A year has passed since Eggsy Unwin and the spy organisation Kingsman saved the world from Richmond Valentine's neurological wave broadcast. He has since taken his late mentor Harry Hart's title of Galahad and lives with Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden. On his way home he is ambushed by Charlie Hesketh, a former Kingsman trainee who lost his arm and vocal cords during the Valentine incident. Eggsy evades Charlie and his henchmen in a car chase across London, but Charlie's severed cybernetic arm hacks into the Kingsman servers through the car's computer system. While Eggsy is away in Sweden, a volley of missiles destroy the Kingsman headquarters and wipe out all of the agents in Britain.
Being the only surviving agents, Eggsy and Merlin follow the Doomsday protocol, which leads them to Statesman, a secret American organisation posing as a Bourbon whiskey distillery in Kentucky. There, they discover that Harry survived the Valentine's gunshot a year earlier, but is suffering from amnesia. Eggsy and Merlin are briefed by Statesman head Champagne about a secret terrorist organisation called The Golden Circle. They begin their mission by following Charlie's ex-girlfriend Clara Von Gluckfberg. When Statesman agent Tequila develops blue rashes, he is replaced by agent Whiskey as Eggsy's partner. Eggsy manages to plant a tracking device inside Clara, but his revelation of the mission to Princess Tilde strains their relationship. After several failed attempts to cure Harry's amnesia, Eggsy triggers Harry's memories by threatening to shoot a Yorkshire Terrier that resembles Harry's late dog.
Poppy Adams, head of world's largest drug cartel posing as a pharmaceutical company, broadcasts a message telling the world about a toxin she laced within every recreational drug available, which causes users to develop blue rashes before progressing through mania, paralysis, and ultimately, death. She also demonstrates the antidote on a captive Elton John and offers it to the world if the President of the United States ends his country's War on Drugs and offers her organisation immunity. The President decides to have every affected user quarantined, including his Chief of Staff, Fox. Eggsy, Harry, and Whiskey head to the antidote factory in Italy after intercepting a phone call to Charlie by Clara. Eggsy manages to steal an antidote sample, but it is broken by Whiskey during an ambush by The Golden Circle's henchmen. During the gunfight, Harry shoots Whiskey in the head, as he suspects that Whiskey is playing both sides, but Eggsy saves him with the same alpha-gel used to save Harry. Princess Tilde calls Eggsy in a state of mania, revealing that she has been affected. Eggsy, Harry, and Merlin discover the location of Poppy's hideout, "Poppy Land", in Cambodia and fly there to steal the remote control for the antidote drones.
Upon their arrival at Poppy Land, Eggsy steps on a land mine, but is saved by Merlin, who sacrifices himself while taking the lair's guards with him. Eggsy and Harry storm through the lair and Eggsy kills Charlie while Harry destroys Poppy's robotic guard dogs with the help of Elton. They secure the briefcase with the access code to the drones and inject Poppy with a more potent dose of her toxin. She gives them the password before succumbing to an overdose. Before they can activate the drones they are stopped by Whiskey, who, having previously lost his wife to crossfire from two drug users, is revealed to be working alone to ensure that all drug users are eliminated. Eggsy and Harry engage Whiskey in a grueling fight at Poppy's diner before he is killed. They release the antidote drones, saving millions of lives around the world.
In the aftermath, Chief of Staff Fox has the President impeached for conspiring to commit genocide on the drug victims. Champagne announces that Statesman has acquired a distillery in Scotland to help rebuild Kingsman. To avoid the confusion of two Kingsman agents using the codename "Galahad", Champagne offers either Eggsy or Harry the agent title of Whiskey, but they decline and Statesman tech support Ginger Ale steps in to take the role. Eggsy marries Princess Tilde, and Tequila moves to London to work for Kingsman.
Cast
- Colin Firth as Harry Hart / Galahad
- Julianne Moore as Poppy Adams
- Taron Egerton as Gary "Eggsy" Unwin / Galahad
- Mark Strong as Merlin
- Halle Berry as Ginger
- Elton John as himself
- Channing Tatum as Tequila
- Jeff Bridges as Champagne "Champ"
- Pedro Pascal as Whiskey
- Edward Holcroft as Charles "Charlie" Hesketh
- Hanna Alström as Crown Princess Tilde of Sweden
- Poppy Delevingne as Clara Von Gluckfberg
- Bruce Greenwood as the President of the United States
- Emily Watson as Chief of Staff Fox
- Björn Granath as the King of Sweden
- Lena Endre as the Queen of Sweden
Michael Gambon portrays Arthur, the head of Kingsman. Sophie Cookson returns as Roxanne "Roxy" Morton / Lancelot, a Kingsman secret agent and Eggsy's best friend, while footage from The Secret Service includes Samuel L. Jackson and Sofia Boutella as Richmond Valentine and Gazelle, respectively. Tobias Bakare and Thomas Turgoose return as Eggsy's friends Jamal and Liam, respectively, while Calvin Demba is introduced as another of Eggsy's friends, Brandon. Keith Allen and Tom Benedict Knight feature as Charles and Angel, two of Poppy's henchmen, while Mark Arnold portrays General McCoy, an advisor to the President of the United States.
