Kingsman: The Secret Service hides its major twist in plain sight, but that doesn’t mean it’s easy to spot. The first Kingsman movie is a relentlessly entertaining action comedy, and it still represents the peak of a franchise that has since lost its way. While Kingsman: The Blue Blood could yet come to fruition, it won’t be any time soon. This makes the first movie even more special. Fortunately, it holds up to repeat viewings. Kingsman is filled with great action scenes and jokes, but it’s all wrapped around a compelling narrative that’s easy to get invested in.
The first Kingsman movie tells Eggsy’s origin story, from his difficult upbringing to his training at the Kingsman agency and his pivotal role in saving the world for the first time. In many ways, it’s the perfect blueprint for how to set up a franchise, especially because it introduces the world of Kingsman with a distinct idenтιтy that suggests there could be many more sequels in the future. Eggsy remains the focus however, and it’s his unique perspective that allows him to solve problems that other recruits and agents can’t. He’s the one who ultimately figures out the villain twist, although he could have been much quicker.
The Kingsman Offices Prove That Arthur Was Always A Villain
Michael Caine’s Character Is The Villain Hiding In Plain Sight
While the main villain in Kingsman: The Secret Service is Samuel L. Jackson’s eccentric businessman Richmond Valentine, Michael Caine’s Arthur is the movie’s more surprising bad guy. The head of the Kingsman agency turns out to be one of Valentine’s ᴀssociates, working to sabotage the agency’s operations from within so that Valentine can get away with his plan of culling the human race. Eggsy realizes Arthur’s true intentions when he notices a scar on his neck, implying that he has received one of Valentine’s microchips. Eggsy switches the drinks that he shares with Arthur, giving his boss the poison that was intended for him.
Arthur sits alone at the head of a rectangular table, indicating that he still believes he’s superior to the likes of “Lancelot“, “Merlin” and “Galahad“.
Arthur’s villainous turn seems like a surprise at first, but the layout of the Kingsman headquarters offers a subtle clue that he wasn’t to be trusted. Kingsman is filled with Easter eggs, including several references to King Arthur and his knights. Anyone familiar with Arthurian legend will know that the knights of Camelot sat at a round table to represent their equality. Although Kingsman uses knights for their codenames, Arthur sits alone at the head of a rectangular table, indicating that he still believes he’s superior to the likes of “Lancelot“, “Merlin” and “Galahad“.
Arthur’s allusions to Camelot are only skin-deep, since he doesn’t believe in King Arthur’s vision of equality and teamwork. This underlines the character’s inherent snobbery. He clearly has aspirations of power which are more important to him than the work of the agency. When Eggsy poisons him, Arthur drops his affected upper-class accent to reveal his natural working-class Cockney voice, further illustrating the point that Arthur was consumed by his desire to belong to society’s elite. He’s the kind of person who would make an easy target for Valentine, since status means everything to him.
Kingsman’s Two Villains Make It More Than A James Bond Parody
Kingsman Has Enough Originality And Personality To Stand On Its Own Two Feet
Kingsman‘s references to Arthurian legend are mostly superficial, but its allusions to James Bond are a more integral part of the story’s fabric. The gadgets, the suits and even the divisive ending with a reproduction of a Bond girl are all directly lifted from the James Bond franchise’s history. Of course, Richmond Valentine is also the kind of eccentric villain who might come face-to-face with 007, as he says to Harry during their dinner together. However, Kingsman does enough to separate its villain from other spy movies, which keeps the story from being too derivative where it counts.
Valentine is textbook Bond, but Kingsman‘s Arthur twist is more unexpected. Seeing Arthur exposed as a double-agent is almost like if M were revealed to be a duplicitous mastermind in an old Bond movie. For all their innovative action scenes and icons, most Bond movies abide by a set of rules that give the hero a solid framework. Kingsman tears up these foundations, and it means that the rest of the narrative suddenly becomes much harder to predict. Harry’s death is another completely unexpected twist. If the Kingsman franchise had stuck by this irreverent approach, it might have kept its edge.
