BLACK PANTHER: Wakanda Forever

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens with Shuri (Letitia Wright) working tirelessly in her lab, as T’Challa is dying from an unknown illness, and she is hoping to find a cure. When she finds a solution that may help, she is met by Ramonda (Angela Bassett), who somberly informs Shuri that her brother has passed on.

The kingdom of Wakanda holds a funeral procession for their beloved king. Every citizen dresses in white, and a mural of T’Challa has been painted. Shuri and Ramonda bring T’Challa’s casket out until a ship arrives to carry him up. Shuri takes one last moment to weep over her brother’s casket while the kingdom does the Wakandan salute.

One year later, Ramonda arrives at the United Nations. The US Secretary of State chastises Wakanda for not living up to their promises of getting involved in worldly affairs. The French SoS also notes that they believe the Wakandans are keeping vibranium for building weapons of mass destruction. Ramonda hits back that they are still mourning T’Challa’s loss and that they know what would happen if vibranium fell into the hands of outsiders. The night before, an outreach facility in Mali was infiltrated by mercenaries trying to acquire vibranium, but they were met by Dora Milaje warriors led by Okoye (Danai Gurira), all of whom proceeded to swiftly incapacitate them. The Dora Milaje then bring the captured mercs before the UN where Okoye forces them to kneel. Before they leave, Ramonda warns that any repeated attempts such as this will be met with a fierce response.

In the Atlantic Ocean, a CIA team led by Dr. Graham (Lake Bell) operates with a vibranium-detecting machine. Two divers go underwater and find that their mining drill has been wrecked, just before the two are taken and killed by unseen attackers. Moments later, a tribe of blue-skinned people, Talokans, emerge and proceed to attack the ship, killing the people onboard. Dr. Graham and her colleague attempt to flee in a helicopter, but the Talokan leader Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejia) grabs the helicopter and hurls it into the ocean.

Ramonda and Okoye return to Wakanda, where Ramonda finds Shuri continuing her work on new technology. While her mother suggests that she continue working on her synthetic heart-shaped herb to bring back the Black Panther, Shuri refuses as she believes the Black Panther to be a relic and only tried to recreate the herb to save T’Challa. Ramonda then brings Shuri by the water to try and burn their ceremonial garbs to end the mourning period and begin to celebrate T’Challa’s life. Shuri expresses anger at the world for her brother’s death. Moments later, they are met by Namor, who tells Ramonda and Shuri that he was not happy with T’Challa’s decision to expose Wakanda to the rest of the world, because this left his kingdom open and vulnerable to attackers since Talokans also possess vibranium. Namor orders them to locate and bring to him the scientist that created the vibranium-detecting machine, or he will attack Wakanda. He also tells them not to let the others know about his existence.

Ramonda tasks Okoye with going to find the scientist, but Shuri tags along despite her mother’s objections. She and Okoye travel to Virginia to find Everett Ross (Martin Freeman), where they ask him about the scientist. To their surprise, Ross informs them that the scientist is a teenager at MIT named Riri Williams (Dominique Thorne). Shuri goes to Riri’s dorm room and informs her that she needs to go with them, while also learning that her vibranium-detecting machine was merely a class project that the CIA acquired. Riri doesn’t believe the urgency until Okoye pops out of her bathroom and makes Riri go with them.

Riri leads Shuri and Okoye to her garage where she works on her projects. Soon, FBI agents arrive at the garage, forcing the ladies to spring into action and flee. Riri gets her own iron armor suit that helps her fly, while Shuri and Okoye attempt to drive away. A drone goes after them, but Riri flies high enough to shoot it down before she runs out of oxygen. The drone then crashes over several cop cars, allowing Shuri and Okoye to keep going. Unfortunately, they are stopped when the Talokans corner them on a bridge and throw a water bomb at them, causing Shuri to lose consciousness. Riri also crashes upon the scene, and the Talokans attempt to capture her, but Okoye engages in battle with them, seemingly killing three soldiers before facing the general Attuma (Alex Livinalli). He nearly kills her with her own spear until she shocks it out of his hands, and the other three Talokans rise unharmed. When Okoye attempts to continue fighting, she is knocked off the bridge. Shuri regains consciousness and tells the Talokans to take her with them, so they take her and Riri.

Ross goes to the crime scene on the bridge the next day, where he is met by Contessa Valentina De Fontaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus), as she is now director of the CIA (and also Ross’s ex-wife). Ross locates Shuri’s Kimoyo Beads and secretly takes them with him.

