Warning: SPOILERS ahead for Outside the Wire.
Anthony Mackie stars in two 2021 releases—Outside the Wire and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier—that, despite their guise of sci-fi action, are actually patterned after a gothic horror novel. Considered by some to be the first true work of science fiction, English author Mary Shelley’s 1818 three-volume novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus is continually revisited for its timeless themes of creation and unbridled ambition, themes that are evident in modern-day fictional super soldiers. In both projects, Anthony Mackie’s characters come to realize certain truths that lead them down a path congruent with that of Frankenstein’s creature.
Mary Shelley's horror story centers on Victor Frankenstein, a Swiss student of natural science who succeeds in giving life to a cobbled-together being of his own creation. However, the creature fashioned from old body parts, when animated, frightens his creator and others with whom he comes into contact and eventually turns on his "father" for condemning him to a lonely and hideous existence. Television series and films continually return to the bitter relationship between the prototypical mad scientist and his creation as a pattern for new characters and stories in the creator-creation narrative.
Anthony Mackie’s two major characters this year are essentially interpretations of Frankenstein’s creature, and as such, they both ultimately share in the creature’s fate. In Netflix’s 2021 sci-fi movie Outside the Wire Mackie's Captain Leo masquerades as an eccentric human officer, but is in fact a highly advanced and experimental android. The MCU has a similar super-soldier in Captain America, a role Anthony Mackie’s character Sam Wilson, aka Falcon, assumes at the end of Avengers: Endgame. Fresh off his promotion, Wilson returns in the Disney+ original series The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. Both characters realize they are merely seen as weapons by the government, not human begins in their own rights, and turn on the entities that created them just as Frankenstein's monster did upon Victor Frankenstein.
Outside the Wire sees Leo turn on his creator, the U.S. government, to thwart its super-soldier program. Leo views himself as a monster and believes preventing the creation of others like him will ultimately make the world a safer place. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier reveals a similar realization when it becomes clear that the U.S. government created Captain America as a weapon to be manipulated how they see fit, illustrated by their attempt to insert US Agent John Walker (Wyatt Russell) into the role. However, as the Falcon & the Winter Soldier title indicates, Falcon/Captain America is only half the story. There's an even stronger parallel with Frankenstein's monster in the other titular character.
Like his friend Steve Rogers, a.k.a. Captain America, Bucky Barnes underwent a similar transformation into superweapon the Winter Soldier. The visual nod to Frankenstein is clear in Bucky’s cybernetic arm, fashioned to his body like one of the disparate parts of Frankenstein’s creature. After extensive experimentation and brainwashing, it’s no surprise Bucky views himself as a monster, too. It’s yet to be seen if Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson will completely rebel like their literary counterpart, something Mackie's Captain Leo had no qualms doing. There may not be a singular mad scientist in Outside the Wire and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, but there certainly exists a thematic connection to Mary Shelley’s work in both of Anthony Mackie's super-soldier-themed projects.