Summary
T’Challa flies in his ship to a cliffside waterfall where a number of Wakandans are gathered in ceremonial clothing. T’Challa himself is wearing nothing but a pair of shorts as he disembarks from the ship into a pool of water partway down the waterfall. The inside of the ship is dark, and as the door opens the camera follows T’Challa out and looks up at many people standing in rows up and down the cliffside. They are dancing and chanting in preparation for the coronation ceremony. T’Challa steps into the pool and his ship flies away. An older Zuri, now some kind of priest or statesman, begins the ceremony by announcing that T’Challa may be challenged for the throne by a representative from each tribe or a member of the royal family. Zuri explains that such a contest can only be decided when one contestant yields (surrenders) or dies. Zuri gives T’Challa a drink which strips him of the power of the Black Panther, making his veins black and his body spasm for a few moments before he recovers. One by one, the leaders of each of the four tribes announce that they will not challenge for the throne. When Zuri asks for challengers from the royal family, Shuri half-raises her hand, apparently joking, before asking that the ceremony be wrapped up quickly. Ramonda is mildly scandalized though T’Challa is amused. However, we begin to hear chanting in the background, becoming progressively louder. Soon, a group of muscular men wearing white paint march out of a tunnel in the cliffside. They are identified as the Jabari, the fifth tribe of Wakanda which exists outside the king’s rule. All in attendance are clearly shocked to see them. The tribe’s leader, M’Baku, announces that he will challenge T’Challa for the throne, insulting him and Shuri in the process. Zuri advises M’Baku to leave, but T’Challa decides to accept the challenge.
T’Challa and M’Baku gather their weapons and wear masks themed after their sigils (T’Challa a panther, M’Baku an ape). A group of spearmen line up behind each of them, pointing their spears inward to keep the combatants in the pool as they fight. The challenge begins, T’Challa and M’Baku cautiously testing each other at first. The camera cuts quickly, but leaves just enough time to see each movement in full. It alternates between close-ups of direct hits and wider shots of the two men moving around the pool. Soon, M’Baku starts to use the full extent of his immense strength against T’Challa. T’Challa avoids being injured by M’Baku’s weapons, but M’Baku is still able to land several heavy blows to T’Challa, staggering him. As M’Baku continues to hit T’Challa, the Wakandan crowd grows nervous, yelling more words of encouragement to T’Challa but showing more fear in their facial expressions. Their fear reaches a crescendo as M’Baku sticks a broken end of his staff into T’Challa’s chest. However, T’Challa is able to land some counterattacks on M’Baku and ultimately puts him in a headlock at the edge of the waterfall. Reluctant to throw M’Baku off the edge to a likely death, T’Challa furiously demands that M’Baku yield the contest by reminding M’Baku of his duty to lead the Jabari. Convinced, M’Baku eventually yields by patting T’Challa’s leg. T’Challa stands and the crowd cheers, Zuri presenting him with the fang necklace worn by the king of Wakanda.
Later, we see T’Challa in a dark cave lit only by dim lanterns. The cave also contains the heart-shaped herbs, glowing plants imbued with special powers because of their exposure to vibranium. Zuri makes another potion from the herb, saying it will restore the power of the Black Panther to T’Challa and also allow him to temporarily enter the ancestral plane to confer with his ancestors. A group of handmaidens bury T’Challa in sand while Zuri feeds him the potion. T’Challa passes out as the last load of sand covers his face. He awakens and emerges from under the ground in the ancestral plane, which takes the form of a vast plain with a purple sky. T’Challa, now clothed in white, approaches a tree with several black panthers (the animal, not the superhero) sitting on its branches. One of the panthers jumps down and transforms into T’Chaka. He comforts T’Challa and congratulates him on becoming king. T’Challa confides in his father that he does not feel entirely ready to be king nor to live without T’Chaka’s influence in his life. T’Chaka responds that it is a father’s duty to prepare his children for his eventual passing and asks T’Challa if T’Chaka has failed as a father. T’Challa bashfully says no. T’Chaka then offers one final piece of advice: that although T’Challa is a good man, being king will also require making difficult decisions that could test his morals. T’Challa then wakes up back in the real world, the coronation ceremony complete.
T’Challa and Nakia are walking down a crowded street in Wakanda. T’Challa attempts to convince Nakia to stay in Wakanda longer before returning to her mission, perhaps indefinitely. Nakia pushes back, saying that she has found her calling by helping those who have so little. She seems uncomfortable with the idea that Wakanda has access to such plentiful resources while those outside are allowed to suffer. T’Challa asks what she would do if she were queen to fix these problems, and Nakia suggests that Wakanda share some of its technology with others or allow refugees from war or disaster to enter Wakanda. T’Challa teases Nakia for her righteous stubbornness, to which Nakia retorts that her stubbornness would make her a good queen. She quickly clarifies that being queen isn’t necessarily what she wants before T’Challa can reply. This is in reference to their past relationship and T’Challa’s desire to marry her. Ultimately, Nakia encourages T’Challa to follow his own path as king, implying that he should consider breaking with some of Wakanda’s long-standing traditions.
