Shere Khan is the main antagonist of 2016 live-action remake The Jungle Book. In this incarnation, Shere Khan sports burn scars and a blind eye on the left side of his face sustained from a fight with Mowgli's father.
He is based on both the character from Rudyard Kipling's stories and Disney's 1967 animated film.
Background[]
For a long time, Shere Khan has been the most feared predator in the jungle, known for his cruelty and hatred of humans. One night, he tracked down a human traveling in the jungle and killed him, but was injured in the face by a flaming torch, causing him to lose the vision in his left eye.
Personality[]
- “What do you know about law? Hunting for pleasure. Killing for power. You've never known law.”
- ―Rahska stands up to Shere Khan.
A cruel, arrogant, merciless and cold tiger, Shere Khan is terror itself, all the animals of the jungle fear him. Especially known for having an irrepressible hatred towards humanity, Shere Khan does not tolerate their existence, as he was immediately furious at the presence of Mowgli within the wolf pack and to seek all means to get rid of him, even if the only fact that he leaves the jungle was not enough for him. Through his arrogance, Shere Khan is overconfident of his abilities.
While he appears to respect the Law of the Jungle, it is only at his own pleasure, believing himself to be above all else due to his own reputation as a ruthless predator. He also knows how to use fear to his advantage, such as making the animals fear a Mowgli armed with a flaming torch only to force the boy to disarm himself out of guilt, not commending his courage in doing so but calling his act pure stupidity. Ultimately, Shere Khan is nothing but a hypocrite who cares nothing for law or honor and doesn't care how others feel.
Shere Khan is a ruthless tiger, hunting and killing mostly for pleasure and to demonstrate his power. He has no regard for the lives of others and is capable of inflicting pain on anyone who dares to stand in his way or his will, as he threatened to harm the pack if they continued to protect Mowgli. He later confronted Akela for not giving the boy to him, initially in a calmer and seemingly tolerant guise, only for him to immediately kill Akela and take control of the pack for daring not to go his way, oppressing the wolves and influencing the younger ones. He is equally ruthless, savagely beating Baloo and the pack and nearly killing Bagheera for interfering once too often.
Physical appearance[]
Shere Khan is a large, muscular Bengal tiger, almost as big as a bear. He has an intimidating face with burn scars on the left side, and his left eye is blind.
Abilities[]
- Animal Strength: Shere Khan is extremely strong, strong enough to throw a full-grown wolf like Akela off a cliff by holding him in his mouth, overpower a bear like Baloo, and fend off an entire pack.
- Animal Stamina: Shere Khan is blessed with great physical durability, facing off against Baloo, the Pack, and Bagueera without taking a single serious or life-threatening injury.
- Expert Combatant: A fierce fighter, Shere Khan was able to defeat a colossal animal like Baloo and subsequently engage the pack and band in combat and always maintain the upper hand.
- Expert Tracker: Shere Khan is a skilled tracker, quickly tracking down Mowgli after he leaves the pack.
- Master Manipulator: Shere Khan knows how to instill fear through intimidation and manipulation of circumstances. He easily made the jungle animals fear Mowgli when he came armed with fire to confront the tiger, using their own fear of man and even causing Mowgli to abandon his only means of defense by using his own nobility of soul against him.
Role in the film[]
Shere Khan arrives at the water truce.
Shere Khan first appears during the drought, when the animals gather to drink at the Water Truce; the watering hole at which all animals drink without attacking each other, although the presence of tiger frightens them. When Shere Khan smells Mowgli, he is confronted by the Seeonee wolf pack led by Akela, who states that Mowgli belongs to their pack. Shere Khan mockingly scoffs at this and wonders when man was allowed to be adopted into the jungle. When Akela defends Mowgli, Shere Khan shows the scarred side of his face to remind the animals at the Water Truce of what a grown man is capable of. He then says that the law of the jungle states that man is forbidden. Raksha, however, retorts that Shere Khan also commits deeds forbidden in the jungle, stating that he hunts for pleasure and kills for power, and firmly states that Mowgli is her cub. Shere Khan, respecting the sanctity of the Water Truce, gives them until the monsoon season to hand Mowgli over before leaving. This causes Akela and his wolf pack to debate whether to have Mowgli leave the jungle or not, resulting Mowgli to leave the wolf pack with Bagheera to head over to a near-by Man-village.
