Argylle is the latest Matthew Vaughn film that centers around spies, yet again. While Vaughn is an amazing director, his newest movie doesn’t live up to his own previous work of interesting films. At least, in my opinion. But despite its ups and downs, it’s ultimately a movie that is enjoyable for the overall experience and not any single bad thing. However, while Argylle is a fun movie, the Argylle ending makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Read on…
Please note that the following will feature heavy spoilers for the movie as well as the Argylle ending.
Argylle’s Entire Plot Revolves Around A Spoiler
Image via Apple Original Films.
Argyle is one of those meta movies where the writer of a fictional story falls into an adventure that emulates her stories. Her stories are about a spy, a devilishly handsome super spy, Agent Argylle, saving the world from various threats. Elly Conway’s (Bryce Dallas Howard) spy story comes to life when random spies attack her on a train while another charming one saves her. During this misadventure, Elly goes all over the world until she realizes the truth of who the real Agent Argylle is. Which is seemingly the mystery that most of the movie’s marketing focused on.
But here are the spoilers. Halfway into the movie, audiences find out that the real Argylle is Elly herself, going under the name of Agent R. Kylle, her true identity. She suffered memory loss and was given a new identity through brainwashing from the bad guys. So instead of being a helpless author, she’s actually a badass spy. A pretty interesting twist, in all honesty. But there’s more!
Henry Cavill Sports A Really Bad Wig. And Again In Argylle Ending
Image via Apple Original Films.
The cool thing about Argylle is how it tells this story. The movie opens with actual Agent Argylle played by Henry Cavill. What audiences see is Elly imagining her story as she’s writing it. So Argylle in her head, is the lead of her story, as she sees him. And she sees him as Henry Cavill. Throughout the story, anytime we head to something that happens in the books, Cavill is Argylle. During her adventures, she even hallucinates him in the place of the real-life spy saving her, Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell). So Henry Cavill is only a character visible only in the mind of Elly. So this is where the Argylle ending gets weird.
The movie ends with Elly finishing her fifth book and doing a bookstore reading. Similar to her introduction scene where she also took questions from the audience. One of the spectators raises his hand and they select him to ask Elly a question. The man stands and actually says he has no questions, but maybe Elly has some for him. The man is Henry Cavill in a totally different wig and Southern accent. Elly reacts shockingly seeing her fantasy character standing in front of her in real life. Credits!
Why The Argylle Ending Makes No Sense
Image via Apple Original Films.
Nerd-Cavill’s demeanour and dialogue make it seem like he is aware that he is Argyle in Elly’s head. The coy and sheepish way that he asks, seems like he was trying to elicit a reaction from her. Which she absolutely gives him. But how would he know that? Argyle is only a character Elly saw in her own head. So how would this stranger know that his appearance was the model for Argylle and that she may have questions for him about it? It’s a shock and awe ending, but one that actually wouldn’t make sense, since no one outside of Elly knows exactly what Argylle looks like.
But the mid-credits scene also reveals an actual character named Aubrey Argylle who appears 20 years before the events of this movie. So is the Cavill character with a Southern accent in the climax, meant to be the older version of the same character shown in the ’20 years earlier’ mid-credits scene? The Argylle ending raises more questions than it answers.
Argylle is now playing in theatres.
What did you think of the Argylle ending? Let us know in the comments below or reach out to me on X (Twitter) at @theshahshahid.
