History Headscratchers / KingsmanTheSecretService

** Here's another way of looking at it, they knew Egsy wouldn't shoot the dog, so he in effect "failed", but shooting the dog was actually only part of the test. The real test was partly to see how he responds to failure, and whether or not he's able to recover from it or not. A way of seeing just how much he really wants to be a Kingsman.

** Maybe there ARE other agents there. When we first see the hangar, if you look closely you can see some people in the hangar doing their works. It's just that those people are not in the focus other than the main characters. Think of James Bond movies, [=MI6=] has dozens of agents and people working inside it, right? But only M, Q, Moneypenny and a few others got prominent screentimes. Just because they're not there doesn't mean they don't exist. Remember Amelia? The girl that drowns in the first test? [[spoiler: She's an agent in the Kingsmen's Berlin branch]], and the HALO-jump test, two pilots are seen flying the plane to drop the candidates off, so obviously there ''are'' other agents. It's just that in the climax, the reason all three good guys go on alone is because they couldn't trust anyone, but if they manage to get the plane out of the hangar at all, it can only mean there ''is'' someone inside to open the hangar door. Also, the area that Merlin works might be off-limits to the official Kingsman field agents (aka those who has Arthurian codenames) so it makes sense that other employees aren't show up there.

** This is actually a bit of FridgeBrilliance when you think about how the test was presented to each candidate. Arthur took Eggsy into a sitting room, started a casual conversation with him, and built up a rapport with him, luring him into a false sense of security. He then presented the pistol, and casually ordered Eggsy to shoot the dog. In contrast, Roxy was called into the room with Merlin, and ordered to shoot her dog. Nothing else was shown to be exchanged between Merlin and Roxy. Arthur stacked the deck against Eggsy by making his test a more emotional scenario by playing against his love for animals.[[spoiler: However, this bit Arthur in the ass later when Eggsy plays against Arthur's more gentlemanly side by tricking him into looking away so Eggsy can switch the cups.]]

* Valentine's plan is rather brilliant...up until Merlin hacks the security overrides and blows up every single chipped person, including his own henchmen. Sure, Valentine didn't put a chip in his own head, but why did he keep the security overrides up until after the plan was initiated? Shouldn't, after a certain point, especially six hours before the plan is to go off, it be impossible for anyone to stop him that isn't a clandestine intelligence agency that answers to no government? Why keep the secret security overrides active, and, even more importantly, not keep those tied to his biometrics as well? Keeping the people you want alive alive should be just as important as broadcasting the signal to kill the people you don't want alive, right?
** He thought he already won, perhaps. For all he know, he successfully [[spoiler: killed Harry, who was also probably the best Kingsman agent left and the most dangerous threat, and turned Arthur to his own cause.]] He thought there's no one left to threaten him and his VIP friends so he let his guard down. He didn't even know Eggsy is a candidate to be a Kingsman until Charlie exposed him when he infiltrated his base. It was not until then that Valentine recognized Eggsy, and by then it's a XanatosSpeedChess between Valentine and Eggsy. And Valentine might possibly forget to turn off the security override for his [=VIPs=] and just focusing on completing his master plan to wipe out other humans.

* The Kingsman Secret Service can make stylish, comfortable, tailored suits [[spoiler: that can stop knives, bullets, and Gazelle's foot-blades (which can effortlessly slice through metal)]] but can't [[spoiler: come up with combat gear that protects against grenade shrapnel?]]

* During the scene where Harry, using a fake background, joins Valentine in the dinner, it's pretty much a given that Valentine knows who Harry really is when he asks 'Do you like spy movies?', and the following discussions turns quite serious for both sides in contrast of the earlier casual [[spoiler: [=McDonald=]]] and wine chat. The question is, Harry doesn't really seem so concern about the fact that his cover's already blown, and proceeds to finish the dinner and go back to his HQ like nothing happened. Really? He should've asked Merlin to check whether Valentine secretly placed any tracing device or the like on him (which he really did). Even later when Harry discovers that Valentine, along with Gazelle, [[spoiler: show up right at the Kingsman front door at the suit shop.]] and another serious discussion take place. It's pretty much clear that he's compromised, and yet he plays along and travels to the hate church to track Valentine, fully knowing that it's got to be a trap. [[spoiler: And it gets him killed.]] NiceJobBreakingItHero?

