I Never Freeze

One can’t really talk about Black Panther without talking about Chadwick Boseman. For fans, he died unexpectedly shortly after starring as the King of Wakanda. In truth, though, he had been sick for quite a while. He was in 4 movies, playing a huge role in every one of them. He had a huge impact on the world even before his death...

He made Wakanda seem real, an armored hope in the middle of Africa. It masquerades as a poor country, but has never been colonized and is advanced technologically. That's thanks to their primary source for everything, Vibranium. MCU-wise, we first heard of Vibranium during WWII, thanks to Captain America’s shield. Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created this Black Panther around the same time as the political party \ activists of the 1960s. This movie is a direct connection to Captain America: Civil War, where the two characters introduced got their own solo films: Homecoming and Black Panther. Each is a continuation of the stories begun in Civil War. Peter continues his debut as Spider-Man and his high-tech suit and responsibilities, while Black Panther must now rule the nation as his father did and serve as its main protector. He learned not to let his anger and vengeance rule as king. Eric “Killmonger” Stevens is pretty much the best Marvel villain in this movie and continues to rule – you agree with him philosophically but his methods are brutal.

Ryan Coogler is the director of both Black Panther movies. He earned his place in the MCU with solid storytelling. But did you see Sinners? Holy crap that’s a great movie! It also stars Michael B. Jordan. It’s a film about vampires, racism, the 1930’s South and music! Go watch it!!

Civil War primarily dealt with T’Challa, The Black Panther himself. It’s a title passed down through the centuries. We meet his mother and sister, as well as a love interest, enemies and fellow warriors. It also had a killer soundtrack.

• The movie stars off with some Wakandan sand animation. A boy is talking to his father (“Baba”). It’s not clear if it’s T’Chaka talking to T’Challa or N’Jobu talking to Eric. They go over a short history of Wakanda. The Heart-Shaped Herb granting superhuman strength and Vibranium letting them develop advanced technology
  
  
• 1992 Oakland, California. During this time, Oakland had the biggest amount of homicides in the city. Tupac (by coincidence, the trail of one of his murderers was concluding) was just getting started and the Oakland A’s won the ALS Championship
  
  
• The boys play basketball using a milk crate as a hoop, something that continues into modern day. One of the boys mentions Penny Hardaway. In 1992, he was a rising basketball star. He became a great NBA player, playing in several franchises and winning awards
  
  
  
  
  
• Two black men are planning something nefarious in an apartment overlooking the basketball court. They have automatic weapons and map. They plan to violently break somebody out of custody with the help of “the twins,” but are stopped by a forceful knock on the door
  
  
• One of the men, James (or so he says) says there are two “Grace Jones-looking chicks” at the door. The other man is N’Jobu (we never get his American alias) and he is a Prince of Wakanda and a War Dog (an undercover operative). He's played by the awesome Sterling K. Brown
  
  
  
  
  
• Grace Jones is a Jamaican singer, model and actress in the 80’s. James is referring to her look in Conan the Destroyer but she was pretty outrageous back in the day and had a very unique look. The warriors in question are members of the Dora Milaje, the King’s guard in Wakanda
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The lights dim and boom! It’s T’Chaka, Black Panther and the King of Wakanda! N’Jobu is also his brother, they have the same ring from their grandfather. The actor playing the younger T’Chaka is the real-life son of the older T’Chaka that was killed during Civil War. His costume is similar to his son’s, except it’s got a little more African flair and represents the best Wakandan technology at that time
  
  
  
  
  
  
• N’Jobu has been radicalized by his time in America and had a son with an American woman there (the very one he’s planning to break out of prison transport). T’Chaka has James reveal his true identity as Zuri and realizes he told his brother everything that’s been happening. Seems he didn’t trust his brother too much to begin with. We see the name and image of Klaue again from Civil War, still with the same crime of stealing Vibranium. It also seems Klaue killed a bunch of Border tribe members on his way out. And that N’Jobu helped him do it to fund his American crimes! The scene ends with T’Chaka asking his brother to turn himself in. The boys on the basketball court watch a mysterious ship take off from their building…
  
