Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, confronts the darker parts of her ledger when a dangerous conspiracy with ties to her past arises. Pursued by a force that will stop at nothing to bring her down, Natasha must deal with her history as a spy and the broken relationships left in her wake long before she became an Avenger. Forced to reunite with her estranged "family," she attempts to destroy the Red Room program once and for all.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States |
Premiere date |
July 9, 2021 |
Running time |
134 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Sci-Fi |
Budget |
$200,000,000 |
Box Office |
$379,751,655 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Cate Shortland |
Produced by |
Kevin Feige |
Written by |
Eric Pearson Jac Schaeffer Ned Benson |
Music by |
Lorne Balfe |
Cinematography |
Gabriel Beristain |
Edited by |
Leigh Folsom Boyd Matthew Schmidt |
Production Co. |
Marvel Studios |
Distributed by |
Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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The Plot
Shadows of the Past
The narrative begins in 1995 in Ohio, where young Natasha Romanoff and her younger "sister" Yelena Belova live a seemingly idyllic suburban life. However, this domestic tranquility is abruptly shattered when their surrogate parents, Alexei Shostakov and Melina Vostokoff, rush them out of their home under the cover of darkness. Shostakov, known to the world as the Red Guardian—Russia's super-soldier answer to Captain America—and Vostokoff, a former Black Widow, whisk the children away to a clandestine rendezvous point. Upon their arrival in Cuba, the family is forcibly separated. Despite the girls' desperate pleas, they are handed over to General Dreykov, the mastermind behind the Red Room. Both Natasha and Yelena are inducted into the brutal training program, destined to become elite assassins.
The Fugitive Avenger
Twenty-one years later, the geopolitical landscape has shifted drastically following the catastrophic battle between the Avengers at Leipzig-Halle Airport. Natasha Romanoff, having violated the Sokovia Accords to assist Captain America, is now branded a fugitive by the U.S. government. She narrowly escapes capture by U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross, slipping away to a remote safehouse in Norway. Here, she reunites with her old contact and procurement specialist, Rick Mason, who helps her settle into a life off the grid. Meanwhile, in Morocco, a grown Yelena Belova continues to operate as an agent of the Red Room. During a mission to eliminate a rogue target, Belova kills Oksana, a former Black Widow. In her dying moments, Oksana exposes Belova to a synthetic gas known as Red Dust. This substance acts as an antidote to the chemical subjugation used by the Red Room, instantly breaking the mind control that has enslaved Belova for decades. Desperate and confused, Belova ships the remaining vials of the antidote to the only safe place she knows: Romanoff’s safehouse in Budapest, hoping her sister will return to help.
Collision Course
Unaware of the package's contents, Romanoff drives off with the antidote in her possession. Her journey is violently interrupted by the Taskmaster, a formidable, silent assassin capable of mimicking any fighting style instantly. Taskmaster is hunting for the Red Dust. After a brutal skirmish on a bridge, Romanoff manages to evade her attacker, but not before realizing the package she is carrying is the primary target. Investigating the contents, she discovers the shipment originated from the Budapest safehouse she once shared with Belova. Realizing her sister is involved, Romanoff heads to Hungary.
Blood Sisters in Budapest
In Budapest, Romanoff and Belova reunite in their old apartment, an encounter that begins with a fierce hand-to-hand combat stalemate before they lower their weapons. The tension is palpable as Belova reveals the truth: the Red Room is not destroyed, and its leader, Dreykov, is still alive. Romanoff is shaken by this revelation; years prior, her defecting mission to join S.H.I.E.L.D. required her to assassinate Dreykov. She had detonated a bomb in a building where Dreykov and his young daughter, Antonia, were present—an act of collateral damage that has haunted her ever since. Belova explains that the Red Room has evolved, now using chemical mind control to strip its Widows of free will completely. Their conversation is cut short when a squad of active Black Widows attacks the apartment. The sisters escape through the city in a chaotic chase, evading Taskmaster once again. They eventually meet up with Rick Mason, who supplies them with an aircraft, allowing them to pursue the next lead.
Breaking the Red Guardian
To locate the Red Room, the sisters decide they need to interrogate Alexei Shostakov, who has been languishing in a remote Russian prison. Romanoff and Belova execute a daring prison break, extracting the Red Guardian from the "Seventh Circle" prison amidst a violent avalanche triggered by the escape. Once free, Shostakov is more interested in reliving his glory days than helping, but he eventually reveals that the only person who knows Dreykov’s location is Melina Vostokoff. He directs them to a pig farm outside Saint Petersburg where Vostokoff has been conducting research.