** Maybe. This movie is kind of a homage to James Bond, anyway, so NoMrBondIExpectYouToDine is in works, but that still doesn't change the fact that Harry doesn't suspect Valentine might has some trick up his sleeves once his cover his blown. The tracing thing that Valentine put in Harry's drink brings him to the Kingsman and he manages to [[spoiler: convince Arthur to his cause]] because of it. If Harry has Merlin checks him up first, maybe the tracing substance would be found and foils Valentine's plan. And the mission to the church, I'll admit it leads to arguably the most awesome action scene of the film, but what was Harry thinking sitting in the middle of that church anyway? His distinctive Kingsman suit and glasses is a major giveaway for Valentine, so when he gets up to leave when he realizes he's about to fall into a trap, it's Valentine's cue to trigger the his weapon.

** Interesting. I never got the impression that Valentine knew he was bugged the whole time, but that does make a lot of sense. I figured the whole incident was a lapse in his genre-savviness due to giving in to the Bond fantasy, but if he planned on being bugged then that puts him back to consistency. It also explains why Harry didn’t bother to disguise himself at all when he visited the church, which I thought was nearly inexcusable on his part but put down to RuleOfCool and RuleOfFunny. He wasn’t trying to be inconspicuous, he was waving a red flag in front of Valentine’s face, saying come and get me, because we both know why I’m here. He figured he could survive anything Valentine threw at him, and if not, was willing to lay down his life if it would give the Kingsmen intel enough to save the world. And he was right, more or less – he did survive what happened in the church, and he did get enough information to help the Kingsmen out. Valentine even underestimated him to some extent, as he assumed the church would kill Harry outright, so he went ahead and activated his evil plan, instead of just dumping Sarin into the church or something and then trying his experiment somewhere else. But he at least had a backup plan. I still stand by my original statement though, that Harry would have been clever enough to check himself for bugs and trackers after he left the dinner, especially considering that he did miss that grenade seventeen years ago and [[MyGreatestFailure how strongly that affected him]]. He wouldn’t be stupid enough to miss something else like that, but [[DidntSeeThatComing he simply didn’t have knowledge of Valentine’s superior tech]], and even if he did consider that Valentine might have some other trick up his sleeve, he wouldn’t have had any idea what that trick was or what to do about it, so he probably decided to operate as normal and see what other activity on Valentine’s part he could draw out.

* Why did Valentine seem so fond of [=McDonalds=] food? To be honest I would imagine he would really dislike the chain for their reputation of accelerating deforestation for cattle farms in South America.

