Spoilers to follow.
Steve Rogers has had a pretty rough life. Being turned from a scrawny weakling into a super-soldier definitely made him physically stronger, there’s no doubt about that, but the process didn’t exactly improve his lot in life.
Over the course of his time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he spent decades frozen solid before being brought into the chaotic modern day world. His time in the present hasn’t exactly been easy, either, as he always seems to be fighting – saving the world from an alien invasion and being hunted by the government after the events of The Winter Soldier and Civil War.
In Infinity War, meanwhile, he was an outlaw and known as a war criminal, simply because he did what he felt was right. But with Avengers: Endgame, Steve Rogers makes his exit from the franchise and does so in a way that was predicted by many, but is still damn near perfect.
You see, Captain America is able to finish the fight in one piece – something we can’t exactly say for some of his fellow Avengers – and at the end of the film, we see him go back in time to return all the Infinity Stones to where they were originally taken from, so as to not alter the timeline of the past. And though the initial plan he makes with Falcon, Bucky and the Hulk is for him to return to the present day afterwards and continue living his life as normal, Steve has other things in mind.
Instead, Rogers stays in the 1940s and goes back to his one true love. Yes, he finally gets to reunite with Peggy Carter and share that dance with her that he never got to have, presumably going on to marry Hayley Atwell’s fan favorite character and live a long, happy life together.
We do get to see him again though in the present day, where’s he’s now an old, old man, and pleased with his decision to have stayed in the 1940s and live out his life with Peggy. He even gives Falcon his shield, effectively passing the torch to Sam Wilson to become the next Captain America.
It’s a beautiful sequence and as one of the most emotional moments of Avengers: Endgame, it’s sure to have fans in tears by the time the credits roll.