Captain America: Civil War is the single most important film in the MCU in terms of solidifying the continuity of everything that comes before and after. This is part 13 of a 20 part video series discussing when each film in the MCU takes place. So why is Civil War so important?

“Mission Report, December 16, 1991”

After a bit of buildup from several films prior to this, we finally get some consequence to these events that occurred on December 16th, 1991. That, of course, being the day that the Winter Soldier was seen killing Howard and Maria Stark.

We jump forward to the Present Day, in Lagos Nigeria, where Cap and his team try to take down Crossbones, and end up making the situation arguably worse for themselves. This later spurs on the Sokovia Accords into affect. We have a newspaper that claims this is 2016, our first confirmation of the year. It claims that on Sunday, March 22nd, there’ll be an opportunity to vote. Considering this is a Saturday, the current day is on March 21st.

After that event, over a week has passed and the news claims the Lagos event took place the previous month, meaning this is now early April when the Sokovia Accords are introduced to the Avengers. This event, and the dialogue surrounding it, is perhaps the most important date tying the rest of the MCU together chronologically. Secretary Ross claims “5 years ago I had a heart attack,” probably shortly after the events of The Incredible Hulk in 2011. He confirms the Avengers took place in 2012. “For the past 4 years you’ve operated with unlimited power, and no supervision.” The Vision confirms that Iron Man took place in 2008. “In the 8 years that Mr. Stark announced himself as Iron Man, the number of known enhanced persons has grown exponentially.” Tony confirms Age of Ultron took place in 2015. “He decided to spend his summer building sustainable housing for the poor, guess where: Sokovia.” Falcon confirms The Winter Soldier took place in 2014. “Aren’t you the same woman who told the government to kiss her ass a few years ago?” It’s literally so much pertinent information to the timeline and considering the film’s relevancy and memorability over other films in the series, it cements them in canon. After this event, Peggy Carter dies in her sleep.

3 days later the UN convenes to ratify the Sokovia Accords and Peggy Carter’s funeral takes place. The Accords meeting is bombed, killing King T’Chaka and The Winter Soldier was immediately held responsible. The next day Cap saves Bucky from being attacked by the police and T’Challa, who introduces himself as the Black Panther.

Roughly 3 days later the attack at the airport in Germany occurred, where our heroes fight one another, and the following day we meet Zemo in the abandoned Soviet bunker, as he explains his intentions with Mission Report December 16, 1991. “I’ve thought about nothing else for over a year.” Apparently Zemo had been concocting this plan for over a year, meaning that Age of Ultron May have taken place earlier than May 2015, but this could be rounded up.

We can confirm this all takes place in early April, as this package delivered to Tony Stank was sent on April 10th. 3.6% of the runtime took place in 1991, and the remaining 96.4% was in 2016.