* This might be a silly question to ask, but the Kingsmen really do put emphasis on teamwork during the candidates' tests, right? That would make a lot of sense if not for the fact that only ''one'' candidate will be chosen to be an official spy (and he/she has to work with other senior agents they're not familiar with except for the one agent that bought them in for training in the first place) and the rest are either dead [[spoiler: (Okay, not really)]] or disqualified, and the full-time Kingsmen are only seen to be operating alone in the field anyway (with only a MissionControl courtesy of Merlin at best). The only times where the Kingsmen are seen to be operating as a team is in the opening (where two of them are still candidates competing for a position in the Kingsmen, and Lancelot got lucky because Eggsy's dad sacrificed himself) and in the finale, where [[spoiler: Merlin, Eggsy and Roxy all have different roles in stopping Valentine's plan, and yet the person who did mostly all the work is only Eggsy. It is kinda justified that Roxy was too far to help and Merlin had to do his job as the mission control, but what irks me is the reason they couldn't bring any other Kingsmen along because they couldn't know who they can trust.]] Then what was the point of the 'teamwork' stuff during training anyway if they can't fully work as a team??? I was kinda half-expecting of seeing all those other 'failed' candidates [[spoiler: (Minus Charlie, of course)]] showed up to help the team in the finale, demonstrating efficient teamwork with Eggsy despite their difference of low-high classes or something like that. That'll make for a much more awesome finale.
** They did in the comic. Eggsy realises that he doesn't know who he can trust, so he goes right for the people lowest on the totem pole (i.e. the other candidates for the job) and they work together to beat the bad guy.
** 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 (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.
** Yeah, I guess it's probably like what you said. It's just that I don't really know why the Kingsmen would want only one candidate per training, anyway. Granted, anyone that even managed to pass all the tests is automatically a qualified Badass and has no problem working alone, but they could've just easily put the other ''failed'' candidates in other positions and not just kick them off the program immediately. That way, it'll be a more efficient way to expand the organization and give a sense of belonging to its members (working with friends or people you're familiar with tends to work better as a team). One of the reasons the final battle at the climax worked despite the Kingsmen being heavily outnumbered and outgunned is because its three members all know each other well, leading to them doing everything efficiently, despite not all of them gets to join in the action itself. If there's a sequel, I'd love to see the Kingsmen finally operate as a team and not just focused on the main character. Maybe not only introducing the field agents themselves, but other employees in other roles like a tech genius similar to Merlin, an AcePilot or a minor officer like [[spoiler: Amelia]], and how they contributed to the organization.
** Well, as I said, the choosing of one candidate is a Kingsman tradition, and they’ve got a bit of a flaw there. Honestly, before [[spoiler: Eggsy failed his final test and Harry was murdered, leaving the poistion of Galahad neatly available for Eggsy]], I assumed that both Roxy and Eggsy were going to pass every test, and that Galahad was going to lobby to allow both of them to join. Arthur would say no, Eggsy would prove himself worthy and get to join as an agent with a new title, etc. That didn’t happen, of course, but it would be interesting to see if they mix it up in the sequel by following Harry’s more progressive ideals and adapting the agency to the changing times by getting more field agents from different backgrounds and such. Although admittedly, the crazy rigourous testing our heroes went through ''were'' specifically for the job of field agent, not anything else. While it’s not like the Kingsmen should necessarily turn down all of the field agent candidates, this is the toughest job in the entire organization. Field agents are definitely intended to be the elite, and there are probably few people badass enough to pass all the tests. We didn’t see all of the candidates’ training, naturally, but it’s reasonable that for such a high, dangerous position, the Kingsmen were going to make damn sure that their agents are ready for anything. Even [[spoiler: Charlie]], who almost made it to the final round, turned out to have a serious flaw. It might be rather unusual to end up with two people who both truly qualify for the job, given how hard it is. Also, we don’t know what happened with the other candidates after they left. Maybe the Kingsmen sent them home for failing the field agent bit, but then contacted them later about other jobs they might qualify for. But you’re right, the three working together at the end knowing each other did undoubtedly help them, and maybe the organisation will learn from that. Although again, I would expect the Kingsmen to usually send a fresh new agent on slightly less dangerous missions in the beginning to get them well used to working with their teammates before throwing them into the really crazy shit like [[spoiler: assaulting a supervillain’s base!]] It’s just that at the end of the movie, they didn’t have any other options.
** Agreed, and seeing that [[spoiler: Arthur is already dead]], I wondered who's going to take up the position as well. [[spoiler: Since Eggsy inherited the Galahad position from Harry and Roxy is already Lancelot, they're going to need a new member to become Arthur if none of the other original Kingsmen or Merlin takes up the position. And seeing that Arthur is the position for the freakin' leader of the Kingsmen itself, they're going to need only the best of the best, so maybe the extreme training condition for a solo winner is justified.]] Still, I stand by my statement that ''if'' there is a sequel, we'll get to see more of the organization aside from the field agents themselves. An organization as big as this and still maintained its secrecy's gonna need more than a dozen people to manage itself.
** True, but those people are implied, and this movie at least wasn’t about them – it was about the field agents and Merlin. Having too many characters is going to muddy the waters of a narrative, so when we watch something like ''Franchise/JamesBond'' or ''Series/TheManFromUncle'', we only get some hints as to the organisation as a whole before we follow the main character(s) out the door and spend most of our time with them. The sequel may expand upon the organisation as a whole, but it’s probably not going to dig too deep. Personally though, I would imagine that ''if'' [[spoiler: Harry does come back, because there is a rumour about Colin Firth returning for a sequel (although I don’t know in what capacity), that he would become the new Arthur, since he seemed to be a very trusted, senior agent and Eggsy has already taken over for him as Galahad.]] Of course, they’re probably going to choose somebody else before that. I really doubt they’d bring in a newbie for that, though – I imagine they’d promote one of the senior agents and then train somebody to take his place.
** Yeah, I don't think they'll just choose a newbie to become [[spoiler: Arthur]]. Maybe Percival will take up the role? He's the only other original Kingsmen we saw in a flesh other than Galahad, Lancelot and Arthur, and he's also Roxy's mentor. Hopefully, if he returns to the sequel he'll take up [[spoiler: Arthur's rank, just before Harry revealed his comeback (also hopefully) and becomes the new Arthur.]] Also, when I mentioned that we would like to see more of the organization, I don't mean expand the story to other employees and loosen the focus on the main character, but just add supporting characters that makes the Kingsmen organization more interesting, like Q, Moneypenny did for [=MI6=] in James Bond movies, something like that. They're not field agents themselves, but they make James Bond's life more interesting. Of course, we already kinda got a Q in form of Merlin, but maybe there's another tech genius somewhere inside Kingsmen to make all of those cool gadgets. (There's been no mention that who made those bullet-proof umbrellas, poisoned shoes or exploding lighters, so maybe it's not Merlin and someone else.)

