All the emotional stirring tension throughout the film firmly places you in Elphaba’s shoes by this moment. You can tell that Elphaba and Glinda’s friendship has shifted. Elphie realizes that she only has herself to look up to after her world’s been shattered while Glinda tries convincing her to surrender to the authorities out of fear.

By the time “Defying Gravity” commences, the impact of your emotional attachment toward Elphaba is stronger. To see Elphaba pace around the tower’s highest room during her number, coming to her sense of power, while Erivo powerfully sings Schwartz’s soulful tunes, sends chills. 

Writers Winnie Holzman and Dana Fox take bold creative liberties to render the number in cinematic form. In the fateful moment where Elphaba jumps from the tower, she initially falls, even seeing herself as a kid in the reflection of the tower’s glass as she tumbles long after what was supposed to be the beginning of her high note on stage. In that moment, the suppression of her power and herself, which she’s carried forever as a way to protect that young girl within from hatreds and bigotries, is finally released.

After she reaches out to her reflection and finally accepts herself, the film cuts back to her reality, and her broom is in her hand. It’s a striking display that only the power of movies can evoke. a visual cue that stylishly goes beyond its source material and grips you to the soul.

Only after this palpable delay of the song’s first crescendo, which the movie’s score has set anticipation for, does Elphie sing, “When you find me, look to the western sky!” And in that moment, she is facing down those who tried to oppress her. She liberates herself and the audience from their menace.

It also helps that Wicked doesn’t falter in handling the racial prejudice themes stemming from Gregory Maguire’s novel. Anyone who has ever faced racism can deeply connect with every note Erivo delivers in his moment. The film’s magical attention to character, even at the most pivotal moment within the story, truly makes the number come alive, rendering it a worthy reinterpretation that other stage-to-screen adaptations should take note of.