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Quotes tagged “Operation Paperclip”

“[Rogers and Romanoff have booted up an old computer in an abandoned WWII S.H.I.E.L.D base for information... and discover that the computer AI is Dr. Arnim Zola's preserved consciousness]

Steve: How did you get here?

Dr. Arnim Zola: Invited.

Natasha: It was Operation Paperclip after World War II. S.H.I.E.L.D recruited German scientists with strategic values.

Zola: They thought I could help their cause. I also helped my own.

Steve: HYDRA died with the Red Skull.

Zola: Cut off one head, two more shall take its place.

Steve: Prove it.

Zola: Accessing archive. [The computer screen shows them old footage of the Red Skull and the original S.H.I.E.L.D founders] HYDRA was founded on the belief that humanity could not be trusted with its own freedom. What we did not realize was that if you try to take that freedom, they resist. The war taught us much. Humanity needed to surrender its freedom willingly. After the war, S.H.I.E.L.D was founded and I was recruited. The new HYDRA grew. A beautiful parasite inside S.H.I.E.L.D. For seventy years, HYDRA has been secretly feeding crisis, reaping war. And when history did not cooperate, history was changed. [The computer screen shows field reports with photos of the Winter Soldier, carrying out top-level assassinations for HYDRA]

Natasha: That's impossible, S.H.I.E.L.D would have stopped you.

Zola: Accidents will happen. [The computer screen shows them HYDRA had killed Howard and Maria Stark making it look like a car accident, along with the recent death of Fury] HYDRA created a world so chaotic that humanity is finally ready to sacrifice its freedom to gain its security. Once the purification process is complete, HYDRA's new world order will arise. We won, Captain. Your death amounts to the same as your Life; a zero sum. [In anger Steve suddenly smashes the computer screen. Zola's face reappears on another] As I was saying…

Steve: What's on this drive?

Zola: Project Insight requires insight. So I wrote an algorithm.

Natasha: What kind of algorithm? What does it do?

Zola: The answer to your question is fascinating. Unfortunately, you shall be too dead to hear it. [bunker door starts to close; Steve throws his shield to keep it open, but it bounces off and the door closes]

Natasha: [checks her phone] Steve, we got a bogey! Short-range ballistic. Thirty seconds, tops.

Steve: Who fired it?

Natasha: [grimly] S.H.I.E.L.D.

Zola: I'm afraid I have been stalling, Captain. Admit it, it's better this way. [Steve pulls out a grate in the floor and jumps through it with Natasha] We are, both of us, out of time.

[the missile hits, reducing the bunker to rubble]

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