** I saw this as being intentionally Opposite the Spy Movie Villain cliche of the death trap; those villains are invariably done in by the fact that they've left the death trap running and hope the hero remains in its clutches... only to find the hero escaped because the trap was unattended

* Gazelle was shown to have the same implant as the rest of the people in Valentine's conspiracy (She's seen with an implant scar in some news footage). Why didn't her head explode?

[[folder: Sending Roxy to Space]]
* 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 badasses. 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?]]

** Because Roxy hadn't had a bullet-proof suit made yet. Assuming they could've convinced someone that Chester is a girl's name, Merlin would essentially have been sending her in without any protection. Eggsy even asks if Roxy has been fitted for a suit yet; she says no.

[[folder: Chester King, Old, Err, Young British Gentleman]]

** The odds of the wrong person showing up is really unlikely, when you think about it from a real-world perspective. To successfully infiltrate you'd have to hijack the identity of one of the people on the list, which would be very hard to do to begin with, as not only would they be naturally protected by virtue of being incredibly rich and important people, up until the very last day Valentine and his crew were keeping a close eye on their chosen many. You'd also have to take the identity of someone who wouldn't be recognizable to the guards--you couldn't steal the President's ID or that of a celebrity. Then you'd have to know where the base was--it's not like you could stumble upon it by accident, the Kingsmen were lucky to already know where it was beforehand. Finally, even once you get in, there's not much you could do unless you had a top-notch hacker at your back and someone already taking out the satellites for you: the place is swarming with guards, Valentine and Gazelle are on high alert, and you'd be always running the risk of someone realizing that you're not the person you claim to be. It's really more of a failing on King's part than anything else, as he was perhaps the only identity on the whole list whom Valentine wouldn't be actively monitoring and who wouldn't be recognized by anyone at the party. It's not Valentine's fault that he expected [[spoiler: the head of the Kingsmen]] to not fall into BondVillainStupidity.
** Valentine is overreliant on and overconfident in technology. He simply assumes that his security measures are perfect because they use cutting-edge technology designed personally by him. It honestly never occurs to him that his security measures could be defeated by someone pinching a cell phone.

[[folder: Valentine's plan: Brilliant or Just Plain Crazy?]]

[[folder: The SIM cards are BS]]

** The limited one is Facebook's internet.org; Fiber has no estipulation. The battle for net neutrality is not over. But it is a battle that had been going on a long time... And yet the big cable companies working together against it haven't been able to accomplish much. And this is against the government. Against another, maybe even more influential, company that already had the government on its bag, they don't stand a chance.

