Black Widow X Hawkeye
Genre: Action/Superhero/Spy
Director: J Blakeson
Writers: Jimmy Ellis & John Malone
Based on Marvel Comics characters
Cast: Mila Kunis, Boyd Holbrook, Tom Selleck, Claire Danes, Mandy Patinkin, Tobias Menzies, Sam Strike
Plot:
Norway
SHIELD agent Clint Barton (Boyd Holbrook), codename Hawkeye, trudges through a pure white landscape in the snowy expanse of Norway toward a remote HYDRA outpost. Clint silently approaches the facility, bow and arrows ready. He continues his movement until he sees a HYDRA trooper up ahead. He takes that trooper, and several others, out with his arrows with his trademark lethal efficiency. Clint finally locates his mission objective, a flash drive hanging from the neck of a fallen HYDRA trooper. He cuts the drive free from the trooper's neck. As soon as Clint retrieves the drive, he is surrounded by HYDRA operatives. Clint uses a combination of hand-to-hand combat and his expert marksmanship with his bow and arrows to take out the entire enemy team. Clint hops onto a HYDRA snowmobile and drives off into the blinding white of the snowy forest.
Siberia
Deep within the clandestine walls of the Red Room, a former Soviet spy training facility, Natasha Romanova (Mila Kunis), the Black Widow, trains under the watchful eye of Alexi Bruskin (Mandy Patinkin?), a former KGB operative who has kept the Red Room operational since the fall of the Soviet Union. Alexi receives a phone call, speaking in hushed tones. Niko Constantin (Sam Strike), the Wolf Spider, joins the training session and the two begin to spar. Niko is clearly physically stronger, but Natasha has more experience and is able to get the upper-hand until Alexi ends the training session, cutting their fight in its tracks.
Washington DC
Clint Barton sits across from SHIELD Deputy Director Barbara "Bobbi" Morse (Claire Danes) in a sleek, high-tech debriefing room in SHIELD HQ. Clint turns over the drive to Bobbi. She tries to conduct a serious, professional debriefing, asking Clint about any additional information he has regarding the mission in Norway or if he encountered any unexpected resistance. Clint quips that one of the HYDRA guys had bad breath. Bobbi sighs and asks if Clint can please take the debriefing seriously. Clint says that he'll answer the questions if she tells him why she divorced him. Bobbi closes her folder, ending the debriefing. As she gets up, Clint asks if she left because he snores or because of his love of Hawaiian pizza.
Osaka
In the dead of night, Natasha and Niko infiltrate a highly secure Japanese military laboratory. They steal a case labeled "Project Four". Guards spot them and the facility's alarm begins to blare. Natasha and Niko sprint through the corridors and out into the open. Guards converge on their position. They spot a speeding bullet train nearby. They sprint towards the train, as the guards aim their rifles, leaping on the top of the train and it accelerates through the city. The guards manage to catch up, boarding the train, and begin searching the locomotive for the two Russian spies. The neon lights of the city blur past them. Just as the train approaches a low tunnel, Natasha and Niko leap onto a nearby rooftop, rolling to a stop as the train vanishes into the darkness, with the guards unable to follow.
SHIELD Director Tony Stark (Tom Selleck) addresses a group of top-level agents, including Clint and Bobbi. He reveals the importance of the flash drive Clint managed to acquire and keep out of the hands of Hydra. Stark reveals that the drive contains the identities and cover identities of all undercover SHIELD operatives across the globe. Hydra had stolen the drive, but Clint managed to recover it before Hydra could break the encryption on the device and compromise all of their agents. Stark emphasizes how critical it is to not allow such information, no matter how encrypted, fall into enemy hands ever again as it could very well mean the end of SHIELD itself.