  
• In this movie, “Who are you” is a loaded phrase. When asked in Wakandan, it acts as a trigger phrase, having the Wakandan being asked reveal their true Wakandan identity. It triggers James to reveal his identity as a Wakandan truly undercover, for Eric it allows him to speak a truth he knows to be true. And eventually, for T’Challa, Jr., it reveals his true identity as a Prince of Wakanda
  
  
  
  
  
• Present Day: It’s been a week since T’Chaka was killed at the UN and Civil War took place between the Avengers. The world knows it was Zemo who did the attack, not Bucky Barnes. We meet the General of the Dora Milaje, Okoye. They’re flying to Sambisa Forest in Nigeria to collect someone important to T’Challa. This is a real place in Nigeria and is the site of some brutal recent warfare. Okoye tells T’Challa, dressed as the Black Panther to not freeze. He says “I neveah frrreze” and drops into the jungle
  
  
  
  
  
• BP throws these EMP beads to disable their vehicles and takes out all the terrorists (and kidnappers – they’re holding a bunch of women and using kids for child soldiers. BP actually does freeze when he says Nakia (his ex-girlfriend but still current flame): “Nakia…hi.” Nakia is undercover in Nigeria as a spy, it’s her life mission to help others. T’Challa tells her about the death of his father and wants her there at his crowning ceremony. They free the prisoners and go home
  
  
  
  
  
• Wakanda, the real Wakanda, is located behind a hologram. Before that, you see what they want to you to see – a poor country with lots of farm land and farmers. Beyond that, Wakanda is the most technologically advanced nations on earth, all thanks to Vibranium
  
  
• We meet the rest of the royal family: his mother and sister. I’m not a fan of Queen Ramonda. She’s a Queen when the odds are in her favor but take that away, she’s scared constantly. Plus I hate what she does to Okoye in the second movie, firing the General when they need her most, purely out of emotion. His sister Shuri is a genius, she’s behind the most recent Vibranium \ technological advances in Wakanda under the Design Group. I prefer the happy Shuri rather than the vengeful sad person she becomes. However, since many people (including myself) have undergone such transitions, it’s part of life and human nature
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  

  

  
  

  

  
  

  
  
• London, England. The Museum of Great Britain. Or as it’s known in our world: The British Museum. There is a café station in the real Museum as well
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• The outside of the Museum of Great Britain is a banner advertising their Modern Sculpture exhibit
  
  
  
  
  
• A curator drinking a cup of coffee talks with a young black man about the African art hanging in the museum
  
  
  
  
  
  
• She talks about the Bobo Ashanti Tribe but that’s Jamaican. The Edo people in Benin in the 16th Century. He’s especially interested in the Fula Tribe in 7th Century Benin
  
  
• There’s a whole interesting article on this scene and it’s historical inconsistencies
  
  
• The axe was taken by British Soldiers at some point. The British military, as always, has crazy history with Africa
  
  
  
  
  
  
• But the man isn’t interested in that, not really. This is Eric, played by Michael B. Jordan – he was great in Chronicle and Sinners. He says the axe was taken from the Fula Tribe but it’s made of Vibranium from Wakanda. Turns out he poisoned the curator in order to get an ambulance there. His girlfriend works at the café and poisoned the curator’s daily coffee. Ulysses Klaue and his South African associate (the guy once played Professor Moriarty in The Librarians) come in dressed as EMT’s but pull off a heist. Klaue shoots everybody (while the security cameras are on a loop, thanks to the girlfriend again) and smells the Vibranium axe. Klaue lost his hand thanks to Ultron and has replaced it with a Sonic Weapon. Eric also steals an African mask and they all leave in the ambulance
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• In Wakanda, the ceremony for T’Challa to become King begins. There’s lots of ceremonial dancing by everybody. We also see that Wakanda has shaped both the land and water for their needs using advanced technology and Vibranium. An older Zuri is there, played now by Forrest Whittaker from Rogue One. Using another herb, the strength of the Black Panther is taken from T’Challa, rather painfully. It’s time for Ritual Combat between the tribes. There’s the Merchant Tribe, The Border Tribe, River Tribe (of which Shuri is a part of – and there’s one striking man with an African Lip Plate in his mouth). Other tribes chime in but all refuse to fight T’Challa for the crown
  
