So the movie opens with RDJ's voice over a timecard setting up that it's right at the end of Civil War. He tells Nat she needs to run, because they're gonna come after her the hardest due to her past. She gets on a motorcycle and drives away from the Avengers facility and we get the Marvel logo.
The next scene is a flashback to young Nat. She's talking with young Yelena in a hallway, she's been asked to kill a diplomat or something and she's unsure if she can do it. She tries but can't bring herself to pull the trigger. She goes out into the hallway and cries, the woman leading the red room leads Yelena in and through a opaque glass door, we see her shoot the man without a thought.
Back in the present/past/when the fukking movie is set, Nat goes to Budapest. She's looking for something to make her/Cap/Sam be untraceable. There's a voice cameo of Anthony Mackie as she relays info to him. She knows that Yelena can find it, because the Red Room used to use it for its Widows.
She tracks her down to her apartment. They fight (second best fight in the movie) then once they know they aren't gonna kill eachother, they have a beer. They talk about guilt. They bond. Yelena tells Nat she can't give her the thing because the Red Room still has it. Dreykov has started up a new program and started training new Widows.
Another flashback shows slightly older young Nat(de-aged ScarJo) escaping the Red Room program. it's run by Rey Winstone and he's got his daughter with him who isn't part of the program, probably like 7-8 years old. She does a bunch of spy stuff to escape but she gets caught by Dreykov, she says something about always being taught to shoot first and tries to kill him but he attacks her and somehow she shoots something that makes the hallway explode. Seemingly killing Dreykov and his young daughter who was hiding behind him. Nat survives by jumping out a window into a river. Her underwater face transitions to her in a bath in Yelenas apartment. They have beef over the fact Nat abandoned her and never came back. Suddenly they're attacked by Taskmaster and his goons. Someone doesn't want them talking. Taskmaster looks stupid as hell but is actually kinda cool. He trounces both of them easily. They escape.
They decide they need to find out what's up with him and also end the Red Room program for good. They travel to the Swiss Alps to find Melina, who was an older widow who was matronly to them. She's retired, living a quiet life and is happy to see them. She knows that the Red Room is active and that the new Widows are being trained by a mysterious mercenary called Taskmaster. His ability to memorize the fighting styles of others makes him invaluable to the program. She reluctantly agrees to help them take him down but they all concede they'll need help.
We see Taskmaster in a command center. He's watching footage of Nat fight from the movies we've seen. Also watching footage of Yelena. Dreykovs voice over an intercom gives orders to the Widows to follow his orders and let him teach them. He takes on several Widows at once and wins easily. Dreykov tells them to do better.
Meanwhile in Siberia, we get the most fun sequence of the movie. Nat, Yelena, and Melina all do a full fun spy movie Charlie's Angels style prison break to get Alexi, their father/big brother figure out of a Russian state prison.
They succeed. Family reunion scene in the cabin that you've all seen in the trailers. They go to the old Red Room facility that's been long abandoned but can't find much. We get another flashback that I honestly don't remember much of. Just generic young teen spy frustration from Nat and Melina giving her advice. Young Yelena is jealous of their bond.
Melina hacks an old computer that's got a list of the programs safehouses on it. They head to the most likely one, trying to find Dreykov. Taskmaster is secretly watching them.
While crossing a border they are captured by CIA agent Rick Mason. Nat and him used to fukk. He reveals he's working for Thunderbolt Ross directly to bring them back home. Ross and Widow make a deal that if Mason accompanies them the whole way, and she turns herself in after, they'll be allowed to continue shutting the Red Room down.
We see a flashback of a younger Ross and younger Nat making a similar deal when she's recruited into Shield. Ross wanted her for his own reasons but says something like "Fury always gets what he wants ever since he saved the world from aliens or whatever"
I'm butchering it but Hurt's delivery of it was maybe the best joke in the movie.
They go to the safehouse. It's empty. Big obvious trap. Explosion separates them all. Giant fight scene/chase scene where Taskmaster shoots at them with the bow and arrow. He uses all the MCU greatest hits in this movie.
Nat escapes on her own and goes to a bridge where they planned to rendezvous but Taskmaster is waiting for her. Coolest fight of the movie happens here. Really shows off his gimmick. She actually gets a hit in that slightly cracks his helmet, and he jumps off the bridge.
