Spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- Doubles as Awesome, the first scene in the present day (or at least between Civil War and Infinity War) has Natasha on the run from Ross' forces. She ends up calling him as he leads his forces to her location, telling Ross not to do it because he's embarrassing himself. Turns out Nat's calling from Norway while Ross and his team are in the States.
- During the phone call, Scott Lang is called "The Incredible Shrinking Convict". Scott just can't catch a break when it comes to his superhero name.
- Then comes the Brick Joke near the end of the film when Nat pulls a Hold the Line move to let her family and the freed Widows to escape. It looks to be an epic moment...then it cuts to two weeks later. Not only is Nat no worse for wear but is in the midst of getting ready to break out the other incarcerated Avengers from the Raft.
- When explaining her daydream backstories for her family members, Yelena says that Natasha went West, "you teach science, your husband renovates houses" and her former partner Hawkeye is perpetually renovating his own house (which was itself a shout-out to his actor's love of renovating and flipping houses between movies).
- The expression on Natasha's face when Yelena starts talking about the "bigger" Avengers and the response to who the "bigger" ones might be: "Do you think the god from space needs to take an ibuprofen after a fight?".
- The name of Natasha's secret identity? Fanny Longbottom. She immediately calls Mason out for the juvenile name straight out of one of the Austin Powers movies. Ironically, a shot shortly afterwards follows Natasha from her short-circuited generator to her car, with the camera fixed on her lower torso as if to draw the viewers' attention directly to her butt.
- Humorously enough, what's the name that Yelena gives her dog in The Stinger? Fanny.
- Also, Mason is British, and while the word "fanny" in America refers to butts, in Britain it means vagina.
- Natasha is insistent on people correctly pronouncing "Budapest". Made even better when we get a giant caption for it shortly afterward.
- When Natasha and Yelena fight, it can be amusing to see Natasha and Yelena fight like two quarreling siblings. In particular, Nat holding Yelena face first against a counter and then Yelena smashing a plate into Nat’s head. Yelena even screams like a toddler while doing so.
- When Yelena uses Techno Babble to discuss the antidote to the mind control serum, Natasha asks for the "English Translation". Yelena dumbs it down, but also switches to speaking in Russian. To top it off, Nat returns "Real Mature" in Russian.
- Yelena identifies her motorcycle to Natasha before finding that her keys are missing. Natasha reveals she stole them. Yelena's reply (in Russian): "Ah, bitch!"
- While running from Taskmaster in Budapest, Yelena forces a man to give up his car for her and Natasha.Natasha: You can't just steal a car!
Yelena: What, you want me to chase him down and un-steal it?- Even better when you remember back in Winter Soldier where Cap stole a car and she teased him about it. Apparently, when Captain America steals a car, he gets the same treatment as her sister, and fellow Black Widow, when she steals a car. Perhaps the boy scout had a bit of a sibling relationship with her, too.
- Yelena's "You're such a mom!" when Natasha tells her to buckle her seatbelt.
- To get away from Taskmaster, Natasha and Yelena hide in the same air duct vent that Natasha and Clint did all those years ago, mentioning they hid for two days there. A cut to the wall shows that they played a lot of Tic-Tac-Toe to pass the time.
- While Yelena describing the Red Room giving the women hysterectomies is horrifying, her manner of doing it to gross out Alexei in retaliation for his "time of the month" comment is priceless.
- Then there's Alexei telling a disgusting thing to Yelena, namely that after he accidentally sunk his hands into an ice-cold lake, his father had to urinate on them to stop the frostbite.
- While in prison and beating other inmates in arm wrestling, Alexei keeps on bragging about fighting Captain America in his prime, when his largest opponent points out that Captain America being frozen since the 1940s would have made it impossible for Alexei to actually fight him.
- Alexei's reaction afterwards is even more hilarious considering that he could easily be an Unreliable Narrator and the many different ways it could be interpreted. For example, barring the instance where Alexei could just be flat out lying, the reveal in The Falcon and the Winter Soldier that there were other soldiers who took the identity of Captain America after Steve Rogers went into ice means that he could actually be telling the truth to an extent in that he did fight a Captain America, just not the one the entire world recognizes.
- Alexei definitely believes he fought the real one; once they escape the prison, he breathlessly asks Natasha if "he ever talked about me."
- Alexei struggles to fit into his Red Guardian costume, and the women can hear him straining as he does so. When he emerges, he comments, "It still fits." Melina responds with a wolf whistle.Yelena: Oh, my God...
- From the point of view of Natasha, Yelena, and Melina, it may be interpreted by the sound from the bathroom that Alexei may be taking a shit or based on his comment to Melina shortly after he leaves, something more physical. Either way, it's hilariously uncomfortable.
- Yelena observing the avalanche she caused and noting this would be a cool way to die. Later when she almost gets her head cut open, she says that this a less cool way to die.