  
  
  
  
• Just then, the intimidating Jabari Tribe comes in, hooting like gorillas. They haven’t been a part of traditional Wakandan society for centuries, living way off in the mountains. Their leader is M’Baku. He’s played by Person of Interest actor Winston Duke. He gives the greatest speech in MCU history with his Wakandan accent and word choices, angry at the current state of Wakandan royalty and at Shuri’s young age (no respect for tradition). He says “glory to Hanuman,” a Hindu god with the body of a monkey. It seems the Wakandan Gods influenced the Gods of other religions and nations. They fight in the water
  
  
  
  
• T’Challa defeats M’Baku after getting stabbed and receiving words of encouragement from his mother. M’Baku fights with honor and yields. T’Challa is now King of Wakanda and Black Panther. As they say for the first time:

• WAKANDA FOREVER!!

• The ceremony continues as T’Challa is again given the Heart-Shaped Herb to get his Black Panther strength back (which means that T’Chaka had to give up his powers beforehand and become a normal human again). He’s buried alive (under a thin layer of sand) and goes to the Ancestral Plane
  
  
• We see memories T’Challa had of his father’s death (something Eric will too) until waking up on a Aurora Borealis-like Wakandan plane. There are panthers in the trees until one morphs into T’Chaka. One thing I noticed is that the actor John Kani has a prosthetic eye (from a police incident in the 80’s)
  
  
• I wonder if this is why his character had to stop being Black Panther after such an injury. Technology is advanced there in Wakanda. I guess there are too many actorly and real world reasons to think about this
  
  
• T’Challa talks to his father about being King and how much he’ll miss him. As echoed in the Thor movies, it’s hard for a good man to be king
  
  
• T’Challa later walks with Nakia in the streets of the capitol about sharing what Wakanda has to offer with the rest of the world. It’s a more gentle way of doing this compared to what Eric wants to do. We also catch up with T’Challa’s best friend, W’Kabi, the head of the Border Patrol of Wakanda. The actor is from Get Out and is Daniel Kaluuya. Although unrelated, he’s so damn funny in this SNL skit. Watch him in the latest Spider-Verse movie too!!
  
  
  
  
• W’Kabi also has scarification marks on his face (something that Eric takes to the extreme, showing they’re not too different). He’s also married to Okoye of the Dora Miljae. The visit a rhino raised in the Border village until contacted by Okoye
  
  
  
  
  
• She informs the Council that Ulysses Klaue has popped up on their radar after stealing a Vibranium artifact with another man. Turns out he’s going to sell it to somebody in South Korea. W’Kabi’s parents were killed in the attack that Klaue (and N’Jobu) made on Wakanda that netted him a shitload of Vibranium that he sold to Ultron and I’m sure others over the years. They say that Klaue has been on the loose after the robbery but then how did he get his Wakandan brand? Anyways, W’Kabi wants revenge and asks T’Challa to either kill Klaue or bring him back for justice. T’Challa promises and the mission is on
  
  
  
  
  
• He goes to his sister’s Lab to get the latest and greatest BP technology. They have their own sibling handshake that ends in the Wakandan salute
  
  
• They discuss Kimoyo Beads, which look like regular African beads you wear on your wrist. However, they are a lot more: it’s like a Wakandan life history of that person. It’s also used for communication, remote access and medical needs. I have some attached to a MCU book that requires batteries. Still fun, though
  
  
  
  
  
• Shuri makes a meme come to life: She looks at T'Challa's old school sandals and yells out "What are those?"
  