Shortly after, Yelena appears. Then Mason, then Melina and Alexei.
Mason and Nat tend to eachothers wounds at a campsite. They kiss. Nat pulls away and says she doesn't have the best luck with men. "My last boyfriend flew away into space or something" Mason agrees, saying his last girlfriend literally shot him in the head, showing her his scar. They seemingly hook up.
The next morning, as they prepare to leave, "Taskmaster' attacks. "He" seemingly kills Mason with his sword. Nat is devastated, but Yelena makes her leave with them. Melina was scouting ahead in the city and comes back and comforts her. Telling her the story of how she had a husband, a daughter, who died. Nat is shocked to learn she had a child and Melina says that the sterilization procedure didn't work on her and she had to hide the fact she was pregnant by faking that she was a prisoner of war. Saying "we all do crazy things for our family"
This leads us to the big finale in the mountains you've all seen in the trailer. Black Widows, Taskmaster, goons, and Red Guardian all duking it out. Theres a some kind of bioweapon that's gonna be launched with this crane thing as the Red Rooms current mission. It's a REALLY sudden mcguffin that no one I watched the movie with was paying attention enough to know where it came from. But there was probably some exposition dump that explained my brain glossed over.
Anyway. Huge set piece. Skydiving from exploding crane. Taskmaster and Red Guardian have a pretty decent fight. Tasky kills him in front of Yelena Melina and Nat.
Melina holds him off while Nat and Yelena fight their way inside to where they think Dreykov is. Turns out, he isn't. It's just a computer that's been changing the voice of someone to sound like Dreykov. You guessed it, it's Melina. Her and Dreykov were in love, and had a daughter together. Nat killed both of them. We see lots of flashbacks during this. Like Saw movie amounts of flashbacks.
Taskmaster is revealed to be Mason. He tells Nat she trusts to easy and he just works for the highest bidder. Melina is pissed he killed Alexei but he justifies it saying "he was in the way of my target." Melina wore the suit when Mason was "killed"
The 4 of them fight. Melina escapes to suit up in this pretty sick armor thing. They are surrounded by Widows and Taskmaster says he's won but then Nat and Yelena give a real "girl power" speech and the Widows decide to help them. They overwhelm Taskmaster by attacking him all at once. Nat and Yelena using eachothers moves(something else set up in flashbacks) to confuse him. They finally have him beaten and on his knees but Nat won't kill him because of their past. Yelena doesn't hesitate and shoots him through his cracked mask in what to me felt like super cringey moment. She tells Nat go ahead. Nat's bleeding and her suit is cut open so Yelena gives her her vest and says she'll see her on the other side.
Nat and Melina have a one on one showdown. Nat is overpowered by the advancements of her suit, but remembering the training Melina herself gave her, outsmarts her and uses her Widows bite to short out the system. Nat says that killing Dreykovs daughter has haunted her for 20 years. That she never meant for it to happen. She gives Melina a chance to forgive her, but she doesn't and Nat has to push her off a ledge. Falling to her death.
Post resolution was a scene where Nat and Yelena meet up. They hug goodbye. Nat tries to give the vest back but Yelena says she doesn't want it because Nat got "her stink all over it" then smiles and says "it looks better on you anyway"
Yelena feels bad that their whole family fell apart or died. But Nat says that this made her realize she already has a family worth dying for in the Avengers. She offers Yelena to come with her, but Yelena says saving the world isn't her thing. Nat points out they just did and Yelena smiles and says "well that was a one off" then rides off.
Last shot of the movie is Nat realizing that Yelena stole the "impossible to track" gadget from her when they hugged goodbye and smiling to herself.
Credits.
Post credits 1 is Yelena walking into a dark warehouse. A bunch of soldiers point guns at her. Her casually puts her hands up and throws the device on a table. Sitting at the table is Thunderbolt Ross.
Taskmaster is there and Yelena gets pissed saying that he killed her friend and that wasn't part of the plan.
He takes off his helmet to reveal a bandage and points out that she returned the favor by shooting him in the head. She points out it's not the first time she's done that.
She says to Ross "I think that relieves me of our deal"
And Ross responds "oh no, we're just getting started"
Final credits scene is Clint looking at Natasha's grave with his kids. Nice tender moment, but honestly a bit of emotional whiplash from the twisty turning spy movie that preceded it.
