A system for and method of retrieving values of captured local variables for a lambda function in Java. In one embodiment, the system includes: (1) a Java virtual machine and (2) a captured variable retriever that interacts with the Java virtual machine and configured to retrieve a signature of the lambda function from a classfile of a Java class containing the lambda function, compare the signature with a declaration of the lambda function to identify arguments corresponding to the captured local variables, modify the lambda function and cause the Java virtual machine to execute the modified lambda function.