Later, T’Challa is meeting W’Kabi, an old friend and head of Wakanda’s border security, in a field in the country’s outskirts. W’Kabi is feeding a rhinoceros, who he claims will grow even larger than its already huge current size. W’Kabi then asks T’Challa about T’Challa’s relationship with Nakia. T’Challa vaguely explains that while they are on good terms they still haven’t fully recovered from whatever had ended their romantic relationship. T’Challa goes on to ask W’Kabi what he thinks of Nakia’s proposals to change Wakanda’s isolationist policies. W’Kabi dismisses them, saying that bringing in refugees will bring more problems to Wakanda and threaten its stability and prosperity. The two are then contacted by Okoye via hologram. After some brief romantic banter between her and W’Kabi, she announces that Ulysses Klaue has been spotted in London (referring to the heist from earlier) and that there will be a Wakandan council meeting to decide what to do.
At the council meeting (attended by T’Challa, Ramonda, Okoye, W’Kabi, and representatives from the four tribes) T’Challa is presented with new intelligence that Klaue has stolen a piece of vibranium from the museum and has made plans to sell it to an American buyer in Busan, South Korea. The council members debate what to do, with some advising caution and others advocating for a mission to capture or kill Klaue immediately. W’Kabi in particular seems adamant that Klaue should be caught and brought to justice, stressing that his parents were among the Wakandans killed in Klaue’s attack years ago. After deliberating, T’Challa decides to take Nakia and Okoye to South Korea and capture Klaue so that he can be tried for his crimes in Wakanda.
Later, T’Challa visits Shuri’s lab to pick up his upgraded equipment before the mission. She demonstrates the new capabilities of several devices, including sound muffling shoes and probes that can be used to remotely control vehicles. Finally, she shows him two models of a new Black Panther suit, asking him which one he prefers. T’Challa chooses the one with the less ostentatious necklace design. Shuri then tricks T’Challa into demonstrating the suit’s new power: absorbing kinetic energy and reversing it on contact, which sends T’Challa flying backward as he tries to strike the suit. Shuri records the incident on video, much to T’Challa’s annoyance.
Analysis
The fight with M’Baku displays some of Coogler’s abilities in visual storytelling. The action here is real and choreographed, despite some background CGI enhancement. The shots are shorter and closer; they feel much more physical, which is important because Coogler is trying to illustrate the characters’ personalities through the choreography. M’Baku is big and lumbering, slow to move but showing incredible strength when he commits to an action. He is also grandstanding, projecting his pridefulness as much as trying to fight. T’Challa is very defensive and conservative, allowing M’Baku to take the initiative and dictate the fight (sometimes to T’Challa’s benefit and sometimes to his detriment). Though T’Challa wins in the end, he very nearly loses, suggesting to the audience that T’Challa is not completely ready for his new responsibilities and could run into problems later. Even before the fight begins, we get the sense that the combat challenge is seen as a formality that no one is actually expected to take up, and that M’Baku’s challenge completely shocks all in attendance.
The Ancestral Plane is important to understanding how the Wakandan experience is distinguished from that of diasporic Africans. The descendants of enslaved Africans are cut off from knowledge of their ancestral history and culture, the source of much anguish in identity. T’Challa not only has the privilege of living in his ancestral homeland, but also the ability to meet and confer with his ancestors themselves. However, despite the emotional impact this has on T’Challa, his meeting with T’Chaka provides little insight into what will actually make him an effective king. When T’Challa realizes this later in the film, it will be an important step in his journey to change Wakanda for the better. But for now, T’Challa remains conflicted.
Back in Wakanda, several scenes begin to more explicitly foreground the conflict between traditionalists and progressives. Back-to-back scenes feature T’Challa discussing these issues with Nakia and then W’Kabi, the former being in favor of open cooperation, the latter in favor of a more suspicious and hostile disposition towards outsiders. In both of these conversations, we can sense trepidation from T’Challa: he feels the world is changing but also feels obligated to uphold the country’s historical practices. He is still in the early stages of his time as king and is unsure how he will go about ruling the country. The arguments are quickly forgotten, however, as news comes in about Klaue’s sighting in London. When they have an apparent enemy, it is easier for Wakanda to paper over their internal issues.