Shere Khan next appears when Bagheera is escorting Mowgli to the Man-village. He stalks them through a herd of Buffalo and attacks Mowgli, only to be attacked by Bagheera. They fight viciously, but Shere Khan easily overpowers and injures Bagheera. He then chases after Mowgli through the stampeding buffalo, but Mowgli outruns him, escaping with the herd, much to Shere Khan's fury.
Shere Khan returns to the Seeonee pack and discusses Mowgli with Akela, who states that Mowgli has left the jungle, meaning that the pack and the tiger no longer have a quarrel. However, a furious Shere Khan kills Akela by throwing him off a cliff before instating himself as the pack's alpha. He then tells the wolves to spread the word of Akela's death, hoping it will lure Mowgli to him.
During her encounter with Mowgli, Kaa reveals that Mowgli and his father were traveling from one village to another when Shere Khan encountered them. Shere Khan killed Mowgli's father but ran away after being burned by his torch, leaving Mowgli to be adopted by Bagheera and the wolf pack.
While reigning as the pack's leader, Shere Khan tells stories to the wolf pups about the other creatures of the jungle (in particular, the cuckoo, which preys upon the love of the other mother birds in order to deposit its own egg into their nest, starving them while benefiting its own chick). He directs his story at Raksha, citing her love for Mowgli as a sign of weakness. When Raksha asked why Shere Khan is doing this, he states that he wants Mowgli dead and that he'll be waiting when Mowgli returns. When King Louie informs Mowgli of Akela's death, he returns with a torch stolen from the Man-village and accidentally starts a forest fire.
Shere Khan falls to his death in the fire.
Mowgli faces Shere Khan at the Water Truce, where the tiger shows the boy has become a man in his use of fire, and that all the other animals now fear him because of it. Mowgli then throws the fire away, allowing Shere Khan to attack him, only to be confronted by Baloo, Bagheera, and Raksha and her pack, who cite their code as they defy him. Shere Khan attacks regardless, saying he will have them all in his teeth, and fights Baloo, the wolves, and Bagheera, who give Mowgli enough time to run to the burning jungle. Shere Khan pursues him to an old strangler fig tree, and chases him into it, not knowing he has been lured into a trap. As he faces Mowgli, he mocks the boy, saying that he never would allow him to grow old and that he will kill him as he killed Mowgli's father and Akela, mockingly asking how much longer the man-cub thought he would last against him than they did. Mowgli replies that he is not afraid of Shere Khan and is done running from the tiger, goading him into pouncing before swinging away to safety. However, the branch Mowgli was standing on is too weak to hold Shere Khan's weight and it breaks off, sending the tiger plummeting to his death in a fiery pit below the tree, and with this, both Mowgli's father and Akela are avenged.
Trivia[]
- Idris Elba described this incarnation of Shere Khan as "a creature that reigns with fear" and that he "terrorizes everyone he encounters because he comes from a place of fear".
- In the 2016 live action film, vultures follow Shere Khan as opposed to the vultures of the 1967 animated film being afraid of him. They also seem to warn of his presence to other animals, as they all look out for Shere Khan when they hear the cries of vultures. This gives these vultures an eerie similarity to Shan Yu's falcon from Mulan.
- In the original Rudyard Kipling stories, Shere Khan began influencing the younger wolves against Akela and Mowgli as a way to try to turn the wolves against the man-cub to cast him out and into his clutches. In the 2016 film, he does a similar tactic with the wolf pups as a way of punishing Raksha for raising Mowgli as her own son.
- Shere Khan is the only villain to date that survived in his original appearance, but is killed in a live-action adaptation.
- Unlike his original counterpart and most of his earlier depictions, Shere Khan is not afraid of fire, but nonetheless recognizes the danger that fire poses.
Gallery[]
Screenshots[]
_04.png "The Jungle Book 2016 (film) 04.png (2.14 MB)")
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Miscellaneous[]
See also[]
- Shere Khan
- Shere Khan (TaleSpin)
- Shere Khan (Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book)
- Shere Khan (The Jungle Book: Mowgli's Story)