[[folder: Blow all the chips!...at the worst possible time]]

** Yeah, I think it just didn’t occur to Merlin that the chip could be useful beyond what they’d already figured out about them. It wasn’t until the last minute that Eggsy, desperate beyond all measure, came up with it. Also, even if they had figured it out ahead of time (uh, no pun intended), is your suggestion really what they would do from a moral standpoint? Logically, it’s a great idea, but there are hundreds of people who’ve been implanted, and we don’t even know who all of them agreed to it completely, or were simply terrified into it because they wanted to protect their families. I don’t know that Merlin would have agreed to a genocide just to make things easier on the Kingsmen – it was only when they were down to the wire with no other options and the freaking world at stake that they chose to kill those people. Plus, the Kingsmen were fairly confident heading into Valentine’s place because they didn’t realise Valentine would piggy-back off of another person’s satellite or that there were biometrics in place. Merlin figured okay, head in, have Roxy yoink the satellite, we’ll have like, two hours and I can probably hack the system in ten minutes. Instead, the satellite plan that they were counting on turned out to be useless, and Merlin discovered there was no way they could hack Valentine’s computer. Instead they had to improvise, and Eggsy just managed to have a good idea that saved their asses at the last minute.
** I’ve just thought of another issue – the way that Merlin hacked into Valentine’s system. Eggsy had to physically walk into the base and give Merlin access by plugging into a laptop there that was on a private network. There would be no way for Merlin to detonate the chips prior to arriving at the base itself, which would ruin their chances of teaming up with any other Kingsmen because they’d have to tell those Kingsmen ''something'' about what was going on beforehand and any who were traitors would have time to act against them. And even if they completely lied about where they were going and what they were doing, any traitors would be able to figure out what was really going on.
** If Merlin had blown the chips pramaturely, Valentine would probably have just shut the door of his lair and went on with his plan anyway.

[[folder: Smash the phone?]]

[[folder: Lancelot?]]

[[folder: Why a Tokarev TT-30?]]

[[folder: Kidnapping Princess Tilde]]
* Valentine said he wanted the Princess due to her ability to "galvinize the people", but what's the point if the population of Sweden will be wiped out and the remainder either agreed to Valentine's genocide or are being held prisoner like her?

[[folder: Kidnapping Dr. Arnold]]

[[folder: Swedish Royal Family]]

[[folder: Eggsy's Drink Order]]

** It also works as a middle-finger to James Bond, since anyone who's ever tried one of his famous vodka martinis will tell you how ''awful'' they taste. Hence: 'Gin, not vodka, obviously'

[[folder: Eggsy's Family's Poverty]]

[[folder: Guns in Church]]

[[folder: Pointing the gun at Arthur]]

* So Harry has been killed by the bad guys. Arthur has been exposed as a traitor and killed by Eggsy. Eggsy, Roxy and Merlin don't know who they can trust, so they go face the bad guys alone...but what about Percival? How hard would it be to have Roxy or Merlin approach him, check if he has a scar and once confirmed that he's not in league with Valentine, get him involved? The entire free world is about to literally tear itself apart in an orgy of feral rage. Why limit yourself to two rookie agents to the field? If you feel you can't trust Percival, then why are you trusting his hand-picked successor to Lancelot? If there was any chance that Percival was involved with Valentine, then logically that lack of trust would extend to Roxy, his protege.

[[/folder]]

I never understood this. After Eggsy 'fails' to shoot his dog, he then turns the gun on Arthur, and holds it on him for quite a while, until he hears a shot from the other room, implying Roxy killed her dog. Eggsy then hands over the gun and leaves. So what exactly was the purpose behind pointing his gun at Arthur for so long? I've heard people say it's a hint to Arthur's later reveal as a villain, since he actually looks taken aback when Eggsy aims at him, as if he's thinking 'oh god, he knows', except there's no feasible way Eggsy could know anything, so Eggsy's actions still make no sense from his character's perspective.

