Black Widow: Does the post-credits scene undo the movie? And more WTF questions

Black Widow is a smooth superspy thrill ride with excellent casting, but the first wonder film in two years raises some questions. What’s wrong with Taskmaster? Is the post-credits scene ruin a character’s entire movie? How much James bond the references are there? And will we ever see Scarlett Johansson take that pose again?

Release Friday July 9 in theaters and on Disney plus, Black Widow is both a prequel and a solo adventure for Johansson’s avenging assassin. So there are not as many links with the rest of the Marvel Cinematic Universe like some other films in the series (well, at least until the post-credits scene, which hints at the future of the MCU). But this nifty spy thriller still has a few things to ponder. Zip up your utility vest, strike your best superhero pose, and join in the search for answers. Warning: Spoilers everywhere!

How did the widows escape?

At the end of the film, Natasha and her surrogate family have destroyed the Red Room, freed the Black Widows, and are ready to start a new life. Hooray! All they have to do is run away. Walk. With a fleet of SUVs rushing at them. We see Natasha hiding again in the final scene, so what did the family and the widows do? Crowded into that hovering plane? Hide behind a wreckage until the army of highly trained technicians give up and come home? What if two of the widows tried to hide behind the same piece of burning helicarrier? What if two if they start running in the same direction? Would it be really embarrassing?

Natasha doesn’t have a nose. How does she smell?

Natasha defeats Dreykov by cutting off her own olfactory nerve and bypassing her pheromone-based brainwashing. So in Infinity War and Endgame, does Natasha have no sense of smell? And why does the mission’s success depend on her breaking her nose? Do we feel … a metaphor?

How many James Bond references can you spot?

While chatting with my colleague Sean Keane, Black Widow director Cate Shortland has revealed her favorite Bond movie is a visually striking 2012 film Fall from the sky, with Daniel Craig. And there are spy references in Black Widow. For example, the music is written by composer Lorne Balfe, who also made the soundtrack of the last Impossible mission movies, and it is performed by musicians including the famous string quartet Bind. But that’s not all…

What movie did Natasha watch?

Once safely off the grid, Natasha settled in to watch a movie. Specifically, the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker, in which Roger Moore fought a toothy henchman Jaws on a cable car and went into space. Natasha knows the movie inside and out, so she may have been inspired by the villain’s hidden space station and the scene in which Bond dove into the air to steal someone else’s parachute. Perhaps more relevant to Black Widow’s themes, Moonraker included the nadir of sexism in the Bond series: Moore is surprised to meet a scientist who is “A woman!“

Who was Taskmaster?

Under Taskmaster’s task mask is actress Olga Kurylenko, who provides an interesting connection to James Bond: she appeared as a Bolivian agent in the 2008 Bond film Quantum of Solace.

Will we see Taskmaster again?

I’ll be honest, I was a little disappointed with the amount of screen time for Taskmaster. While the evil impersonator gave Natasha and her friends a run for their money, they weren’t quite the threat they could have been. It was fun to see Taskmaster rehearse Hawk Eyearchery skills, Captain Americashield attacks and Black Pantherthe claws of the nails. And was it a Falcon-style kick flip or a Spidey-flip? Did Taskmaster watch the Spider-Man movies?

Have David Harbor and Rachel Weisz been digitally aged?

Marvel often uses computer trickery to rejuvenate stars like Michael Douglas, Kurt Russell, and Robert Downey Jr. in flashbacks. For Black Widow, it may have spent millions to age the two stars for the prologue, but who knows – Harbor only has to lose a beard to be half her age and Rachel Weisz clearly hasn’t. day aged for decades anyway.

How many passers-by have died?

The car chase sequence cracked a bunch of cars and pedestrians before throwing a fucking car into a fucking train station. And no one was hurt? Leave me alone. (See also the surprisingly destructive pursuits through Edinburgh, Scotland, and Tbilisi, Georgia, in Fast and Furious 9.)

And this is only Natasha’s last visit to Budapest – the last time she was there, she blew up an entire building to catch a villain. A bunch of Hungarians are clearly dead, that’s what I’m saying.

How communist is Black Widow?

The comic book character made his debut in 1964 as a Soviet super-spy and fits perfectly into the Cold War drama of the 60s, 70s and 80s. But it has been decades since the Berlin Wall fell. and that the Soviet Union was finally dissolved, in 1991, and the opening scenes show Natasha and her family as sleeping agents in the United States in 1995, during Russia’s new turbulent transition period. The film flirts with vaguely Soviet iconography (the tattoos on the fingers of “Karl” and “Marx” by Alexei Shostakov, the moving Russian backing vocals on the soundtrack, the credits sequence) without really committing to exactly what Dreykov and his spy apparatus are doing in this post-communist era. Did he continue the Cold War or did he become a self-interested villain, a super-spy oligarch? Considering that this is sort of an MCU side quest, it doesn’t really matter.

Has Red Guardian ever fought Captain America?

Speaking of the slightly vague timeline, Alexei regales everyone in the gulag of his run-ins with Captain America while he was the equivalent of Cap’s Soviet super-soldier, Red Guardian. While this all looks great in the comics, as one of the inmates points out, it doesn’t fit the MCU timeline in which Cap was on ice from WWII until 2012 or so. . The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV series revealed that other heroes wore the mantle of Captan America, so did Red Guardian face a Cold War cap? Or is Alexei just talking about a bunch of balalaikas?

How to pronounce Budapest?

Natasha is right (“Budapesht”). If you’re used to saying it the Mason way, just think how Sean Connery would say it (optional eyebrow raise).

Why did Mason’s trailer run out of gas?

He can get IDs and deadly weapons anywhere in the world, but he can’t check a propane cylinder? Q never would.

When did Valentina recruit Yelena?

As the credits roll, the film passes, presumably, to the present tense for the post-credits sequence. At some point in between, Yelena appears to have been recruited by Contessa Valentina Allegra de Fontaine, played by Julia Louis-Dreyfus. She was the mysterious figure seen recruiting John Walker (the disgraced former Captain America) on The Falcon and the Winter Soldier TV show. But when and how did she recruit Yelena? And why does Valentina pick up the most morally flexible super-dudes?

Why do they want Hawkeye dead?

To edit the Hawkeye television series, of course. But what is the real reason? Probably the haircut.

We will know when Jeremy Renner and Hailee Steinfeld title of the Hawkeye show on Disney Plus later in 2021.

Doesn’t the post-credits scene undo the entire Yelena arc?

So the whole movie is about the women in the Black Widow program who are fighting for the freedom to think for themselves. Yelena, for example, goes from a mind-controlled assassin to a free woman exercising her own independence. Her emotional journey is symbolized by her waistcoat: it’s the first item of clothing she buys for herself, and it’s full of pockets – because the availability of pockets in women’s clothing is a feminist issue. As Natasha says, her bow is to “make up for the pain and suffering we’ve caused. Trying to be more than a skilled killer.”

Hit on the post-credits – and Yelena is back to take orders and seemingly kill people on someone else’s advice. What happened to free will, Yelena?

Will we see Scarlett Johansson in the MCU again?

The million dollar question! Natasha gave her life to obtain an Infinity Stone in Avengers: Endgame, and we see her grave on Earth in a post-credits scene that also suggests Florence Pugh is taking over from Black Widow. So, is this for ScarJo and the MCU? Time travel is now a big part of the MCU, thanks to the Loki TV series as well as Cap’s use of those same Infinite Stones to undo the timey-wimey shenanigans of Endgame. So maybe that? There is a chance that Natasha will no longer be a widow for the next phase of the Marvel films.