The Winter Soldier's trademark knife toss doesn't actually make any sense. In the MCU, Bucky Barnes is a force to be reckoned with. He was already an elite soldier in the U.S. military when he was captured by Hydra, and subjected to super-soldier experiments. His left arm was replaced with a cybernetic one, and he's even had a recent upgrade – a new metal arm made of Vibranium.

Hydra kept the Winter Soldier in cryogenic suspension, thawing him out whenever they had a use for him. They do seem to have invested substantial time training him to become one of their most skilled and proficient assassins, with Bucky becoming a master of mixed martial arts and a lethal sniper. He may not be the equal of a Dora Milaje, but he's undoubtedly one of the best field operatives out there. His skills were best shown in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when he proved able to go toe to toe with Captain America himself. During his initial battle with Steve Rogers, the Winter Soldier demonstrated what has become seen as his trademark knife toss. The problem is that move doesn't really make sense on a practical level.

Related: The Winter Soldier Complete MCU Timeline: Bucky's Story Explained

As noted by Scenic Fights, during a knife fight the purpose of a knife toss is to change your reach during a fight. Bucky begins his battle with Captain America holding the blade in what is known as an icepick grip, and an effective knife toss would move to another grip such as a typical dagger hold. This kind of knife toss can be tremendously useful from a tactical perspective, because the change in grip means your reach has changed as well, and you can take your opponent by surprise. That's why most knife tosses actually happen out of sight, so you haven't telegraphed the fact your reach has been extended.

Sebastian Stan as Winter Soldier with knife in Falcon and Winter Soldier

Bucky, in contrast, does a knife toss in the open, meaning Steve Rogers is well aware something's going on. Even stranger, he begins with an icepick grip, and ends with the same knife hold, meaning there is no change to his reach. The Winter Soldier's knife toss could potentially serve as a distraction, drawing Captain America's eye to his right hand while the Winter Soldier attacks with his metal left arm, but if so Bucky never takes advantage of that momentary distraction. In the context of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, the knife toss serves no purpose. It's a cool move that simply looks impressive to viewers, but no actual fighter would do Bucky's knife toss like that.

Regardless of how practical the knife toss may be, it has become one of the Winter Soldier's most memorable moves. Bucky even performed a similar knife toss in The Falcon & the Winter Soldier episode 4, although on that occasion there was actually a point to it; he flipped the blade he had captured in order to toss it into the ground so it would be taken out of the fight. That time, at least, the Winter Soldier's move made sense.

More: Marvel Is Rewriting The Winter Soldier's MCU History & Hurting Bucky

Key Release Dates