History Film / BlackPanther2018

* DefrostingIceKing: No pun intended. M'Baku starts the film as an AntiHero GrumpyBear that believes T'Challa is unfit to rule. Then T'Challa defeats him in TrialByCombat, while allowing him to surrender with honor. M'Baku gracefully accepts the new king. [[spoiler:He then saves T'Challa's life to repay the life debt, showing Ramonda and Shuri when they come to seek his help. Though he refuses at first to come aid T'Challa regaining his throne, he comes and turns the tide just when it seems Nakia, Shuri and Okoye are cornered]].

* AwesomeMcCoolname:
** Erik Stevens by itself is a normal name, but his military-earned moniker "Killmonger" is certainly this.
** Carrying on from previous MCU films, Ulysses Klaue (pronounced "Claw" and meaning claw in German).

* DualWielding: Killmonger's preferred fighting style when not using guns, with a short sword and the tip of a spear as his weapons of choice.

* DutchAngle: To underline how bad [[spoiler: Erik Killmonger’s ascent to king]] is, the scene as he approaches the throne is not just tilted but completely inverted, to show that Wakandan politics has been turned upside-down.

** When Killmonger appears at the Wakandan royal court seeking the throne, he tries to goad T'Challa into [[SayMyName asking what his name is]]; T'Challa, knowing who he is, doesn't bite, and Shuri tries to deflect by saying he is Erik Stevens, an American mercenary -- Killmonger counters that that isn't his real name. Finally a council member takes the bait and asks, prompting him to angrily reveal his name and parentage (in Wakandan, for added intensity).

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Wakanda will no longer watch from the shadows. We cannot. We '''must''' not."'']]

* AccentUponTheWrongSyllable: In the teaser trailer, Klaue pronounces Wakanda as "wuh-KAN-dah" instead of the actual pronunciation of "wuh-KAHN-dah". He pronounced it in the correct way in the film proper.

** "We/You will speak nothing of this." Said by characters in order to preserve Wakanda's masquerade as an impoverished nation, but at the same time coinciding with the film's plot being driven by a ''very'' DarkSecret.

* NiceShoes: T'Challa is rather fond of his royal sandals. Shuri thinks they're lame and [[spoiler:creates a pair of nanotech, sound-absorbing "sneakers" for him.]]

'''Shuri:''' No, this is [[Film/TheWizardOfOz Kansas]].

Is it anything and everything you hoped for?\\
Or do the feeling haunt you?\\

* MinovskyPhysics: Vibranium is {{Unobtanium}} to the rest of the world, who thinks of it only as "the strongest metal on Earth" and that the Wakandan supply is exceedingly limited, but within Wakanda it functions as this.

** ‘Black panthers’, the animals that inspired the comics, which in turn inspired the movie, are actually a melanistic color morph of ''jaguars.'' Jaguars do not and have never lived in Africa.

A sequel, ''Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'', was confirmed to be in development at 2019's San Diego Comic Con, and is currently slated to release on November 11, 2022, with Ryan Coogler returning to write and direct. Notably, it was originally intended to be a straightforward sequel to the first film; however, with Chadwick Boseman tragically passing away due to colon cancer on August 28, 2020, it was announced that the role of T'Challa [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim would not be recast to respect his memory]], and the film would be reworked to serve as a tribute to Boseman, with it and any other future sequels instead focusing on the world of Wakanda around T'Challa as well as other characters introduced in the first movie.

A sequel, ''Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'', was confirmed to be in development at 2019's San Diego Comic Con, and is currently slated to release on November 11, 2022, with Ryan Coogler returning to write and direct. Notably, it was originally intended to be a straightforward sequel to the first film; however, with Chadwick Boseman tragically passing away due to colon cancer on August 28, 2020, it was announced that the role of T’Challa [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim would not be recast to respect his memory]], and the film would be reworked to serve as a tribute to Boseman, with it and any other future sequels instead focusing on the world of Wakanda around T’Challa as well as other characters introduced in the first movie.

''Black Panther'' is a 2018 film directed by Creator/RyanCoogler (''Film/FruitvaleStation'', ''Film/{{Creed}}'') and written by Coogler and Joe Robert Cole, based on the Creator/MarvelComics character [[ComicBook/BlackPanther of the same name]]. It is the eighteenth film installment of the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse, and the sixth instalment of Phase 3.

T'Challa and several supporting characters subsequently appear in ''Film/AvengersInfinityWar'' and ''Film/AvengersEndgame''. A sequel, ''Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'', was confirmed to be in development at 2019's San Diego Comic Con, and is currently slated to release on November 11, 2022, with Ryan Coogler returning to write and direct. Notably, it was originally intended to be a straightforward sequel to the first film; however, with Chadwick Boseman tragically passing away due to colon cancer on August 28, 2020, it was announced that the role of T’Challa [[TheCharacterDiedWithHim would not be recast to respect his memory]], and the film would be reworked to serve as a tribute to Boseman, with it and any other future sequels instead focusing on the world of Wakanda around T’Challa as well as other characters introduced in the first movie.

