Character page for Argylle.
Massive amounts of spoilers ahead
open/close all folders
Real World
Elly
Elly Conway real name Rachel Kylle
Played by: Bryce Dallas Howard
Dubbed by: Barbara Beretta (European French)
An author of Spy Fiction who created the successful Argylle franchise. Her life gets turned upside down when she ends up embroiled in real spy intrigues and realizes she's more than what she appears to be.
- The Ace: As Rachel she was the best of her spy agency, with even Aiden (a formidable combatant in his own right) being unable to match her.
- Ambiguously Bi: Considering Argylle is based off her memory and being the sort of ladies man he is. While she does romance a man, the thing for the ladies part is still ambiguous.
- Amnesiac Dissonance: As Elly, she's the complete opposite of her pre-amnesia self — Rachel was a dog person and wasn't mild-mannered, among other things. Her combat skills have instinctively remained, that being said.
- Amnesiac Resonance:
- Upon being told by Aiden and Alfie Solomon that she was a secret agent like him once, she doesn't believe him. He then attacks her, which triggers her self-defense skills, easily overpowering him and proving his and Alfie's point.
- Even after Elly's memories of her previous life as Rachel were suppressed by her brainwashing, they bubble to the surface in the form of "creative ideas" and "characters" that she brings to life in her Argylle book series. The adventures that Agent Argylle, Wyatt, and Keira have in her books come from the real adventures that Rachel, Aiden, and Keira had.
- Chekhov's Skill: In any case, she's a really good ice skater, which comes in handy to get rid of the mooks on oil-covered floor in the climax.
- Double Agent: As Rachel Kylle, she's actually part of the Division. Then she began having second thoughts, so while still doing Ritter's bidding, she also made her own plans to get out of the organization, as Aiden himself mentioned.
- Establishing Character Moment: Elly is introduced as an author narrating the finale of her latest novel in a book event. In the subsequent Q&A she rebuffed a fan's forward request for a date, preferring the company of her pet cat in the comfy confines of her own home. Deliberately subverted over time, since that first moment was meant to contrast with her real identity.
- Expository Hairstyle Change: She dyes her hair blonde and styles it like LaGrange, ostensibly to fake that she truly remembers her past as Rachel Kylle, but it quickly proves true after all.
- Fake Defector: After learning that she was the one who murdered Bakunin, as well her myriad crimes detailed in the master file, she seemingly abandons all her scruples and joins up with the Division for real. She tells Ritter to dispose of her cat because she remembers she hates cats, and then coldly guns down Aiden during his interrogation, convincing everyone that she really was Evil All Along and has remembered her true self. This is all a ploy to make the Division let down their guard while she secretly sends the master file to Alfie under the guise of helping them track him down. If it wasn't for additional cybersecurity protocols she hadn't anticipated, her plan would have gone off without a hitch.
- Introverted Cat Person: She's single and prefers spending her nights at home with her cat Alfie as sole company to going on dates.
- Kicking Ass in All Her Finery: The climax of the film has her dressed in a shiny golden dress and fighting a lot of mooks in it without trouble.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: She's rather mild-mannered and has a pet cat, Alfie, which she always carries around in a cat backpack. She didn't use to be that way pre-amnesia — she was a dog person, although she keeps Alfie anyway by the end.
- Manchurian Agent: When she was amnesiac and brainwashed by Ruth/Dr. Vogler and Ritter, Vogler also programmed her to be under Mind Control via trigger words and a music box tune, and uses that to try having her kill Aiden in the climax on the deck of the oil tanker.
- Name Amnesia: Until she's told about it, she can't remember her true name is Rachel Kylle, though there are traces of it in the name she gave to her fictional hero, Argylle (from Rachel Kylle).
- Most Writers Are Writers: She seems to be successful enough as a writer to not need any other job. This becomes justified later on when it's revealed that the Division was secretly bankrolling her career the whole time.
- Playing Both Sides: Pre-amnesia, she was playing Alfie and the Division against each other for her own ends, as illustrated by The Reveal that she murdered the hacker who knew about the master file's coordinates after getting the information from him, and she was ruthless enough for her own crimes to be listed on the file as well. Once she remembers all this, she seemingly sides with the Division for real, even shooting Aiden during his interrogation and helping Ritter track down Alfie's location. Eventually it's revealed that she really was on Alfie's side the whole time, with her ruthless actions simply being the result of her being a very good spy.
- Tomato in the Mirror: Her birth name is not Elly Conway, she was actually a superspy and not a mild-mannered woman, the people she thought were her parents are not, and she used to hate cats.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Rachel Kylle seems to have this relationship with the Keeper of Secrets, who loses all suspicions towards her when Elly begins insulting her.
- Walking Spoiler: Self-explanatory. Notice all the spoiler blocks in the other tropes regarding her character? Bits and pieces of her life are revealed one plot twist after another throughout the whole film.
- Writer's Block: She struggles to come up with an additional chapter for her latest book after writing what she thought was a perfect ending. Because the plot of the book was based on her suppressed memories of a real spy mission that was never completed, meaning she doesn't know what happens next.
