History Film / BlackWidow2021

* BikerBabe: Apparently the Black Widow program involves motorcycle training -- one of the Widows after Yelena and Natasha is on a bike, and they only get away because Yelena had gotten her own bike beforehand (though Natasha jacks the keys).

* AmbiguousDisorder: Taskmaster is [[spoiler:almost]] non-verbal and is noticeably much more stoic compared to even the new generation of Widows. There's the implication of autism (which, in the comics, Taskmaster is sometimes coded as), or brain damage from [[spoiler:the bombing that disfigured her face]].

-->-- '''Black Widow'''

* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: Yelena and Natasha casually mention to Alexei that their entire reproductive systems right down to the ovaries were removed as part of becoming Black Widows. Surgically removing ovaries causes premature menopause due to lack of estrogen, which has several negative health effects including reduced bone density and mood swings. Not the best thing for an assassin, unless the Red Room had them regularly taking hormone supplements.

* AmazinglyEmbarrassingParents: Yelena and Natasha react with bemused annoyance when Alexi manages to cram himself back into his old Red Guardian suit and Melina wolf-calls in response.

* ParentalSexualitySquick: Natasha and Yelena are both grossed out when their surrogate father Alexei talks about what he wants to do with their surrogate mother Melina. They also get put off when Melina gives a wolf whistle to Alexi donning his Red Guardian costume again.

* ParentalSexualitySquick: Natasha and Yelena are both grossed out when their surrogate father Alexei talks about what he wants to do with their surrogate mother Melina.

** [[spoiler:When Natasha is unable to shoot Dreykov with her Glock pistol, he jokes that [[NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont the safety is on]], even though a Glock's safety is located on the trigger and would be disengaged when the user is pulling on it properly (which Natasha is clearly trying to do). Of course, this was just a throwaway joke by him; the real reason she was unable to pull the trigger was due to the whole pheromonal lock business, and we've got plenty to say about that on its own.]]

** [[spoiler:When Natasha is unable to shoot Dreykov with her Glock pistol, he jokes that [[NotWithTheSafetyOnYouWont the safety is on]], even though a Glock's safety is located on the trigger and would be disengaged when the user is pulling on it properly (which Natasha is clearly trying to do). Of course, this was just a throwaway joke by him; the real reason she was unable to pull the trigger was due to the pheromonal lock, which is an even more absurd explanation.]]

* ArtisticLicenseFirearms: In the helicopter scene, Yelena uses an XM-25 grenade launcher to take out one of the prison's guard towers. The launcher's projectile is portrayed as rocket rather than the actual weapon's non-propelled 25mm grenades, suggesting that it's supposed to be a fictional rocket launcher instead (but if that's the case, considering she's firing it from the inside of a helicopter, this scene would also have [[MissingBackblast another issue]]).

* ArtisticLicenseFirearms: In the helicopter scene, Yelena uses an XM-25 grenade launcher to take out one of the prison's guard towers. The launcher's projectile is portrayed as rocket rather than the actual weapon's non-propelled 25mm grenades, suggesting that it's supposed to be a fictional rocket launcher instead (but if that's the case, considering she's firing it from the inside of a helicopter, this scene would also have {{MissingBackblast another issue}}).

* ArtisticLicenseFirearms: Firing off a rocket launcher from inside a helicopter cabin, as Yelena does during the prison break, would trash a fair bit of the interior due to the backblast and probably seriously injure the operator as well. In short, not a good idea.

* ShownTheirWork: Alexei has prison tattoos, which are common for Russian convicts -- and the symbols used are accurate to what Russian prisoners often use. For instance, the eyes are meant to intimidate other convicts, while the towers and the star indicate that Alexei has a history of stealing. This was previously done with Ivan Vanko.

* SpoilerOpening: [[spoiler:Olga Kurylenko appears in the opening credits. By process of elimination, she's not playing Dreykov, and clearly none of the Widows, whose faces are all seen. That just leaves Taskmaster. The marketing left her name out entirely.]]

* StrappedToAnOperatingTable: [[spoiler:After Yelena and the rest of her family get captured by the Red Room, she is sent to an operating room so Red Room techs can cut her open and find out why she is no longer under control. She mutters that this is a not a cool way to die. She quickly frees herself thanks to a concealed knife.]]

