Kingsman: The Golden Circle

Based on the Millarworld comic book series The Secret Service (later retitled Kingsman) by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, in-turn based on a concept by Millar and Vaughn, the film is the sequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and the second installment in the Kingsman film series.

The film features an ensemble cast consisting of Colin Firth, Taron Egerton, Mark Strong, Sophie Cookson, Edward Holcroft and Hanna Alström, who reprise their roles from the first film, with Julianne Moore, Halle Berry, Pedro Pascal, Elton John, Channing Tatum, and Jeff Bridges joining the cast. The film follows members of Kingsman needing to team up with their American counterpart, Statesman, after the Kingsman organization is crippled and the world is held hostage by Poppy Adams and her drug cartel, “The Golden Circle”.

Kingsman: The Golden Circle premiered in London on 18 September 2017. It was theatrically released in the United Kingdom on 20 September 2017 and in the United States on 22 September 2017 by 20th Century Fox. It grossed $410 million worldwide against a budget of $104 million and received mixed reviews from critics.

A prequel, The King’s Man, was released on 22 December 2021, while a crossover film, Argylle, was released on 1 February 2024, with a direct sequel, Kingsman: The Blue Blood, in development.

He is ambushed by Charlie Hesketh, a former Kingsman trainee who lost his arm and vocal cords during the Valentine incident, replacing them with cybernetics. Eggsy evades Charlie and his henchmen in a car chase across London, but Charlie’s severed cybernetic arm hacks into the Kingsman database through Eggsy’s car.

Charlie passes the information to Poppy Adams – leader of the world’s largest drug cartel, the Golden Circle – who launches a volley of missiles that destroy the Kingsman headquarters and wipe out all its agents in Britain, aside from Eggsy and Merlin, Kingsman’s tech support.

Kingsman’s emergency protocol leads Eggsy and Merlin to Statesman, an American private intelligence service posing as a Bourbon whiskey distillery in Kentucky, as well as Kingsman’s American counterpart. There, they discover that Harry survived his shooting thanks to Statesman nanotechnology, but is suffering from amnesia.

They also learn about the Golden Circle from Statesman leader Champagne, and the two agencies agree to work together to bring the cartel down. Statesman agent Tequila later develops a blue rash and shows signs of mania, and is replaced by agent Whiskey as Eggsy’s partner. Eggsy plants a tracking device on Charlie’s ex-girlfriend Clara Von Gluckfberg during a sexual encounter at Glastonbury Festival, but his revelation of the mission to Tilde strains their relationship.

Eggsy cures Harry’s amnesia by threatening to shoot a Cairn Terrier puppy that resembles Harry’s late dog, shortly before Poppy broadcasts a message to the world about a toxin she has secretly added to all her drugs, which causes users to develop symptoms like Tequila’s before paralysis and, ultimately, death.

She offers the antidote if the President of the United States ends his country’s war on drugs and grants her cartel immunity from prosecution. The President decides to quarantine everyone affected, intending to let them all die to put Poppy out of business and rid the world of drug users, whom he sees as criminals.

Eggsy, Harry, and Whiskey track Clara to the Golden Circle’s antidote factory in the mountains of Italy. Eggsy steals an antidote sample, which is broken by Whiskey during an ambush by the Golden Circle’s henchmen, leading Harry to suspect him of working against them.

Harry shoots Whiskey in the head, but Eggsy, believing Harry to be delusional as a result of his recovery, saves him with nanotechnology as Charlie destroys the antidote factory, killing Clara for unwittingly betraying the Golden Circle. Tilde calls Eggsy in a manic state, revealing she has been affected by the blue rash after taking drugs due to her stress over Eggsy’s infidelity. Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin discover the location of Poppy’s hideout, “Poppy Land”, in Cambodia and fly there to steal the laptop which can deploy the drones carrying the antidote.

Arriving at Poppy Land, Eggsy steps on a land mine, but Merlin switches places with Eggsy and sacrifices himself instead. Storming the lair, Eggsy kills Charlie while Harry destroys Poppy’s robotic attack dogs with the help of Elton John, who had been kidnapped by Poppy. They secure the laptop and inject Poppy with a concentrated dose of her own toxin-infused heroin.

Poppy gives them the laptop password in a drugged state but dies from an overdose due to the heroin. Whiskey interrupts them before they can deploy the drones, revealing that he wants all drug users to die after his pregnant wife was killed in a robbery by meth addicts. Eggsy and Harry fight and kill Whiskey by pushing him into an industrial shredder, then deploy the drones to release the antidote, saving the affected victims throughout the world.

The President is impeached for conspiring to commit genocide against drug victims, and Statesman purchases a distillery in Scotland to help rebuild Kingsman. Statesman tech support specialist Ginger Ale is appointed to Whiskey’s position, Eggsy marries Princess Tilde, becoming a Prince of Sweden, and Tequila takes an exchange assignment at Kingsman, which acquires a new tailor shop in London.