The Family Dinner
The makeshift family reunites at Vostokoff’s farm. The atmosphere is thick with unresolved trauma as they sit down for dinner. Vostokoff reveals her work involves experimenting on pigs to perfect the mind-control technology used on the Widows. In a moment of vulnerability, Belova confronts her surrogate family, confessing that while their life in Ohio was a mission to the adults, it was the only real childhood she ever knew. "It was real to me," she asserts, forcing Shostakov and Vostokoff to admit that they, too, wished they could have been a real family. However, the reconciliation is short-lived. Vostokoff secretly alerts the Red Room to their location. Dreykov’s forces arrive, subduing the group and transporting them to the Red Room, which is revealed to be a massive aerial fortress hiding in the clouds.
Infiltrating the Fortress
Inside the aerial base, the group is separated. Dreykov summons Vostokoff to his office to congratulate her on capturing the fugitives. However, as the scene unfolds, it is revealed that Romanoff and Vostokoff utilized advanced face mask technology to switch places back at the farm. The woman facing Dreykov is actually Romanoff. She attempts to kill him but finds herself physically unable to do so. Dreykov reveals he has installed a "pheromone lock" in every Black Widow, preventing them from harming him as long as they can smell him. He then unveils his greatest weapon: Taskmaster is actually Antonia, his daughter. She survived the explosion caused by Romanoff years ago but suffered severe damage, forcing Dreykov to implant a chip in her head that controls her and turns her into the perfect soldier.
Severing the Strings
Dreykov gloats, showing Romanoff the control desk from which he manipulates Widows globally. Romanoff, realizing she needs to bypass the pheromone lock, goads Dreykov into punching her repeatedly. Seizing the moment, she intentionally breaks her own nose, severing the nerve in her nasal passage to block her sense of smell. Now immune to the pheromone, she attacks Dreykov. Meanwhile, Vostokoff (disguised as Romanoff) escapes her cell and moves to sabotage the ship's engine. Shostakov battles the formidable Antonia/Taskmaster, while Belova scours the complex to find the other Widows sent to protect Dreykov.
The Fall of the Red Room
As the aerial base begins to explode and lose altitude due to Vostokoff’s sabotage, Dreykov attempts to flee. His escape is blocked by his own Widows, who have been ordered to attack Romanoff. Belova arrives just in time and detonates a Red Dust bomb, exposing the Widows to the antidote and freeing them from Dreykov's mind control. Romanoff rushes to the control desk, copying the coordinates of all active Black Widows around the world onto a portable drive. As the facility crumbles around them, Romanoff manages to salvage two vials of Red Dust that survived the blast. Shostakov and Vostokoff secure a plane and are forced to flee the disintegrating station. Belova, refusing to let the mastermind escape, destroys Dreykov’s escape helicopter, killing him instantly, but is thrown into the sky in the process.
Descent and Resolution
Romanoff dives after her sister, handing Belova a parachute mid-air. Before she can land, Romanoff is intercepted by Antonia/Taskmaster for one final battle while freefalling through the debris-filled sky. They crash-land on the ground, where Romanoff uses the penultimate vial of Red Dust on Antonia, freeing her from her father's control and finally laying the ghosts of the past to rest. The liberated Widows land nearby, followed by Vostokoff and Shostakov. The family shares a poignant goodbye. Belova gifts Romanoff her green vest—a symbol of her independence—to remember her by. In return, Romanoff entrusts Belova with the last vial of Red Dust and the portable drive containing the locations of the other Widows, instructing her to find and free them all. As the group departs with the recovering Antonia, Romanoff stays behind to delay the approaching convoy of General Ross.
The Road Ahead
Two weeks later, a transformed Natasha Romanoff, now sporting short blonde hair, meets with Rick Mason one last time. He provides her with a fully fueled Quinjet. Having mended the wounds of her past, she sets off with a new purpose: to break her fellow Avengers out of the Raft prison and mend her broken team.
A Vengeful Requiem
In a post-credits scene set after Natasha Romanoff’s death in Avengers: Endgame, Yelena Belova visits her sister's grave. Her mourning is interrupted by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, her current employer. Valentina hands Belova her next assignment on an iPad, displaying a photo of Clint Barton (Hawkeye). She coldly identifies him as the man "responsible" for Romanoff's death, setting Belova on a path of vengeance.
