha!" as the Dark Knight's heel pressed down on his neck. The name triggered memories of the death of Bruce Wayne's own mother, Martha, in Crime Alley. However, what might have seemed like a good idea on paper feel flat onscreen.
However, Endgame makes its namedrop count and, more importantly, it works logically as Captain America's solution to a life-threatening situation. It arrives during the time heist in which Chris Evans' Steve Rogers travels back to the Battle of New York in 2012's The Avengers to acquire the Mind Stone from Loki's scepter while Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark pursues the Space Stone, contained within the Tesseract. The mission starts out a success, but as Tony runs into problems in Stark Tower, Steve encounters an obstacle of his own: the Captain America from 2012, who mistakes him for a shape-shifting Loki.
The two Captain Americas engage in a brutal brawl, which leads them to fall a few floors to the ground, where the past Cap gains the upper hand and begins to choke future Cap. With his fading breath, future Cap whispers, "Bucky is alive!," which throws his 2012 counterpart off his game, and permits future Cap to knock him unconscious with the scepter.
Had future Capt been killed or imprisoned, the heist would have been for nothing, and their Infinity Stones quest ended. At this point, he doesn't care about potentially altering the timeline; he simply needed a chance for escape so he could return to 2024.
It wasn't until 2014's Captain America: The Winter Soldier that Steve Rogers learned his best friend Bucky Barnes was still alive, so it makes sense that information would be jarring. After all, it's something not even Loki would likely know.
Future Cap may have broken some important time-travel rules with his Bucky revelation -- but, hey, like he said, whatever it takes.
Directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, Avengers: Endgame stars Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, Chris Evans as Captain America, Mark Ruffalo as Bruce Banner, Chris Hemsworth as Thor, Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow, Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye, Brie Larson as Captain Marvel, Paul Rudd as Ant-Man, Don Cheadle as War Machine, Karen Gillan as Nebula, Danai Gurira as Okoye and Bradley Cooper as Rocket, with Gwyneth Paltrow Pepper Potts, Jon Favreau as Happy Hogan, Benedict Wong as Wong, Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie and Josh Brolin as Thanos.