- Alexei, after he escapes from prison, as well as from an avalanche, yells back at the prison as though he's been wanting to say for a long time.Alexei: [In Russian] Farewell, douchebags.
- Yelena mocks Natasha's frequent Three Point Landings, claiming that she always looks like she thinks people are watching. When Natasha ends up doing it in the prison break, Yelena is quick to snark "Such a poser". And then Yelena herself does one of these landings when infiltrating the Red Room in the third act:Yelena: [standing up and shuddering] Eugh, that was disgusting.
- Yelena's disappointment that only Badass Normal Natasha came to help instead of bringing one of the "big ones."Yelena: I doubt the god from space needs to take an ibuprofen after a fight.
- Yelena going on about her vest can be seen as a commentary on how lots of women's clothing lacks functional pockets. And the usually-tightly fitted catsuits that Widows tend to wear would also be less capable of having functional pockets, hence the also usually very conspicuous equipment hanging from belts, wrists, and so forth.
- After Natasha and Yelena rescue Alexei from prison, the three are aboard their helicopter discussing what their next move should be. After deciding that they need to find Melina, Alexei states that she's living just outside St. Petersburg. Yelena, who is piloting the copter, notes that they don't have enough fuel to reach St. Petersburg. Alexei insists that they'll make it, followed by an immediate Gilligan Cut to the helicopter abruptly falling out of the sky well short of reaching St. Petersburg. It's not even dramatic; it's straight out of Looney Tunes.
- After the helicopter's forced landing, Alexei first snarks "should've taken the Avengers jet", and proceeds to say a succession of ridiculous and hilarious lines, culminating in the revelation that Natasha's old speech about getting rid of the "red" in her "ledger" was actually a callback to an old metaphor her dad, Alexei, apparently likes to use a lot, but as a sincere compliment:"You have both killed so many people, I am so proud of you! There is a lot of red in your ledgers!". He even says it while hugging both girls, who wriggle out of his hug and complain about how he smells.
- The 'family' dinner has a lot.
- Alexei openly flirting with Melina, to the disgust of Natasha and Yelena.
- Natasha tries to keep her reunion with Yelena, Alexei, and Melina focused on business, but the four of them find themselves immediately falling back into their family dynamic, with Melina turning into a nagging mother, Alexei a bumbling father who backs his wife up, Natasha a focused older child, and Yelena a younger child who really doesn't want to be dragged into all this.Natasha: Here's what's going to happen-
Melina: Natasha, don't slouch!
Natasha: I'm not slouching!
Melina: You will get a back hunch!
Alexei: Listen to your mother. Up! Up! - Melina reveals that she has been experimenting with the Red Room's mind control serum to determine its effectiveness by using it on her pet pigs and calls one of the pigs named Alexei into the room for a demonstration. The human Alexei is less than pleased at the pig's name.Alexei: You named the pig after me?
Melina: What, you don't see the resemblance? - She then uses her control panel to force a pig she'd named Alexei to stop breathing. Throughout the scene following, the pig slowly asphyxiates while Melina keeps talking, oblivious to the others becoming increasingly distressed. Finally, when the pig collapses, Yelena points it out to Melina, who restores his breathing almost as an afterthought, stating that he could've still gone on without breathing for another 11 seconds before he would've sustained any brain damage.
- Yelena, while calling Alexei out for his lack of care towards her and Natasha, derisively refers to his glory days persona as "the Crimson Dynamo". He corrects her that it's Red Guardian.
- When Alexei and Yelena realize that the enemies have found them, Alexei gets hit by a single tranquilizer dart on the chest. He laughs it off, amused that they think only one dart can take down a super soldier, only for 15 more darts to hit him in rapid succession which finally knocks him out.
- When Alexei and Natasha are locked in adjoining cells at the Red Room facility, Alexei starts pouring his heart out to Natasha and apologizing for being a bad father figure to her and Yelena. He then tries to slam his fist against the cell's glass door and hits only thin air because the door isn't there anymore thanks to "Natasha" having already escaped her cell and opened his during his speech.
- After seeing "Natasha" reveal herself to actually be the disguised Melina and give instructions over comms to Yelena on how to escape from her own predicament, Alexei starts giving his heartfelt apology again over the comms to the real Natasha, only for Melina to cut him off and point out that nobody else can hear him since he doesn't have an earpiece.
- Coming after her Moment of Awesome in neutralizing Dreykov's men surrounding her by demolishing one of the Red Room complex's turbines, Melina then strolls very casually and calls Yelena for a change in their plan:Melina: Yelena, slight change of plan. I completely demolished one of the engines and we are going into a controlled crash.
Yelena: Fantastic. - The otherwise somber moment of Yelena mourning at Natasha's grave during the post-Endgame Stinger is hilariously followed by Valentina blowing her nose.Valentina: I'm sorry, I'm allergic to the Midwest.
- And this actually would have been our introduction to the character if the film hadn't been delayed until after The Falcon and the Winter Soldier.