** 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.

* ToyotaTripwire: Yelena does this to take out a Widow on a motorbike during the CarChase in Budapest. Although she doesn't just open the door, but kicks it so it goes off flying.

* TheUnHug: In a twisted SoProudOfYou speech, Alexei congratulates his daughters on being respectively a Black Widow and an Avenger with surely lots of kills in their ledgers and warmly hugs them. However, Natasha and Yelena still resent Alexei for having betrayed them, do not enjoy their red ledgers at all, and Yelena also says that he stinks so the hug is rather awkward and uncomfortable for the girls.

** Any widow candidate kidnapped by Dreykov that is not fit to be a Widow is killed -- or, in some cases, turned into the next generation of Widows. He also kills off any Widow who is injured enough to become this as shown in the one who zaps herself after Dreykov instructs her through the mind-control algorithm to do so.

* YourApprovalFillsMeWithShame: Natasha has been trying to do good in the world, in her own words "wiping the red out of her ledger". So when Alexei tells her he's so proud that she's such a deadly assassin and "her ledger must be gushing", she can only storm away in wordless fury.

* MassOhCrap: Yelena accidentally triggers an avalanche that threatens to bury the Russian prison. She, Natasha, Alexei, and every single guard and inmate all have this reaction when they see it coming, although Yelena follows it up with "This would be such a cool way to die!"

* MyGreatestFailure: In order to find Dreykov in the past, Natasha tracked his daughter Antonia, then blew them both up. This gets even worse when it turns out Antonia didn't die in the crash, but ended up horribly scarred and her father [[spoiler:ran her through the Red Room, turning her into Taskmaster]].

* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Both David Harbor and Rachel Weisz' Russian accents are wobbly on occasion (particularly when they get emotional). It's also easy to hear Ray Winstone's thick cockney accent underneath the Russian.

* PrisonRiot: Alexei triggers a riot when he breaks out of the Russian prison:

*** Yelena gives one to Melina regarding the subjugation chemicals as she was one of those under the influence of it, and also to Natasha for her getting out and not finishing the job of killing Dreykov.
*** Natasha blasts both Melina and Alexei who believed they were a family (along with Yelena) and called the former a coward because she was the inventor of the subjugation chemical that Dreykov administered to the widows including Yelena.
** Nat also gives one to Dreykov in their final confrontation about how he is a pathetic coward, saying that for all his alleged power he's been hiding for a decade, nobody knows who he is, and asks how long it's been since he last talked to someone who wasn't under his mind control. Once he physically attacks her while she is unable to fight back, she then starts berating him for beating someone who he made physically incapable of fighting back, while also mocking him for being so weak that he can't even do that correctly.

* RelationshipSalvagingDisaster: A familial variant. The movie is about how two estranged sisters manage to reconnect to each other and their now separated parents by facing a shared problem together.

** 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.]]

** Yelena is referencing and disliking Natasha's [[ThreePointLanding Three-Point Landings]].
*** The first is at the convenience store [[spoiler:where she tries to demonstrate and mocks it in front of Natasha.]]
*** The second happens where Natasha executes a clean one on the catwalk above [[spoiler:the prison while they are rescuing Alexei;]] Yelena's response? "Such a poser".
*** The third is [[spoiler:executed by Yelena herself out of an air vent exactly like Natasha did in ''Film/IronMan2'', responding with "Ugh, that was disgusting".]]

** When Natasha and Yelena agree to rescue Alexei from the prison, Natasha realizes and says "we're gonna need a jet". Cut to meeting Mason -- "I said we needed a jet" when faced with a helicopter.

* GunKata: A training montage of Black Widows in the red room complete with each one wielding a gun.

* FriendInTheBlackMarket: Rick Mason procures resources and transportation for Natasha while she's on the run post-''Civil War''. The quality of the resources is directly proportional to the time and money he's given to acquire them.

* AdaptationNameChange: [[spoiler:Taskmaster's name is changed from Anthony Masters to Antonia Dreykov]].

* AllYourPowersCombined: Taskmaster is able to reproduce the abilities of all the Avengers whose abilities don't come from true superpowers or very exotic tech. This means that fighting Taskmaster is like fighting a combination of Black Widow, Captain America, Hawkeye, and Black Panther (the Taskmaster suit has a bow, a shield, and claws, though not vibranium).

