History Film / TheKingsMan

* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: [[spoiler: King George himself is one of the founding members of Kingsman]]

** President Wilson regularly drinks Statesman whiskey, a company that would later be turned into the Kingsman's American counterpart.

** While the historical accounts of Rasputin's death often vary, one thing that's generally agreed upon is that the mad monk ultimately drowned to death. Here, [[spoiler:while Orlando tries to drown Rasputin, ultimately this fails. Instead, Rasputin is killed [[BoomHeadshot with a headshot.]]]]
** Germany is stated to be blockading Great Britain and putting the UK at risk of being starved into submission. While the UK did see numerous maritime losses to German submarines, they were never in serious danger of being forced to capitulate. More over, ''Germany'' was being blockaded by ''England'' after the German navy was devastated at the Battle of Jutland, and this blockade is believed to be one of the major reasons that Germany surrendered.

* PrettyLittleHeadshots: When [[spoiler:Conrad]] is shot in the head with a full power rifle there's a spray of blood out the back but other that we see only see a small entry wound to the forehead.

* MoodWhiplash: The movie begins with some fairly comedic moments including childish insults between powerful heads of state and a wacky [[DanceBattler Dance Fight]] with Rasputin. The tone then shifts significantly to show the horror of the trenches in World War One [[spoiler:and Conrads death]]. The climax goes back to being a bit more lighthearted with an elaborate scheme to beat the bad guys involving some tongue-in-cheek action sequences.

** He wears a [[Literature/HarryPotter familiar-looking pair of glasses]] in a couple scenes and says "every time I killed someone, it killed a piece of me", similar to the concept of Horcruxes.

** The monarchs of the UK, Germany and Russia looking similar enough to be played by the same actor might strike viewers as an anvilicious way of showing WWI as a huge family squabble, but the truth is that at least George and Nicholas [[https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/84/Tsar_Nicholas_II_%26_King_George_V.JPG did indeed look so much alike they could pass of twins.]]

* [[spoiler:RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: King George himself is one of the founding members of Kingsman]]

* TragicKeepsake: [[spoiler:It is revealed that the entire Arthurian naming convention of Kingsman is this, twice over. Arthur, his knights and the way that the round table maintains equality between them is brought up in the prologue by Emily to explain to her son, Conrad, why their family supports the Red Cross shortly before her death, indeed just before the attack Conrad is fantasizing to Shola about their family as the characters of Arthurian legend, identifying Emily as Guinevere, himself as Lancealot, Shola as Merlin and Orlando as Arthur. Later, when switching places with Archie, Conrad's letter to Orlando uses the same Arthurian metaphor, setting up Orlando using he same naming scheme when he founds Kingsman.]]

* NeverTrustATrailer: The trailers for the movie seem to build up Rasputin as the BigBad and the story to be centred around the Kingsman organisation. In reality Rasputin is just one of the numerous historical villains taking part in The Shepherds evil scheme and the eponymous organisation is only founded at the very end of the movie.

* TheStinger: A mid-credits scene shows that [[spoiler:Erik Jan Hanussen has secretly become the new Shepherd, now building a new Flock group. He already has Lenin on his side, and welcomes someone credited as the "Moustached Man", who sports a familiar undercut as well...]].

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: For a film that dives fairly deeply into the politics and causes of the First World War, not even the ''word'' "France" is uttered throughout the entire movie. Nor the Ottoman Empire. Possibly justified by the movie being an AlternateHistory where perhaps France took no part, but that raises the question of where exactly the British are fighting during the scenes in the trenches.

** Orlando is given a Victoria Cross that was meant for [[spoiler:the late Conrad. This plays a key role in the final battle, when Orlando is holding Morton over a cliff by his cashmere scarf. When Morton believes that Orlando won't kill him, the latter proves him wrong by using the medal to cut the scarf, letting Morton fall to his death]].

* DoomedByCanon: [[spoiler:Given that it was established in the first movie that the Kingsman Agency was founded by men of wealth and power who had lost their heirs during WWI, Conrad was doomed the moment he decided to enlist.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:''"I know you want to fight, but there are other ways of doing your duty."'']]
->''"Real power is not found running off to war. Real power lies in understanding who it is you’re truly fighting, and how they can be defeated."''

** A young Conrad tells his mother that out of the Knights of the Round Table, he wants to be Lancelot. If you watched [[Film/KingsmanTheSecretService the past two]] ''Film/{{Kingsman}}'' [[Film/KingsmanTheGoldenCircle movies]], [[spoiler:you would realize that everyone who took the Lancelot position in the Kingsman organization died. As such, it tells us that Conrad won't make it out of this movie alive]].

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: Rasputin, as so often happens with him when he is depicted in media. In the film he is a warmonger pushing Russia into war, while the historical Rasputin opposed the war and it was the Tsar who was eager to fight Germany. Similarly, Tsarevich Alexei's condition is the result of Rasputin poisoning him so that he can "cure" him, as opposed to the historical Alexei who suffered from genetically-inherited hemophilia and which the historical Rasputin actually did have success in treating.

* ArtisticLicenseHistory: For a film that dives fairly deeply into the politics and causes of the First World War, not even the ''word'' "France" is uttered throughout the entire movie. Possibly justified by the movie being an AlternateHistory where perhaps France took no part, but that raises the question of where exactly the British are fighting during the scenes in the trenches. Nor the Ottoman Empire.