Aiden
Aiden Wilde
Played by: Sam Rockwell
Dubbed by: Damien Ferrette (European French)
A spy who's tasked to protect Elly.
- Comedic Sociopathy: Very upbeat about killing people, likening stomping on people's heads to dancing.
- Cruel to Be Kind: He's at times belligerent to Elly, but he's genuinely trying to save her life and get her to remember who she truly is.
- Dented Iron: Clearly in rough shape after being beaten and non-fatally shot in the chest but he manages to patch himself up and still hold his own in the final battle once he injects himself with adrenaline.
- Not Quite Dead: Survives being shot in the chest the exact same way Keira did after the latter gave Elly the idea.
- They Look Like Everyone Else: A point he brings up on the train is that a male model with "a bespoke suit and ridiculous haircut" tends to attract too much attention to be a decent spy, unlike everyone in the train car with them.
- Wig, Dress, Accent: In his first scene, he wears glasses and a bucket hat along with having long hair and a beard, both of which he shaves off once he and Elly make it to a safe house.
Alfie (Cat)
Alfie
Played by: Chip the cat
Elly's cat, a Scottish Fold she takes everywhere she goes in a cat backpack with a porthole.
- Cats Have Nine Lives: Aiden brings up that belief about him at one point.
- Fuzz Therapy: Elly can't be happier than when she works at home with him as sole company.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: He saves Aiden and Rachel from Ritter, but destroys his eyes, which they need, in the process.
- Serkis Folk: He's been CGI-ed for some action scenes since a normal cat wouldn't be able to pull it off (not to mention animal cruelty issues), most notably when he's thrown by Aiden from atop a building to demonstrate the safety of a jump from it to Elly and rebounds with a close-up to the camera.
- Team Pet: To the team formed by Elly and Aiden, although Aiden is actually allergic to cats.
- We Named the Monkey "Jack": Elly subconsciously named her cat "Alfie" after someone, her former boss she had fragmentary memories of, Alfred "Alfie" Solomon that is.
Alfie Solomon
Alfred "Alfie" Solomon
Played by: Samuel L. Jackson
Dubbed by: Thierry Desroses (European French)
Aiden Wilde's superior, a former CIA Deputy Director.
- Big Good: A former CIA Deputy Director and the main enemy of The Division.
- Cool Old Guy: An old former CIA director who loves French wine and is knowledgeable about it, and has a hidden base on a French vineyard.
Ritter
Ritter
Played by: Bryan Cranston
Dubbed by: Stefan Godin (European French)
The head of The Division who is pretending to be Elly's father
- Archnemesis Dad: Played With. He's not actually Elly's father, but he pretended to be for five years in order to learn what she knew.
- Bad Boss: Tends to blame his subordinates for everything going wrong and executes one with a casual shotgun blast while facing the other way.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Shares the main villain role with Vogler.
- Evil Mentor: What he actually is to Elly. While he'd brainwashed her and manipulated her into giving him the coordinates of the master file, he really did consider her a loyal agent and was planning to reinstate her after she'd been properly groomed, contrary to Aiden's belief that he was plotting to have her killed. That said, he did work with Vogler to create a contingency plan to outright brainwash her if she proved uncooperative, which Vogler ends up using when Elly reveals she was planning to backstab the Division the entire time.
- Eye Scream: His eyes are cut up by an angry Alfie (the cat).
- I Call It "Vera": He owns a shotgun called Clementine that used to belong to his grandfather.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Goes to kill Elly and Aiden personally while they're trying to access the Division's server, even though said server requires a retina scan from him. Subverted when Alfie the cat claws his eyes out.
- You Have Failed Me: In his first scene, Ritter shoots his underling for failing to capture Elly.
Ruth
Ruth Conway real name Dr. Margaret Vogler
Played by: Catherine O'Hara
Dubbed by: Nathalie Spitzer (European French)
Elly's mother. Actually a scientist working for The Division.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Shares the main villain role with Ritter.
- Evil Brit: Once she reveals her true nature, she speaks with a noticeable British accent.
- Evil Genius: She's a specialist in hypnosis and neural programming, making an amnesiac Rachel Kylle believe in fake family memories and turning her into a Manchurian Agent.
- Morally Ambiguous Doctorate: Her real name is Doctor Margaret Vogel. She seemingly is a specialist in neurology and all things related to amnesia and brainwashing, and uses all of that to nefarious ends in service of the Division.
Keira
Keira
Played by: Ariana DeBose
A former colleague of Aiden who perished on a mission.
- Attack on the Heart: She's killed when LaGrange fires at her while she's in her car, with one bullet piercing her through the heart. Except it actually missed her heart and just passed really close to it, which saved her life.
- Big Damn Heroes: She comes to save Rachel and Aiden (mostly the latter who was literally about to die) at the last second, wrenching Vogler to stop the brainwashing.
