According to Klaue, he's the only one who has seen the true face of Wakanda and has made it out alive. It would mean Wakandans are not above killing intruders who see too much, or at least killing intruders who have malevolent intentions. It also implies that even well-meaning or accidental intruders are never allowed to leave. Mitigated in the final film, where he specifically is talking about Wakanda's vibranium mines, which are understandably a state secret.
Anything involving Black Panther is essentially Mook Horror Show. For the armed poachers in the jungle at night, spotting Black Panther in a tree must be enough to make them crap their pants. Then the next second he swoops on them out of nowhere and tears through them, implacable and Immune to Bullets, like a predator would with his hapless prey. You don't mess with Wakanda.
Let's put it this way: Black Panther is basically Marvel's Batman... without the famous no-killing rule. Let that sink in.
With the jungle environment, you could also think of him as the Predator.
Human beings also have an inherent fear of leopards and other big cats, which naturally he invokes.
Remember: This is what happens when you invade Wakanda◊. Black Panther is this warning personified. Wakanda prefers to remain isolated and uninvolved, but if you make yourself a target of theirs then they will not stop hunting you until you are dead. Klaue had been on their target list for over three decades as a result of his stealing vibranium and murdering their citizens; when T'Challa swore to W'Kabi he would bring in Klaue dead or alive he meant it, and would have killed him where he stood had Nakia not warned him about the large crowd watching. His stance before he tries to kill Klaue is pictured.
Whenever a Black Panther has to partake a ritual combat, he needs to ingest a special potion that deprives him of his special powers to give their opponent a fighting chance. The process leaves purple Tainted Veins in their body and looks extremely uncomfortable, but not necessarily harmful.
A small one, but M'Baku's gorilla mask is chilling to look at.
Killmonger poisoning a museum guide's drink and then leaving her to die. His girlfriend impersonated a barista and poisoned her drink. She was dying from the moment she took the first sip of her coffee.
Klaue looks at the one-way mirror and begins to giggle, muttering "I can see you!". T'Challa, the guy who fought half the Avengers and who's standing on the other side of the mirror, is concerned by this.
Klaue's general attitude throughout the film is unnerving, to say the least. A primary example is in the museum heist, where he tells one of the curators he can leave if he doesn't tell anyone... and then shoots him in the head as he reaches the door. Why? To make the bodies more spread out and make it seem like somebody less competent pulled off the heist.
The Royal Talon Fighter was designed to look like an African mask when viewed from below◊, with the three lift-providing engines arranged to form the eyes and an open mouth, so one has to imagine the UFO reports that might've come in during that night in Oakland◊. It's also easy to imagine that as a child, Killmonger might've had the ghostly image of that craft burned into his mind as a harbinger of his father's death.
Killmonger's speech on all the amoral things he’s done and the lives he has taken just to get the chance to kill T’Challa is quite chilling.
Erik: I lived my entire life waiting for this moment. I trained, I lied, I killed just to get here. I killed in America... Afghanistan... Iraq. I took life from my own brothers and sisters right here on this continent! And all this death... just so I could kill you.
In particular, he makes no bones about killing his "brothers and sisters" in Africa. He even shot his girlfriend dead without remorse or hesitation when Klaue used her as a human shield. Soon enough it becomes clear that whatever his pretensions that he's out to fight for racial justice and avenge the wrongs done to his people, he's really just there to avenge himself on the regime that killed his father, and then make the world share in the pain he's felt for so many years. His goal is simply to have everyone suffer, no matter who, and he's prepared for the whole world to burn.
Killmonger's visit to the spirit world. The purple sky is beautiful in an African setting, but it's just creepy and out of place when juxtaposed with the inside of his family's apartment. Killmonger unexpectedly swapping between his current self and the child we see in the opening sequence doesn't help.
Killmonger ordering all the Heart-Shaped herbs in the sacred chamber be burned. He just stands in the room while everything around him burns, giving the audience a second-hand look at how his reign as king will not be a kind one. Also doubles as Tear Jerker.
Erik: When I tell you to do something, I mean that shit. (Puts her down when she nods in fear) Burn it all!
Seeing Killmonger standing over a helpless Shuri, whose prototype tech was pushed past its limits and who has no real combat training... because she is sixteen years old.
Nakia's first instinct when she realizes the love of her life is about to die is not to mourn or stare in horror, but rather to get Shuri and her mother the hell out of there. Being challenged and losing the kingship in honorable combat is one thing; it would have been horrifying, heartbreaking, but not an atrocity. It never occurs to anyone that the royal family could be in danger, because no one in Wakanda would ever murder a defeated king's entire family after taking his place. But Nakia is a spy; unlike Ramonda and Shuri, she knows from the moment Erik makes his claim that this is not a challenge, it's a coup. Alone of anyone in Wakanda, she understands what that will mean...
Really, what makes Killmonger so horrifying in his bloodlust is the fact that he sports a Slasher Smile only when he's poised to kill T'Challa, Ramonda and Shuri, all of whom are his blood relatives whose only crimes are to be related to the man who killed his father. Kinslaying Is a Special Kind of Evil to everyone but him, it seems.....
Everett Ross gets pulled out of his remote controlling the aircraft... only to find out there's a goddamn carrier firing directly at the window that sits in front of him, weakening its integrity. Thankfully he survives, but holy shit.
Picture this: you're the leader of a nation who has successfully lived in hiding and is extremely technologically advanced. Then not only does some glorified hired muscle steal Vibranium and use some mooks to sell it and sneak into Wakanda, but waltzes right into Wakanda, challenges you to the throne out of revenge, wins said duel and throws you over the edge of a fucking waterfall and takes the throne. And that's not all: his first goal, however well intentioned it may seem, is to take the vibranium and sell it to countries and use weapons created by your country. Just what on earth would he make? Imagine all the weapons he could create with it and wars he could declare. It's good that T'Challa (for the most part) has an Angst? What Angst? attitude.
Killmonger states his intentions to target the cities of London, New York and Hong Kong for the first strikes in his plan to bring about war. One of those cities on their own is bad enough, being major centres of commerce, finance and culture and with high populations, but all three would go a long way to throwing the world into the chaos Killmonger desires.
It gets worse when you consider that all three cities also have a prominent legacy in colonialism, London being the capital of the British Empire when it was at the height of its conquering enterprise and New York and Hong Kong starting out as colonies themselves and still having large numbers of expatriates from the colonisers. On Killmonger's orders, most if not all of their populations would be either enslaved or outright massacred for no other reason than the crimes of their distant ancestors who died centuries ago and whose actions they are in no way responsible for.
◊. Black Panther is this warning personified. Wakanda prefers to remain isolated and uninvolved, but if you make yourself a target of theirs then they will not stop hunting you until you are dead. Klaue had been on their target list for over three decades as a result of his stealing vibranium and murdering their citizens; when T'Challa swore to W'Kabi he would bring in Klaue dead or alive he meant it, and would have killed him where he stood had Nakia not warned him about the large crowd watching. His stance before he tries to kill Klaue is pictured.
