Whether you see these two as friends or something more, there were many heartbreaking moments between them throughout the Captain America trilogy.
When Bucky had to leave to war and Steve couldn’t go
In Captain America: The First Avenger, Bucky is enlisted into the United States Army while Steve, because of his health issues, is not able to do so. During the last night before Bucky is deployed, they go on a double date to the World’s Fair and end up saying goodbye as Steve is looking to try to trick his way into the army once again.
While Steve is also partially upset he can’t also serve his country, he’s also clearly worried he won’t be there to protect Bucky.
Steve going to rescue Bucky and the Howling Commandos
After Steve is given the serum and turned into a supersoldier, it takes a while before he really becomes Captain America in more than just an advertising sense.
However, during a trip to the front lines, he discovers that Bucky and the rest of the 107th were captured in Azanno. Steve is determined to rescue Bucky, even though he isn’t even sure he’s alive, to the point that he’s willing to walk to save him.
Bucky falling from the train
For much of the rest of The First Avenger, Steve, Bucky, and the rest of the Howling Commandos spend their time fighting back against HYDRA. However, during the attempt to infiltrate the train carrying Armin Zola, Bucky falls into the ravine.
Steve understandably believes Bucky is dead after this, and his reaction to seeing his best friend die in front of him when he couldn’t see him, is quite heart-wrenching.
When Steve realized Bucky was still alive
On the other hand, when Steve finally realized that Bucky was still alive somehow, this moment was also heartbreaking in its own way.
During the fight on the overpass, The Winter Soldier’s mask comes off, and Steve is shocked to see his dearest friend Bucky. He clearly is filled with guilt and pain afterward when he realized that he could have saved Bucky all this time but didn’t.
Steve refusing to fight Bucky and dropping his shield
At the end of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Steve is forced to fight The Winter Soldier in order to stop the helicarriers. After he disables the weapons, he refuses to fight Bucky.
He even drops his shield in a rather meaningful and symbolic manner and tells Bucky to “finish it” because he’d rather die than have to hurt him.
Bucky rescuing Steve from the Potomac and then leaving
While Bucky might still be under the brainwashing of HYDRA, the bond between these two is so strong that Steve refusing to fight him somehow brings back memories for Bucky of his former self.
After the helicarriers fall and these two end up in the Potomac, Bucky ends up saving Steve from drowning in the river. While he clearly doesn’t know exactly what’s going on, he knows that he needs to save Steve.
When Steve found Bucky’s apartment in Romania
After Bucky flees from HYDRA, Steve doesn’t know where he is but enlists Sam Wilson’s help to find him. However, it’s not until Bucky is wrongfully accused of the bomb attack on the U.N. that Steve is able to find him in Romania.
Steve is clearly worried about Bucky and doesn’t want him to get hurt, and the tension and pain between these two is palpable.
When Bucky went into cryo in Wakanda
Despite Steve basically going to war with the entire United Nations and the Avengers in large part to try to save Bucky, Captain America: Civil War ends with Steve losing his best friend once again. Bucky elects to go under cryogenic sleep in order to get the trigger words removed from his brain.
However, seeing them be separated once again is quite sad. This might have made sense, but it’s unfortunate the movies never let these two spend even one scene just hanging out after The First Avenger.
Steve losing Bucky in the Thanos snap
The number of times that Steve loses Bucky, whether through death of sorts or other ways, is pretty high. Many fans feel like this was done so that the two characters wouldn’t share much screen in case people felt they read as a romantic couple.
But, regardless of the reasoning, when Bucky is finally happy in Wakanda and starting to heal, it’s heart-wrenching for both Steve and fans to see him be taken away by Thanos. The sadness of this moment is made clear in the film when Steve watches Bucky disintegrate before his eyes and isn’t able to do anything to stop it.
When Steve left Bucky to go to the past
One thing that truly upset and bothered many fans of these two characters was when Captain America chose to use time travel, against the rules and parameters of time travel in the film, to be with Peggy. While many still feel this was an out of character decision fueled by a desire to make sure Steve seemed straight, there’s no denying it was heartbreaking in canon to see Bucky sad by Steve’s decision. Sadly, these two were separated by the narrative once again, and they never got a chance to actually just be around one another and have some sort of happiness even as friends.
