Alexander Pierce


This villain was proposed but was rejected by the community for not being heinous enough or lacks what is necessary to be a Pure Evil villain. Therefore, this villain shall be added to our "Never Again List", where proposed villains rejected by the community shall be placed to prevent future proposals of the same evil-doer. They can be proposed again (with the permission of anadministrator) if new elements appear in their series that can change their status as non-PE villains. Any act of adding this villain to the Pure Evil category without a proposal or creating a proposal for this villain without the permission of an administrator will result in a ban. Additional Notice: This template is meant foradmin maintenance only. Users who misuse the template will be blocked for a week minimum.

Villain Overview

Gallery

Evil-doer

Full Name

Alexander Goodwin Pierce

Alias

Mr. Pierce

Secretary Pierce
Director Pierce
Mr. Secretary

Origin

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Occupation

Secretary of the World Security Council(undercover, formerly)

Secretary of Defense of the United States(undercover, formerly)
Director of S.H.I.E.L.D.(undercover, formerly)
Leader ofHYDRA

Powers / Skills

Genius-Level Intelligence

Possession of three helicarriers
Master Manipulator
Leadership
Control over the Winter Soldier
Various Subordinates

Goals

Use the Winter Soldier to eliminate all threats to HYDRA and their plans(mostly succeeded).
Frame Captain America and declare him an enemy of S.H.I.E.L.D.(temporarily succeeded).
Initiate Project Insight to eliminate all of HYDRA's targets.
Establish a new world order under their control(all failed).

Crimes

Conspiracy
Treason
Terrorism
Attempted world domination
Assassinations
Mass murder
Physical and psychological torture
Brainwashing
Slavery
Espionage
Infiltration
Organized crime
Sabotage
Blackmail
Death threats
Kidnapping
Property damage
Theft
Crimes against humanity
Incrimination
Sabotage
Animal cruelty(reluctantly)
Stalking
Forgery
Corruption
Mass destruction
Assault and battery

Type of Villain

Delusional Mastermind

“	Despite all diplomacy and the handshaking and the rhetoric, to build a better world sometimes means tearing the old one down. And that makes enemies.	„
	~ Alexander Pierce to Captain America, and his most famous quote.

“	Captain, somebody murdered my friend and I'm gonna find out why. Anyone gets in my way, they're going to regret it. Anyone.	„
	~ Alexander Pierce.

“	Hail...HYDRA.	„
	~ Alexander Pierce's last words after being shot dead by Nick Fury.

Alexander Goodwin Pierce is the main antagonist of the 2014Marvel Cinematic Universe superhero filmCaptain America: The Winter Soldier, the second installment in theCaptain America film series. His 2012 self also appeared as a minor antagonist in the 2019 filmAvengers: Endgame.

He was the secret leader ofHYDRA and its top undercover operative inside the United States Government, S.H.I.E.L.D., and the World Security Council who used HYDRA's forces within S.H.I.E.L.D. to give HYDRA absolute control over the world. His plan, Project Insight, was foiled by Captain America and the loyal remnants of S.H.I.E.L.D., and was ultimately killed by former longtime friend-turned-archenemy,Nick Fury.

He was portrayed by the lateRobert Redford, who also playedJay Gatsby in the 1974 film adaptation ofThe Great Gatsby.

Biography[]

Background[]

Alexander Pierce's father served in the 101st Airborne Division during World War II. He would go on to have a niece and had at least one child, a daughter.

During a hostage situation in Bogota, Pierce, who was working for the United States Department of State, met S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury, who successfully saved the hostages, including Pierce's daughter. The Bogotá situation caused a shift in Pierce's attitudes toward diplomacy, and he would be recruited into Hydra at some point afterwards.

During the 1980s, he successfully infiltrated the World Security Council, becoming the Undersecretary. After being promoted to Secretary, Pierce appointed Fury as the Director of S.H.I.E.L.D., having been impressed by Fury's actions years prior in Bogotá.

Setting Up His Plan[]

Decades later, the influence of HYDRA over S.H.I.E.L.D. has grown stronger, and a set of three heavily armed Helicarriers are built under "Project Insight." The Helicarriers were allegedly supposed to form a security network to protect the Earth, but HYDRA actually desired to use them to target and kill approximately 20 million people selected byArnim Zola's algorithm, any individual which would pose a threat for Hydra's new world order.

After discovering the hijacking of a S.H.I.E.L.D. boat byGeorges Batroc was actually planned by Fury in order to recover confidential files related to the Project Insight, Pierce betrays him by deploying theWinter Soldier to kill him.

After being attacked by the Winter Soldier, a heavily injured Fury contacts Captain America and tells the Captain not to trust anyone as S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised, before seemingly being assassinated.

Following Fury's apparent demise, Pierce talks with Captain America, and discovers that Rogers has hidden something from him, likely meaning that his plans were compromised due to something Nick Fury may have said to him.

