Continuity mistake: There is a sweat stain on Sam's jumper after he finishes jogging with Steve. As he lies against a tree, the stain is around the neck area and some of it is partway down his jumper. When Steve helps him up, the stain has reduced to just sweat around his neck. (00:01:40)
Continuity mistake: At one point near the beginning of the infiltration of the helicarriers, Captain America's chinstrap has a twist from his right jaw down to where it covers his chin. This is visible in two shots. The next time his right side is shown afterward, the twist is gone. The chinstrap is too tight for it to have flipped on its own accidentally, and the pad which covers his chin is molded so it wouldn't have sat properly on his face even if it had somehow flipped around. There were undoubtedly several prop helmets made, and this one must have been put together incorrectly.
Continuity mistake: When Steve is on the boat, and knocks out all the terrorists, one last terrorist points a gun at him before being shot by Rumlow. In the first shot, the terrorist is standing in front of Steve, but by the next shot, he is suddenly standing behind Steve. This has nothing to do with the camera angles. (00:06:45)
Continuity mistake: After the bus flips, the truck that hit it stops right in front of a Corvette. But when the Winter Soldier is shooting at Romanoff, she takes cover behind a truck. In the wide shot, there is a Monaro, and SUV and a mini-van, but the Corvette is nowhere to be seen. (01:14:50 - 01:15:50)
Continuity mistake: When Alexander Pierce is talking to the Winter Soldier, the Soldier's hair changes position at least twice between shots despite him never moving or touching it. (01:25:15)
Continuity mistake: When the Winter Soldier approaches the car before throwing the grenades at it, one shot shows a water trail dripping at the front of the car he is hiding behind. A few seconds later, after Romanoff ambushes him, a wide angle is shown as he throws her at the car and the water trail is no longer there. (01:17:35)
Continuity mistake: When the Winter Soldier is taking down the SHIELD jets, he jumps on one of them and shoots twice at the pilot, however there are 3 bullets holes in the glass. (01:40:35)
Continuity mistake: When Steve and Romanoff are escaping the mall, Romanoff notices Agent Rumlow on the opposite escalator. The first person in front of him is a man wearing a green jacket. Romanoff kisses Steve, the shot then cuts to Rumlow noticing the kiss, and a woman in a white jumper has appeared in front of him. Things go back in the next shot. (00:54:15)
Continuity mistake: When Baron Wolfgang von Strucker says "We've only scratched the surface and already...", his lips are open. In the next shot, just before he says "there are other facilities doing Hydra's good work around the world", his lips are suddenly closed with no time to do so. This occurs right at the start of the shot and isn't very easy to see, but it is still visible if you look carefully. (02:03:35)
Revealing mistake: After Steve has made his way onto the boat, he hits two of the terrorists with his shield then continues running and starts a fight with another three terrorists. When Steve punches the third terrorist, his hand only goes as far as his knee. With the terrorist lying on the floor, the punch could never have hit him, but the terrorist is still knocked out anyway. (00:05:50)
Continuity mistake: When Steve, Romanoff and Agent Hill are watching Nick being operated on, Agent Hill is on the left, followed by Romanoff in the middle and Steve on the right. A couple of shots later, as Romanoff says "Don't do this to me Nick", it is now suddenly Agent Hill in the middle and Romanoff on the left, then a few shots later, it goes back to Romanoff being in the middle and Agent Hill being on the left. (00:36:25 - 00:37:00)
Continuity mistake: After Nick has escaped the "cops", he tells the car to give him the wheel. The shot then cuts to an overview shot where Nick is shown speeding through traffic. Just as the shot ends, he is shown about to drive past a bus, but by the next shot, the bus has vanished completely. (00:28:40)
Continuity mistake: After Alexander Pierce has finished having a conversation with the World Security Council, he goes over to Nick Fury and starts talking with him. When Pierce says "Nothing some earmarks can't fix", his head is shown to be perfectly forwards and still. Next shot, his head is suddenly shifted to the right a bit. (00:23:30)
Continuity mistake: After all of the SHIELD agents have landed on the boat, the various hostages are shown in the kitchen held at gun point by the terrorists. The first shot shows a male hostage tied up at the very back at the room with his head slightly shifted to the right. In a sudden close-up, just before the shot pans over to Agent Sitwell, that same male hostage at the back of the room no longer has his head shifted whatsoever. (00:07:05)
Continuity mistake: After Steve and Sam finish their jog, Sam is lying against a tree. When Sam says to Steve that he ran thirteen miles in 30 minutes, his hand is placed on his leg. In the next shot, his hand has suddenly moved way further up his leg. (00:01:25)
Continuity mistake: In the scene where the "cops" are chasing Fury, they push a silver Lancer out of the way. They push it to be facing the wrong way in traffic. In the very next shot it changes back to facing the right way, but at a slight angle. (00:29:35)
Continuity mistake: After his last fight with Bucky Steve gets a few wounds on his face, which disappear when he comes out from the water.
Revealing mistake: When one of the guys is shooting the mini-gun at the overturned bus Captain America is in, the spent shells still have the bullets in them.
Revealing mistake: When Fury drives between the Jeep and the Mitsubishi, the sides of both cars are already damaged, and both are missing the mirrors on the sides that Fury drives past, indicating those cars were used for earlier takes. (00:30:40)
Continuity mistake: When Sam asks "How do we tell the good guys from the bad guys?" and Steve replies "If they're shooting at you they're bad", Sam unleashes his Falcon wings. This shot shows Steve and Sam to be standing within a few feet of each other, but in the next shot where Sam flies off in his Falcon wings and Steve leaps off the roof, the two are suddenly several meters away from each other. (01:35:35)
Answer: Here's what he said in an interview: The thing with him is, you don't know if he's making up a story to get you to do a certain thing or if he's actually giving you a piece of himself. The great thing for me about that particular story is that is what my grandfather did when I was a kid. He actually ran an elevator in a hotel in Chattanooga, Tenn. That was his job. I used to go down there and sit in the elevator with him while he took people up and down. He got tipped that way and had money in his pocket or in a bag - and a little gun. He always had a pistol with him, some brass knuckles. I did not write that, it was just in there. It totally just happened that way. I chuckled about it. I was trying to figure out if I had talked about my grandfather in some interview somewhere years ago or something and somebody read it and put that in there. I never found out if that was the case. I think it's a true story for him.