  
  
  
  
• They also discuss their father’s love of Back to the Future II with the automatic Velcro sneakers. Shuri’s version makes no noise at all. There’s two necklaces available – one gold, the other silver. The wearer can activate the nanites in the necklace to form a Black Panther suit automatically. She’s also upgraded the BP suit with kinetic energy absorbers – the more he’s hit, the more energy builds up that can be released to explosive results. Shuri’s also going to with the mission, but as backup in Wakanda
  
  
  
  
  
• Busan, South Korea. It’s Nakia, T’Challa and Okoye in a wig to help her blend in. Nakia tells her to “whip it back and forth” like Willow Smith during this time period. Nakia has an undercover identity, a wild Kenyan Heiress. She knows the Korean woman guarding the door. Seems she caused some problems before regarding an Ivory trader
  
  
  
  
• They all walk through metal detectors into an underground gambling casino. T’Challa recognizes one of the men from the CIA, Everett Ross whom he met in Germany. Seems Ross has been keeping T’Challa’s Black Panther identify from his CIA bosses (which would include his ex-wife Valentina de Fontaine from the Thunderbolts and head of the CIA). They talk, T’Challa wants Klaue to come with him and Ross tries to negotiate. It’s the CIA team that Klaue is selling the Vibranium to. Stan Lee makes an appearance and actually steals T’Challa’s winnings
  
  
  
  
  
• Klaue enters with dozens of men, setting off the metal detectors. Nobody cares. Ross makes a joke about Klaue and his entourage, asks him if he has a mixtape coming out. Klaue does, and is a Soundcloud rapper. Ross doesn’t want to hear the music and tries to deal – a suitcase full of diamonds for the Vibranium he stole, stuffed down Klaue's pants
  
  
• One of Klaue’s goons accosts Okoye and she attacks with her Vibranium spear that can extend and retract. The battle erupts! Ross shows his coolness by using the diamond-filled bulletproof attaché case as a shield from gunfire. At one point, Klaue fires his sonic arm cannon into a table full of money and “makes it rain,” much to his delight and insane personality
  
  
  
  
  
• The bad guys make a run for it in their multiple SUV’s with music blaring (not Klaue’s music however). Shuri is able to help by using her technology to drive a car. She has a rig in Wakanda and driving a car in South Korea. Nakia and Okoye also purse the bad guy. Using his kinetic energy and bulletproof suit, T’Challa smashes one of the SUV’s and Okoye does the same thing, much to the detriment of their car. Nakia drives barefoot. Ross picks them up in his car, also after Klaue and the Vibranium
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Black Panther catches up to Klaue and is about to kill him with his claws but is stopped by his friends. Everybody in the crowd has their phones out, recording. They have no choice and takes Klaue to a CIA safe house
  
  
• Klaue thinks he has the upper hand and acts completely unhinged. He sings Baby Don’t Hurt Me until Ross comes in to interrogate him
  
  
  
  
• It’s both Andy Serkis (Gollum) and Martin Freeman (Bilbo). Both from Lord of the Rings, really the only time two white men are in a scene together. They Internet dubbed them: Tolkien White Guys
  
  
  
  
  
• Klaue knows virtually everything about Wakanda and how they use Vibranium in every aspect of their lives. He only stole a small bit. El Dorado, the City of Gold is in Africa. Ross doesn’t really believe him but really listens. He asks about the Sonic Hand Cannon. Klaue says that’s a modified Wakandan mining tool. Vibranium is called “The Gift.” As everybody’s talking, a van pulls up to the back of the Safe House – its Eric and his girlfriend. Eric is in body armor and his African mask. He puts a shaped charge on the building and blows a hole in it. They’ve been tracking Klaue’s whereabouts using his Sonic Hand Cannon. T’Challa jumps on a grenade when it explodes, protecting people like Captain America did. The bad guys free Klaue and Eric uses a rocket launcher to keep T’Challa back. Eric is wearing the same ring that T’Challa has from his father. What’s happening?
  
  
• One thing I realized: did the Wakandans take both the Sonic Hand Cannon and the Vibranium axe back to Wakanda with them? Or did the CIA?
  
