History Film / BlackWidow2021

The film was released simultaneously in theaters and through Creator/DisneyPlus Premier Access on July 9, 2021. The film became available to all Disney+ subscribers on October 6, 2021. ''Thunderbolts'', a [[https://www.cbr.com/marvel-thunderbolts-black-widow-sequel quasi-sequel spinoff]] based on [[ComicBook/{{Thunderbolts}} the titular team from the comics]] and featuring many of this film's cast in leading roles, will be released on July 26, 2024, as part of the MCU's Phase Five.

* SurprisinglyGoodForeignLanguage: Zig-zagged:
** The film has a lot of lines in Russian, and the script itself has no grammatical errors and includes appropriate colloquial phrases and slang expressions.
** The Widow who asks Natasha what they should do now in Finnish also fits into the above category.
** The actress who plays young Natasha has very good Russian pronunciation because she is the daughter of Creator/MillaJovovich, who has Russian ties. Approximately half of the secondary characters have good pronunciation as well.
** However, the titular character, while intelligible, has a thick accent and stresses the wrong syllables, and the other half of the secondary characters are unintelligible to a native Russian speaker without subtitles. Their lines were all dubbed for the Russian theatrical release.

* MagicalSecurityCamera: In a trailer scene that [[MissingTrailerScene isn't in the film]], Taskmaster is seen watching footage of Natasha's hallway scene from ''Film/IronMan2'', specifically footage from the film itself rather than the security cameras that Whiplash was watching (which were shown to record in black-and-white). In the film proper, Taskmaster watches overhead security footage of Clint and Natasha's standoff from ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar''.

* ArtisticTitle: The opening montage shows Natasha and Yelena as they and some other little girls are kidnapped, mind-controlled, and trained to become Black Widows, with some scenes of 20th century cartoons (one of them being the intro to Disney's own ''WesternAnimation/DuckTales1987''), fake home movies, and news reports interspersed throughout the process, set to a macabre cover of Music/{{Nirvana}}'s "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Think Up Anger.

* {{Flashback}}: The film begins with a flashback to Natasha's childhood, revealing that she and Yelena were reared in Ohio with Melina and Alexei as their parents. In 1995, they escaped from S.H.I.E.L.D. and took a plane to Cuba, where the girls were both taken by Dreykov to the Red Room.

* MissingMom: Natasha believes her biological mother abandoned her as an infant. [[spoiler:Melina eventually reveals that her mother didn't give her up voluntarily, and actually tried to relocate her so relentlessly that Dreykov had her executed for drawing too much attention which could have exposed the Red Room.]]

** Dreykov's control over the Red Room depends on a wireless contact hidden inside his pinkie ring. In the battle with Natasha at the end [[spoiler:you can spot the moment it disappears from his hand]].

* CasualDangerDialog: Frequently, since the family members are used to being in dangerous situations.

** In the ActionPrologue, Malina tells the girls they're going to go on the adventure she told them they'd have one day. Little Yelena is excited, but natasha is old enough to understand that this means her happy (fake) life is about to be destroyed.

* OhCrap: Natasha discovers the pictures of her and Yelena stashed in the counteragent vials after escaping her first encounter with the Taskmaster, which reveals Yelena's involvement. Earlier, Mason mentioned that it was sent from the Budapest safe house.

The film was released simultaneously in theaters and through Creator/DisneyPlus Premier Access on July 9, 2021. The film became available to all Disney+ subscribers on October 6, 2021.

* ProtagonistCenteredMorality: Melina and Alexei are represented very sympathetically as Natasha's adoptive parents . Despite being professional spies and assassins , they dutifully and willingly participated in the atrocities of Dreykov and the Russian government , helping to form the Black Widows . oom child abductions , brainwashing and possibly lethal training of them to become elite spies and assassins . Since it wouldn't be cool to make Natasha have to possibly kill her adoptive parents , everyone blames everything that happened on Dreykov and declares it over after they kill him , even though almost everyone involved in these disgusting acts got away with it .

