SamBucky

SamBucky is the slash ship between Bucky Barnes and Sam Wilson from the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom.

Earth-616
THE DEATH OF CAPTAIN AMERICA

As Steve is shot, Bucky heads to wear the sniper shot from, Sam following him from above. When Bucky enters the building, the shooter is gone. He notices the skylight, just as Sam flies through and pins him to the nearest wall. He accuses Bucky of shooting Steve, and that he better hope that he's still alive. Bucky says that he is, Sam realizing his mistake. Bucky says that he'd kill himself before that. Fury calls Bucky, saying he has his eyes on the shooter, and Bucky asks if Sam can carry him and fly at the same time.

Sam carries him out, Bucky telling him to go for the helicopter carrying the shooter. Bucky pulls out two guns, Sam asksing what he's doing. Bucky responds that he's taking them out, and shoots at the helicopter blades. The shooter, Crossbones, jumps out as the copter goes down, and attacks Bucky, pulling him from Sam's arms. On top of the nearest building, Bucky is able to knock out Crossbones as Sam flies in. He tells Bucky to leave before the Shield Agents show up and rope him in. Bucky agress and asks if Sam can hands Crossbones. Sam says that he's not going anywhere. Bucky tells him to get to Steve soon, since he can't be there.

Bucky regrets getting into a bar fight just as Sam shows up. He asks if they were bad guys, but Bucky says that they were just morons. He tells Sam that Steve would have liked what he said at the funeral, and that he really understood Steve. Sam says they have to run since the cops are on the way. Bucky agrees and goes to pay his tab just as Tony's speech from the funeral plays. Bucky pauses and Sam asks if he's coming. Bucky says yes and they leave.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier
Steve, Sam, and Natasha had kidnapped Jasper Sitwell, one of the undercover HYDRA agents working for SHIELD, and had taken the freeway when the Winter Soldier lands on the roof and throws Sitewell out the window and kills him. The Winter Soldier starts to shoot at the three through the roof, and they're able to throw him off. He lands in front of their car just as a HYDRA truck shows up and forces the car forward. Sam tries to stop the car as the Winter Soldier jumps on top of the roof. He then shoves his hand through the front window and takes the wheel out of Sam's hands, and the car crashes.

Steve fights the Winter Soldier, and in the process takes off his mask and reveals him to be Bucky Barnes. As he's about to shoot Steve, Sam flies down and kicks him in the face.

Steve stands at the top of the abandoned dam, Sam coming up to him and tells him that Bucky will be there when they execute their plan. Steve knows. Sam tells Steve that whoever Bucky was, the guy he is now is the kind you stop, not save. Steve says that he doesn't know if he can do that, and Sam says that he might not have a choice, since he doesn't know him.

As Sam and Steve make their way to the helicarrier control room, Bucky rams Steve off the side. Sam goes to get him, but Bucky grabs onto one of his wings and throws him back. Sam stops himself from falling to the ground and starts to shoot at Bucky, who is able to dodge before taking cover. Sam starts to fly away, but Bucky launches a zipline at his wing and slams Sam into the ground. He pulls off the wing and runs towards Sam, and kicks him off the edge of the Helicarrier. Sam is luckily able to land safely at the bottom.

After taking down HYDRA, Sam, Steve and Natasha meet up, and Natasha gives Steve the Winter Soldier file. Sam asks if he's going after Bucky and Steve says that he doesn't have to come with. Sam says he knows, and asks when they start.

Captain America: Civil War
As the power goes out, Steve realizes that the man who framed Bucky is the one interrogating him, and he and Sam run down to the room finding all the guards unconscious. Steve enters the room and confronts the intergator. Sam walks in and a brainwashed Bucky takes a swing at him, Sam ducking just in time. Bucky is able to punch him in the gut and throw him across the room, knocking him out.

Bucky wakes up, his arm locked in a machine, with Sam watching him. Sam calls over Steve and the three start to talk. Steve belives that they're talking to Bucky without mind control, but Sam asks if that makes everything automatically okay. Bucky tells them that Zemo was looking for the other Winter Soldiers. Sam asks if they all turned out like him, and Bucky says that they were worse. Sam tells Steve that this would have been easier a week ago, and they don't know if the accords will allow Tony to help.

The three steel a car and meet up with Sharon Carter for their equipment. While Steve gets their stuff, Sam and Bucky sit in the car, Sam in front, Bucky in back. Bucky asks Sam to move his seat up, but Sam just deadpans "no". Bucky scoots to the side, Sam glancing back at him. They watch Steve kiss Sharon, and when he turns around they both nod their heads and smile, embarrassing him.

As Bucky and Sam run through the airport, they see Spider-Man climb along the outside windows. Bucky asks what that is, but Sam just comments on everyone having a gimmick. Spider-Man then swings around and knocks through the window, and kicking Sam to the side. He then goes to punch Bucky, who stops him, and Sam gets up and flies him away from Bucky.

As Spider-Man chases after Sam, Bucky throws some debris at him to distract him, but it gets thrown back in his face. Sam is brought down by Spider-Man and webbed against the railing. As Spider-Man swings to kick Sam, Bucky runs in front of him and takes the hit, sending them both to the lower floor. Spider-Man webs them both, but Sam sends Red Wing to remove him before he can make an official arrest. Bucky tiredly asks if he couldn't have done that earlier, Sam replying that he hates him.

Avengers: Endgame
After Steve leaves, Sam expects him to be back in a moment, but Bruce tells him that he's not coming back for some reason. As they try to find out what's wrong, Bucky notices someone in the distance and calls Sam over. As Sam joins him, he realizes that it's an older Steve and the two walk forward. Bucky tells him to go ahead, and Sam walks over to Steve.

