Captain America may have been more right than any of us imagined.
You know, the US government does a lot of shady and, frankly, stupid stuff in the name of “keeping us safe” from “terrorists.” They also do some smart things and completely morally unambiguous stuff. This is not one of those.
In documents leaked to The Intercept (a site devoted to analyzing documents leaked, first and foremost, by Edward Snowden) it appears the CIA has created a monster. One of their data-collection programs is literally named “Hydra.”
[Spoilers from “Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier” and “Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.” ahead]
For those unfamiliar, Hydra (or sometimes HYDRA) is the name of the terrorist organization founded by the Red Skull bent on world domination. Like the mythical creature they’re named after, their motto is “Cut off one head, Two more take its place.”
So, when naming government programs and databases, some nerd at the CIA totally missed the point of Hydra being, you know, the bad guys. Or, it was named by some clueless schmuck who thought “Hydra” was a cool name for a government database designed to, you know, be a multi-tentacled beast that is essentially unstoppable. But even in Greek myth, the hydra was a bad guy.
For those of us who enjoyed “Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier” earlier this year (still my favorite movie of 2014 so far) know that Hydra, thought defeated after WWII, came back with a vengeance. Not only had the organization infiltrated all levels of government and national security, they were, in fact, being guided by a, errrr. . . giant, self-aware government database set up by Nazi scientist Arnim Zola. Well, actually, he downloaded himself into the program, so the database kind of was Arnim Zola.
Regardless, Hydra. Giant database used to track terrorists. And you’ll also remember that this Arnim Zola inspired/run computer algorithm was the backbone for Operation Insight, the program which would use three giant helicarriers to identify “terrorists” and “evildoers” based on a super-smart algorithm, and then kill them from above.
So what could go wrong with a CIA database named after Hydra, amirite? Not like they have drones that kill terrorists and evildoers, too. Ok, well, at least they don’t have helicarriers. . . yet.
Hydra managed to infiltrate every level of government, including the leadership of S.H.I.E.L.D. We also saw it proliferate across the internet, as suddenly all of my Facebook friends were sharing “Hail Hydra” memes and generally talking about how awesome this was.
So, yes, Captain America was right. Which is super scary, if you think about it. Remember that The Winter Soldier wasn’t actually the main villain in “Captain America 2: The Winter Soldier.” Which was why the film was so good: it had an incredible amount to say about the current state of our military/intelligence and warns us to be on guard against things like, well, Hydra.
Regardless of whether the CIA’s secret database was a tonedeaf homage or not, it shows how remarkably prescient the screenwriters and story consultants for Cap 2 were.
No word from the Disney corporation if they’re going to sue the CIA for trademark infringement.
Did you miss Cap 2 or want to see it again? Good news: it’s available for streaming and download starting Tuesday August 19 (why, that’s in just four days!) and in stores on DVD/Blu-Ray September 9th.
