History Headscratchers / KingsmanTheSecretService

** There is an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation, in which Lt. Cmdr. Troi is trying to pass the "bridge test". She keeps failing it until she gets a hint from her lover, Enterprise's XO. He tells her, that his first duty is to the ship. Not his friends. There are over one thousand people living on this city in space, which in case of danger means: the most capable person has to get rid of said danger, even if they die doing this.
Which means, Troi needs to be able to send someone - even one of her best friends - to their certain death, if that means the ship can be saved.
Same goes for Eggsy to become a Kingsmen agent.

** Most likely, no. It requires a tad of specific knowledge, which means it's not that known (let's be honest, how many do remember the science they learn in school?), also he is explicitally an over-the-top Bond villain, and as such having a plan that seems to have a logic of his own, but actually has no sense when you think a bit about it is just FridgeBrilliance for that role.

** The answer here is that he agrees with the ovrwhelming majority of scientists, that the cycle theory is just one of the straws denialists clutch at.

** Not a silly question at all, but I think the film gives us some hints as to why we don’t see the Kingsmen behaving much like a team in the film. Choosing only the one candidate is a Kingsmen tradition, and their being steeped in tradition is a major plot point – one of the Kingsmen flaws that Harry is trying to push against. Although I don’t think it’s too much of a concern that the candidate would not have worked with the senior agents – it’s not like they won’t have time to do so after joining the team. In fact, since the cock up seventeen years ago, maybe the Kingsmen decided it was a bad idea to bring the candidates on legit missions like that until they had passed every test and become a full agent. Lancelot is shown working alone near the beginning, but he seemed to be on a surveillance mission more than anything, which the Kingsmen probably wouldn’t consider especially dangerous. It’s only when he notices [[spoiler: Professor Arnold’s kidnapping]] that he decides to go in alone for the rescue, and I got the impression that when Harry reported it to Arthur that he (Harry) disapproved slightly of the approach. Then when Harry goes to the church, he goes alone, but as Harry was the only Kingsman Valentine had had contact with before, it’s possible he didn’t want to risk Valentine identifying other agents (remember, Valentine had visited [[spoiler: the tailor shop, but as far as Harry knew, he’d only actually seen Harry and Eggsy]]), and if he knew it was a trap, he might not have wanted to scare Valentine off with multiple Kingsmen and instead make him feel secure enough to reveal something with only one. If there had been eight of them there, Valentine might have just pulled out and rescheduled, without giving the Kingsmen any hint as to where next time. A bit foolhardy, certainly, but another Kingsmen flaw does seem to be a bit of overconfidence ([[{{Badass}} though not without reason]]) and even Harry is not immune. Also by that point, [[spoiler: Arthur was in Valentine’s pocket]], so the mission was ''intended'' to [[spoiler: kill Harry.]] As for the climax, I have no quibble with the idea that it would have been cool to see all of the former candidates teaming up, but I don’t think the climax of the film was poor or badly explained. From a Doylist perspective, Eggsy ''was'' set up as the main protagonist of the film, so giving him the meat of the action was the film’s way of Eggsy proving himself worthy of the Kingsmen (to Merlin) and just getting to be awesome. From a Wastonian viewpoint, I also don’t think that the decision not to involve the rest of the Kingsmen was necessarily out of hand. [[spoiler: ''Arthur'']] was in on Valentine’s plan, and he was willing to [[spoiler: murder both Harry and Eggsy over it.]] I’d imagine that that betrayal shook Merlin to the core, and not only do they not know who else might have been compromised, but taking the time to try to figure it out would have been too much of a risk. Every single person they’re concerned might be traitorous is an unstoppable badass with essentially the same resources the good guys have. Trying to ascertain whether or not they could be trusted would be playing with fire if one of more of them did turn out to be evil, and Eggsy took a risk even in going to Merlin. As to why they didn’t get the other ex-candidates involved, I’d say that was also time and too much of a risk – after all, [[spoiler: Charlie turned out to be at Valentine’s secret base, and the others were all from upper crust families]], which, judging by the film, where those most at risk to be on Valentine’s side. Also, none of the other candidates had completed the full training, and if he’d had any other option, Merlin probably wouldn’t have risked putting his two greenest agents into the field like that with so little support. I also only remember “teamwork” being mentioned twice during the course of their training – the “seduction” mission started out actually pitting the candidates against each other – and it might have also been that they wanted the candidates to know how to work as a team ''as well'' as alone, and particularly emphasised it because they were training in a group and wanted the candidates to know that they could trust and rely on the other Kingsmen when they joined, so that they would be able to work with them fairly well from the get-go and not get themselves killed with a LeeroyJenkins because they assumed that they were now ultimate badasses and could defeat anybody who came near them. Yes, the senior agents have this kind of confidence, but that’s because they’re senior agents with years and years of experience, which the new candidate won’t have. And as noted in the dog folder on this page, the idea of getting them to trust others might also tie-in with one possible interpretation of the [[spoiler: “shoot the dog” decree – if they instill in their candidates the idea that they can trust those they work with, the candidate should trust the agency and do it. Especially since all of the other times they thought the agency was dooming them it wasn’t, so it’s the idea that “things aren’t always as they seem” and ultimately the agency will always have their back. Which makes it especially twisted that one of their leaders defected...]] Anyway, that’s what I’ve got.

