diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee
index ecf9ee1a72..3880091661 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display.coffee
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ class @Video
     @el = $(element).find('.video')
     @id = @el.attr('id').replace(/video_/, '')
     @caption_data_dir = @el.data('caption-data-dir')
+    @show_captions = @el.data('show-captions') == "true"
     window.player = null
     @el = $("#video_#{@id}")
     @parseVideos @el.data('streams')
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee
index 3094cc5119..f65debb1a2 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/js/src/video/display/video_caption.coffee
@@ -13,8 +13,12 @@ class @VideoCaption extends Subview
     "/static/#{@captionDataDir}/subs/#{@youtubeId}.srt.sjson"
 
   render: ->
+    # TODO: make it so you can have a video with no captions.
+    #@$('.video-wrapper').after """
+    #  <ol class="subtitles"><li>Attempting to load captions...</li></ol>
+    #  """
     @$('.video-wrapper').after """
-      <ol class="subtitles"><li>Attempting to load captions...</li></ol>
+      <ol class="subtitles"></ol>
       """
     @$('.video-controls .secondary-controls').append """
       <a href="#" class="hide-subtitles" title="Turn off captions">Captions</a>
diff --git a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/video_module.py b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/video_module.py
index 7d11dea283..a18a470272 100644
--- a/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/video_module.py
+++ b/common/lib/xmodule/xmodule/video_module.py
@@ -30,6 +30,7 @@ class VideoModule(XModule):
         xmltree = etree.fromstring(self.definition['data'])
         self.youtube = xmltree.get('youtube')
         self.position = 0
+        self.show_captions = xmltree.get('show_captions', 'true')
 
         if instance_state is not None:
             state = json.loads(instance_state)
@@ -75,6 +76,7 @@ class VideoModule(XModule):
             'display_name': self.display_name,
             # TODO (cpennington): This won't work when we move to data that isn't on the filesystem
             'data_dir': self.metadata['data_dir'],
+            'show_captions': self.show_captions
         })
 
 
diff --git a/lms/templates/video.html b/lms/templates/video.html
index fcf25f3d69..bd3ec77fbe 100644
--- a/lms/templates/video.html
+++ b/lms/templates/video.html
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   <h2> ${display_name} </h2>
 % endif
 
-<div id="video_${id}" class="video" data-streams="${streams}" data-caption-data-dir="${data_dir}">
+<div id="video_${id}" class="video" data-streams="${streams}" data-caption-data-dir="${data_dir}" data-show-captions="${show_captions}">
   <div class="tc-wrapper">
     <article class="video-wrapper">
       <section class="video-player">