History Film / TheKingsMan

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Shepherd's sword has a gun built into the hilt. While this looks extremely cool the additional weight in the hilt would make the sword much more difficult to wield in a fight.

** The film portrays Wilhelm II, Nicholas II and George V as close in ages and having spent their childhood together under Queen Victoria, and that World War 1 is the result of feuds the three had as children. In reality Wilhelm was 9 years Nicholas' senior (And 5 year George's), and Nicholas only visited London once in his childhood. Wilhelm first met Nicholas when he was 16 at the later's coming of age ceremony - Wilhelm was 25 at the time. All three future monarchs grew up in their respective courts. Furthermore, when George was a child there was little expectation he'd be king, as he was behind his father and older brother Albert Victor in the line of succession. Albert Victor died of illness childless when George V was in his 20s so it's only then that it became apparent George V would inherit the throne.

** The film portrays Tsar Nicholas II abdicating the throne in front of Vladimir Lenin. In reality, the Tsar abdicated on a train coming back from the front. By then, Lenin had no direct involvement in the Revolution and was not even in Russia, being in exile in Switzerland. A provisional government took over, with Lenin taking power after a second revolution, in October 1917.

** One scene portrays Neuschwanstein Castle as if kaiser Wilhelm is ruling from there. Not only was Berlin the official capital and political center of the German Kaiserreich, Neuschwanstein was mostly a tourist attraction at that time.

* CyanidePill: The Shepherd's flock all have these concealed in Flock Rings. Gavrilo Princip attempts to take his after failing to kill Archduke Ferdinand, but gets another chance and is captured before he can take it, while Rasputin uses his to [[spoiler:poison Alexey Nikolavitch as part of his plan to withdraw Russia from WW1 so that Germany can focus on defeating England]].

* AlternateHistory: [[spoiler:It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment but when the assassination of Tsar Nicholas II and his family occurs, the assassin - posing as a photographer - appears to be Adolf Hitler; replacing the real life Communist soldiers and Bolsheviks who made up the execution squad that killed the Tsar and his family.]]

* ArtisticLicenseHistory:

* 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.

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

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** 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 as twins.]] George was first cousin to both Nicholas and Wilhelm, and the latter two were third cousins. Hence the uncanny resemblance is just, y'know, ''canny''.
** Germany really did propose an [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram alliance with Mexico]] in order to keep the United States out of UsefulNotes/WorldWar1. Making the Zimmerman Telegram was also a very difficult task, though not because of an international cabal of weirdos. The British needed it to be made public in a way that didn't let the Germans know the former had cracked the latter's cyphers.
** In keeping with the legends of his unkillability, Rasputin is poisoned, stabbed, shot, and drowned.

** He refers to a other man as "[[Film/TheGrandBudapestHotel darling]]" at one point as well.

** Its not [[Series/JohnAdams the first time]] Creator/TomHollander has played [[UsefulNotes/TheHouseOfHanover an English king named George.]] [[Series/TheLostPrince Or his first time playing George V.]]
* AdvertisedExtra: For all the build up Rasputin gets in the [[NeverTrustATrailer trailers]] and other marketing material he’s only a henchman to the real BigBad [[spoiler:and dies fairly early on in the movie.]]

* AmericaSavesTheDay: Zigzagged. America’s participation is shown as being vital to the Allies winning World War I, but the President and his ambassador are seemingly more concerned with preserving the integrity of the office [[spoiler:by not allowing his scandalous affair to become public knowledge]]. It’s only after [[spoiler:the incriminating evidence is retrieved by Oxford and his associates]] that the United States joins the fight.

* AwesomeButImpractical: The Shepherd’s sword has a gun built into the hilt. While this looks extremely cool the additional weight in the hilt would make the sword much more difficult to wield in a fight.

* BeenThereShapedHistory: [[spoiler: Rasputin's death comes at the hands of Orlando and Polly while the Zimmerman Telegraph is intercepted by Orlando's spies and and decoded by Polly.]]

* DragonAscendant: [[spoiler: TheStinger reveals that following Morton's death, Erik Jan Hanussen took over the remnants of the Flock as the new Shepherd.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: The Shepherd's tendency to kill and maim his goats for emphasis while making points to his followers comes back to bite him when [[spoiler: a goat he'd cut one horn off of previously stabs him in the leg with the other at a critical moment that allows Orlando to gain the upper hand in their fight]].