* I'm Merlin. I've just discovered that my boss is a mole for an evil WellIntentionedExtremist megalomaniacal billionaire with a mass depopulation / world domination plot. I've got exactly two field agents at my disposal that I know I can trust and no time to determine the trustworthiness of anyone else. It's up to the three of us to foil this plot. Conveniently, there are exactly three roles that need playing: go into space and shoot down a satellite, sneak into a heavily-fortified enemy base and do some covert ops (and, incidentally, kick some ass should my cover fail), and hang back in the plane, play MissionControl, and do some HollywoodHacking. I'm a better hacker than my field agents, so I'm MissionControl. That leaves the other two roles. Both of my field agents are green, but both have shown themselves to be intelligent, adaptable, and overall expemplary {{badass}}es. The only relevant difference between them is that one has a serious performance-compromising fear of heights and one does not. Well, that makes the decision easy, doesn't it? I'll just send the one with the serious performance-compromising fear of heights ''into fucking space''. [[FlatWhat What?]]

** Strange, I thought it was the opposite that happened. Valentine, being a DangerouslyGenreSavvy villain as he is, already knew Harry is a spy from since the dinner, and plans to lure him to the church where he tests his weaponized SIM cards, so he plays along and grabs the bugged hat and mockingly speaks out loud on the plane that blatantly shows he's going to do something at the hate church in USA so Harry can follow him there (He told Gazelle that he keeps every detail of his plan inside his journal, saying no one can hack papers, so obviously he knew someone is listening). He knows that a gentleman spy like Harry would [[Film/FromRussiaWithLove treat obvious traps as challenges]], and take advantage of it. Harry, being a Film/JamesBond expy, inevitably goes bluntly to the church which proves to be his undoing. In fact, if most Kingsmen in the movie hadn't been so overconfident and operated with more...''discretion'', the movie wouldn't have gone pass the first act. (The first Lancelot pulled a one man rescue of Arnold and got himself killed because he was too busy acting so cool in front of Professor Arnold and let his guard down, Eggsy's dad died because Harry didn't notice the bomb (he even commented that how the hell did he miss it), Harry didn't suspect that Valentine might has some trick up his sleeves once he knows that he's compromised, etc.)

** While the Kingsmen do consider themselves good guys, they are still as spy organization, and sometimes GoodIsNotNice. Killing the dog is a test to show their loyalty to the organization, similar to how the previous test was to see whether they would rat out the organization.

** I still don't buy the answers given here. After the first test when one teammate "died" they were told they all failed because they failed at teamwork. When they were given the puppies they were told that the purpose of raising the puppies was to teach them teamwork. This then ends up culminating in a test where they're told that in order to be personally selected as a Kingsman they have to shoot their teammate? Given what they've been taught the correct answer at this stage should be to refuse to help only themselves by shooting their teammate puppy. Even if you say they're supposed to figure out that the gun wouldn't have live ammunition in it... what about the people who don't figure it out? I mean, more specifically, the people who don't figure it out but happily shoot the puppy anyway. The test selects for people who reason out that the gun is loaded with blanks *as well as* the people who are willing to shoot a teammate to further their own goals and leaves behind the people that aren't willing to even risk a teammate just to get ahead. It just doesn't mesh well with their earlier lessons.

** Eggsy also pointed the gun at Arthur and made it seem like he was going to shoot him instead. Might of made a lot of a difference if he tried to shoot Arthur. Arthur was not pissed until he did that.

** Eggsy also pointed the gun at Arthur and made it seem like he was going to shoot him instead. Arthur was not pissed until he did that.

*** Think back to ''Film/GoldenEye''. James Bond and another 00 agent are on a mission, and the other agent is captured. Jimmy B is given the ultimatum to stop what he's doing and come out, or they'll kill his fellow agent and friend. Jimmy instead resets the bomb timers and effects his miraculous escape, leaving his fellow agent and friend behind, but completing the mission. That's what the Kingsmen expect you to do: if the choice is between completing the mission or saving your friend and partner with whom you've been through thick and thin, you complete the mission.

*** And then there's all of Valentine's nameless, faceless Mooks. They may have been plumbers, farmers, factory workers, etc. before Valentine gave them implants and put guns in their hands. "Keep me and mine alive, and you can work for us in the new world order. . . or I can just let you die along with the other 90% of humanity. Square deal?"
*** Extremely unlikely. It would have been ''immensely'' simpler to just hire mercenaries and [=PMCs=], guys who are already in the whole "armed goon" business, rather than individually conscripting hundreds of people from other walks of life who would need that much more training.

*** Think back to GoldenEye. James Bond and another 00 agent are on a mission, and the other agent is captured. Jimmy B is given the ultimatum to stop what he's doing and come out, or they'll kill his fellow agent and friend. Jimmy instead resets the bomb timers and effects his miraculous escape, leaving his fellow agent and friend behind, but completing the mission. That's what the Kingsmen expect you to do: if the choice is between completing the mission or saving your friend and partner with whom you've been through thick and thin, you complete the mission.

** Because he couldn't even bring himself to ''hurt'' the dog. Remember earlier in the film when he crashes into another car to avoid hitting a cat?