Roger: Hair colour? Johnny English: Um... (glances at a nearbybowl of fruit) ...orange. Pegasus: Orange? Johnny English: Mmm. And curly. Well, frizzy, actually. Frizzy sort of thing. Roger: Frizzy. Johnny English: An eye patch. Broken nose. Very few teeth. Two, I would say the most. And a scar on his cheek in the shape... (glances at the fruit again) ...of a banana. Roger: Which cheek? Johnny English:Both cheeks. They sort of met in the middle.
— Describing the "thief"
Johnny English is a film about the eponymous Clueless Detective-style Idiot Hero and his semi-Butt MonkeyHypercompetent Sidekick Bough and their adventures working for MI7. They form a unique team similar to the Straight Man and Wise Guy, only with levels of competence instead of seriousness. Oftentimes Johnny's juggling act with the Idiot Ball gets Bough, himself, or both of them, into troublesome or injurious situations, causing hilarity or reality to ensue.The movie is considered an Affectionate Parody of the spy movie genre, oftentimes hanging lampshades on several popular spy tropes, from Disposable Love Interest characters to the protagonist being an overwhelmingly confident and suavebadass. It features a hearty plateful of the Rule of Funny, a nice smattering ofslapstick, at least a gallon jug's worth of Genre Savvy, and even a light pinch of Self-Deprecation. And Rowan Atkinson.The plot is mainly focused around Johnny's attempts at rescuing Britain from the evil schemes of Corrupt Corporate ExecutiveBig BadPascal Sauvage. Sauvage has set in motion a complex plan, starting with the assassinations of all the spies in Britain with a bomb planted at a funeral. Fortunately, Johnny was a safe distance away, so now he finds himself promoted from a cheap low level agent to Designated Hero!Johnny soon finds himself drawn into Sauvage's scheme and vows to try and stop it, though he doesn't necessarily end up achieving a huge amount in the end via his own personal effort alone.A sequel, Johnny English Reborn, was released in 2011.The idea for the movie came from Atkinson's Barclaycard commercials from the 1990's about the misadventures of a (slightly) more competent, somewhat smug agent Richard Latham who scoffed at his Hypercompetent Sidekick Boff when the latter invariably solved each problem using his Barclaycard. About the only thing it has in common with the movies is that both characters worked for the fictional MI7 and are played by Rowan Atkinson. You can watch them here.For similar spy parody movie, see The Pink Panther. For a few with slightly more risque flavor, see Spy Hard and Austin Powers. For a more World War II flavored alternative, see Top Secret!.
Spoofed The Ironic Film Seriously: The second film received some criticism for this. The films present themselves as parodies of Bond films — all of which (with the exception of the Timothy Dalton and Daniel Craig films) are so over-the-top and tongue-in-cheek that the entire genre of "James Bond parody" is completely superfluous.
Johnny English
The Ace: Agent One. Unfortunately he is killed thanks to an oversight on Johnny's part.
The Aloner: Johnny after he is kicked off the investigation for awhile and spends time at home, moping about his failures and sinking into a pit of depression.
Almost Kiss: A hilarious one in the first movie when Johnny is yanked out of a plane by his parachute just as he's about to kiss the girl.
The Apprentice: At least, Johnny likes to think of Bough as his apprentice, showing off tricks or techniques in an attempt to impress him and be a role model for him. Often ends with hilarity.
Beard of Sorrow: The stubble kicks in fast when Johnny is suspended from duty.
Bits of Me Keep Passing Out: The title character wakes up from being sedated and insists on carrying out his mission infiltrating a posh soiree despite not having fully regained muscle control.
Brick Joke: After the credits, there's a scene of Lorna falling into a pool after being ejected from Johnny's car, with a man sitting by the poolside reading a newspaper. The man drops the newspaper to reveal that he is the man Johnny "created" earlier in the movie as an assailant.
Johnny and Bough attempt to catch Sauvage's Mooks after discovering them attempting to make off with the stolen Crown Jewels
Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys: "As far as I'm concerned, the only thing the French should be allowed to host is an invasion!"
Commander Contrarian: Pegasus spends a good portion of the movie dismissing Johnny's insistent claims that Sauvage is behind the plot.
Cool Car: The tricked out spy car that Johnny and Bough drive during the chase scene actually comes armed with a miniature Rocket Launcher... which would have gotten towed had Johnny and Bough not been able to commandeer the tow truck to chase down the mooks (see Chase Scene entry above). The rocket launcher comes in handy when a traffic camera takes a picture of the car (still suspended from the crane arm on the tow truck, incidentally) running a red light, and Johnny promptly blows up the camera.