  
• However, during the attack, Ross threw himself in front of Nakia, taking a bullet to his spine. He’s going to die unless he gets help from Wakanda and its advanced medical knowledge. Both Nakia and T’Challa are okay with this but Okoye reminds them that Ross is a foreign intelligence agent with an obligation to report back to his superiors about Wakanda. They bring him to Shuri’s lab anyways
  
  
• She remarks she has to fix “another broken white boy,” the first being Bucky Barnes. For her, the injury is easy to fix. W’Kabi is not happy that Klaue lives, the first rift in their friendship, shattering it forever. They keep Ross’ presence a secret
  
  
• The van drives Klaue (without his hand, see above) and the rest of the group to a airplane junkyard with a working plane ready to take off. Eric asks Klaue to drop him off in Wakanda but Klaue refuses, thinking Eric was just another crazy guy. Klaue takes Eric’s girlfriend hostage, calling them Bonnie and Clyde
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Eric just shoots through her, wounding Klaue. He catches up to Klaue and shows him his self-inflecting scars and a glowing tattoo on his inner lip. Eric then kills Klaue and drags his body in the plane. We will never know who the girl was in the photos!
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Back in Wakanda, T’Challa has a angry conversation with Zuri, the only witness left to what happened to his father and uncle years ago in Oakland. N’Jobu told T’Chaka that the African-Americans in America are over-policed and incarcerated, that Wakandan weapons can shift the balance of power. He partnered with Klaue to steal from Wakanda, and Zuri produces a tube full of Vibranium. N’Jobu then tries to shoot Zuri but T’Chaka steps in the way and ends up killing his own brother with his claws. Neither men will ever talk about it again, keeping it a secret. They left N’Jobu’s son there to fend for himself, part of the secret. T’Challa is furious they didn’t bring the boy (now known as Eric) back to Wakanda with them
  
  
• Meanwhile, back at the Wakandan Border, Eric has landed with Klaue’s body and presents it to W’Kabi. Shuri explains the Wakandan way of mining, using high speed trains and sonic stabilizers to safely transport the raw Vibranium. Shuri talks to Ross for a bit about healing him but is interrupted by Okoye looking for T’Challa. Ross knows Eric, that’s he’s American. T’Challa is talking to Nakia in private about his anger for his father
  
  
• We get the full background on Eric Stevens. Born in Oakland, went to Annapolis (the Naval Academy) and MIT for Grad School (there it is again). He then joined the Navy SEALS and fought in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. He was part of a special JSOC ghost unit that destabilizes governments and assassinates threats (much like the HYDRA Winter Soldiers). He earns the name Killmonger. He has a War Dog tattoo but there’s no record of it in their databases. I think Eric has the same one as his father (that his father probably gave to him) and N’Jobu was erased from all Wakandan records after his death and betrayal
  
  
  
  
  
• Killmonger is presented in front of T’Challa and the Council with W’Kabi guarding and translating for the prisoner. Killmonger wants the throne of Wakanda, to help his people all around the world. Everybody objects, as this is against the Wakanda way of secrecy. He’s asked “who are you” in Wakandan amongst all the yelling, and Killmonger shouts his true identity: He is “N’Jadaka, son of N’Jobu, a prince of Wakanda.” He says he found his father, dead in their apartment with Panther claws in his chest. He also talks to Ramonda, “Hey Auntie”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• For some reason, probably to get back at his father, T’Challa accepts the challenge to the throne and the council convenes on the same waterfall mountain area as before
  
  
• Theoretically, this isn’t even a fair fight. Killmonger is a battle-tested Navy SEAL with significant combat skills and is immensely and righteously angry at T’Challa and his family. Killmonger reveals that he scarred himself for every kill. He breaks the long handle of a spear and has two weapons to fight
  
  
  
  
  
• I remember hearing that a woman in a movie theater broke her retainer after seeing Michael B. Jordan’s abs
  
  
• Zuri once again is present as the Emcee, so to speak. He raised both boys at different points in life as two different people – Uncle James and Uncle Zuri. T’Challa has his powers taken away
  
