Argylle Ending Explained: Spy Comedy by Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard and Dua Lipa?

If you saw Argylle at the cinema, which debuted yesterday in Italian cinemas, you will also know that the post-credits scene reveals a sensational plot twist to the entire story told up to that moment. We would have paid money to see the faces of the Fox honchos after realizing that Matthew Vaughn had ignored all their “recommendations” for Kingsman: Secret Service (2014). “Get rid of the supervillain’s lisp,” but there was still Samuel L. Jackson pinching his tongue. “Nothing about Exploding Heads,” and Give It Up played in that fireworks show. “It dispenses with that sequence in which Colin Firth annihilates parishioners in a church,” and Vaughn played an actor whose greatest physical feat in the film had been grabbing the hair of Hugh Grant, the protagonist of this historic action shot.

10 years ago, Matthew Vaughn laughed at spy movies with the beginning of the Kingsman saga, a crazy bet that revealed Taron Egerton in a perfect tuxedo and full of elegant gadgets. A decade, a sequel, and a prequel later, the director returns to the secret agent comedy with Argylle. Before its release, the film already made headlines due to the mystery surrounding the unknown identity of the writer of the novel on which it is based and who goes by the name of Elly Conway (it has even been rumored that it is Taylor Swift). Curiously, the plot of the film is infected by the enigma and makes Elly Conway the protagonist of the story.

The big screen’s Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas) is a reclusive, successful author of a series of best-selling spy novels, who enjoys a quiet life with her cat Alfie. When one of her books about secret agent Argylle (Cavill), determined to expose a global crime syndicate, comes true and coincides with the covert operations of an authentic spy organization, the writer is forced to Help a secret agent, Aiden (Sam Rockwell), stop his enemies. On a journey through England, France, and Arabia, Argylle blurs the line between the fictional world created by the protagonist. She soon discovers that she, instead of writer Elly Conway, is Rachel Kelly, a secret agent who has been brainwashed by the enemy criminal organization. Her novels are her memories of the missions she has participated in, like the last one in which she was preparing to expose Ritter’s syndicate (Bryan Cranston) before they captured her and forgot about her life.

Argylle: Plot Summary

Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard) is an established writer of novels in the spy genre: having reached the fourth volume starring Argylle (Henry Cavill), her superspy assisted by the faithful Waytt (John Cena), she is preparing to please all her fans with the writing of what should be the final chapter of the saga. Introverted, shy, and not inclined to worldly activities, she lives in a cottage on the lake together with her cat, Alfie, and her books, and her ideas. During the writing of the last chapter of the fifth book, however, convinced by her mother that she can give more, she decides to take a train to reach her parents: during the journey, however, she will be forced to live an adventure that will make all this real that she has always written in her novels, discovering that hers could be fortune-telling, or something more.

Vaughn manages, with the support of Jason Fuchs’ screenplay, to make a very simple narrative plot full of twists and turns, perhaps some quite predictable, but still well-paced and enjoyable. The immediate use of certain elements capable of distracting the viewer leads him to create a world in which no one can be trusted and just as the viewer does, Elly does the same in the film: the bigger the spy, the bigger the lie, is the payoff of all the author’s novels. All the characters involved manage to have a second face, perhaps too many times: a coming and going that puts us in the position of not fully understanding who is playing a double game and who is not, especially in the final moments of the film, in which all the knots should come to a head. Beyond this, however, when Vaughn goes to sow some elements to get to the bottom of the plot we inevitably end up appreciating how much effort went into the construction of the entire plot. Especially when any revelation about the plot would risk ruining the twists and turns. Yet, we assure you, it is not so much the screenplay that attracts this film, despite some clever jokes, capable of triggering some tasteful laughter, but how everything is staged.

Argylle in this sense is very ambitious: it wants to be a comedy, a spy story, and an action film, for starters. The story is that of Argylle (Henry Cavill), an invincible spy with a terrible haircut who fights against an evil directorate by carrying out missions around the world, together with his trusted teammates (Ariana Debose and John Cena). However, Argylle doesn’t even exist in Argylle‘s world: he is the protagonist of a series of successful novels written by Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), an awkward and introverted writer married to her work. Single, romantically linked to her fictional character and her kitten Alfie, Elly will find herself being approached and then protected by Aidan (Sam Rockwell), a spy with the opposite character and appearance to Argylle. Here the fictional frame of the film becomes real, the levels overlap: the plots of Elly’s novels become reality, she predicts the future and the killers from all over the world want to get rid of her because she is ruining their lives.

This is because it is only the background to the premise of a film that enjoys peeling like an onion, layer after layer, a series of lies or Freudian projections, if you prefer, in search of the true identity of Argylle, Aidan, and Elly. To do this it takes us a good two hours and twenty minutes, full of everything: brilliant finds, truly captivating songs (impossible to sit still listening to “Electric Energy” by Ariana DeBose and Boy George: if there is any musical justice, it will be a hit of 2024). The fact that the film stars Dua Lipa but ends up with Ariana DeBose singing, the fact that it plays at transforming the pop star into a sort of sexy and lethal Bond Girl and then makes someone else wear the same shoes (literally) person is one of the thousand signs of how Vaughn loves and appreciates the sense of mystery and deception that is at the basis of the genre itself.

