 Captain America : The First Avenger is a 2011 American superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character Captain America , produced by Marvel Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures . It is the fifth film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe . The film was directed by Joe Johnston , written by Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely , and stars Chris Evans , Tommy Lee Jones , Hugo Weaving , Hayley Atwell , Sebastian Stan , Dominic Cooper , Neal McDonough , Derek Luke and Stanley Tucci . Set predominantly during World War II , Captain America : The First Avenger tells the story of Steve Rogers , a sickly man from Brooklyn who is transformed into super @-@ soldier Captain America and must stop the Red Skull , who intends to use an artifact called the " Tesseract " as an energy @-@ source for world domination . 