** "We/You will speak nothing of this." Said by characters in order to preserve Wakanda's masquerade as an impoverished nation, but at the same time coinciding with the film's plot that is driven by a ''very'' DarkSecret.

** Early in the movie, T'Challa says this during his coronation tribal combat to affirm his worthiness.

* IDidWhatIHadToDo: [[spoiler:T'Chaka's explanation of why he left Erik behind in America after murdering N'Jobu is that it was necessary to "preserve the lie" about Wakanda, and also about T'Chaka killing his brother instead of the brother "disappearing"]]. This leads to T'Challa CallingTheOldManOut.

* TemptingFate: In the first stinger [[spoiler:a member of the UN]] asks what a [[DramaticIrony third world country like Wakanda could have to offer the world]]. T'Challa simply flashes him a knowing smile. (Sadly, we then SmashToBlack and don't get to see the in-universe reveal.)

* WhamLine: [[spoiler:After receiving the powers of the Black Panther, Erik is given a quick history lesson about the Heart-Shaped Herb... and he tells the priests explaining this to him to burn the garden where it grows]].

** M'Baku is not called "Man-Ape", as the filmmakers wanted to avoid the [[UnfortunateImplications can of worms]] that'd come from having a black character named and patterned after a gorilla. The Jabari tribe still has a simian motif, and he is addressed as "The Great Gorilla" as a term of respect because of his status, but it's downplayed in comparison.

** Much like [[Film/IronMan3 the Mandarin]], [[Film/DoctorStrange2016 the Ancient One and Wong]] before him, the film reimagines the character of M'Baku[=/=]Man-Ape due to [[KillerGorilla his gimmick]] being seen as [[UnfortunateImplications being too offensive]] when applied to a black character in a 2018 movie. These measures included [[AdaptedOut excising]] his gimmick and [[ComicBookMoviesDontUseCodenames not using the name]] "Man-Ape".

* BlackAndNerdy: Shuri, T'Challa's younger sister and current creator of the newest Black Panther suits and tech, geeks out about cars, and is implied to be a social media nut (at one point, using a WebOriginal/{{Vine}} meme on T'Challa).

* ArtisticLicenseMilitary: Ross mentions that Killmonger was a Navy SEAL before joining the Joint Special Operations Command. [[UsefulNotes/TheModernDayRambo Except]] DEVGRU (or SEAL Team 6, which is implied by Ross's comments) is already part of JSOC. Though he does say he joined a "JSOC Ghost Unit", which is presumably distinct from the SEAL[=s=] and doesn't have a name to identify it.

* LodgedBladeRemoval: * {{Invoked|Trope}} after [[spoiler:[[BigBad Killmonger]]]] is stabbed in the chest in his duel with T'Challa, he leaves the blade in to [[GracefulLoser have a short conversation]] and [[LastRequest watch the sunset]], then pulls it out and quickly dies of blood loss.
* LogicalWeakness: [[TakesOneToKillOne The sole weakness of vibranium is vibranium technology]]; in Korea, Nakia and Okoye pursue Klaue in a vibranium car that takes full-auto fire without a scratch, but her spear punches cleanly through its roof when she decides to [[OutsideRide climb on its roof]] and [[spoiler:Klaue's ArmCannon -- a re-purposed Wakandan sonic mining tool -- demolishes it in ''one shot'']].

** T'Challa is strongly associated with the color purple. His suit has a purple tint when it's forming around him and has purple highlights, while [[SupernaturalIsPurple a huge purple aurora borealis]] dominates the sky of the Wakandan spiritual plane when he visits.

* SupernaturalIsPurple: The Wakandan sacred plane has a very strong purple tint, complete with a huge purple aurora borealis in the sky. It's implied that the aurora is only seen by the monarchy of Wakanda, as when [[spoiler:T'Challa visits the plane while Erik is king, the sky is set at sunrise]].

** "We/You do not/will not speak of this". Said by characters in order to preserve Wakanda's masquerade as an impoverished nation, but at the same time coinciding with the film's plot that is driven by a ''very'' DarkSecret.

** The word "Ancestors" appears at significant moments in the film, tying into the theme of family history and how the past defines the present. When T'Challa [[spoiler:and Erik]] take the Heart-Shaped Herb and enter the Ancestral Plane, the phrase "Praise the Ancestors" is spoken each time. Finally, [[spoiler:when Erik is mortally wounded by T'Challa]], he asks them to bury him with his ancestors.

* AskAStupidQuestion: Ross, when he comes to in Shuri's lab after his injuries are healed (but then, he didn't even ''know'' what Wakanda was like on the inside):

* BaldHeadOfToughness: The Dora Milaje collectively are an amazingly strong elite all-female armed force. Okoye, in particular, is TheLeader of this ass-kicking AmazonBrigade, and she represents a GenderInvertedTrope of the BaldBlackLeaderGuy. In fact, she hates having to wear a wig for the infiltration mission in the Korean illegal casino.

* DutchAngle: To underline how bad [[spoiler: Erik Killmonger’s ascent to king]] is, the scene as he approaches the throne is not just tilted but completely inverted.