Berlin
In his shadowy office, Damon Dran (Tobias Menzies), meets with Alexi Bruskin, who hands over the Project Four device, which Dran inspects with a satisfied smile. Dran gives Alexi the promised payment, sliding a briefcase full of money across his desk. Dran then leans forward, offering even more money for another job to give to his Red Room agents. Dran tells Alexi that he needs one of his Red Room soldiers to assassinate SHIELD Director Tony Stark and steal back the drive that they had acquired in Norway. Dran reveals that the drive contains the identities of all of SHIELD's undercover operatives, which would allow them to destroy the organization completely and weed out any moles in their own systems. Bruskin considers for a moment before nodding, accepting the job.
Back in the dimly lit corridors of the Red Room, Alexi commends Natasha and Niko on their successful acquisition of Project Four. Natasha asks what exactly Project Four is, but Alexi slaps her across the face for asking such a question. Natasha bristles, embarrassed. Alexi tells her that she should only be asking about her next mission. Natasha does as she is told and requests her next mission. Alexi tells her that the latest test of her loyalty will be to assassinate Tony Stark and retrieve a flash drive he should have on him at the time. Natasha dutifully accepts the mission, trying to hide how hurt she is by Alexi's abuse. After Natasha leaves to get ready, Alexi pulls Niko aside. Alexi asks Niko to covertly follow Natasha to ensure that nothing goes wrong with the mission. Alexi tells Niko that if anything does go wrong, he needs to eliminate Natasha, permanently. Niko nods with a cold expression on his face.
A black SHIELD SUV speeds through the bustling streets of downtown Washington DC. Tony Stark sits in the back, analyzing the contents of the thumb drive on a tablet. Perched on a rooftop, Natasha steadies a sniper rifle at the SUV, but as she gets Stark in her sights, doubt creeps in. She lowers the rifle. Unbeknownst to her, Wolf Spider has been trailing her to ensure she follows through with the assassination. As he sees her hesitate, Wolf Spider takes a shot at Stark himself, but Clint Barton intercepts just in time, helping Stark dodge the bullet. The SHIELD convoy erupts into defensive action. Natasha speeds away from the scene, chased by Wolf Spider. Clint sees the two motorcycles speeding away and commandeers a car to follow them. Clint gets his vehicle right along side Wolf Spider's motorcycle. Clint tries shooting at him with a crossbow, but Wolf Spider manages to duck out of the way. Finally, Clint opens the vehicle door, causing Wolf Spider's motorcycle to crash into it and go tumbling through the air. When Natasha sees Wolf Spider briefly incapacitated, she surrenders to Clint and SHIELD, insisting it was not her and she has no interest in killing Stark. She is taken into custody. Clint goes to investigate Wolf Spider's crash, but he has vanished.
Natasha is seated in an interrogation room sitting opposite Clint Barton. Clint is asking her a million and one questions with Natasha seemingly answering them all, knowing they now share a common enemy. She divulges as much information as she can to Barton, about Wolf Spider, about Alexi Bruskin, and about the case title Project Four. Barton stares back at Natasha, asking if she will repeat all of this to Stark. Natasha nods her head.
Damon Dran sits opposite Alexi with Dran revealing Project Four with to Alexi Bruskin. He establishes with Bruskin that Project Four is a nanobot based cybernetic enhancement. He showcases a soldier he had placed it in already. The “super-soldier” very easily snaps a bit of carbon steel in half. Dran suggests to Bruskin that both Hydra and Red Room soldiers could be strengthened by Project Four.
Natasha and Barton meet with Stark, informing him of Dran, Bruskin, The Red Room, all of it. Including Project Four. Natasha tells Stark that she was the one that stole Project Four for Dran, not knowing what it was. She says she has come to her senses and realised who she was working for. Stark tells them that if Dran has PF then no one is safe.