Dumb Is Good: Johnny only ever falters in his noble pursuits to save Britain when he gets scolded by his bosses for his screwups. Sauvage never manages to fully intimidate or corrupt him.
The Evil Prince: Sauvage's family used to have a legitimate, if distant, claim to the British throne, which he views as taken from him unfairly.
Expy: Johnny is an Expy of a character Atkinson played in a series of Barclaycard adverts during the 1990s. The character of Bough was retained from the ads, but played by a different actor.
Failed a Spot Check: A lot of Johnny's incompetency is linked with this trope. Like not noticing the gaping hole in the middle of the crown jewel room and concluding that if there was one way the thieves couldn't have come from, it was the floor, just before nearly falling in.
Fake Action Prologue: English is right at the bottom of the secret agent ladder at first, but dreams of being a veritable James Bond in the beginning.
Johnny accidentally paralyzes a secretary, and talks to her unaware boss while she's being taken out of his office, and Johnny, of course, can see everything and does everything possible to make the guy not turn around. When next we see her, she's in a wheelchair, and pauses to glare at him.
The sequel uses this as well, except replace "tranquilizing your boss's secretary" with nearly killing your boss's cat.
Poor Bough embodies this trope, with a little smattering of Butt Monkey.
Idiot Ball: Johnny seems to be the exclusive carrier, though sometimes other characters take turns.
I Meant to Do That: He covers up his bungles with one of these more than once.
In Harm's Way / Fearless Fool: At several points in the movie Johnny brags about being fearless in the face of danger, and acts on these boasts a fair few times as well.
Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Johnny had made a fool of himself and didn't have the incriminating DVD; if Sauvage had just stayed calm he would have been crowned king.
Obfuscating Insanity: Johnny briefly pretends (thanks to the quick thinking of Bough) to have escaped from a mental asylum after interrupting a funeral thinking that the crown jewels were in the coffin. It was real.
Right Behind Me: "Allow me to introduce myself. Pascal Sauvage, jumped-up Frenchman."
The sequel has a Right in Front of Me when Johnny fails to recognise the Prime Minister who's seated right next to him. When the PM politely points out his error, Johnny sarcastically comments, "Yeah, right. In your dreams!" A deleted scene has him mistaking Pegasus for his old friends' Sexy Secretary.
Rule of Funny: Both movies are essentially fueled by this. There are some pretty serious plot holes, like "How would stolen crown jewels help Sauvage get crowned king?" or "Wouldn't a fake Archbishop of Canterbury be discovered really quickly?" But they're both necessary as setups to some pretty hilarious jokes.
Running Gag: Johnny's gun giving out on him in increasingly creative ways.
Toilet Humor: Johnny infiltrating Sauvage's castle via a primitive sewer line... and the result.
Tempting Fate: "You are now entering the most secure place in the whole of England." *Cue explosion*
Unfortunate Item Swap: Playing the DVD on which Sauvage explains his Evil Plan at the coronation would have been a great way to expose him... unfortunately, the DVDs get mixed up, and the guests are instead treated to Johnny dancing half-naked to "Does Your Mother Know".
The Unintelligible: Johnny after he accidentally injects himself with muscle relaxant and his facial muscles slowly stop responding. The villain, similarly injected with the relaxant, manages to understand what he is saying. Hilarity Ensues.
Villainous Breakdown: Sauvage stays cool when Johnny interrupts his coronation, knowing that he has no evidence against him. When he swings down and gets the crown away from him, he pulls a gun.
The Ace: Simon Ambrose. He turns out to be a double agent.
Acting Unnatural: When Tucker confronts the mole Ambrose at gunpoint in front of Johnny in a washroom, when an unsuspecting old man walks right in. This basically leads to the mole drying his hands, Tucker washing his hands and Johnny taking the same whiz continuously until he leaves.
Actor Allusion: Simon Ambrose turning out to be a traitor will not be a surprise to fans of 300.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: Johnny asks his guru what happens now he's completed his training. The guru replies that he has been communicating with a higher power — then reveals the phone he used to talk to Johnny's superiors in London.
Awesome Yet Practical: When Johnny English chases after a Chinese assassin. The moves he uses are hilarious.
His opponent climbs over a fence. Johnny opens the door.
His opponent climbs over an obstacle using flashy jumps. Johnny uses a ladder.
His opponent jumps across a gap and onto a building. Johnny uses a crane carrying a load of bricks to send himself across.
His opponent scales scaffolding to get down. Johnny uses the lift.
