Arnim Zola

"Captain, what a pleasure to meet you face to face. I am Arnim Zola. How wonderful that you have awoken in time for me to show off my laboratory facilities."

- Arnim Zola

Armin Zola was a Nazi scientist working for HYDRA before and during World War II.

Nazi scientist
"I am working on advanced exo-skeleton tehnology... To make o-one soldier fight ...like a battalion..."

- Arnim Zola

Not much is known about Arnim Zola's early life except that he became one of Germany's top scientists. At some point in his life, he joined the Nazis. In the early 1930s, he worked at Sturmabteilung's Weapons Testing Ground at Kummersdorf. His newest invention was the advanced exo-skeleton which could make one soldier fight like the whole battalion. In July 1934, the SA base was attacked by the SS troops led by Johann Schmidt. Almost the entire personnel of the base was killed, and he was spared only because he agreed to work on genetics. Schmidt wanted to use Zola's knowledge to turn himself into a superior man.

Working for HYDRA
Soon, Schmidt organized his own SS division, HYDRA. Zola became HYDRA's top scientist. In September 1935, Zola was allowed to resume his work on exo-skeleton battle suits and various high-tech weaponry because Schmidt captured Abraham Erskine, a German scientist who worked on the Super Soldier Serum.

By the time of the Spanish Civil War, Zola has created several advanced war machines. His finished exo-skeleton battle suit was used by HYDRA against the Spanish Republicans at Guernica in 1937.

1940
In 1940, Zola was present at Castle Kaufmann when Johann Schmidt tested the unstable Super Soldier Serum on himself. The serum enhanced his strength, but it also disfigured his face. Two days later, Zola visited Dr. Abraham Erskine in his cell and told him that Schmidt will kill him for failing to give him what he wanted. However, Zola and all guards in the castle were drugged by the British agent Margaret Carter who helped Erskine to escape.

1942
"The energy we have just collected could power my designs. All my designs. This will change the war."

- Arnim Zola

After HYDRA forces found the Tesseract in 1942, Schmidt asked Zola if he could study its power, and accidentally he discovered how to transform its energy into advanced laser ammunitions and engines. He designed advanced weapons for HYDRA. With Zola's suits, weapons, vehicles and equipment HYDRA became more powerful then ever.

Later, Zola saw that Schmidt finally discovered Dr. Erkine's exact location. After asking Schmidt if he should give the order for Erskine's assassination, Schmidt responded that the order was already given.

1943
"As you can see, production of the Valkyrie is progressing on schedule, even with components of this size."

- Arnim Zola

When three SS officers came to Schmidt's base to question him about the progress in developing advanced weapons for Third Reich, Schmidt showed them Tesseract powered weapons made by Zola. But when they discovered that Schmidt intends to nuke Berlin, Schmidt vaporized them with his laser cannon. Schmidt told Zola that HYDRA could grow no further in Hitler's shadow, to which Zola responded by saying "Hail HYDRA!"

In December 1943, the super-soldier Captain America arrived at the HYDRA base in Italy to rescue the American soldiers they were using as menial labor there. While Cap rescued the prisoners and fought the guards, Schmidt took off in a single man rocket, but not before giving Zola the keys to his car, mercifully allowing his top scientist to escape the self-destructing factory.

1944
"This is hardly my area of expertise! I... I merely develop the weapons. I... I cannot fire them."

- Arnim Zola

Captain America also began attacking HYDRA bases fighting off HYDRA troops powered by the machines of Zola such as Iron Cross and Baron Wolfgang von Strucker. When Captain America was apprehended by Iron Cross following his fight with Baron Strucker in the castle of Baron Zemo, Arnim Zola and Madame Hydra ended up extracting some of Captain America's blood so that Zola could recreate the Super Soldier Serum with it. Later on, Captain America encountered one of Zola's robots where Arnim Zola speaks through it stating that he will kill Captain America, drain his corpse of his blood, and use it in order to make James Montgomery Falsworth his pawn. All of Zola's robots were destroyed by Captain America, and the small amount of super-soldier serum he has managed to create from prior analysis of Captain America's blood was destroyed. Later, Zola came across one of his robots. Schmidt told Zola to stop wasting time on his failed experiments and to get back to work because they will see Captain America again. In April 1944, Zola was in a castle on an island in the Nazi occupied Danish Straits. The castle was invaded by Captain America, who managed to destroy one of Zola's exo-skeleton suits and an armored vehicle.

Cap and his Howling Commandos progressively managed to destroy most major HYDRA operations, preventing Zola any real ability to work on his scientific projects. Eventually he had to be moved via armored train, which Captain America and his side-kick Bucky attempted to invade. In the ensuing battle, Bucky was killed but Zola was captured and handed ower to Allied forces.

In captivity
"Schmidt believes he walks in the footsteps of the gods. Only the world itself will satisfy him."

- Arnim Zola

Zola was taken to the SSR base and interrogated by Col. Chester Phillips. Phillips noted that his lack of the cyanide pills normally used by HYDRA agents to prevent capture suggested that he did not want to die personally. Zola told them everything he knew about HYDRA and revealed that Schmidt's plans were of world domination. His final fate is unknown, but he was still under Ally captivity when Captain America crashed into the ocean during his final mission.

Relationships

 * Red Skull - Leader
 * Captain America - Enemy

Trivia

 * The character's first appearance in the film is a close-up of his face on an old-style television screen, evoking his comic-book counterpart.
 * At 1:03:37 when Zola is gathering his papers to escape the factory, the blueprints for Dr Zola's android body can be seen in the film.