Okoye returns to Wakanda before the council to ask Ramonda to lead a team underwater to find Shuri, but for her failure in keeping Shuri safe, Ramonda strips Okoye of her rank as general and of her position as Dora Milaje. Ramonda goes to Shuri’s lab and asks her AI Griot (Trevor Noah) to track Shuri’s beads. She gets in touch with Ross, who secretly speaks to her behind Val’s back. He tells Ramonda that the CIA believes Wakanda is responsible for the attack on the mining ship, but Ramonda cannot tell him much about Namor’s involvement.

Ramonda goes to Haiti, where she finds Nakia (Lupita Nyong’o) working at a school ever since The Blip. While she and Ramonda are happy to see each other, Ramonda notes Nakia was absent from T’Challa’s funeral. Nakia tells her that she couldn’t bear to think of it as being the end of his life, even though Ramonda reminds her that for Wakandans, death is never the end. She asks Nakia for help in rescuing Shuri. Nakia goes to speak to a local village woman in the Yucatan Peninsula, as she has seen Namor and describes his legend as “K’uk’ulkan,” or the Feathered Serpent God.

Down in Talokan, Shuri is given traditional garbs to wear before meeting with Namor. He begins to tell her his backstory – in 1571, his mother (Maria Mercedes Coroy) was part of a village that had been plagued by smallpox after the arrival of Spanish conquistadors. The people turned to the god Chaac for salvation. They found a blue material underwater that they ingested to cure them of their ailments, but while it removed their sicknesses, it turned their skin blue and forced them underwater since they could no longer breathe air. Namor was born different from the others, with wings on his ankles, and the ability to breathe on land and underwater. His mother died heartbroken due to missing her life on the surface, and when he went to bury her, he found the conquistadors raiding and enslaving the villagers. Namor and the Talokans attacked, with one priest referring to Namor as “un niño sin amor” (a child without love), and that’s where he got his name, because he has no love for the surface world. He takes Shuri further and shows her his kingdom, a prosperous and thriving nation not unlike Wakanda, and he asks Shuri to help protect their kingdoms against the rest of the world.

Nakia begins her mission to recover Shuri and Riri. Meanwhile, Ramonda meets with Namor after she speaks to Ross, who informed her that the CIA is seeking to take action against Wakanda for the mining ship attack. When she tells Namor to accept responsibility for it, he warns Ramonda about taking retaliatory action against the Wakandans if they threaten Talokan’s exposure. Nakia makes her way underwater and neutralizes Namor’s cousin Namora (Mabel Cadena) before she can attack Shuri. Another Talokan warrior grabs Shuri, but Nakia hits her with a fatal sonic blast. She escapes with Shuri and Riri, but Namor finds the warrior as she dies, taking it as an attack on Wakanda’s part, so he leads his warriors to strike back.

In the city, Nakia reunites with Okoye, but they soon see the area flooding before they realize they are under attack. The Talokans begin to water-bomb the city, flooding the places and destroying buildings. M’Baku (Winston Duke) leads his Jabari warriors in battle while Shuri attempts to fight back with her tech. Namor makes it to the palace and water-bombs it heavily, causing Ramonda and Riri to sink. Namor orders Shuri to join them in the attack against the surface world, or Wakanda will be completely destroyed. Ramonda manages to pull Riri to the surface, but they are both unconscious. The Dora Milaje manage to revive Riri, but Ramonda is gone.

A funeral is held for Ramonda. M’Baku attempts to console Shuri and offer counsel, as T’Challa requested of him, but she is mourning the loss of her whole family. Meanwhile, Val has Ross arrested after learning he was talking to Ramonda in secret.

While the rest of Wakanda gears up for Namor’s return, Shuri finishes work on her “Midnight Angel” suits for Okoye and another Dora Milaje warrior, Aneka (Michaela Coel), while Riri works on her own iron suit. Shuri finds that the bracelet that Namor gave her contains a material that the Talokans used to live underwater, which she mixes with T’Challa’s DNA to successfully create a synthetic heart-shaped herb. With Nakia and Okoye, Shuri ingests the herb and goes into the Ancestral Plane, hoping to see Ramonda to give her guidance. Instead, she is met by an unwanted presence – KILLMONGER (Michael B. Jordan). He explains that she sees him because she is being driven by her desire for revenge against Namor for her mother’s death and her anger over her brother’s death, stating that she is just like him. Killmonger also says T’Challa was too noble and would have also chosen to spare Namor like he did Zemo after his father was killed. When Shuri wakes up, she is unable to tell Nakia that she saw Killmonger and feels that her mother and brother abandoned her. However, she knows it is now up to her to lead the kingdom in battle, so she goes to find her own helmet.