* {{Irony}}: In the middle of the movie, [[spoiler: Conrad was killed by mistake because he never bothered to replicate the [[OopNorth Scottish accent]] of the man whose identity he's assuming. Building up to [[ClimaxBoss the final fight,]] Morton's ability and success to stay hidden depended on his perfect portrayal of [[IAmVeryBritish the formal English accent,]] completely removing his native, heavy Scottish accent. Also ironic given Conrad's death was caused by his refusal to act as a General's secretary, a position the Morton exploits the run his Flock]].

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It is never explained how Rasputin heals Orlando’s injured leg, whether it is an actual mystical healing ability or some type of chiropractic muscle manipulation technique.
* MistakenForSpies: [[spoiler: Conrad changes papers and uniform with a Scottish soldier so that he could fight and the Scot could get the rear-line posting his father meant for him. Later on, a friend of the Scot who he switched places with calls him out for using another man's identity and shoots him as a suspected spy.]]
* MistreatmentInducedBetrayal: The goat who ends up with one horn due to the Shepherd cutting it off and killing its mate earlier. [[spoiler: It assists (eventually) Oxford in getting onto the plateau where the Shepherd's lair is, and in the final battle between Oxford and the Shepherd it impales the Shepherd's leg to allow Oxford to kill him.]]

** "Looking better, Your Grace." "Feeling Better, Polly."

* PreMortemOneLiner: "You’re right. I shouldn’t let you fall. Only now I have become the man [[spoiler:that my son would have been]]." [[spoiler:Cue Orlando using Conrad's Victoria Cross to make Morton fall to his death.]]
* RasputinianDeath: [[spoiler:The TropeNamer himself is poisoned, stabbed, impaled, drowned, and finally shot in the head]].

** More or less justified for the small-caliber pistol used against [[spoiler: Rasputin]].
** Less so when [[spoiler: Conrad]] is killed. There's a small entry hole, and a bit of blood is seen spraying from the back of his head. A .303 round point-blank like that would've had a similar effect on his head to a sledgehammer on a watermelon.
* ReasonableAuthorityFigure: King George V is the only one among monarchs (and presidents) who wants to avoid the war and then end it as quickly as possible. And [[spoiler: at the end he joins the Kingsmen]].
* RedHerring: [[spoiler: Archie is Scottish, sports a buzzcut, and is played by a name actor,]] all of which would seem to hint that he's the Shepherd. Not only is he not, he actually winds up [[spoiler: becoming Kingsman's first Lancelot]].
* RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething: [[spoiler: King George himself is one of the founding members of Kingsman]].

* ShoutOut: The poem that Conrad sends to his father and that later Orlando reads [[spoiler: at his funeral mass]] is "Dulce Et Decorum Est" by Wilfred Owen.

* SwordFight: Orlando and The Shepherd engage in a prolonged sword duel at the movie’s climax.

** [[spoiler: Conrad's killer; a Scottish soldier who shoots Conrad after discovering him impersonating the soldier's friend, who Conrad switch places with to avoid being assigned away from the front, and Conrad is too slow to explain what's going on.]]
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: It's never shown what happened to the soldier that shot Conrad, but it's likely there would have been an investigation and he likely would have been at the very least discharged - and given he murdered a duke's son, very likely hanged or 'had an accident' in prison. Even if he had been right he still executed an unarmed prisoner, one that may have had useful information]].

* YankTheDogsChain: [[spoiler: Conrad's death; having volunteered to join the mission to retrieve the remains of a spy who was cut down in No Man's Land, Conrad and his crew encounter a squad of German soldiers also attempting to retrieve the spy, Conrad not only survives the fight, but when the fight rouses the attention of the gunmen either side of the trench, Conrad is able to duck into a pit, avoiding the gunfire, where he happens upon the still-alive spy, whom he then attempts to carry across No Man's Land, only to be sent flying into the Allied trench. The spy dies but Conrad survives, as does the spy's vital intelligence, Conrad's securing of which gets him lauded as a hero... then, when asked his name he gives the name of the soldier he was impersonating to avoid being sent home, and a friend of said soldier, unaware of ''why'' he's using that name confronts him and suspecting him to be a spy, shoots him dead.]]

