Summary
Killmonger and W’Kabi make preparations for the vibranium shipments on a launch pad in the middle of a large field. W’Kabi informs Killmonger that there has been some resistance to the idea of armed revolution among the War Dogs, but that that their agents in New York, London, and Hong Kong are prepared to go forward with the plan. Killmonger examines some of the weapons they are about to ship, impressed by their power and eagerly anticipating their effectiveness in the war to come. Suddenly a ship flying nearby crashes into the field. All assembled rush to see what has happened, and in the distance T’Challa climbs over the wreckage in full Black Panther suit. Okoye and the Dora Milaje are relieved, W’Kabi and his men shocked, and Killmonger surprised but not visibly rattled. T’Challa walks forward, calling out to Killmonger (addressing him as N’Jadaka). T’Challa says that he never yielded the combat challenge, and since he is not dead the challenge is legally unresolved. Killmonger brushes off this proclamation, ordering W’Kabi to kill T’Challa and for the ships with weapons to be launched. W’Kabi and his men look unsure of what to do momentarily. Okoye implores him to stand down and allow T’Challa and Killmonger to continue the challenge, but W’Kabi ultimately leads his men in a charge against T’Challa. Okoye turns on Killmonger, saying he is unfit to be a king and sending the Dora Milaje to defend T’Challa. She and a few remaining Dora Milaje remain to fight Killmonger as he dons his own Black Panther suit.
An extended battle ensues. T’Challa and the Dora Milaje fight W’Kabi’s men, including the rhinoceroses that are called in. Okoye and her companions fight Killmonger near the landing pad. Meanwhile, Nakia, Shuri, and Ross break into Shuri’s lab. Shuri instructs Ross to remote control pilot a gunship to destroy all of the weapons shipments before they leave Wakanda. He is unsure of his ability to pilot the ship effectively but Shuri reasons that he was a great pilot in the Air Force and that he will be able to manage. She and Nakia take some weapons and join the battle outside. Okoye and the Dora Milaje hold Killmonger down with their weapons and almost take away his suit before he breaks free and throws them off. He then faces down Nakia and Shuri, who at first have some success against him (Shuri uses blasters which temporarily open holes in Killmonger’s suit) but are ultimately disarmed by his superior combat skills. T’Challa rushes in to fight Killmonger before he can kill Shuri, pulling him down into a giant shaft.
However, another gunship begins firing on Shuri’s lab, the computer informing Ross that he has only minutes before the wall breaks and he will be killed. T’Challa and Killmonger fall down the shaft and land on one of the train tracks. T’Challa tells Shuri to activate the train so that the vibranium stabilizers will create more openings in Killmonger’s suit. Trains begin moving through periodically as T’Challa and Killmonger fight and talk. T’Challa accuses Killmonger of being no different from the leaders of colonizer countries, to which Killmonger responds that he only emulates them so that he can defeat them, and not to do so is naive. T’Challa retorts that Killmonger will destroy the entire world with his plan. Killmonger loses his composure, shouting that the world took everything from him and that he will have his revenge on it. He promises to kill anyone who ever loved or allied with T’Challa.
Back on the field, W’Kabi’s men have the Dora Milaje surrounded. They close in with their shields, demanding that the Dora Milaje surrender. They count down from three, when suddenly we hear chanting in the background. M’Baku and the Jabari appear out of seemingly nowhere to join the battle, turning the tide decisively in favor of T’Challa’s supporters. W’Kabi charges at Okoye on a rhinoceros, but she stands her ground and it stops dead in its tracks. W’Kabi gets off and is confronted by Okoye. He asks if she would kill him even though they love each other. She replies that she would do it for the sake of Wakanda. W’Kabi throws down his weapon and his men surrender in turn. Meanwhile, Ross barely destroys the last of the ships before escaping Shuri’s lab at the last second.
T’Challa and Killmonger continue their battle on the train track. As the train passes by, Killmonger’s chest is exposed and T’Challa uses the opening to reverse Killmonger’s knife and strike a fatal blow. Killmonger compliments him on his skill, then his tone softens. Killmonger talks about the tales N’Jobu would tell him of Wakanda and how he has waited his whole life to see it. T’Challa takes Killmonger to a cliff overlooking the horizon and they watch the sun set. T’Challa suggests that Killmonger’s wound can still be healed and his life spared. Killmonger refuses, not wanting to live out his life in captivity. He asks to be buried in the ocean like the slaves who jumped from their ships on the way to America. Like them, Killmonger believes it would be better to die than live in bondage. With these words, he dies.
Nakia and T’Challa are talking in private. He thanks her for not giving up on him and for fighting for Wakanda. She replies that it was merely her duty to fight for her country and what she loves. She is a little bashful in this moment, realizing she has accidentally let slip that she might still love T’Challa romantically. He asks her to stay in Wakanda, saying that he has thought of a way for her to continue her mission of helping people around the world while staying closer to him.