** Maybe we've all got the wrong idea here. Maybe it's what it is, a test. If the recruit seems to relish in the idea of shooting their dog, by doing it too quickly, smiling while they do it, or anything that shows that they are ENJOYING the idea of shooting their dog, they fail. Because sometimes they will have to work as a team, and they don't want someone who'll just kill their team-mates by simply shooting them because it's the easiest option or because they like killing. Then again, if they don't do it, it shows an unwillingness to trust their leader, and a resistance to following orders, which could jeopardize entire missions. Sometimes they will have to trust their leader and do as they are told, even if they are not given all the information, and they will have to do so quickly rather than figuring it all out themselves. If they show a little hesitance, but pull the trigger at the dog, then that's what the Kingsman organization is looking for. Someone who will follow orders, although they don't necessarily want to kill anyone. Somehow who will trust the leader and their orders to be the right thing to do. So maybe it's not QUITE the idea of them shooting their dog, it's seeing how they react to the circumstance. It wouldn't be unthought-of of. In the first test, most of the recruits went for the toilets to get at the air in the U-bend. Which would give them air, yes, but it wouldn't solve the problem of the room being flooded. Eggsy, after trying the door, went to the two-way mirror and smashed it, freeing them all, which solved the problem, because they could get out of the flooded room. He was even told that he did good to recognize that the mirror was a two-way one. He likely did the best, because rather than stalling rather than dealing with the problem at hand, he figured out a way out. Who knows how long they would have sent sucking air out of a toilet's U-bend otherwise.

** Another thing to consider - the mooks are carrying 9mm MP5K submachineguns and 5.56mm SCAR-L rifles. World War 2 dogfights demonstrated that .50 caliber ''heavy machine gun rounds'', which are an order of magnitude larger than 9mm and 5.56mm rounds, were not sufficient to bring down aircraft [[note]]which is why by the end of the war almost everyone was moving to 20mm autocannon, and modern aircraft cannon rounds carry a mix of armor piercing, high explosive, or [[BreadEggsBreadedEggs semi armor piercing high explosive sells]][[/note]]. So rather than fire ineffectually at an aircraft, they call in the big guns. It's worth noting that during Operation Nifty Package, the Navy [=SEALs=] assigned to disable Manuel Noriega's airplane blew it up with a rocket launcher.

** Maybe there ARE other agents there. When we first see the hangar, if you look closely you can see some people in the hangar doing their works. It's just that those people are not in the focus other than the main characters. Think of James Bond movies, MI6 has dozens of agents and people working inside it, right? But only M, Q, Moneypenny and a few others got prominent screentimes. Just because they're not there doesn't mean they don't exist. Remember Amelia? The girl that drowns in the first test? [[spoiler: She's an agent in the Kingsmen's Berlin branch]], and the HALO-jump test, two pilots are seen flying the plane to drop the candidates off, so obviously there ''are'' other agents. It's just that in the climax, the reason all three good guys go on alone is because they couldn't trust anyone, but if they manage to get the plane out of the hangar at all, it can only mean there ''is'' someone inside to open the hangar door. Also, the area that Merlin works might be off-limits to the official Kingsman field agents (aka those who has Arthurian codenames) so it makes sense that other employees aren't show up there.

** Yeah, I don't think they'll just choose a newbie to become [[spoiler: Arthur]]. Maybe Percival will take up the role? He's the only other original Kingsmen we saw in a flesh other than Galahad, Lancelot and Arthur, and he's also Roxy's mentor. Hopefully, if he returns to the sequel he'll take up [[spoiler: Arthur's rank, just before Harry revealed his comeback (also hopefully) and becomes the new Arthur.]] Also, when I mentioned that we would like to see more of the organization, I don't mean expand the story to other employees and loosen the focus on the main character, but just add supporting characters that makes the Kingsmen organization more interesting, like Q, Moneypenny did for MI6 in James Bond movies, something like that. They're not field agents themselves, but they make James Bond's life more interesting. Of course, we already kinda got a Q in form of Merlin, but maybe there's another tech genius somewhere inside Kingsmen to make all of those cool gadgets. (There's been no mention that who made those bullet-proof umbrellas, poisoned shoes or exploding lighters, so maybe it's not Merlin and someone else.)

