Black Panther (2018)

What earned the score

• Spoiler Reveals a plot point Show Hide

  Racial Grievance as Revolutionary Politics

  Killmonger turns racial grievance and solidarity with oppressed minorities into a bid for power, framing his clash with the more privileged T’Challa around Wakanda’s responsibility beyond its borders. His plan to arm a revolution against white people makes race conflict a central political engine of the story.

• Women as Wakandan Operatives

  Nakia is a capable spy, and Okoye serves as the king’s chief bodyguard. The film places women in active security and protection roles within Wakanda’s power structure.

• Women Eclipse the King in Combat

  Wakanda’s female fighters battle alongside men for control of Wakanda, often eclipsing T’Challa, who appears less commanding. The pattern recasts traditionally male combat as a space where women wield greater power and authority.

• White Co-Stars Made Targets

  Several characters directly demean or gently insult the few white co-stars. The film uses race-conscious put-downs as part of its identity-politics framing.

• Black-Led Casting as Representation

  The film is presented as a blockbuster led by a Black hero and a predominantly Black cast, with Octavia Spencer describing the chance for children to see themselves as superheroes as important. The casting is explicitly framed as representation for Black audiences.

• Women as Wakandan Warriors

  Okoye is Wakanda's supremely skilled warrior and general, while Nakia opposes a would-be tyrant and helps rescue kidnapped women. Women occupy active combat and protection roles in the story.

• Spoiler Reveals a plot point Show Hide

  Colonial Grievance as Justification for Retaliation

  Killmonger invokes Africa’s historical exploitation, including colonial atrocities and slavery, to demand payback from the West. The story frames this anti-Western grievance as the ideological basis for his plan of violent retaliation, and his claims sway even his adversaries.

• Wakanda Outclasses the West

  Wakanda’s medicine is described as putting the Western world to shame, while the isolated African nation prospers through its technology. The contrast frames the West as inferior to Wakanda.

Details

King T'Challa returns home to the reclusive, technologically advanced African nation of Wakanda to serve as his country's new leader. However, T'Challa soon finds that he is challenged for the throne by factions within his own country as well as without. Using powers reserved to Wakandan kings, T'Challa assumes the Black Panther mantle to join with ex-girlfriend Nakia, the queen-mother, his princess-kid sister, members of the Dora Milaje (the Wakandan 'special forces') and an American secret agent, to prevent Wakanda from being dragged into a world war.

Starring

Chadwick BosemanMichael B. JordanLupita Nyong'oDanai GuriraMartin Freeman

Director

Ryan Coogler

Writer

Ryan CooglerJoe Robert ColeStan LeeJack KirbySimeon Wilkins

Genre

ActionAdventureScience Fiction

Release Date

Feb 13, 2018

Parents Guide

• Sex None

  Brief kissing, men are often shirtless, and women are often dressed in revealing outfits.

  One couple calls each other "my love".

• Violence Moderate

  There are battles with swords, spears, guns and fantastical weapons.

  A man is stabbed in the chest, another the same, another stabbed in the abdomen.

  A man is cut numerous times during a fight

  A large battle/civil war takes place with friends fighting each other. No clear if anyone actually dies, though bodies are thrown, trampled, stabbed, etc.

  Security guards are shot, some at point blank range, another shot in the back unexpectedly

  Two main characters are shot, one at point blank range (offscreen). Bullet wounds are shown (though not much blood)

  A man is thrown off a cliff to the horror of onlookers.

  In the final battle, Black Panther stabs Killmonger. Killmonger laters pulls out the weapon, killing him.

  A man dies after being crushed by a car.

• Profanity Mild

  s**t is used sparingly alongside lesser profanity and obscene gestures.

  1 use of hell.

  The middle finger is used.

• Drugs None

  Alcohol use.

• Frightening Scenes Moderate

  Killmonger removes his shirt during his ritual combat challenge against T'Challa. He reveals that his entire torso is covered in self-inflicted scarification marks.

  There is a flashback to T'Challa's father's death.

  A couple of deaths (both real and presumed) are particularly emotional.

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