Alexander Pierce (Marvel Cinematic Universe)

"Your work has been a gift to mankind. You shaped the century. And I need you to do it one more time..."

- Alexander Pierce to Winter Soldier, explaining why he is in charge of him.

Alexander Pierce is the true main villain of Captain America: The Winter Soldier, with the titular Winter Soldier himself as his henchman. He is a member of the World Security Council, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, and is secretly a high-ranking member of HYDRA, and is in charge of the Winter Soilder. He is portrayed by veteran actor Robert Redford.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Alexander Pierce is a HYDRA agent who infiltrated the World Security Council. During a hostage situation in Bogata, he met S.H.I.E.L.D. agent Nick Fury, who sucessfully saved the hostages, including Pierce's daughter. Pierce was surprised by Fury's performance and later made him the director of S.H.I.E.L.D. Decades later, the influence of HYDRA over S.H.I.E.L.D. has grown stronger, and a set of three heavily armed Helicarriers are built under "Project Insight." The Helicarriers were allegedly supposed to form a security network to protect the Earth, but HYDRA actually desired to use them to target and kill approximately 20 million people selected by Arnim Zola's algorithm, any individual which would pose a thread for Hydra's new world order. After discovering the hijacking of a S.H.I.E.L.D. boat by Georges Batroc was actually planned by Fury in order to recover confidential files related to the Project Insight, Pierce deploys the Winter Soldier to kill him. After being attacked by the Winter Soldier, a heavily damaged Fury contacts Captain America and tells the Captain not to trust anyone as S.H.I.E.L.D. had been compromised, before seemingly perishing. Following Fury's apparent demise, Pierce talks with Captain America, and discovers that Rogers has hidden something from him. Pierce deploys other corrupt S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to capture Cap, who goes undercover along with Black Widow. A new assignment is given to the Winter Soldier by Alexander, to kill Rogers and Romanoff. After gaining information related to the true objective of Project Insight from the hand of Jasper Sitwell, Rogers, Romanoff and their ally Falcon are captured by S.H.I.E.L.D., but they soon escaped captivity. Pierce proceeds to continue with his plan, but as S.H.I.E.L.D. is getting prepared to deploy the Helicarriers, Captain America infiltrates the Triskelion and reveals by loudspeaker the truth of HYDRA influencing S.H.I.E.L.D. and prompts every clean agent to stand up against HYDRA. While Captain America and Falcon infiltrated the Helicarriers to modify their programming to change the targets from the people selected by Zola's algorithm to the Helicarriers themselves, Black Widow rescues the rest of the members of the World Security Council, who have been taken hostage by Pierce, and forces him to help her and Nick Fury, who reveals his survival to Pierce, to unlock every single one of S.H.I.E.L.D./HYDRA's secrets and upload them to the Internet. However, Pierce attempts to use a remotely-controlled miniature explosive he had hidden in Black Widow's clothes to force Fury to let him go. Using a micro-EMP, Black Widow disables the bomb, Fury subsequently shoots Pierce twice thorugh the heart. As he lies dying, witnessing his fleet and plans in destruction, Pierce utters "Hail Hydra..." and dies. His partners-in-crime would then later meet their fates at the hands of S.H.I.E.L.D in the battle. Except from Bucky, who is beginning to remember both his past and who he really is: Bucky. In a battle on one of the helicarriers, the Winter Soldier shoots Rogers. However, it turned out that death is not taking him yet, as Rogers immediately replaces the final chip, allowing Hill to take control and destroy all three vessels. The Helicarrier carrying Rogers and the Winter Soldier crashes into the side of the Triskelion, critically wounding Agent Rumlow, who had earlier tried to capture Rogers, while Wilson escapes. The Helicarriers are destroyed in process, and HYDRA's secrets are released to the world. Rogers falls into the river, but is suddenly saved by the Winter Soldier, who then leaves, leaving his fate ambiguous. Alexander Pierce dies in vain, as Project Insight dies with him.

Trivia

 * In the comics, Pierce is a much younger field agent. Robert Redford let slip that he accepted the role because he wanted to portray a villain; leading some to speculate that Pierce is a cover for Aleksander Lukin, who is the man who controlled the Winter Soldier in the comic books.
 * In an interview with USA Today, Samuel L. Jackson revealed that Alexander Pierce is a member of the World Security Council, but was not present during the Avengers.
 * He shares similarities to Aldrich Killian:
 * Both were minor characters in the comics, though later became main villains in films.
 * Both were in charge of pawns (Trevor Slattery and Winter Soldier) to keep the heroes (Iron Man and Captain America) busy.
 * Both had worked with characters (Coldblood and Crossbones) who were played by the cast of the 2012 film, The Grey.
 * Both had a corrupt official (Vice President Rodriguez and Senator Stern) aiding them in their plans, which both ended up arrested near the climaxes of films.
 * Even though he is the main antagonist he did not fight Captain America nor engage him in the film's climax with only his enforcer Winter Soilder being Captain America's final enemy in the film.