As the tribes are debating their next move, a ship flies overhead, and Shuri descends for the first time in her new Black Panther outfit. M’Baku proudly declares that the Black Panther lives. Shuri then gives everyone a speech about what they have to do next. Shuri and Riri come up with a plan for drawing Namor toward a dry area to weaken him so he may be defeated.

The Wakandans board a ship to prepare for battle, and they send out a signal from another vibranium-detecting machine to lure the Talokans to them. They engage in their showdown, with the Talokans attempting to board the ship while Dora Milaje and Jabari warriors fight back. Riri emerges in her new Ironheart armor suit while Okoye and Aneka fly in with their Midnight Angel suits. Namor gets high enough for Riri to hit him with a blast, and Shuri catches him in her ship to begin evaporating the water on his skin. Riri is attacked by Namora while Okoye has a rematch with Attuma. Riri blasts Namora into the ocean while Okoye knocks Attuma off the ship. Namor attempts to break the ship with his spear, but Shuri fights him with her suit. Shuri tries to have the ship fly toward the desert, but Namor succeeds in breaking it down and destroying it, causing them to crash.

Shuri and Namor continue their fight, with Namor still having enough strength to beat Shuri and impale her. Thinking on Killmonger’s words, Shuri is able to free and heal herself before going back to fighting Namor. She uses the exhaust from her ship to fire enough heat toward Namor to severely weaken him. She grabs his spear and prepares to deal the killing blow until she sees a vision of Ramonda speaking to her, telling her to show him who she really is. Shuri orders Namor to yield so that neither of their people has to suffer from their pursuits for revenge, and Namor agrees. He yields and is taken back to the Talokans to call off their fight and return home.

In the aftermath, Shuri sends Riri home back to Boston but tells her she has to leave her suit there for fear that the US will resume quarrels with Wakanda. She does present Riri with the car that belonged to her father, now fixed up. Back in Talokan, Namor speaks to Namora and tells her it was necessary to ally themselves with Wakanda since they have no other allies to protect them, and this will work in their own favor. Meanwhile, Okoye goes to break out Ross from captivity.

Shuri travels to Haiti to meet with Nakia by a beach, as she says there is one thing she needs to do. She sits by a campfire and burns her ceremonial garbs, as she sits down to reminisce about T’Challa and finally grieve for his death.

During the credits, Nakia brings a boy, Toussaint (Divine Love Konadu-Sun), who is her and T’Challa’s son, and therefore Shuri’s nephew. Nakia confirms that Ramonda met him before her death, and that he has been living peacefully there. Toussaint tells Shuri that his Wakandan name is T’Challa. Shuri sits and smiles, knowing her brother’s legacy lives on.

The last thing we see is a dedication to Chadwick Boseman.

CTTC

 

The kingdom of Wakanda mourns the loss of T'Challa. Complicating matters is the presence of the Talokans, an underwater kingdom led by Namor, the Feathered Serpent God. He meets Queen Ramonda and Shuri to tell them that T'Challa's act of exposing Wakanda to the outside world led to the outsiders attempting to take vibranium by force, and since Talokan also possesses vibranium, Namor believes that their kingdom would become vulnerable to attack. He orders the Wakandans to locate the scientist responsible for creating a vibranium-detecting machine that the CIA has used.

Shuri and Okoye find that the scientist is a college student named Riri Williams. While they try to keep her safe, the Talokans attack and take both Shuri and Riri to their kingdom. Ramonda locates Nakia for help in rescuing Shuri. Namor tells Shuri about his people's backstory and how his hatred for the surface world stems from watching conquistadors raid and enslave the villagers where his mother came from, as it was their disease and violence that forced the Talokans to seek help that eventually drove them underwater with enhanced capabilities. When Nakia rescues Shuri, she ends up killing a Talokan warrior, which Namor takes as a sign of attack. He leads an attack against Wakanda by flooding the city, causing Ramonda's death when she rescues Riri from drowning.

Shuri manages to create a synthetic heart-shaped herb from material given to her by Namor, along with T'Challa's DNA. This allows her to take the herb and become the new Black Panther. She gathers the tribes in Wakanda and plans with Riri to draw Namor to them so they may dry him out and weaken him. The Wakandans and Talokans engage in battle, with Riri utilizing her new iron suit, and Okoye uses a Midnight Angel suit developed by Shuri. Shuri traps Namor and fights him, with him nearly winning until she manages to burn and weaken him. Although she thinks about killing him, she ultimately calls for a truce so that neither of their people suffer in their quests for vengeance. Namor agrees and calls off the fight, later telling his cousin Namora that it was necessary since Wakanda has no other allies and this will work in their favor later on.

Shuri sends Riri back home before going to Haiti where she can properly mourn T'Challa. There, Nakia introduces Shuri to her and T'Challa's son, Toussaint.