  
• They fight and both are cut and stabbed. However, once the fight was going bad for T’Challa and Killmonger was about to kill him, Zuri steps in. Against the rules! Killmonger rails against him, calling him Uncle James (he must have put two and two together after James went missing and his father died) and kills Zuri. T’Challa lets out an agonizing “NO!” and begins to fight sloppily. Killmonger beats the shit out of T’Challa and dumps him over the waterfall. Nakia takes the royal family into hiding and Killmonger becomes the new King and Black Panther
  
  
• The Dora Milaje under Okoye will serve the King, no matter who’s on the throne. Nakia is a spy and will help her country. She gets Ross from his hiding place and leave the palace
  
  
• The ritual continues as Killmonger is given the Heart Shaped Herb and goes into his trance. However, his vision is different than T’Challa’s – he’s an outsider to Wakanda. He gets buried like usual and wakes up in his Oakland Apartment, right after his father was killed. Like T’Challa, he sees memories of his father. The Ancestral Plane is outside the windows of the apartment. Killmonger gets his dad’s Wakanda stuff from their hiding place. He passes a Public Enemy poster. He turns into the boy he was and talks to his father about being abandoned by Wakanda and how angry he really is. He doesn’t wake up peacefully but violently and orders the garden of the Heart-Shaped Herb to be burned. Nakia manages to save one of the herbs. Ross explains that that was part of Eric’s training – his shadow unit hit governments during times of transitions, to burn down the old ways
  
  
  
  
  
• The royal family, along with Nakia and Ross go to the Jabari Tribe in the mountain, thinking they’ll give the herb to M’Baku and he’ll save Wakanda. Nakia refuses it, she’s a spy with no army. They are quickly surrounded by Jabari warriors and brought to M’Baku’s throne room. He doesn’t let Ross speak, by drowning him out with gorilla hoots. He also lets Ramonda beg in front of him
  
  
• M’Baku takes the group to the comatose body of T’Challa, frozen in the river and found by a Jabari fisherman. Again, he’s like Captain America. Both M’Baku and Ross turn around and let the ceremony take place again. The Heart-Shaped Herb is ground up and fed to T’Challa
  
  
• He goes to the Ancestral Plane again, only the conversation is much different. He argues with all the past leaders about the path they let Wakanda go on, to keep their technology and Vibranium from the rest of the world. And because of this secret, they all created Killmonger and his rise to the throne to destroy the world. He will do things different
  
  
• M’Baku refuses to let T’Challa endanger his Jabari by going to war but does promise to keep Ramonda safe. Everybody else, including Ross, will help T’Challa overthrow Killmonger
  
  
  
  
  
• Killmonger is now King. He’s wearing the gold necklace, allowing nanites to form his own gold Black Panther outfit. He also gets W’Kabi on his side, his anger with T’Challa and need for vengeance getting the best of him – a king finally listening to him, meeting with violence. Killmonger orders weapons to be delivered to the War Dogs in New York, London and Hong Kong (the same places magic is strongest in Doctor Strange). The War Dogs, some under pressure, will give these weapons to the most vulnerable and oppressed people and have them rise up, overthrowing governments all over the world with Wakanda leading them all in a new dawn and world order
  
  
  
  
  
• They all look up and see one of the planes crash in the grass. It’s T’Challa, his kinetic suit going all purple: “I didn’t yield…and I’m not dead.” The challenge continues even though Killmonger claims to be king and challenges over
  
  
• He orders W’Kabi to attack T’Challa. The Border Tribe have these blankets they wear made of Vibranium that are bulletproof and form a shield. The Dora Miljae have had enough of Killmonger and attack him, saying he’s too full of anger and vengeance to be king. Okoye and her troops attack him. Killmonger activates his own nanite suit and fights
  
  
  
  
  
