Summary
Chapter 8: The Knack. Ricky goes in search of Hec. The news media reports about the missing duo as criminals and discusses the fact that the two of them are overwhelmingly popular in New Zealand, especially after trying to save the diabetic ranger. Meanwhile, Paula instructs her men on how to break someone's neck.
A police officer says they are offering a $10,000 reward to anyone who can capture the pair, either dead or alive, before correcting himself and specifying that "They should be alive."
Suddenly, Paula and the cop find Ricky in the woods. They are separated by a ravine, and Paula tells Ricky to climb down and over to the other side to them, but he refuses, saying he does not want to go to juvie. "I'll never stop running," he says, and Paula insists that she'll keep chasing him, because she's like "The Terminator." "I'm more like Terminator than you!" Ricky protests, and Paula offers him some scroggin.
Paula tries to strike a deal with Ricky: If he testifies that Hec made him do everything, she won't send him back to juvie. "No deal," he says, "You don't trade family for anything." As Paula calls to the other cops, Ricky makes a run for it. In the woods, he encounters Hec, and they continue through the bush. Ricky compares them to the wildebeest, who are always on the move, and "always on the lookout for humans." He calls them "wilderhumans," and Hec agrees.
Suddenly, Hec and Ricky encounter the hunters who turned them in. Ricky goes through their things looking for supplies as Hec holds them hostage with his gun. Ricky takes their guns and tells them to tell the authorities that he and Hec are called "The Wilderpeople."
Further along, Hec and Ricky discuss their plans. Hec has no plans to return to society, but thinks that Ricky should go back. "If I ever went back, I'd probably end up driving a steamroller or something. That's what happens to gangsters," Ricky replies.
Hec tries to break Ricky's illusions that he is a gangster, when suddenly the dogs find a wild boar, who attacks Zag. Hec dives onto the boar, stabbing it, but it throws him and chases Zag off. Suddenly, another one comes charging at Hec. Ricky shoots him and kills him just in time.
Examining Zag, Hec decides that he is too injured by the boar to be saved, and shoots him with Ricky's gun. They bury the dog and continue on their journey. At a river, Ricky takes out the box with Bella's ashes and gives it to Hec, who tosses the ashes into a nearby waterfall. Hec is surprised that Ricky brought the ashes, and thanks him for bringing them with him. Winter descends and Ricky and Hec trudge on through the snow as Leonard Cohen plays.
Chapter 9: Turn of the Tides. Hec and Ricky hear some of the police forces in the forest searching for them. They hide begins a fallen tree, which Ricky compares to something out of The Lord of the Rings.
One day, the duo encounters a man who is dressed up as a bush. He introduces himself as "Psycho Sam" and invites them back to his trailer. There, he offers them some dusty cookies and puts metal pots on their heads to prevent the government from tracking them. He tells them they can stay there as long as they want, and that he has been living in the bush for 15 years.
They sleep in the trailer that night, and Ricky writes a haiku before bed. Hec invites him to read the haiku, which is about running through the wilderness with Hec. Hec is flattered to be written into a poem.
Analysis
Ricky and Hec's infamy as criminals is stoked by the news media, but it only serves to make them more popular with the general public. As we see a montage of news reports about the case, the newscasters on the programs discuss the fact that many New Zealanders admire and revere Ricky and Hec. We see the selfie that Kahu's father took with Ricky amassing thousands of "likes" on Facebook. This shows us that perhaps Ricky and Hec are not reviled and dismissed as it seemed, and that perhaps the force of public mythologizing will help them become heroes in the eyes of the public, rather than simply menaces to society.
The tone of the film remains brisk and humorous, always taking an irreverent approach to even the darkest of topics. For instance, in the midst of the media montage, we see Paula from Child Services teaching a group of men how to break someone's neck. It's a disturbing image of violent training protocol if taken out of context, but in the context of the film it is meant to humorously signify the brutality of Paula, the irony being that she works in Child Services, and should not even be advocating such violence. Director Taika Waititi often uses humor in the film to highlight human contradictions and ironies, and show the ways that human beings say one thing, but do another.
When Ricky is found by Paula, he finds himself facing a complex moral dilemma. She offers to make a deal with him, that if he sends Hec to jail for the entire situation, she won't send him to juvie. Ricky looks conflicted for a moment, but quickly realizes that he cannot do such a thing. "You can't trade family for anything!" he says, running away. This belief is at the core of Ricky's emotional journey in the film, and represents how he has grown throughout the narrative. While he began the film completely delinquent and disillusioned about his ability to find belonging, he now finds himself willing to resist the authorities in order to stand up for his connection to his only family member, Hec.
While the film is often topsy-turvy and irreverent, it can also be disarmingly serious and somber. For instance, when Hec and Ricky encounter a wild boar, the beast injures Hec's dog, Zag, and Hec is forced to shoot his loyal dog in order to put it out of its misery. Ricky then takes out Bella's ashes, and the two of them scatter the remains in a river. The raucous tone of the film is just one side of the story; on the other side, Taika Waititi examines the sobering realities of loss, death, and tragedy.
The backdrop of the bush serves as a kind of allegorical setting, a place where Ricky and Hec can be themselves and connect with nature without having to be beholden to a society that has failed them. While life on the run is laborious and relentless, it is also a lifestyle that allows them both to self-actualize in new ways. Ricky even names this self-actualization when he decides that they are both "wilderpeople." In this name, we see that the fantasy of living in the bush is a fantasy about becoming one with the wilderness itself, of becoming people who are merged with the landscape, powerful in their ability to survive outside of civilization.