Captain America
Issue #25
 * Sam asks who Bucky is talking to, and he responds with Nick Fury.
 * Sam asks if it's the real Nick Fury, Bucky assures him it is.
 * Sam watches as Bucky falls towards the building.

Issue #26
 * Sam gets a call from Fury about Bucky.

ISSUE #27
 * Sam tells Sharon that Bucky went missing.
 * Sam tells Sharon that Bucky's been looking for Cap's shield.
 * Sam tells Sharon that Bucky is going to kill Tony.
 * Sam and Sharon follow Bucky's trail.

ISSUE #28
 * Sam sends his birds out looking for Bucky.

Captain America: The Winter Soldier

 * The Winter Soldier fires at Sam and Natasha.
 * Sam asks how it's possible for Bucky to be alive after all these years.

Avengers: Age of Ultron

 * Sam tells Steve that he's perfectly okay looking for cold leads on Bucky.

Captain America: Civil War

 * Sam reminds Steve that Bucky would have helped him in 1945, not so much now.
 * Steve tells Sam where Bucky is.
 * Sam knocks away the Helicopter that is shooting at Bucky.
 * Sam follows Bucky and Steve under the bridge.
 * Sam and Bucky are both arrested.
 * Sam looks over at Bucky as he's taken away by authorities.
 * Sam watches Bucky get interrogated.
 * Sam reminds Steve that when they looked for Bucky for two years they couldn't find him.
 * Bucky and Sam meet with Clint and Scott.
 * Bucky and Sam search for the Quinjet as Steve confronts Team Iron Man.
 * Rhodey scans the airports and see's Sam and Bucky running through the terminal.
 * Sam sees Bucky get webbed by Spider-Man.
 * Bucky and Sam run side by side as the join the rest of Team Cap.
 * Sam tells Bucky and Steve that they need to leave.

Avengers: Infinity War

 * Bucky and Sam watch as the first of Thanos' forces hit the shield around Wakanda.
 * Bucky tells Sam that he loves Wakanda when the shields protect them.

Avengers: Endgame

 * Sam places his hand on Bucky's shoulder at Tony's funeral.
 * Sam looks back to Bucky when Steve tells him to try on the shield. Bucky silently encourages him to do so.

Behind the Scenes
"I did appreciate any interaction I had with Falcon really enjoyed especially throwing punches at him."

- Sebastian Stan on Bucky in Civil War

"Somebody the other day said, 'You know what the real love story is? The Falcon and Winter Soldier.'"

- Sebastian Stan

When a fan at Ace Comic Con asks if Sebastian would ever play an LGBT character again that he would as long as the story is right, just as Anthony Mackie makes his entrance. As Anthony sat down, he pulled Sebastian towards him and placed his arm over his shoulder. Sebastian then stated that said story could happen now.

"It only took about four press tours for someone to kind of get the idea, that these two lunatics, should have a show."

- Sebastian on The Falcon And The Winter Soldier

Fanon
Not being a very popular ship among the Marvel Cinematic Universe fandom, there isn't a lot of fanfiction compared to more popular ships, like Stucky or Stony. There were some who shipped them in the comics, and would combine some of their 616 characteristics with their MCU counterparts, which is common for fans of both. Some fans started shipping them from The Winter Soldier most based it on the press tour interviews between actors Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan. Given that Marvel has a history of hiring actors who are similar to their characters, it made MCU fans want to see more of Sam and Bucky interact. More started to ship the two after Civil War, given their more shared screen time. With the announcement of the Winter Soldier and Falcon series fans of the pairing were excited. The end of Endgame also set up the two for the series, but also caused many to ship them.

Most ship them based on their more snarky back and forths, specifically saying that they have a more buddy cop dynamic. Many joke about how the only reason they spend time together is because they're both best friends with Steve, and when he's not around they'll instantly start fighting.

After Endgame, the increase in fans of the pairing were due to the end result of the movie. The two were left alone without Steve, and would often use that as a point in current fics of pairing them together. They gained more fans after the short teaser for Falcon and The Winter Soldier, as well as for the full trailer when it came out later in 2020. Most citing the clip of Bucky and Sam clasping hands, and Bucky pulling Sam closer as the reason for starting to ship the two.

On AO3, there are over 3000 works, and is the second most written ship for Sam. On Wattpad, there are only 66 stories within the Winterfalcon tag.

Fandom
FAN FICTION 
 * Bucky/Sam (Avengers movies) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Bucky/Sam (Captain America movies) tag on FanFiction.net
 * Bucky/Sam (Captain America movies) tag on FanFiction.net

TUMBLR

TWITTER

WIKIS

Trivia

 * On Earth-616 both have taken on the mantle of Captain America.
 * In a promo for Avengers: Infinity War, Thor is looking through the figurines for the big battle and knocking them all down. When he gets to Sam and Bucky he says "I like those guys, they can stay".
 * A Winter Soldier and Falcon series was announced to be in the works, and would stream on Disney+.
 * An article on The Mary Sue site was written on why Bucky and Sam should be a couple in the Winter Soldier and Falcon series.
 * Fandometrics predicted that SamBucky would become one of the top ships of tumblr in 2020 due to the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier . This ended up not happening, due to the series being pushed back to March 2021.

Variations

 * Cap Quartet — the ship between Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanoff, Sam and Bucky
 * SamSteveBucky refers to the ship between Steve Rogers, Sam and Bucky
 * Stackie refers to the ship between their actors, Sebastian Stan and Anthony Mackie