* So, Kingsman doesn't give a widow's stipend. Good to know.

[[/folder]]

* Why did Valentine seem so fond of [=Mcdonalds=] food? To be honest I would imagine he would really dislike the chain for their reputation of accelerating deforestation for cattle farms in South America.

** Remember, Valentine hates the sight of blood. If he wants to eat meat, he probably has to go for meat that's as far removed from the animal it came from as possible. And it's hard to get more artificial than McDonalds.

** He thought he already won, perhaps. For all he know, he successfully [[spoiler: killed Harry, who was also probably the best Kingsman agent left and the most dangerous threat, and turned Arthur to his own cause.]] He thought there's no one left to threaten him and his VIP friends so he let his guard down. He didn't even know Eggsy is a candidate to be a Kingsman until Charlie exposed him when he infiltrated his base. It was not until then that Valentine recognized Eggsy, and by then it's a XanatosSpeedChess between Valentine and Eggsy. And Valentine might possibly forget to turn off the security override for his VIPs and just focusing on completing his master plan to wipe out other humans.

** Well, one can never be too perfect... If Valentine had pulled all stops in regard to his security and not for, well, completing his main goal of remaking the whole world with mass produced cutting-edge SIM cards capable of transmitting a freaking HatePlague wave (which is of course, costs a fortune already), the Kingsmen would have no chance of winning, however tough they might be. GenreSavvy or not, even Valentine can't account for every possible scenario. Think about this, if you were Valentine, and you knew for certain you successfully convinced Arthur to support you and getting the rest of the Kingsmen out of the picture, would you rather spending more time improving your security of your base in case some persistent, loyal Kingsman tracked you down, or turning your focus to complete your original plan? With ID smartphones, implants in VIPs that can be self-destruct in case they have second thoughts, and a very own private army with heavy weapon arsenals, I'd say Valentine's quite thorough in his planning more than most Bond villains. The irony is the only thing beyond his control is Arthur, the very person he believed that when on his side means nothing else can stop him. Arthur spilled all his secrets to Eggsy and got himself killed, his ID phone taken by Eggsy to infiltrate his base and his implant hacked by Merlin to make the implants in his soldiers/VIPs self-destruct, effectively turning the tide to the Kingsmen. If there's anyone to blame in a hole in Valentine's security, I'd say it's Arthur. In my opinion, Valentine's good when it comes to long-term plan, but he's just out of his league when playing a XanatosSpeedChess with the desperate Kingsmen...

* So during the scene where Valentine is crossing off the names of the people who have gone along with his plan, we see that the King and Queen of Sweden are on that list. This raises a few questions. For one, are the King and Queen of Sweden fine with Valentine keeping their daughter hostage? Why doesn't Valentine ask them to talk to her and try to win her over to his side? When the media is wondering about the missing VIPs, why doesn't the Royal family issue a statement saying that Tilde is fine?

** With all the technology at his disposal and hundreds of underlings to do the common jobs, some security oversight is acceptable. Valentine's company isn't a government. He has no need to check after every single member in his organization. Sure, photo IDs is one of the most basic security you could have, but that doesn't mean it's necessary after you applied other, much more complex measures like ID phones or chips. And you know how laid-back he is. He's more concerned with his guests' joy in the party than to check whether any of them isn't really his 'guest'. And even if Valentine ''did'' check for Eggsy's real identity, who's to say he'll be screwed over completely? This is Kingsmen we're talking about. Merlin is just right there behind him, and with two of them working together they'll have no trouble holding off the guards. They might even come up with the whole 'exploding ID chips' plan much quicker than they did in the film, too. Either way, it's a lose-lose situation for Valentine in the long run.

** Remember, there are also the locked-up politicians who did not agree to the plan and therefore do not have a chip. Maybe he wanted to relied on them to "rebuild" the world afterwards, if not in terms of cooperation, because they have no other choice.