December 5, 2021 (London)
December 22, 2021 (United States)
December 26, 2021 (United Kingdom)
The King's Man is a 2021 spy action film directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek and a story by Vaughn. The third installment in the British Kingsman film series, which is based on the comic book The Secret Service (later retitled to Kingsman) by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, it is a prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Its ensemble cast includes Ralph Fiennes (also one of its executive producers), Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance. It focuses on several events during World War I and the birth of the Kingsman organization.
It was released in the United States on December 22, 2021, and in the United Kingdom on December 26, 2021 by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures through 20th Century Studios, delayed several times from an original November 2019 release date, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It received mixed reviews from critics, grossing $125 million against nearly a $100 million budget.
Storyline
In 1902, nearing the end of the Second Boer War, British aristocrat Orlando, Duke of Oxford, his wife Emily, and their young son Conrad visit a concentration camp in South Africa while working for the British Red Cross. A sniper attack on the camp mortally wounds Emily but, before dying, makes Orlando promise never to let their son see war again.
Twelve years later, Orlando has formed a private spy network with his servants, butler Shola and maid Polly Wilkins, employed by the world's most powerful dignitaries. Conrad is eager to fight, but Orlando forbids him to join the British Army and persuades Secretary of State for War Lord Kitchener not to let him do so.
At Kitchener's request, Conrad and Orlando ride with Orlando's friends, Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, and his wife Sophie, Duchess of Hohenberg, through Sarajevo. Conrad saves the Archduke from a bomb thrown by Gavrilo Princip, a Bosnian Serbintent on sparking a war. Princip later reencounters the Archduke's entourage by chance and fatally shoots him and his wife, starting World War I.
Orlando learns that the assassination was orchestrated by "The Flock": a group plotting to pit the German, Russian, and British empires against each other, led by the mysterious "Shepherd", whose ultimate goal is Scottish independence; his operatives include Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, trusted adviser to Tsar Nicholas of Russia.
Rasputin poisons Nicholas's young son Alexei, only to cure him after Nicholas promises to pull out of the war. Conrad is notified of Rasputin's manipulation by his cousin, Prince Felix Yusupov. Knowing the Western Front will be left vulnerable if Russia exits the war, Conrad delivers this information to Kitchener and his aide-de-camp Major Max Morton, who sets sail for Russia. Their ship, HMS Hampshire, is torpedoed by a submarine and sunk. Word of Kitchener's death reaches Orlando, spurring him to travel to Russia with Shola, Polly, and Conrad to kill Rasputin. After a grueling fight, the four kill Rasputin at a Christmas party hosted by Felix.
To keep the United States from entering the war, Erik Jan Hanussen, an adviser to Kaiser Wilhelm II, sends the Zimmermann Telegram, encouraging Mexico to invade the United States. Although British Intelligence intercepts the message, Polly deciphers it, but American President Woodrow Wilson refuses to join the war, citing a lack of concrete proof. The Shepherd recruits Vladimir Lenin to overthrow the Tsar and remove Russia from the war, sending an assassin to execute the Romanov family.
Conrad is commissioned into the Grenadier Guards against his father's wishes. King George V arranges to have him assigned to London. Determined to fight in the war, Conrad swaps places with Scottish soldier Archie Reid, giving him the nickname "Lancelot" to send his father a message.
Disguised as Archie, a member of the Black Watch, Conrad volunteers for a mission into no man's land to retrieve information from a wounded British agent. Upon his return, a fellow soldier who knows Archie accuses him of being a German spy and shoots him dead, devastating Orlando. The information he recovered verifies the authenticity of the Zimmermann Telegram.
After Wilson again refuses to enter the war despite Conrad's proof, Orlando learns that the President is being blackmailed with footage of being seduced by Shepherd's agent, Mata Hari, and resolves to recover the negatives. Upon defeating Mata Hari at the American embassy, Orlando identifies her cashmere scarf and locates its origin.
Orlando parachutes onto the mountaintop sanctuary of the Shepherd, who is revealed to be Morton. Morton had arranged Kitchener's assassination and faked his own death. Orlando fights and kills him with Shola's help. Polly recovers the film, which is delivered to Wilson. He then burns it and brings the United States into the war.
After the war, Orlando purchases the Kingsman Tailor Shop as a front for his organisation. Orlando, Shola, Polly, King George V, Archie, and the US Ambassador to the UK form the original Kingsmen, each being assigned a codename from the King Arthur legend to honour Conrad.
In a mid-credit scene, Hanussen, having assumed command of Shepherd's organisation, introduces Lenin to the Romanovs' assassin, Adolf Hitler.
Also See
Movie Trailer
- The King's Man (2021) (Trailers)