Production
Near the release of Kingsman: The Secret Service, Mark Millar and Matthew Vaughn stated that a sequel would be possible if the first film was to perform well at the box office, and Vaughn expressed interest in returning to direct.
On 29 April 2015, Fox announced that a sequel was in production, but that it was unclear if Vaughn would return due to his interest in directing a Flash Gordon film On 11 June 2015, Vaughn told Yahoo that he had begun writing the script for the sequel, and that he could return to direct In September 2015, Millar reiterated that the sequel was in development, and that Vaughn was looking for ways to bring Firth back without sacrificing the integrity of the story. Later that month, The Hollywood Reporter confirmed that Egerton had also signed on for a new Robin Hood film, which was then set to begin shooting in February 2016 Egerton's schedule was thus in conflict with the Kingsman sequel. However, in mid-October, it was confirmed that scheduling issues had been settled between both studios. Lionsgate began Robin Hood's production right after Egerton wrapped filming on Kingsman: The Golden Circle, which began in May 2016.[11]
FilmingOn 17 February 2016, it was revealed that Julianne Moore was in negotiations to play the villain in the film. On 10 March 2016, Halle Berry was cast in the film, in a role that later turned out to be the Statesmen's tech support. In late March, Vaughn confirmed Berry's and Moore's casting, as well as the title, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. On 8 April 2016, Pedro Pascal was cast in the film as Jack Daniels, and on the same day, a promotional poster was released featuring Firth's character's glasses, confirming Firth's return for the film Firth's return was later officially confirmed on 11 July 2016 Channing Tatum confirmed his casting through his Twitter account, while Varietyreported that Elton John was in talks for a role. In late April, Vaughn talked about writing the sequel, and stated "writing this was the hardest thing I've ever done. Jeff Bridges was added to the cast on 28 May 2016. Vinnie Jones announced on Twitter that he had been cast, though he did not appear in the finished film.[20]
Principal photography on the film began on 15 May 2016 in Birmingham. Filming also took place in Warner Bros. Studios, Leavesden. On 13 September 2016, Kingsman: The Golden Circle completed initial filming. Additional footage was filmed on location in London in December 2016.
Marketing
On 20 July 2017, FOX released an animated Kingsman/Archer crossover short film featuring Eggsy and Sterling Archer.
Release
20th Century Fox originally scheduled Kingsman: The Golden Circle for a summer release date of 16 June 2017, but pushed the film back to 6 October 2017. The film was then moved up to 20 September in the UK and 22 September 2017 in the US, likely to avoid competition with Blade Runner 2049. The film had an IMAX release.
Box office
As of 24 September 2017, Kingsman: The Golden Circle has grossed $39 million in the United States and Canada and $61.2 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $100.2 million, against a production budget of $104 million.
In North America, the film was released alongside The Lego Ninjago Movie and Friend Request, and was projected to gross $40–45 million from 4,003 theaters in its opening weekend. It made $3.4 million from Thursday night previews at 3,100 theaters, up from the $1.4 million made by the first film, and $15.3 million on its first day. It went on to open to $39 million, an increase over the first film’s $36.2 million debut and topping the box office.
Critical response
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 51%, based on 176 reviews, with an average rating of 5.3/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Kingsman: The Golden Circle offers more of everything that made its predecessor so much fun, but lacks the original's wild creative spark.] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 45 out of 100, based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, the same score earned by its predecessor.
Writing for Uproxx, Amy Nicholson called the film better than the first, writing: "The Golden Circle has matured just enough. It’s doubled down on the mayhem and hammered out the tone. Everything is sincere even when it’s insane. Writing for Rolling Stone, Peter Travers gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and wrote, "The stunts defy the laws of gravity, but are no less fun for that; watch out for the fight on the ski lift. Even when Kingsman: The Golden Circle goes off the rails, and it inevitably does, this cracked caper wears you down with action and giggles. Sometimes overkill can hurt so good. Wendy Ide, reviewing the film for The Guardian, gave it 1/5 stars and called it "a knowing sneer of a movie that shrugs off its plot holes along with a particularly unsavoury attitude to violence and a tendency to use female characters as the decorative punchline to jokes.
Michael Phillips of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 1.5/4 stars and said, "Kingsman: The Golden Circle offers everything – several bored Oscar winners; two scenes featuring death by meat grinder; Elton John, mugging in close-up – except a good time. Writing for RogerEbert.com, Glenn Kenny gave the film 0/4 stars, saying: "As action-packed as the movie is, it feels like it’s six hours. That’s in part because the pacing is so spavined; the movie lurches twitchily from set piece to set piece and spends inordinate amounts of time on shots of its sharp-dressed characters slow-motioning into the widescreen frames showing off accessories that will be sold to you by various companies in various Kingsman tie-ins all over the Internet.
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