Pierce deploys other deceptive Hydra agents within S.H.I.E.L.D. to capture Cap, who goes undercover along with Black Widow. A new assignment is given to the Winter Soldier by Pierce, to kill Captain America and Black Widow. After gaining information related to the true objective of Project Insight from the hand of Jasper Sitwell, Rogers, Romanoff and their ally Sam Wilson/Falcon are captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., but they soon escaped captivity.Pierce proceeds to continue with his plan, but as S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting prepared to deploy the Helicarriers, Captain America infiltrates the Triskelion and reveals by loudspeaker the truth of HYDRA influencing S.H.I.E.L.D. and Pierce's treachery, which prompts every clean agent to stand up against HYDRA.

Final Battle[]

While Captain America and Falcon infiltrated the Helicarriers to modify their programming to change the targets from the people selected by Zola's algorithm to the Helicarriers themselves, Black Widow rescues the rest of the members of the World Security Council, who have been taken hostage by Pierce, and forces him to help her and Nick Fury, who reveals his survival to Pierce, to unlock every single one of S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA's secrets and upload them to the Internet. However, Pierce attempts to use a remotely-controlled miniature explosive he had hidden in Black Widow's clothes to force Fury to let him go.

Using a micro-EMP, Black Widow disables the bomb, before Pierce can even reach, Fury coldly shoots him twice in the chest, sending him flying through a glass screen.

As he lies dying, witnessing his fleet and plans in destruction, Pierce utters "Hail Hydra..." and dies. His partners-in-crime would then later meet their fates at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D in the battle. Except from The Winter Soldier, who is beginning to remember both his past and who he really is: Bucky.

In a battle on one of the helicarriers, the Winter Soldier shoots Rogers. However, it turned out that death is not taking him yet, as Rogers immediately replaces the final chip, allowing Hill to take control and destroy all three vessels. The Helicarrier carrying Rogers and the Winter Soldier crashes into the side of the Triskelion, critically wounding Agent Rumlow, who had earlier tried to capture Rogers, while Wilson escapes.

The Helicarriers are destroyed in process, and HYDRA's secrets are released to the world. Rogers falls into the river, but is suddenly saved by Winter Soldier who then leaves, now returned to his former self and goes to find out more about his past. Alexander Pierce himself on the other hand, was shot dead by Nick Fury then dies after saying "Hail Hydra" as he watches the ship plunges into the water.

Alternate Reality[]

Five years after the death of half the living beings in the universe, the remaining Avengers and Guardians concoct a plan to go back to the past and collect the Infinity Stones from different points in time and use them to reverseThanos' actions; Captain America, Iron Man, Ant-Man and Hulk going back in time to the Battle of New York to retrieve the Space Stone, Mind Stone, and Time Stone. As the Avengers are trying to leave Avengers tower with the apprehended Loki, Pierce arrives and stops them, demanding that Loki and the Tesseract/Space Stone should be handled by the American government, though the 2012 Iron Man claims that they are being taken care of by a higher authority, as Thor intends Odin to take care of Loki.

While Pierce argues with Stark and Thor, in order for them to get their hands on the Tesseract, Iron Man has Ant-Man disable his past self's Arc Reactor for a diversion, resulting in him having an attack which distracts Pierce and the others long enough for him to get the case holding the Tesseract. However, the plan fails when Iron Man loses the case because of the past Hulk, causing Loki to get his hands on it instead and use its power to escape, much to Pierce and the others' confusion. In the short-lived Nexus event created afterwards byLoki's escape, it's likely that due to indirectly causing an scene and distracting everyone, Pierce was held responsible for allowing Loki to escape and was possibly punished for that.

However, as theTime Variance Authority led by JudgeRavonna Renslayer had Loki taken into custody and reset the timeline to how it was back before Loki escaped, it's presumed that everything went back to normal like it happened in the original timeline, so Pierce was likely unable to claim the Tesseract and kept working forHYDRA until his death at Nick Fury's hands.

Trivia[]

In the comics, Alexander Pierce is a much younger field agent. Robert Redford let slip that he accepted the role because he wanted to portray a villain; leading some to speculate that Pierce is a cover forAleksander Lukin, who is the man who controlled theWinter Soldier in the comic books.
In an interview with USA Today, Samuel L. Jackson revealed that Alexander Pierce is a member of the World Security Council, but was not present during the events ofThe Avengers.
Pierce may also be a substitute forRed Skull, whose actor from the first film did not wish to reprise his role. In the comics,Red Skull once somehow became US Secretary Of Defense under the alias Dell Rusk during theAvengers: Red Zone storyline, and was not exposed until a scheme of his was enacted. Pierce being a real person who eventually turned traitor also makes more sense than a known, active, wanted supervillain making his way into a highly scrutinized position.
- Worth noting is that, prior to the movie's release, there was much speculation that he was the Red Skull in disguise (just as Dell Rusk is).