- Chekhov's Gunman: The opening scene details the circumstances surrounding her death on a mission as depicted in Elly's book, and Elly later reveals that a fan encouraged her to bring the character back by having her bullet wound rendered non-fatal. Turns out, Keira herself was the "fan", and arrives in the nick of time to incapacitate Vogler as she's brainwashing Elly in the climax, and further inspired Elly/Rachel to use the same trick to make the Division think that she killed Aiden.
- Dead Star Walking: Ariana DeBose is an award-winning actress but only plays an In-Universe fictional character who dies from a shot to the heart in the movie's opening scene, though said character is revealed to actually be a real person who actually survived her gunshot wound and comes back to save the day.
- Faking the Dead: Even though she survived her gunshot, nobody, not even Aiden, knew that she was alive. She stayed under the radar for the five years between her gunshot and the film so well that the Division didn't even seem to know.
- Not Quite Dead: A fan sent Elly a request to bring Keira back from her apparent death by revealing that she hadn't been shot in the actual heart but a small space nearby that would allow her to survive. Because .
- Spanner in the Works: Had it not been for her, Doctor Vogler would have successfully gotten Rachel to kill Aiden and the master file wouldn't have been sent to Alfie.
Bakunin
Bakunin
Played by: Stanley Morgan
A hacker who compiled the Master File both spy organizations (the Division and Solomon's agency) are after.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Took his alias from anarchist figure Mikhail Bakunin. The circle-A symbol on his notebook confirms it.
- Posthumous Character: He's already dead when the film starts.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Rachel Kylle killed him once his job was done.
Saba Al-Badr
Played by: Sofia Boutella
Dubbed by: Claire Morin (European French)
The keeper of the Master Key.
- Living Lie Detector: By her own admission, she's very good at spotting when someone is lying. Which makes her suspicious of Rachel Kylle, because Saba had watched Rachel in her Elly Conway persona for years and never saw a lie from her, making her question if Rachel really is Rachel.
- Secret-Keeper: Her actual title, Saba apparently runs a business keeping secrets for whoever can pay her and views divulging secrets to the wrong person as "an unforgivable sin". She's been entrusted with keeping the Master Key.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Rachel Kylle seems to have this relationship with her. She loses all suspicions when Elly begins insulting her.
Argylle's World
Argylle
Argylle
Played by: Henry Cavill, Louis Partridge (younger)
Dubbed by: Adrien Antoine (European French)
The superspy created by Elly Conway and eponymous hero of her successful book series.
- Author Avatar: In-Universe, Elly subconsciously created him after herself.
- Casting Gag: Henry Cavill famously auditioned to play James Bond in Casino Royale and he's remained a favorite in fan casts for the role ever since he came to prominence (including in Matthew Vaughn's opinion), then he played Napoleon Solo in The Man from U.N.C.L.E. Argylle channels both roles.
- Chick Magnet: According to Elly's hallucinations anyway. Whereas Aiden was fighting off a pair of female attackers at once, Argylle was instead making out with them.
- Decoy Protagonist: A good part of the marketing (the release poster in particular) would have you believe he's the hero of the story. He isn't, Elly and Aiden are, though the final trailer already implies this (the fictional/real world separation isn't made fully clear in it, that being said).
- Gender Flip: The real Agent "Argylle" is a woman. Not just any woman, he is a male version of Elly who turns out to be Agent Rachel Kylle.
- Hallucinations: Elly has hallucinations of him at times, particularly when she sees him fighting in the place of Aiden.
- Imaginary Friend: Elly sees him in hallucinations, and gets an advice from him at one point.
- Overt Operative: When he walks in at the nightclub where he'll find LaGrange in Greece, he's actually Lured into a Trap as everyone there already knows who he is. Aiden lampshades that "Male models in bespoke suits with ridiculous haircuts tend to stand out".
Wyatt
Wyatt
Played by: John Cena
Dubbed by: Xavier Fagnon (European French)
Argylle's colleague.
- Expy: In-Universe, he's one for Aiden Wilde.
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: His shirt when he's in the field in Greece, contrasting Argylle's suit.
- Super-Reflexes: Manages to catch LaGrange by the back of her dress while she's riding a motorcycle after she escaped Argylle.
LaGrange
LaGrange
Played by: Dua Lipa
Dubbed by: Audrey Sourdive (European French)
An enemy agent Argylle tracks down in Greece.
- Advertised Extra: Despite getting a decent amount of focus in the trailers and publicity from being played by a pop star, she dies in the opening scene, having poisoned herself.
- Better to Die than Be Killed: She opts to kill herself with a fast-acting poison once she's captured and interrogated by Wyatt and Argylle.
- Bilingual Bonus: Her name is from the French "la grange" (meaning "the barn"), which indicates it comes from another fragment of Elly/Rachel's memory, namely memories of Alfie Solomon's secret base hidden in a barn in France.
- Femme Fatale Spy: A seductive enemy agent Argylle is after.
- The Vamp: A seductress who initially helps luring Argylle into a deadly trap.
Fowler
Director Fowler
Played by: Richard E. Grant
Argylle's boss... and a bit more than that.
- Expy: In-Universe one for Ritter.
- Playing Both Sides: Turns out he's also LaGrange's boss, the head of the Directorate, Argylle's enemies.
