Matthew Vaughn’s films are known for his outrageously stylized cinematic style. His movies often have lively, popping colors and an exciting soundtrack. They usually promise an exhilarating experience with his standard comic book-ish aesthetic choices. His 2014 film, “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” is a similar unabashedly out-there spy action comedy that provides an exciting experience despite its improbable plot points. With a compelling cast of Colin Firth, Samuel L. Jackson, Taron Egerton, Sofia Boutella, and Mark Strong, you get an ample amount of fun out of this mad, mad film.
Spoilers Ahead
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Based on a same-name comic book series, Matthew Vaughn’s spy action comedy, “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” follows Eggsy, an orphaned young man who gets roped into a secret spy organization called Kingsman by a middle-aged spy. Together, they plan to stop a global crisis led by a wealthy megalomaniac who wants to kill a majority of the population for the benefit of the few elites.
What happens in ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’?
“Kingsman: The Secret Service” opens with an event from 1997. At the time, Harry Hart, aka Galahad (Colin Firth), Hamish Mycroft, aka Merlin (Mark Strong), and Lee Unwin (Jonno Davies) were in a foreign country. Lee sensed a potential danger and sacrificed himself to save Harry. So, Harry blamed himself for Lee’s death. Upon returning to London, he met Lee’s widow and their young son, Gary, aka Eggsy, to apologize. Before leaving, he gave Eggsy a medal with an emergency contact number engraved on it for any future help.
17 years later, Prof James Arnold (Mike Hamill), a climate change doomsayer, gets kidnapped. James Spencer, aka ‘Lancelot’ arrives there to rescue Prof Arnold. But he gets killed by Gazelle (Sofia Boutella), an assassin working for Richmond Valentine (Samuel L Jackson), a wealthy megalomaniac. Before his death, James/Lancelot was investigating a group of mercenaries who were experimenting with biological weaponry. James was part of a private intelligence service known as ‘Kingsman’ along with Harry, Merlin, Lee, and their boss, Chester King, aka Arthur (Micheal Caine). Anyhow, even after James’ botched rescue mission, Prof Arnold keeps working at the Imperial College London, pretending nothing strange happened in his life.
The Next Kingsman
During these 17 years, Lee’s son, Eggsy (Taron Egerton), had grown old in an unstable household with his mother and her abusive partner. Despite his athletic talent, he had to drop out of training for the Royal Marines. As a result, he turned into a rebellious young criminal. On one of these days, he gets arrested for stealing a car. So, he calls the emergency number on the medal Harry gave him when he was a kid for help. Harry arranges Eggsy’s release and then defeats Eggsy’s abusive stepfather’s gang that was looking to settle the score with Eggsy.
Harry tells Eggsy about the Kingsman organization that strives to protect the world and uses a local tailor shop as a front for their secret operations. He offers Eggsy a chance to be a part of Kingsman to escape his troubling present and transform himself into a gentleman. Although initially hesitant, Eggsy accepts the proposal and joins a group of aspirants with a code name – Galahad. The other trainees are mostly snobby children of wealthy people except Roxy (Sophie Cookson). While the male trainees bully Eggsy due to his social status, Roxy befriends him. In the end, Eggsy & Roxy become the only two candidates to survive through Merlin’s demanding tests.
The Final Test
For the final test to be a Kingsman, Roxy, and Eggsy are asked to kill a puppy that they were given to raise. While Roxy kills it, Eggsy backs out. So, he loses out on the opportunity and she replaces James as the ‘Lancelot’. Meanwhile, Henry goes to Arnold’s college to interrogate him. In the middle of their conversation, Arnold’s body suddenly explodes. It kills Arnold and puts Harry in a coma. Richard intercepts this situation and wonders which secret organization is onto him. So, he meets the Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden (Hanna Alströn) & the Swedish Prime Minister, Morten Lindström (Bjørn Floberg), to pitch their plan. Since Tilde is against it, Richard kidnaps her to use her for her influence.
Richard Valentine’s Evil Plan
Henry recovers from his coma and meets Eggsy & Merlin. They look at footage from the time of Arnold’s death to realize that he was killed because of a chip implant in his neck from Richard Valentine’s corporation. Richard is a billionaire who has offered everyone in the world a SIM card with free cellular and Internet access. While masquerading as an act of philanthropy, he works on a plan to ‘cull’ humanity in his radical attempt to save the planet from climate change. But it was only self-serving for fellow billionaires. So, Henry pretends to be a philanthropist to meet Richard.
After their meeting, Henry learns about Richard’s possible connection to a religious hate group based in Kentucky. Later, Richard shows up at the shop Henry uses as a front of their operation and smells something fishy about this ‘philanthropist.’ Soon after, Henry travels to the church connected to Richard, wearing glasses to record and transmit the events inside. Meanwhile, Richard, who keeps watch on Henry, triggers his company’s SIM cards with a signal. Suddenly, it turns the people, including Henry, become incredibly violent and go on a rampage. In the end, Henry becomes the sole survivor due to his training as a Kingsman. But right after he walks out, Richard shoots him dead.
Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) Movie Ending Explained:
After Henry’s unfortunate death, Eggsy returns to the Kingsman headquarters to talk about what happened. There, he meets Kingsman’s leader, Chester King. During their conversation, Eggsy notices a chip implant scar on Chester’s neck, the same as on Arnold’s. Chester explains Richard’s evil plan and how he has enlisted wealthy elite and world leaders to avert humanity’s extinction from global warming. Midway, Eggsy realizes that Chester has poisoned his drink. So, he tricks Chester into drinking from the poisoned glass, making him kill himself. Then, he extracts the chip from Chester’s neck and checks Chester’s phone to learn about Richard’s V-Day countdown.
Can Eggsy save humanity from Richard Valentine’s evil plan?
Eggsy joins Merlin and Roxy in Richard’s secure bunker to meet the elites conspiring against the population. Roxy uses high-altitude balloons to break up Richard’s satellite network while Eggsy enters Richard’s bunker, pretending to be Chester. But during his mission, a failed wealthy Kingsman aspirant identifies Eggsy and botches his operation. While Eggsy tries to escape, Richard’s guards try to kill him. By the time Eggsy returns to the plane, Richard manages to secure a replacement for his network. So, he follows through with his plan to make people around the world suddenly turn violent against each other.
Eggsy returns to Richard’s bunker, hoping to stop Richard and Gazelle from their destructive operation. After killing Gazelle, Eggsy uses one of her sharp prosthetic legs to stab Richard. It stops the worldwide signal and puts an end to the ongoing worldwide carnage as a result of Richard’s disastrous plans. Before leaving, he rescues the missing princess from Sweden and returns home as Kingsman ‘Galahad.’ Then, he takes revenge against his abusive stepfather and his gang by defeating them like Harry did the time they met. On the other hand, he offers his mother and half-sister a new home.
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