Natasha sits quietly in a holding cell at SHIELD HQ. Suddenly alarms begin to blare and a series of explosions rock the building. The door to Natasha's cell begins to rattle. She prepares herself for a fight. Clint opens the door and tells her that HYDRA has attacked the building. He tosses her a gun and tells her that now is the time to prove her loyalty. Together, Clint and Natasha work their way down a long corridor, the sound of gunfire echoing around them. Clint uses his expert marksmanship to take down multiple HYDRA agents with his bow, while Natasha, moving with cat-like agility, uses her gun and hand-to-hand combat skills to dispatch several herself. Clint remarks that it seems like HYDRA knows exactly where they are going, as their trail of HYDRA agents they fight is leading toward the facility's secure vault. They burst into a large room, only to find it filled with HYDRA operatives. Clint and Natasha exchange a quick glance before diving into the fray. Clint drops to one knee, firing arrows in rapid succession, each one finding its mark. Natasha leaps onto a table, using the height to her advantage as she kicks and punches her way through the crowd after her gun runs out of ammunition. Natasha states that she believes HYDRA must have a mole within SHIELD if they know where to try to get to. Tony Stark arrives with SHIELD reinforcements and they all manage to repel HYDRA's attack on the building before they can get into the secure vault. Clint mentions to Stark that they may have a mole problem. Stark agrees, stating that he had transferred the thumb drive to the vault recently.
Later, Natasha is introduced to Bobbi Morse. The two women each each other closely, immediately suspicious of each other's motives. Natasha suggests to Clint that Bobbi may be the mole. Clint doesn't want to believe his ex-wife could be a traitor to her country. Natasha says they could rule her out in a very simple way. Natasha and Clint outline a mission to transport a decoy version of the thumb drive to a different secure location following the attempted break-in at the secure vault. They emphasize the need for secrecy, informing that only Stark and Bobbi are informed of the plan and that it is presented as a real transfer to Bobbi.
The stage is set for the fake mission. Clint and Natasha, along with a small team of SHIELD agents, drive in a convoy through the Appalachian Mountains towards a SHIELD facility. The tension is thick as they move through the winding, remote road. Suddenly an explosion rips through the lead vehicle, flipping it into the air, stopping the convoy in its tracks. HYRDA agents storm the stalled vehicles from the woods on either side of the road. Clint grabs a high-powered machine gun from the convoy and begins picking off HYDRA agents. Natasha, moving like a shadow, weaves through the chaos, taking down enemies from the smoke and flames of the roadway. A HYDRA agent fires a rocket launcher at the convoy. Clint sees it and, in a split second, shoots an explosive arrow at the oncoming rocket, detonating it mid-air. The shockwave knocks both sides back. Clint and Natasha use the distraction to get back behind the wheels of a SHIELD truck. They drive at breakneck speed back toward SHIELD HQ in Washington DC.
When Natasha and Clint arrive to present their information to Stark that Bobbi is the mole, they discover that Bobbi has already vanished. Stark informs them that they have been able to uncover proof that Bobbi has had secret communications with Damon Dran. Stark proposes Clint lead a covert mission to Dran's base of operations to confiscate Project Four before he is able to use it to create a cybernetically enhanced army. Clint agrees, but only with Natasha's help.
Natasha and Clint approach Damon Dran's high-tech base in Berlin, a skyscraper that looms over the city. After expertly disabling the exterior security systems and silently taking down several HYDRA guards outside, they enter the building's lobby. The lobby is filled with even more HYDRA operatives who rush to attack. Clint immediately takes down three guards with his arrows, while Natasha disarms two others. Clint and Natasha move through the lobby in perfect synch, taking out the entire squad of HYDRA operatives in a flurry of kicks, punches, and arrows. As the last of the HYDRA goons hits the ground with a thud, Clint spots a glass elevator to take up to Dran's penthouse. They step inside. As the elevator doors slide shut, they're suddenly enveloped by cheesy elevator music. The elevator glides upward, the music continuing to play as the floors count up... and up... and up. Natasha and Clint exchange an awkward glance. Clint begins to tap his foot to the rhythm of the music. Just as Natasha begins to roll her eyes, the elevator finally dings, and the doors slide open.
