Anyone who follows the Marvel Cinematic Universe, or MCU, knows that the latest iteration of Captain America is an Air Force vet named Sam Wilson, and that Wilson’s time in the military was spent as a PJ, the service’s hard-charging pararescue specialists.
Ahead of the latest Captain America movie release, Wilson — or at least Anthony Mackie, the actor who plays him — went back to his character’s roots for a freefall jump this week with the PJs of the 58th Rescue Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada.
Both the Air Force and Marvel Studios released video clips of Mackie’s jump and visit to Nellis for the jump. The upcoming movie, “Captain America: Brave New World,” is Mackie’s big-screen debut as “Cap” and will hit theaters on Feb. 14.
While several 58th PJs jumped in formation, Mackie rode as the passenger of tandem jumper Senior Master Sergeant Lucas Ferrari, a PJ trained in the two-person jump technique.
The group jumped from an HC-130J, one of the Air Force’s two primary aircraft that carry PJs to and from rescue missions (though Air Force officials had not responded to questions from Task & Purpose on the jump, the plane shown in videos appears to be from the 79th Rescue Squadron at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona). HC-130Js carry a host of sensors and equipment designed for search and rescue, but are primarily built as tankers for the Air Force’s fleet of HH-60 rescue helicopters. On a typical rescue mission, a PJ team will ride in the helicopters, which can fly almost unlimited distances reaching a mission or searching for a target by refueling from the HC-130Js.
But PJs also use the big cargo planes to jump directly into long-distance missions, like those that require reaching a boat far out to sea.
All PJs are trained in freefall jumps during their initial training, but qualifying as a tandem jumper who can carry a passenger to the ground is one of the job’s most advanced skills. To qualify, PJs learn to jump not just another person, but even larger bundles of gear strapped under extra-large parachutes. Unlike standard freefall jumpers, tandem jumpers use a drogue parachute as they fall to keep unsteady cargo loads, or even occasionally panicky passengers, stable in the air.
Mackie appears to have been a model passenger, calmly grinning at nearby jumpers as they fell, landing at Perkins Field, just north of the base.
Origin story: from PJ to veterans advocate to Falcon to ‘Cap’
Wilson was introduced in the MCU as the Falcon in 2014’s “Winter Soldier.” Wilson is out of the Air Force and during a jog around Washington D.C.’s National Mall, finds himself trying to keep up with another runner who is — shockingly — faster than him: Steve Rogers (played by Chris Evans), who then owns the identity of Captain America.
Later, the two meet up at what a support group for veterans, and Wilson’s military background comes into sharper focus: A combat veteran, and aviator (with a big asterisk here because he flies around on a winged jet pack), Wilson’s wingman had been killed on their last tour and Wilson departed the military shortly thereafter. He went on to pursue veterans advocacy and mental healthcare work. Though the scene has the odd trope and cliche — like how beds back home are too soft after sleeping on rocks downrange — there are some grounded moments, at least for a series whose baseline of realism includes caped crusaders, ancient gods, intergalactic beings, and billionaire in power suits.
In Wilson, as well as Rogers and some of the MCU’s other veteran characters, the franchise offered moviegoers an example of superheroes whose time in uniform infused them with the very characteristics that made them heroes — rather than just a hamfisted explanation for why they’re so good at fighting.
“Captain America: Brave New World” arrives in theaters Feb. 14.