* FiveSecondForeshadowing: After Taskmaster crashes Natasha's car, causing it to teeter at the edge of a bridge, Natasha gets out of the car through the back window looking around for her assailant. The vehicle stops leaning over the bridge despite Natasha not being in it. Seconds later, it's shown that Taskmaster had landed atop it and was the weight keeping it down.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: ​When we see Melina's room, there are [[spoiler:wigs and some [[LatexPerfection Photostatic Veils]]. When Dreykov's forces arrive to take everyone, shots of the room show those wigs and veils have disappeared.]]

** Also in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'', Natasha tells Bruce Banner that she started as a spy even younger than the girl she got to lure him to their meeting. In this film, we have it confirmed.

* PresentDayPast: The opening scene is set in 1995 and shows that Yelena has a plush toy of Twilight Sparkle from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. While ''Toys/MyLittlePony'' was a popular brand around this time and started in 1983, Twilight and ''Friendship Is Magic'' first appeared in 2010. Moreover, that toy depicts Twilight as an alicorn (a winged unicorn), but she started the show as a regular unicorn and didn't become an alicorn until 2013. This is likely due to a complete lack of knowledge of the franchise (as well as ''Friendship is Magic'''s [[MultipleDemographicAppeal fandom and appeal]]) on the writers' part (given that this scene is the closest MCU ever comes to referencing it)... despite [[https://m.facebook.com/robertdowneyjr/photos/a.156205521214588.1073741828.154213784747095/428980930603711/?type=1&p=50/ Robert Downey Jr. having compared MCU and MLP characters]], and Zoe Saladana and Michael Pena playing roles in both.

* PresentDayPast: The opening scene is set in 1995 and shows that Yelena has a plush toy of Twilight Sparkle from ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic''. While ''Toys/MyLittlePony'' was a popular brand around this time and started in 1983, Twilight and ''Friendship Is Magic'' first appeared in 2010. Moreover, that toy depicts Twilight as an alicorn (a winged unicorn), but she started the show as a regular unicorn and didn't become an alicorn until 2013.

** Yelena's favourite song as a child is "Music/AmericanPie". Alexei later sings it to her while trying to prove he genuinely cares about her.

* AscendedMeme: Yelena loves her vest. It has pockets!

** [[spoiler:The survival of Taskmaster sets up a possible return for her in the future.]]

The film stars Creator/ScarlettJohansson as Natasha Romanoff, Creator/FlorencePugh as Yelena Belova, Creator/DavidHarbour as Alexei Shostakov, and Creator/RachelWeisz as Melina Vostokoff. Other cast members include O-T Fagbenle as Rick Mason, Creator/WilliamHurt as [[ComicBook/RedHulk Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross]] (which turned out to be Hurt's last outing as the character before his passing a year after this film), and Creator/RayWinstone as General Dreykov. Creator/OlgaKurylenko also plays an important role in the film.

[[{{Interquel}} Set between]] the events of ''Film/CaptainAmericaCivilWar'' and ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'', its story follows Natasha Romanoff, a.k.a. Black Widow, still on the run for helping Steve Rogers’ team, as she’s summoned back to Budapest by Yelena Belova, her former “sister” from the Red Room, the mysterious Russian program that trained them, who needs Natasha’s help in freeing their fellow Black Widows from the control of the Red Room’s commander, General Dreykov. Along the way, as they reunite with their other “family” members, former Soviet superhero Alexei Shostakov/Red Guardian, and fellow seasoned spy Melina Vostokoff, they must also contend with Dreykov’s ultimate weapon, the deadly operative known as ComicBook/{{Taskmaster}}.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: ​When we see Melina’s room, there are [[spoiler:wigs and some [[LatexPerfection Photostatic Veils]]. When Dreykov's forces arrive to take everyone, shots of the room show those wigs and veils have disappeared.]]

* ObligatoryEarpieceTouch: [[spoiler:In the Red Room, right after the reveal that Melina and Natasha have posed as each other]], Melina contacts Yelena with instructions and touches her earpiece as she speaks. Alexei, who tried to give Natasha a heart-to-heart just earlier, also puts his hand to his ear as he tells her he's sorry. Melina informs him that [[FailedAttemptAtDrama he isn't wearing an earpiece and Natasha can't hear him]].

