Summary
Shang's soldiers draw their swords and prepare to fight, as the Huns charge. Just as Yao goes to aim the cannon at Shan Yu, Mulan notices a large precarious snow peak and grabs the cannon, against Shang's orders. Just as she is aiming it at the peak, Shan Yu's hawk snatches the matches from her hand.
In the moment that Shan Yu approaches, Mulan sets off the cannon with Mushu's fire, sending him and the cannon flying into the snow peak. It immediately crumbles, causing an avalanche. Shan Yu tries to stab Mulan with his sword, but fails, and Mulan runs away with Shang, hopping onto her horse. Shan Yu, Mulan and Shang all get overtaken by the snow, as Mushu sleds down the avalanche searching for them.
Mulan manages to emerge from the avalanche, and goes back to save Shang, but they get pulled by the snow towards the edge of a cliff. As they fall, Mulan shoots an arrow attached to a rope up to Yao and the others, who hold on for dear life. Chien-Po walks over and helps them pull Mulan's horse up to safety.
Shang thanks "Ping" for saving his life, and the other soldiers celebrate him. Suddenly, Mulan realizes she has a wound in her side, and the soldiers call for help.
When Mulan wakes up, she is in an infirmary tent. As Shang comes to visit her, he realizes she is a woman, and Chi Fu comes in after him. "I can explain!" she protests, but Shang is angry. Mulan rushes out of the tent and Chi Fu reveals that Mulan is a woman, to the soldiers' surprise.
"I did it to save my father," Mulan insists, begging for forgiveness. Shang takes his sword and it looks like he is going to kill Mulan, but he simply throws it in front of her, sparing her. He orders the men to move out, leaving Mulan there alone.
Mulan, Cri-Kee, Mushu, and Mulan's horse all sit at the camp. Mulan bemoans her decision to leave home, but Mushu insists that she was just trying to help her father. "Maybe I didn't go for my father," Mulan says, "Maybe what I really wanted was to prove I could do things right, so when I looked in the mirror, I'd see someone worthwhile, but I was wrong."
She throws down her helmet, discouraged, and Mushu tries to comfort her, before revealing to her that Mulan's ancestors did not send him to help her. Suddenly, Cri-Kee admits that he is not actually lucky, and they all wallow in self-pity. Mulan decides they ought to go home, and Mushu gives her a hug.
Suddenly, Shan Yu's hawk flies overhead, and we see Shan Yu emerge from under the snow. Some other Huns emerge from the snow, and Mulan hears them yelling as they do. As the Huns assemble, Mulan spies them from her camp nearby and runs to get her sword. She jumps on her horse and prepares to face the Huns, as Mushu jumps on also.
In the city, a parade is taking place to celebrate the return of Shang and his troops and his defeat of the Huns. As the troops march in the parade, Mulan rides up alongside Shang to tell him the Huns are alive. He tells her to go home, but she insists that the Huns are coming. "You said you trust Ping, why is Mulan any different?" she says to him, before warning the other soldiers to keep their eyes open for the Huns.
Determined, Mulan runs towards the emperor's palace to "find someone who will believe [her]." As the Emperor makes a speech praising Shang and his soldiers, Mulan tries to find someone who will listen to her warning about the Huns, but no one believes her. Shang presents the Emperor with Shan Yu's sword, but Shan Yu's hawk swoops down and snatches it at the last minute.
Shan Yu appears on a nearby roof, as Huns jump out of disguises from the parade, grabbing the Emperor and bringing him into the palace. Shang runs up to the doors, just as they close, and he and his men try and break down the walls. Seeing this, Mulan calls to them and tells them she has an idea. They follow her and disguise themselves as women to infiltrate the palace, climbing up the pillars to sneak in.
Inside, Mulan, Chien-Po, Ling, and Yao, all dressed as women, approach the Huns and pretend to be concubines. When an apple falls out of Ling's pants, Shan Yu's hawk goes to make a noise, but Mushu blows fire onto it. One of the Huns hands Ling his apple, and the "concubines" begin to attack. When they have compromised the Huns, Mulan yells to Shang to make a run for it to save the Emperor.
Just as Shan Yu threatens to kill the Emperor, Shang rushes in and attacks him, as Chien-Po gets the Emperor and brings him to safety. Shan Yu attacks Shang, knocking him unconscious for a moment. When he wakes up, Shang confronts Shan Yu, who believes that he is the one who caused the avalanche. Just as Shan Yu goes to kill Shang, Mulan reveals that she is the one who caused the avalanche, and Shan Yu chases her down a set of stairs. He follows her to the roof of the palace, as Mushu prepares some fireworks to shoot at Shan Yu when the right moment presents itself.
Shan Yu goes to stab Mulan on the roof, but she guards herself with a fan, before grabbing his sword from him. She signals for Mushu to light the rocket, which he himself is attached to, and he launches himself at Shan Yu, sending him flying into a nearby tower filled with fireworks, which all go off in a blaze. Mulan successfully escapes, as fireworks go off over the city.
Analysis
Mulan proves herself to be a formidable and smart soldier when she snatches the cannon from Yao and shoots it at a large snow peak nearby, causing an avalanche. While Shang had wanted to shoot at Shan Yu, Mulan knows that by causing an avalanche, she can take out more the Huns. In this moment, she rebels against the orders of her general, but in a way that benefits the Imperial Army, and is more strategic than her superior's plan.
No sooner has Mulan proven herself as a warrior, praised as the bravest among them, than her gender is revealed. After getting wounded in battle, Mulan is brought to an infirmary tent, where her secret is uncovered. Shang is horribly disappointed to find that his bravest soldier is actually a woman, and this revelation immediately compromises Mulan's position, even after she has performed such a brave feat in helping to defeat the Huns. However illogical it may seem, Mulan's skills are completely dwarfed by the fact of her gender and the societal standards maintained by the army.
While it seems like Mulan will be executed for her ruse, Shang decides to spare her life, but banish her to the mountains. Her life is spared, but she is separated from her companions, a difficult fate. Just when it seemed that Mulan was finding a sense of belonging in the army, she is ostracized and forced to fend for herself. Yet again, she finds herself not only in a difficult position, but also a liminal identity: she is both a fallen woman and a failed man, an unsuccessful bride and an ousted soldier.
Emboldened by her time in the army, and her awareness of the Huns' threat, Mulan travels to the city to warn people that they are in danger. When no one believes her, she is perplexed, but Mushu reminds her, "Hey, you're a girl again, remember?" In this moment we see that the sexism of the society in which Mulan lives not only results in her exclusion from the military, but also affects her credibility more generally. People do not listen to her when she is a woman in the same way that they did when she was disguised as a man.
Even after her fall from grace and her ostracism from the army, Mulan comes out on top and saves the day, proving herself to be the best warrior in the Imperial Army. She manages to save the Emperor, herself, and Shang from the evil Shan Yu, which keeps the city safe from the hostile incursion of the Huns. In the process, Mulan finds that her destiny, after so much confusion about her identity, is to thrive in a man's world, to prove victorious as a warrior, while still maintaining her identity as a woman.