** Germany really did propose an [[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zimmermann_Telegram alliance with Mexico]] in order to keep the United States out of UsefulNotes/WorldWar1.

** 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 as twins.]]

* IronicEcho: In the middle of the movie, [[spoiler: Conrad was killed by mistake because he never bothered to replicate the [[OopNorth Scottish accent]] of the man whose identity he's assuming. Building up to [[ClimaxBoss the final fight,]] Morton's ability and success to stay hidden depended on his perfect portrayal of [[IAmVeryBritish the formal English accent,]] completely removing his native, heavy Scottish accent.]]

* KnifeNut: Heroic variant. Shola is an expert knife fighter and carries several blades on his person.

* IronicEcho: In the middle of the movie, [[spoiler: Conrad was killed by mistake because he never bothered to replicate the [[OopNorth Scottish accent]] the man whose identity he's assuming. Building up to [[ClimaxBoss the final fight,]] Morton's ability and success to stay hidden depended on his perfect portrayal of [[IAmVeryBritish the formal English accent,]] completely removing his native, heavy Scottish accent.]]

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: [[spoiler: It's never shown what happened to the soldier that shot Conrad, but it's likely there would have been an investigation and he likely would have been imprisoned, at worst and, at best, discharged for essentially murdering a duke's son. Even if he had been right he still executed an unarmed prisoner, one that may have had useful information]].

* {{Kaiserreich}}: Kaiser Wilhelm II is portrayed as an complete imbecile whose insecurities about his cousins make easy to manipulate by the film's bad guys. In contrast with the German shock troops seen on the front are frighteninly efficient and carry ahistorical retractable blade devices as trench weaponry.

** During the Afghan Wars, Orlando slashed a soldier's neck in front of a mirror. Blood spatters on the mirror's left side, leaving the other side clean. During this shot, Orlando sees his bloodied self and finds himself at a literal crossroads. Either he continues spilling blood for his country, or he puts down his sword and saves lives instead.

* CreepySouvenir: Both trailers show a human skull with a German helmet and cigarettes in its mouth that's been put on the wall of a British trench.

* TheEdwardianEra: Both trailers feature 1910s fashion and cars as well as the devastation surrounding World War I.

* SwordCane: Orlando carries a stylish cane with a blade hidden in its length as shown in the trailers.

** Orlando is given a Victoria Cross that was meant for [[spoiler:the late Conrad]]. This plays a key role in the final battle, when [[spoiler: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 cutting the scarf with the medal, sending Morton to his death]].

* DecoyProtagonist: The movie seems to be setting the stage for Conrad's story [[spoiler:only for him to die about halfway through]] after which focus shifts to Orlando.

* EnemyRisingBehind: After Rasputin is seemingly drowned, the heroes start tending to their injuries as the mad monk rises out of the water behind them... only to get shot in the head.

** Rasputin fixing Orlando's leg allows him to go into the field and defeat The Shepherd.

** Given that the Red Revolution was basically a backup plan by The Shepard to get Russia out of the war, killing Rasputin, who was there to do just that, has a ripple effect that influences the course of history for decades, and indirectly leads to the United States involvement in Vietnam, the rise of the Taliban and 9/11. [[note]]Mainly due to it influencing the Red Scare and Cold War thus leading to a proxy war between the United States and the Soviet Union in Afghanistan which in the aftermath led to the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan as well as the rise of Al Qaeda.[[/note]]

* PreMortemOneLiner: "You’re right. I shouldn’t let you fall. Only now I have become the man that my son would have been." [[spoiler:Cue Orlando using Conrad's Victoria Cross to make Morton fall to his death.]]

* FakingTheDead: [[spoiler:In the third act, Morton reveals that he faked his death from the torpedo fired at Kitchener's ship. He faked being seasick to escape on a small boat]].

* RuleOfSymbolism: Orlando's change to pacifism during the Afghan Wars happened after he slashed a soldier's neck in front of a mirror. Blood only spatters on the mirror's left side, while Orlando sees his bloodied self and wonders what kind of murderer he's become. He is at a literal crossroads with two important choices: war or pacifism.

* 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.