* TheWorfEffect: Pushed almost to the point of parody with Alexei. Not only does he get his ass whooped in the fight with [[spoiler: the Taskmaster]], but earlier in the movie he gets promptly sedated and captured by FacelessMooks as soon as they spot him. This is further reinforced later when it is revealed that [[spoiler: he was the only one of the protagonists who got captured by the villains for real, the others were just playing a ruse in order to infiltrate the villain’s headquarters.]] This is PlayedForLaughs both times. Also justified, he's out of shape and out of practice, spent decades being the top dog in prison by sole virtue of his augmented physical abilities, and hasn't faced anyone who is his match or better in a very long time.

** Alexei's reunion speech to his "daughters" incorporates the same ledger-dripping-with-red metaphor Natasha and Loki discussed during her 2012 interrogation of him. Even more fittingly, that talk with Loki is the first we heard of Dreykov's daughter.
** Natasha tells Ross, as he's attempting to capture her, that "Coming here makes you look desperate." During TheStinger, Yelena uses the same line [[spoiler:when Countess de Fontaine shows up at the cemetary to give her a new target.]]
** After they reunite, Yelena mentions that she's always thought about getting a dog. [[spoiler:She has one in TheStinger, set after the events of ''Endgame'']].

* EmpathyDollShot: The opening credits show Natasha, Yelena and other young girls selected to be part of the Black Widow programme being dragged out of a shipping container by General Dreykov's FacelessGoons. Several are clutching stuffed toys which get dropped and are shown lying in the stagnant water on the warehouse floor.

* OutsideRide: In the ActionPrologue, Red Guardian gives covering fire against SHIELD agents by lying on the wing of the light aircraft they're using to escape to Cuba. Much as his character is played for laughs later in the film, the scene shows what he was capable of in his prime.

** In the ActionPrologue, a SHIELD agent opens fire into an airplane carrying two little girls. Then again if SHIELD knew they were members of the Black Widow program, they would [[Series/AgentCarter already know that even the children were dangerous]].

* WouldHurtAChild: In the backstory, ''Natasha''. She stalked Dreykov's daughter to find and kill him, allowing the poor child to get caught in the crossfire. She maintains that [[IDidWhatIHadToDo it was necessary,]] but [[MyGreatestFailure she is clearly still haunted by it.]] Yelena has to drag the story out of her. [[spoiler:Compounding Natasha's mistake, Dreykov uses the incident to mind control his daughter and turn her into the Taskmaster, which is arguably a FateWorseThanDeath.]]

* NonActionBigBad: Dreykov is of no threat to any member of the Widow family as an individual, to the point where Natasha insults his ability to throw a punch to his face. The threat he represents stems from the brainwashed Widows who literally can't disobey his orders, and even those who have broken his direct control are incapable of hurting him when in close proximity to him no matter how much they want to.

** The nature of Natasha's FamilyOfChoice (Soviet agents who have blended in suburban America as moles) is a PG rendition of the premise of ''Series/TheAmericans''--with even [[LossOfIdentity the attendant drama it causes to all involved]].

** The film has significant thematic and aesthetic similarities to ''Film/TheBourneSeries''--particularly with the nature of the Red Room being agents enhanced and controlled against their will, not to mention Natasha, [[TheParagonAlwaysRebels the best among them]], being on the run from both the assassination agency and global authorities.

** Natasha watches ''Film/{{Moonraker}}'', another spy movie featuring a physically unassuming BigBad with a [[ImplacableMan giant implacable henchman]] [[spoiler: with HiddenDepths]], a mid-air action sequence involving unconventional use of a parachute, [[spoiler:and a hidden fortress above the Earth.]] It might be enough to count as {{Foreshadowing}}.

* TranquillizerDart: During the assault on Melina's farm, Alexei gets hit in the chest by one. He's contemptuous at first, since that won't be enough to take down a SuperSoldier, but then he's comically hit by a dozen more darts in rapid succession, and ends up falling flat on his face.