Boring, but Practical: How Johnny chases down the Chinese assassin while barely breaking a sweat.
Brainwashed and Crazy: The bodyguard of the president of Mozambique, and Johnny English himself, under the influence of a mind-control drug. Johnny recovers.
Funnier when you realise the villain from Die Another Day is also here, playing the prime minsiter, meaning both the villain and the Femme Fatale are both here playing good guys.
Combat Pragmatist: Johnny vs. the Chinese assassin. When the assassin does an incredibly complex series of martial art moves, Johnny stomps on a board, which shoots up and hits him in the groin
Cool Car: The Rolls-Royce Phantom that is given to Johnny upon his return to MI7.
Even cooler — that car is owned by Rowan Atkinson in real life. (Sans rocket launcher, regrettably)
Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: In a bit of an inversion, this movie shows Johnny as a very competent secret agent (aside from the occasional update that he missed while training in Tibet for five years, such as who the Prime Minister is or the fact that MI7 is now sponsored by a phone company) with just a few moments of Idiot Ball.
Darker and Edgier: People actually die, the stakes are higher, and while there is still comedy, the whole backdrop gives it that serious feeling.
Well actually, even the first one had deaths in it if you include all the agents except English dying in an explosion offscreen at the beginning. This one is barely more serious as it pretty much features comedy throughout the entire film.
Deadly Dodging: Part of Johnny's effortless curbstomp of a whole group of Chinese assailants.
Dungeon Bypass: Johnny uses a series of these to pursue a Parkour assassin without breaking a sweat.
Evil Old Folks: The killer cleaner woman. She tries to kill Johnny English thrice.
Failure-to-Save Murder: Johnny English is blamed for the murder of Mozambique's president. Of course, he was supposed to be guarding him at the time... But who could have predicted that his own bodyguard would be mind-controlled to assassinate him?
Fake Nationality: Johnny, already distressed at seeing MI7 outsourced to Toshiba, might have flipped if he knew his superior was played by an American (Gillian Anderson).
Five-Bad Band: The villains of the film appear to form one, even though we aren't told much about them.
Hero Stole My Bike: Johnny in the motorised wheelchair after getting set up by the actual traitor Ambrose, and shot in the leg by MI7, then forced to jack his crippled friend's ride.
Hidden Agenda Villain: The actual villains of the film have a very straightforward agenda - they accept money in return for killing people. What isn't very clear is why two of the erstwhile heads of said villainous group have changed their minds about it.
Hypercompetent Sidekick: Tucker follows Bough in this department, though not all the time. He displays in some scenes more competence then English, such as correctly pointing the right person to English, only for English to go to the wrong person; identifying the bulletproof umbrella as actually being a rocket launcher, and figuring out that Ambrose was the double agent. But in other scenes, he's even more incompetent than English. Talking on the phone to his mum, and not noticing that a sniper was meters away from him, about to kill their only lead, multiple times letting a enemy agent simply run past him before calling to English, rather then try and stop the agent himself.
Legacy Character: Pegasus. While this movie provides a Gender Flip for the character, both Pegasuses have the same function in both movies.
Line-of-Sight Name: Twice. When Johnny tries to bluff his way into a golf game with one of the antagonists, and Ambrose trying to bluff his way out of being exposed as a traitor.
Mood Whiplash: Johnny starts dancing to Cameo's Word Up ''right in the middle of assassinating the Chinese PM.
My Greatest Failure: Johnny's face undergoes complex spasms every time the screw-up in Mozambique is mentioned.
Oh Crap: Johnny has one when he realizes he just drank a glass of wine laced with the mind-controlling drugs.
Only a Flesh Wound: Johnny is initially crippled when he gets shot by the MI 7 agents in the church, forcing him to hijack Patch's wheelchair. One scene later, he's running around with no apparent disability.
Recurring Element: An old Chinese lady assassin who disguises herself as a cleaning lady kills the main members of the terrorist group Vortex. Aside from the attacks on Johnny and Vortex, she is also noticeable for one more little detail: Johnny ends up attacking other old women who he thinks is the assassin. This includes Pegasus' mother and the freaking Queen! And with a serving tray no less!
Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Kate checks CCTV footage recorded before an assassination, revealing an important clue.
Spoiler Title: This movie features Johnny cheating death after accidentally drinking the mind-control device that kills its victims. In the process, he is "reborn" by a kiss from Kate.
For similar spy parody movie, see The Pink Panther. For a few with slightly more risque flavor, see Spy Hard and Austin Powers. For a more World War II flavored alternative, see Top Secret!.
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