We find ourselves back in Oakland at the same basketball court from the beginning of the film. Some kids are playing and trash talking each other. The camera weaves in and out of their game until coming to rest on T’Challa and Shuri looking up at the apartment building where N’Jobu lived. Shuri jokes that she expected to travel to a more glamorous part of California, but T’Challa is serious. He tells Shuri that this was where T’Chaka killed N’Jobu years ago. There is an uncomfortable silence before Shuri notes that the building is scheduled to be torn down. T’Challa replies that he has in fact bought the building and several more in the area, and that the space will be transformed into a Wakandan community outreach center. He explains that it will be the first step in a broad effort to use Wakandan resources to strengthen and uplift communities around the world. He then presses a button on his bracelet and a ship materializes out of thin air behind him. The kids abandon their basketball game to look at the ship, calling it a “Bugatti spaceship.” Shuri walks over and begins explaining where the ship is from and how it works while one of the kids comes toward T’Challa. He asks T’Challa who he is with wonder in his eyes; T’Challa smiles and we cut to the credits.
After a short sequence of initial credits, one more scene finds T’Challa, Nakia, and Okoye at the United Nations. T’Challa walks up to a podium and announces to attending journalists and diplomats that Wakanda will open itself up to the outside world for the first time. He gives a speech emphasizing the importance of unity and cooperation in the service of peace and prosperity. Before he can proceed, one diplomat asks what value a third world country could provide to the rest of the world. The film cuts to Nakia, Okoye, and Ross in the audience all smirking, before coming back to T’Challa as he cracks a smile and the film cuts back to the credits.
Analysis
The final battlefield is where all of the characters clarify their true values via their chosen actions. T’Challa proves himself the brave hero and leader, stepping forward by himself at great risk to save the lives of others. Okoye proves her loyalty, siding with T’Challa without breaking her oath to uphold Wakanda’s government. Her turning on Killmonger seems contingent on a legal technicality that the combat challenge hasn’t been properly resolved, despite the fact that any rational assessment of the challenge would see Killmonger as the clear victor. We can’t say what she would have done in this situation without the technicality, but it is worth noting. W’Kabi proves himself stubborn and committed to his new cause, but not enough to fight someone he loves (unlike Okoye, who genuinely seemed ready to kill him). M’Baku proves himself a bold and spirited leader. Ross proves himself the helpful ally who nevertheless is relegated to the side. And of course, Killmonger proves himself the fighter who will never stop fighting.
The final fight between T’Challa and Killmonger takes places in a vibranium mine deep underground. Their battle is quite literally rooted in the ancient source of Wakanda’s power; it is a primal struggle over the very spirit and identity of Wakanda. Even their suits are made from impenetrable vibranium, they can only kill each other by using the vibranium train stabilizers to strip off the armor, robbing them of the protection of their country’s ancient power. When T’Challa lands the fatal blow, Killmonger’s first reaction is to compliment T’Challa’s skill. His identity is so wrapped up in violence and dominance that he can only process his own impending death by praising another man’s ability to kill. Despite this, Killmonger quickly turns to a more tender state. His brief speech on growing up in Oakland is by far the most emotionally open and vulnerable he has been in the film with the possible exception of his visit to N’Jobu in the Ancestral Plane. In that scene he manifests as a child, and in this later scene we see Jordan emulate that child. He chokes up and makes himself small, in stark contrast to the swaggering and braggadocious performance we have come to expect from Jordan until this point in the film. It doesn’t last, however, as he adopts a defiant and tough (if a little resigned) posture in his final moments. His final line requesting to be buried in the ocean is chilling both for its grim historical content and the fact that it goes unanswered by T’Challa. Earlier, T’Challa argues that Killmonger has made himself just as bad as the colonizers, but that claim rings hollow in the face of Killmonger’s final line. It is both a reminder of the true barbaric nature of the crimes committed against black people and a stunning rebuke of T’Challa and his worldview. T’Challa says nothing in response, leaving a silence for the audience to ruminate on what has just been said and whether or not Killmonger was more right than they gave him credit for.
However, the final scene in Oakland gives some thematic closure on this point. T’Challa realizes that the tragedy of Killmonger's life was created by both Wakanda’s failures and the worldwide oppression of black people, and wants to make amends by tackling both problems. He returns to the ‘primal scene,’ the literal and figurative birthplace of Killmonger. T’Challa recognizes the symbolic value of turning such a place into the starting point for efforts to repair black communities around the world. In the same basketball court where a young Killmonger gazed up at a Wakandan ship, now children gather around a ship on the ground while being schooled by Shuri. It is a powerful visual metaphor for the changing ways of Wakanda. Significantly, the boy who approaches T’Challa is played by Alex Hibbert, a child actor who played a young version of protagonist Chiron in the Best Picture Oscar-winning Moonlight (2016). That film featured the character of Chiron struggling to come to terms with his homosexuality as well as navigate the obstacles of African American life, from poverty to poor schooling to prison. Yet here we see this same actor come face to face with a man from a utopian land who wants to help him. It is a promise of a brighter future. In a way, this final scene is the response to Killmonger which T’Challa left unsaid earlier. T’Challa believes that Killmonger was right about the world, but also believes that he can find a better way to solve the problem. We are meant to assume that this child will not end up like Killmonger because of T’Challa’s positive intervention.
