Black Widow movie and its portrayal of the trafficking of women and young girls

We begin with a scene of Natasha riding her bike through to her home; this act is one of her last acts of freedom.
We then see the scene continue as she and Yelena play in their garden giving us the impression that this is a
normal happy suburban household. Next, the audience is introduced to the character of Alexi as he tells his
family that they have to return to Russia. From this the audience know they are going to the red room This is a
use of dramatic irony as we as the audience have more of an awareness of what is to happen than the characters
themselves. This as an opening scene also shows the false sense of security installed in all three women.
*somewhere in this paragraph can't quite fit it in

The following scene shows the family in their car. The beginning of this scene shows them leaving not only
America itself but also the American identity being left behind. This is shown with them passing an American
football game as well as American pie playing in the car as they leave. Shortly after they narrowly escape
S.H.I.E.L.D and arrive in Cuba. From here we see the most emotional fight scene in the movie with
Natasha’s attempt to protect Yelena, which inevitably fails as they are tricked by Alexi again with this false
sense of security and trust. The young girls are then taken by Dreykov (overseer of the red room)

The opening credit scene shows young girls being divided into two groups the first is taken to the red room the
second group most likely will be killed. We see the desperation of the girls as they run and scream before being
taken to the institution.

Moving on to the first scene with Yelena, we see her doing a mission in a robotic way showing the use of
chemical subjugation furthering the idea that Dreykov just sees these women as weapons for murder. In this
mission, she was tasked with eliminating a target who was a threat to the red room as she held the key to the
end of the red room whole operation. The key is a chemical compound reversing the effects of chemical
substation this is revealed to us through the actions of Yelena after she is exposed to the gas as her first word are
“what did I do” indicating her finally understands the weight of her actions as she is pulled out of the agentic
state and she is no longer a murdering toy.

Later we see the first fight between Natasha and the taskmaster. This is where we see the robotic actions of the
taskmaster as everything she does is calculated and precise as well as being copied off of the actions of characters
we the audience as well as Natasha herself have seen before. This scene is also where Nat finds the package
from Yelena.

Meeting in Budapest: from the beginning of this scene, we see the lack of trust displayed between the sisters as
they fight and attempt to kill each other. This scene contains the first mention of Antonia Dreykov as well as
the knowledge of the red room being in operation still. We move to a fight scene with a widow hunting
Natasha and Yelena down before she is terminated by Dreykov in his control room. This furthers the idea that
Dreykov sees these girls as weapons he can dispose of if they fail him. Car/Bike chase shows an inability to work
together as they argue at every point in this scene.

After crashing into a train station they hide in the vents. Here Yelena and Nat speak of the mission in
Budapest where Natasha blew Antonia Dreykov's face off.
Next, we see the girls in a corner shop where Yelena begins to question Natasha about why she didn't go back
for her using a sarcastic tone to shield the fact she was hurt that Nat left alone and that she “would not want
her baby sister fighting crime with the cool kids” as Yelena puts it. Natashas response seems to be that she is
taking her responsibility away by saying that there were not really sisters. This comment hurts Yelena as she
responds by insulting natashas team as they are presented as the only thing she has throughout the franchises.
Immediately after Yelena continues to insult her sister through petty comments about her pose and that
Natasha cant reduce pain in the word as “pain and suffering is every day and” they “are both still trained
killers” this whole monologue of Yelena’s just seems to be her lashing out and reacting to natasha’s coldness
after all the years they spent apart.

Following scene shows the girls sitting at a bench talking about their lives and how yelena has nothing to go
back to as before she was just seen by dreykov as a weapon that can be disposed of as dreykov believes “there is
always more”. Prior to the mission in Morocco she was not allowed to exist as anything other than a weapon.
During natashas monologue she mentions being abandoned as a child, we later learn this is false and it was a
lie told to her during her time in the red room to make her feel as though she was unwanted and the red room
was saving her and protecting her. By doing this Dreykov is trying to manipulate these girls into making them
think he saved them and gave them a home.

Continuing to the scene in a car, Yelena mentions her vest. She says that it's “the first thing she ever bought for
herself” this vest symbolises her independence and the right to choose as not only is it just a regular vest it's more
personal to her due to her additional pockets added to the vest making it her own.

Moving to Alexi, we first see him escaping prison with the help of Natasha and Yelena, from this scene we
learn that he is virtually useless unless for intel as that is why he is being broken out of prison for. We also can
see his lack of intelligence through him always needing to be told what to do. Alexi’s stupidity is furthered on
the plane through comments such as when he asks yelana if she is “on her time of the month” this firstly
demonstrates his immaturity as he cant call menstruation what it is. In doing this he also shows how little he
cares about Yelana, Melana and Natasha due to his lack of knowledge about what happens in the red room.
Alexi’s selfishness is later explored after the plane crashes when all he asks Natasha what captain america
thought of him then asking what had he done wrong.

Moving to the scene at melena house, we are re-introduced to her when she sees Alexi, Yelena and Natasha
walking towards her house. We see this longing look in her eyes as she sympathises with the girls as she was put
through the red room and didn’t want to put them through it but she didn’t have a choice and seems glad that
they got out even though she never really did herself. At the dining table Natasha displays her distrust for
melena (which is perfectly just) this is done with the quote “you didn't really raise us” which Alexi tries to
make comical. We can now see yelena is visibly upset witch is only furthered by melania saying she believes she
did a good job as a parent saying that she played
Her “orders and roles to perfection” this shows how she does not understand the role of parents, due to melanas
lack of understanding about the role of a parent we see how this affects yelena in her speech as she pours out her
heart and expresses how she has nothing but the memory of this family which natasha had just exclaimed
wasn't real as if thats some sort of a justification for her to have been trafficked.
Moving to Melenas story; all she knows is the red room. Melena describes her relationship with the red room as
a mouse born cage running on its wheel, this implies shes how little her power within the red room is as she is
saying that the red room is all she knows and there is no way she can see her self leaving this cycle although she is
not currently being “cycled through the red room”.

At the same time of Melena and Natasha's conversation Yelena expresses her feeling of purpose with Alexi; she
tells him how she feels he saw her as a job he didn't want. Whereas he was “everything to her” she to him wasa
stupid mission he didnt even see her as a person she was his worst three years.

Back to the red room;the actions and behaviours of the widows are calculated and mirroring one another
drekovs sees these women as inhuman and equates their worth as to that of a pig. His lack of hesitation and
comfortability when resorting to violence when in conflict (not to surprise as he does own a womens trafficking
circle.) This is strengthened in heartlessness in the way he treats Natasha verbally, building up to tell how her
mother was just to say he didn't know.
Antonia Dreykov ; she is just a weapon to Dreykov, he also thinks shes “is hard to look at” showing his
discussed by her appearance. She is the embodiment of all widows' total lack of control.

*Natashas blue hair; this shows the lengths she and melena went to to insure that they would not return to the
red room in a way that would not be noticeable to Alexi. The way her hair fits in to this is that colored hair is
seen as undesirable by traffickers, so by melena dying Nats hair she is trying to protect her from the red room.

Yelanas clothing during the post-credit scene; Yelanas clothing differs in this scene more than all other. this is
the first time we see Yelanas full control over herself, portraying her individuality and creativity that she was
not able to express previously in the red room. Also her silver jewellery is some sort of a homage to Natasha as
through the movie Nats jewellery. this is her tribute to her sister and her freedom.