Marvel's Black Widow and Hawkeye is a 2009 live-action film produced by 20th Century Fox and Marvel Studios based off of the two less popular superheroes, Hawkeye and Black Widow. It is the third film to take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and was originally intended to be a S.H.I.E.L.D. movie, but was changed to be centered around Hawkeye and Black Widow. It was released worldwide on May 1st 2009.
Production
20th Century Fox in the early 2000s had planned to make was a live-action S.H.I.E.L.D. movie starring Black Widow and Hawkeye, prepared to be a stand-alone franchise. As the X-Men and Spider-Man films took off and with the formation of Marvel Studios, plans changed and the movie was moved into the Marvel Cinematic Universe canon with the title eventually altered to simply Black Widow and Hawkeye.
Avi Arad and Kevin Feige were at odds about the status of the movie however. Arad claimed that the protagonists were only supporting characters and wouldn't be able to hold a two hour movie, but Feige insisted that it would be good world building and that they had few choices with the limited heroes at their disposal. Arad eventually was convinced and production continued with the film. The director, Cate Shortland, was hired in early 2007 to helm the film. She had ideas of the film being an origin story for Black Widow and Hawkeye with the main villain being the popular Marvel Comics supervillain, Taskmaster. This was well received by Marvel and eventually became what the final product would be centered around.
The film's leads were confirmed to be Scarlett Johansson as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye. It was later announced that Jason Statham would be Taskmaster and Samuel L. Jackson would be reprising his role as Director Nick Fury. Filming began in 2008, with all going as planned. The movie was officially released worldwide on May 1st 2009.
Cast
- Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff/Black Widow
- Jeremy Renner as Clint Barton/Hawkeye
- Jason Statham as Tommy Masters/Taskmaster
- David Harbour as Alexi Shostakov/Vanguard
- Ray Winstone as Chairman Ivan Petrovitch
- Samuel L. Jackson as Director Nick Fury
- Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson
- Cobie Smulders as Agent Maria Hill
- Maximiliano Hernandez as Agent Jasper Sitwell
- Linda Cardellini as Laura Barton
- Ty Simpkins as Callum Barton
- Savannah Page Rae as Lila Barton
- Jerzy Skolimowski as Colonel Georgi Luchkov
Plot
The film starts by showing a group of teenage girls in the Red Room performing a gentle ballet routine. They all complete their dances in unison only for their teacher to deem is "sloppy" and instructs them to do it again. It then shows the same girls also being forced to engage in combat, stealth and firearms training with the same teacher. One of the girls with red hair is shown to excel by successfully shooting bullseyes on every pressure point, much to her teacher's admiration. In the middle of her next shot it cuts to the Olympic Village where a man shoots a bullseye as well, but with his bow and arrow on a target stand.
His girlfriend, Laura, kisses him on the cheek and tells "Hawkeye" good job until it shows someone in a trench coat and an eyepatch walk over and call out a name, Clint Barton. The archer confirms that's him and he introduces himself as Nick Fury, Director of the Strategic Homeland Intervention Enforcement and Logistics Division. Clint observes that's a mouthful and Nick insists he just call them S.H.I.E.L.D. Laura then asks what he wants and Nick begins citing all of Clint's olympic achievements in archery, saying that his best Agents who've trained their whole lives can't come close to him, and to believe him, they've tried. He thinks his talents might be better served protecting the world instead of pining for a seventh gold metal. Clint scoffs and says thanks but no thanks, he isn't interested. Nick shows clear disappointment though assures him if he changes his mind to give him a call, handing Clint his card.
Back in the Red Room, all the students are being strapped onto gurneys as the Chairman Ivan Petrovitch tells their teacher that he doesn't want another batch of dead girls. He becomes insulted by the implication and insists that his girls are the toughest girls in the world, he'll have his Black Widow. It then cuts to the red haired girl from before on her gurney being wheeled into surgery as everything fads to darkness.
Eight years later in Moscow at the Kremlin, security is monitoring the hallways until they all start being taken out by an invisible person who breaks their bones and singes them with a deadly poison. Once they're all deceased, Black Widow stops camouflaging and reveals herself to be dressed in a skin tight black leather with a red hourglass emblem on her belt.