Even the parallel between Rockwell and Cavill, in their respective roles, is a testament to his ability to embrace the inconsistencies of spy stories but at the same time look at them with a critical eye. If it stopped here, with its series of continuous twists, and characters who become avatars of people who reveal themselves as proxies for other identities, Argylle would be a great film. One could also forgive him for his taste for bad taste, for the constant shortcuts he takes when he dips his arms into the action genre, letting (bad) special effects do the dirty work, whereas the genre gives great satisfaction precisely because of how well it handles chases and fights. much and more than the “serious” parts of the plot. Vaughn could be the first director to make a truly visually unpleasant film for Apple, which has so far become the standard-bearer of an increasingly impeccable aesthetic and technique.

Argylle Ending Explained: Who Was the Real Agent Argylle?

Rachel/Elly discovers her true identity when Aiden takes her to Alfred Solomon (Samuel L. Jackson), former deputy director of the CIA and shadow boss of the duo trying to expose the practices of Ritter’s syndicate. In the third Argylle actor, when the protagonists visit Arabia to recover their memory with all the information that compromises Ritter and that Saba Al-Badr (Sofia Boutella) keeps, a new twist in the script reveals that Kelly betrayed her companions and united the enemy at a certain moment. However, in the present, she proves her loyalty aboard a ship in the final minutes of the film. There, in addition to saving Aiden’s life, she starts two striking fights, one with a colorful dance for two and another with improvised skates, to rescue the information about Ritter and send it to Solomon.

Once on the deck, Rachel/Elly and Aiden try to get the contents of the memory to their leader, but Ruth (Catherine O’Hara), Elly’s fake mother and Ritter’s ally, takes control over the protagonist with a box. of music with which he causes her to forget her memories and become a killing weapon. With Ruth dominating Rachel/Elly’s actions, she confronts Aiden and tries to kill him. The one in love with her, unable to do anything to wake her up from her trance, decides to give up so as not to hurt her and ends up lying on the ground, waiting for the spy to crush his head with her boot using a ‘twist’, like him. had taught him.

Fortunately, the protagonist comes to her senses, and, with the help of her ally Keira (Ariana DeBose), who appears by surprise after the couple had left her for dead on their last mission (nothing that a handkerchief that covers a well can’t solve) wounded), stops Ruth. After sending the files to Solomon, the three agents leave by boat while the boat they were on minutes before explodes in the background. The image of this trio is replaced by that of Keira, Argylle, and Wyatt (John Cena), the characters from Conway’s novel, ending their story as well. In the last sequence, Rachel/Elly is reading her latest Argylle book in front of her readers. Among the attendees is Aiden, coughing from having Alfie on his lap (he is allergic), as well as Solomon and Keira. Just when the story seems to have concluded, a certain guest stands up during the round of questions: a Henry Cavill with a pompadour and a mane of hair. The author looks surprised when he states that the protagonist will have questions for him. Is Argylle real? Is he more than just Rachel’s alter ego?

Argylle Post-Credits Scene Explained

The surprises don’t end here. First of all, let’s clarify that Argylle is intrinsically linked to Kingsman in content and form. She even brings back actors from the first installment such as Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella, who played the villain with a lisp and his henchman in Firth and Egerton’s film. And the more the plot progresses, the closer it gets to Kingsman in its colorful action scenes and parody tone, surely predicting what is to come. The post-credits scene starts 20 years before what happened in Argylle and takes us to an English pub. The first scene already suggests that we are in The King’s Man universe. Inside the establishment, a young man played by Louis Partridge (Enola Holmes) speaks to the owner in coded language. This is an agent who, surprise, goes by the name of Aubrey Argylle.

Everything indicates that it is Cavill’s character, who also exists in the presence of Argylle and is a member of the Kingsman agents, confirming that all of Vaughn’s spy films share a universe. However, this theory raises new questions. If the Kingsman saga and Argylle take place in the same world, why do Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella play different characters in the first Kingsman and this latest film? Without knowing how Vaughn justifies this mess, which will probably be resolved in the third installment of Kingsman, we can think of only one plausible explanation: that everything is an invention of Conway. The author has been able to invent the stories of Kingsman and Argylle, giving her characters the physicality of people who are part of her life.

While it is exciting for Kingsman fans to reunite with the best-mannered spies on the big screen in this new adventure, Argylle is a confusing bet that abuses script twists and gets lost in so much deception, so much connection and so much unknown. Both its ending and its post-credits scene are surprising, but, instead of captivating, they make the viewer feel cheated by completely changing the meaning of the film.

The Big Reveal:

• Elly Conway, the seemingly mild-mannered novelist, is actually former super-spy Rachel Kylle, suffering from amnesia caused by a botched mission.
• The Division, a rogue spy agency, brainwashed Rachel and planted her as Elly, hoping her writing would lead them to a valuable asset.

The Showdown:

• Under Division control, Rachel almost kills her former lover Aidan and partner, but thanks to a fan’s tip, the shot isn’t fatal.
• Rachel regains some memories and turns against the Division, teaming up with Aidan and a presumed-dead colleague, Keira.
• They confront the Division at their HQ, with Rachel overcoming her brainwashing and defeating her former handlers.

The Resolution:

• Rachel destroys the Division and returns to her life as Elly, though with regained memories and a new understanding of her true identity.
• She releases her final Argylle book, seemingly content with her chosen life.
• Aidan remains by her side, and Keira becomes a tech wiz.

The Post-Credits Scene:

• A mysterious figure resembling Argylle asks Elly for a conversation, hinting at a potential sequel exploring the real Argylle’s identity.

Additional Notes:

• The ending is bittersweet, offering Rachel a sense of closure but leaving questions about her future and the wider spy world.
• The film’s themes explore identity, manipulation, and the power of fiction.
• The post-credits scene leaves room for further exploration of the franchise and its interconnected universe.