After the final battle in Marvel's Black Widow, Natasha (Scarlett Johansson) bids farewell to her family as General Ross (William Hurt) and his men approach. Nat tells Yelena (Florence Pugh) that she'll handle the situation, and we cut to black. When we return two weeks later, Romanoff is meeting with Mason (O. T. Fagbenle) and preparing to break the rest of the "Secret Avengers" out of prison.
So, how the hell did she manage to escape Ross' clutches after being completely surrounded?
Many fans have perceived this to be a major plot hole, but director Cate Shortland has now claimed that she always intended to leave that scene out in order to keep the audience guessing.
"That was intentional, because we wanted to leave the question of how she would get away, rather than allow the audience to get exhausted by another fight," Shortland explained during an interview with TheWrap. "We wanted to leave you guys on a high with the question of how did she use her ingenuity? Because she did. And it was probably, I would say, she bargained her way out of that situation. But I don't know."
Well, we're going to go ahead and assume Natasha didn't fight an entire army to make her escape, but it seems a little odd not to show us how she was able to convince Ross - who really wanted her in custody - to allow her to stay on the lam. Did she cut some type of deal? It's difficult to imagine any future MCU project (Hawkeye, maybe?) revisiting these events, so we'll probably never know.
What do you guys make of Shortland's explanation? Drop us a comment down below, and check out our review of Black Widow HERE.