* AndIMustScream: Yelena's description of what it's like for the Widows to be under the influence of the Red Room's mind control serum. They're fully conscious and aware of what's happening, but the serum keeps their perceptions clouded just enough that they are unable to distinguish which thoughts going through their heads are their own and which are orders from Dreykov. [[spoiler:Once Taskmaster is freed with the antidote, her only words are "Is he gone? Is he gone?" with a look of incredible relief on her face]].

** Yelena Belova is a normal feminine Russian name. However, her first name would normally be shortened to "Lena" (pronoucned with the short "e" as in the full name, not with the long "e" it looks like in isolation) by people on a FirstNameBasis with her.

* AtrocityMontage: The film's title sequence is intercut with images depicting the abduction, training and various non-consensual medical operations performed on the Black Widow Program operatives, while a sinister cover of ''[[Music/{{Nirvana}} Smells Like A Teen Spirit]]'' plays over it.

* BadassFamily: Once they got their act together, Natasha, Yelena, Alexei and Melina manage to take down Dreykov and destroy his operation in a matter of ''hours''.

** Yelena comments on an incoming avalanche with "that would be a cool way to die". And then when she's strapped to an operating table about to go through brain surgery without anesthesia, she's quick to note "this is a much less cool way to die".

** Early in the film, Yelena jokingly mocks Natasha's signature three-point landing pose. Later at the Red Room facility, Yelena instinctively does the pose herself, and immediately reacts with disgust upon realizing that she just copied Natasha's SignatureMove.

** Natasha tried to goad Yelena into joining her in finding the Red Room, claiming that it "could be fun." At the climax of the movie, Yelena [[spoiler:about to make a HeroicSacrifice]] yells back at her "it was fun!"

** Erik Mason is treated as one by Natasha, he's often caught sleeping by Natasha. The alias he proposes is met with criticism (Fanny Longbottom), and he's never satisfying Natasha's demands (an old helicopter instead of a jet and a generator that craps out after only six hours). He's also being watched by Ross's army, much to his annoyance. Even Yelena gets in on the act. Subverted in the end where he gets the time he demands and rewards Natasha with a quinjet.

** Early in the film, one of the supplies that Natasha buys is blonde hair dye, foreshadowing her bleached blonde look during ''Infinity War''. [[spoiler:We see her sporting her look from that film in the final scene]].

** "Thank you for your cooperation". Natasha uses these exact words after she tricks an enemy into unknowing giving her all the information she needs (Loki and Dreykov, The former in ''Film/{{The Avengers|2012}}'').

* GunKata: A training montage of black widows in the red room complete with each one wielding a gun.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: In the prologue, the younger Natasha has parts of her hair dyed blue. During her years of training in the Red Room, she eventually grows it out back to its natural red color. [[spoiler:In the end, it's blonde -- fitting her appearance in ''Infinity War''.]]

* WorfEffect: 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.

* WorfEffect: 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, and 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.

** 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.

* TalkToTheFist: Alexei's last opponent smugly points out that his tales of fighting Captain America don't really make sense. Rather than argue the point, Alexei's breaks the man's wrist.

* WorfEffect: 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, and 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.

** Yelena comments on an incoming avalanche with "that would be a cool way to die". And then when she's strapped to an operating table about to go through brain surgery without anesthesia, she's quick to note "that won't be a cool way to die".

* MyFriendsAndZoidberg: Ross invokes this against Romanoff in the opening act to refer to Ant-Man. Justified on the side of Ross as he likely did not know Lang prior to the Leipzig Airport battle.

* MyGreatestRegret: In order to find Dreykov in the past, Natasha tracked his daughter Antonia, then blew them both up. This regret gets even worse when it turns out Antonia didn't die in the crash, but ended up horribly scarred and her father [[spoiler:ran her through the Red Room, turning her into Taskmaster]].

* TheEighties: Although it's set in 1991, the family home and car have a strong 80s vibe, which is reasonable, given that most middle class families like they're pretending to be don't update their home furnishings immediately and those sorts of trends don't actually track exactly with the decade.