At birth, the Black Widow “aka Natasha Romanova” is given to the KGB, which grooms her to become its ultimate operative. When the U.S.S.R. breaks up, the government tries to kill her as the action moves to present-day New York, where she is a freelance operative.

One night, her father (David Harbour) comes home and informs mom (Rachel Weisz) and the kids they have an hour to blow town. Soon S.H.I.E.L.D. agents are in hot pursuit and the fam is on board a small plane to Cuba. (Dad’s on the wing, somehow.) When they land safely, the kids are drugged, the innocence of their childhood gone with the plunge of a needle.

Turns out that idyllic family life was an elaborate decoy. Natasha’s father is Alexei Shostakov, or Red Guardian, the Russian counterpart to Captain America, and mom is Melina Vostokoff, a Russian spy. The kids were part of their cover. And now Natasha and Yelena are sent off to General Dreykov (Ray Winstone), who trains them to be spies in his army of Black Widows. So much for a quiet life in the ‘burbs.