Natasha and Clint step out of the elevator and move through a long corridor until, suddenly, two doors swing open, and they find themselves face to face with Bobbi Morse and Niko Constantin. Natasha locks eyes with Bobbi, and without a word, they charge at each other, launching into a fierce hand-to-hand battle. Bobbi pulls out a pair of batons, twirling them with deadly precision, aiming strikes at Natasha's head. Natasha dodges the blows and counters with punches and kicks that send Bobbi falling back. At the same time, Clint draws his bow, but Niko is already moving, lunging at Clint with a knife. Clint manages to parry the attack with his bow. They engage in a brutal close-quarters fight, trading brutal blows and strikes. Niko is fast and ruthless, but Clint manages to stab him in the shoulder with an arrow, incapacitating him. Meanwhile, Natasha and Bobbi smash through glass partitions. Both women are battered and bloody from their fight. Bobbi swings her batons, but Natasha ducks and sends Bobbi flying with a roundhouse kick to the face, knocking her out cold.
Clint and Natasha burst into Damon Dran's high-tech command center at the top of the building. Damon Dran stands in the middle of the room, now transformed by the cybernetic enhancements he's integrated into body using Project Four technology. Dran tells them that Project Four is the future and he is its first success. Clint fires a volley of arrows, but Dran deflects them with ease, his cybernetic limbs moving faster than human reflexes. Natasha charges in, engaging Dran in close combat, but Dran's enhancements make him nearly impervious to her attacks. Dran grabs Natasha by the arm, flinging her across the room. Clint shoots an explosive arrow at Dran, but the villain swats it aside, causing a small explosion. Clint and Natasha realize that their only chance at stopping Dran is to disable his Project Four enhancements. Clint fires an EMP arrow at Dran, but Dran catches it midair and crushes it with his robotic fist. Dran moves at Clint with alarming speed, but Natasha manages to slide underneath the swing of Dran's arm. She plants a small EMP disruptor on Dran's back. The device discharges, sending electrical surges through Dran's body, causing his cybernetic systems to malfunction momentarily. Clint fires a second EMP arrow directly at Dran's chest, sending a massive surge of energy through Dran's body. The enhancements begin to glitch and spark, his limbs jerking uncontrollably. Natasha charges forward, leaping onto Dran's back and ripping out the control module that regulates his cybernetic systems. Dran lets out a roar as his body collapses to the ground, sparking and convulsing. With a last burst of energy, Dran triggers an emergency escape mechanism. A section of wall opens, revealing an escape pod. Before Natasha and Clint can stop him, Dran disappears into the pod, launching himself out of the building.
With Dran's base neutralized, SHIELD agents arrive to secure the site. Bobbi Morse and Niko Constantin are both arrested and taken into SHIELD custody. Clint and Natasha stand together as Tony Stark arrives to oversee the cleanup. Stark, believing Natasha has proven her worth, offers her a permanent spot at SHIELD. She appreciates the offer, but tells Stark that she has some unfinished business to take care of first.
Natasha returns to Siberia, to the place where her life as the Black Widow began - The Red Room. She moves through the barren facility until she reaches the office of Alexi Bruskin. She finds him sipping from a glass of vodka at his desk with a smug look on his face as though he's been expecting her all along. He gets up and moves to place a fatherly hand upon Natasha's shoulder. Natasha grabs his wrist, snapping it with ease, and slamming him against the wall. The glass of vodka shatters on the floor. With his working hand, Bruskin pulls out a gun. Before he can even aim it at her, Natasha kicks the gun out of his grasp. Natasha traps Bruskin's neck against the floor with the heel of her boot. She then picks up Bruskin's own gun and fires it into his chest. Natasha takes no joy in what she's done, only a sense of closure. Natasha turns and leaves the room. The door closes behind her as she walks away from the Red Room for the last time.
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