  
• It’s now the Dora Milaje vs The Border Tribe! Remember, Okoye and W’Kabi are married! Okoye and the Dora still fighting Killmonger see one of their own killed. Meanwhile, Ross, Shuri and Nakia sneak into the palace. Shuri has the really cool Vibranium discs, the same thing that an Agents of SHIELD villain had, Ruby Hale of HYDRA. Nakia will wear Dora Milaje armor for protection, not because she is one. W’Kabi also calls in for the armored rhinos
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Ross is expected to use his US Air Force pilot training to take down the remaining ships that contain Vibranium weapons. Shuri uses the same technology she used in South Korea and makes Ross’ remote control plane “American Style.” The computer voice is Trevor Noah from the Daily Show. Meanwhile, Shuri and Nakia join the fight. Shuri has these panther gauntlets that fire energy (something she uses in Infinity War too)
  
  
  
  
  

  
  
  
• At one point during the fight, Killmonger injures Nakia and is threatening Shuri, calling her “Princess,” it’s also his little cousin. Tackling Killmonger, T’Challa and he fall into the Vibranium mining pit. He has Shuri activate the underground train and sonic stabilizers. If the two of them get near a stabilizer, their Vibranium suits get interrupted, causing a potential kill
  
  
• Meanwhile, Ross’ physical location is being attacked but he chooses to destroy the remaining aircraft before getting out of there! Kind of the last we see of him until later
  
  
• T’Challa tells Killmonger that he has become what he hates, that he will be the abuser of power. Up top, just when the remaining Dora and our heroes are at their lowest, M’Baku and the Jabari fight with them, turning the tide of battle. W’Kabi tries to run M’Baku down with his rhino, but is stopped by Okoye. The rhino knows her and loves her, licking her face. The battle is pretty much over
  
  
• T’Challa and Killmonger continue to fight until T’Challa flips Killmonger’s spear and stabs him. It is a perfect blow because the stabilizers have compromised his suit and the knife does damage. The same broken spear that defeated T’Challa in their first challenge stabs Killmonger, striking a killing blow. The two cousins talk about the beauty of Wakanda, something Eric has wanted to see since he was a little boy. He wants to see the sunset before he dies. T’Challa suggests trying to heal Eric but Eric says nah. He doesn’t want to be locked up as a prisoner. He also wants to be buried at sea like his enslaved ancestors who knew death is better than bondage. He's forever on the Astral Plane, as the second movie will show
  
  
  
  
  
• Life goes back to normal in Wakanda. I wonder if the War Dogs who agreed to distribute Vibranium weapons were recalled back home. I also wonder about the normal Wakandan military who sided with Killmonger because it was their duty. I know that W’Kabi is essentially under house arrest, with Okoye still being able to see him daily
  
  
  
  
• T’Challa wants Nakia to stay in Wakanda with him and still figure out a way to fulfill her calling, helping the helpless
  
  
• Modern Oakland, CA: The same neighborhood as 1992, different kids playing basketball. Shuri thought T’Challa would take her to see Coachella or DisneyLand. T’Challa has bought the entire dilapidated block and will turn it into the First Wakandan Outreach Center with an emphasis on Shuri’s science. T’Challa is opening Wakanda up to the world
  
  
• To show he’s serious, he uncloaks their ship parked in the basketball court. If you remember, this is something T’Chaka would never do, preferring to keep it cloaked. One of the kids compares the ship to a “Bugatti Spaceship,” which is pretty accurate. Another boy asks T’Challa “who are you,” so similar to the Wakandan trigger phrase
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Post Credit Scene #1: United Nations, Press Conference. T’Challa tells the world about Wakanda. There’s a great deleted scene in the UN with Ross and the Wakandans, with them acting like old friends with humor
  
  
  
  
• Post Credit Scene #2: a group of tribal-painted boys crowd over a form in a tent. We’re still in Wakanda, but not in the capital. It’s Bucky Barnes, the former Winter Soldier. This must be from when Shuri took Bucky out of cryogenic sleep and began clearing his psyche of the mind control HYDRA had on him for over 60 years. He would later be helped further by members of the Dora Milaje. Shuri addresses him as “Sergeant Barnes,” and tells him that “he has much to learn.”
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  I know at some point in either this movie or its sequel, Ryan Coogler wanted to include Kraven the Hunter, which would have been pretty cool!
  
  
  
  
  
  

  Wakanda Forever!