- A Flash Back shows Tequila was the first one into the church Kentucky to investigate the aftermath of Valentine's sim card-carried Hate Plague test... most of which Harry killed with his bare hands. He knows, more than any other Statesman, that the survivor is a walking buzzsaw. This explains why he's so suspicious of the Kingsmen when they showed up, and fully prepared to shoot Harry through the two-way mirror; he's been nervous about that guy for the past year. He's also revealed to be a drug user when he gets the Blue Veins; after seeing all of that, he's probably started using just to keep his nerves calm because in his experience, only a Statesman can do that kind of damage, and no-one knows who the hell Harry is. All of this could also explain the relative lack of judgement from his fellow Statesmen for the aforementioned actions. He's a bit unstable, but he's got more reason than most, and is still good enough to beat the crap out of Eggsy and Merlin at the same time. That's a lot of justification for a guy who spends most of the film in medical or in a cryogenic tube.
- Seems like it hasn't been the first time Agent Ginger Ale has applied the special nanite repairing gel over Agent Whiskey's head, considering she already had the photo ready to shock his memory.
- Also probably explains his implied Jerkass behavior to her: everytime he's brought back, Ginger always shows him the photo and he's forced to face the trauma of his wife's death again and again.
- Which probably also helps reinforce his grudge towards drug addicts each time, leading to him supporting the President's agenda.
- Also, remember that Harry had mental issues after recovery. Whiskey denies having any similar problems when Eggsy tries to convince him, but who knows how aware of his condition he could be? If Whiskey has been shot in the head enough times for Ginger to be fully prepared with a trigger, who knows how far damaged his mind's already been?
- Ginger Ale's code name: ginger ale is often used as a replacement for alcohol in social situations, but with undertones that mock the drinker for not drinking booze; this implies that the head of the support staff is not quite equal to the alcohol-named agents. On the other hand, ginger ale is also a common mixer: it adapts the alcohol to the drinker's preference, but isn't the main reason anyone drinks a cocktail.
- Given his Freudian Excuse, it's likely Whiskey kept voting against Ginger Ale becoming a field agent because he didn't want to see a woman close to him (even if only a coworker) die again.
- Further, it could just be a sign of the generation he was raised in. There seems to be at least one female Statesman at the end, but she may have attained the position before Whiskey was selected.
- That Statesman was able to recover Galahad so quickly because his incapacitation happened in Kentucky of all places. Kingsman basically sent Galahad straight into the middle of Statesman turf. In fact, he was only 11 miles away from Statesman HQ when he was shot.
- At first, Merlin's Heroic Sacrifice could be seen as a Stupid Sacrifice, as Harry and Eggsy could have found a rock, or something else that could hold the landmine that Merlin was standing on in place. But, one must consider an important factor in the agents' plan: time. All around the world, those who were infected by Poppy's drugs were in the third stage (paralysis), including Eggsy's friends, Tequila and Tilde. Eggsy and Harry needed to reach Poppy's suitcase and release the antidote as soon as possible, before the victims' eyes literally pop, and trying to save Merlin would have caused the death toll to be unnecessarily higher.
- But Merlin could've simply said he stepped on a land mine and gotten the guards to deactivate it to take him in. Considering the other two agents gun down several dozen in a couple of minutes immediately afterwards, was taking down the first six with the mine really necessary?
- ...at which point they'd realise he must be some kind of spy with all the gadgets and gear he probably has on him, as well as just plain wondering who he is that managed to find them in their secret headquarters. The minute they got close enough to figure that out, they'd start combing the trees for any backup he might have brought. Either way, Eggsy and Harry would've been found eventually, and as said above, they don't have the time for these things
- Poppy's implied psychopathy makes sense given her idiot ball plot moments she couldn't accurately judge what others would do or realize bad decisions by feel.
- Barack Obama was shown to be one of the people in league with the villains in the first movie. However, The Golden Circle uses a generic, fictional President, rather than real world President Donald Trump. This was probably because the US election was uncertain during filming, but lines up perfectly in-universe. As a billionaire celebrity, the movie 'verse Donald Trump likely also had his head blow up at the climax of the first movie, well before he could be elected President. That, or he (along with Hillary) was attacked by armed Secret Service agents...
- If either of the Galahads had decided to be the new Whiskey, they probably would have corrected the spelling in memory of Merlin.
- The contents of the Kingsmen's Doomsday Vault make a certain degree of sense on the face of it: You'd probably need a strong drink under those circumstances.
- The contents of the Statesman's vault also make sense. The Kingsman Umbrella would be useful for the inevitable funeral in the rain, but it also is a weapon. While the British proper thing to do in the event of a comrades death is to raise a glass, the American thing to do is go out, find the bastard who killed them, and put him in his own grave.
- The use of "Rage and Serenity" during the scene where Harry regains his memory makes a certain amount of sense when one compares the two scenes in which they are used. Both involve the protagonist invoking The Power of Love (particularly focusing on a familial/paternal bond) to unlock a hidden aspect of the deuteragonist that makes them stronger in the long run. For bonus points, the track's title fits the scene to a tee; Harry is enraged when Eggsy pulls a gun on the Mr. Pickles lookalike, but this quickly gives way to calm the more he remembers.
- It's unknown how much thought was put into this music choice, but it is perfect on so many more levels. In X-Men, the music is used during scenes where Erik unlocks his true power- which Charles tells him he can only do by focusing on memories that hold both anger and peace. Later in the movie, Harry admits that he's never had human connection before (possibly barring Eggsy), so Mr. Pickles was probably the only one Harry ever loved. The moment he remembers is the moment where he starts to regain his "true power" as a Kingsman agent.
On a more hilarious note, both franchises contain huge amounts of Ho Yay between their male leads in spite of the numerous female love interests around, and both scenes using this music evoke that.
- The President being so radically right wing makes sense when you consider that Obama was complicit in Valentines plot in the first movie. It's likely the left in America took a massive nose dive in popularity after this revelation.
- One wonders how the American political landscape will look now given the events of this movie. Probably a rise in third parties now that both sides were proven corrupt
- Why did Harry manage to survive his Headshot, you wonder? Because remember Valentine hated death and blood, and if you watch closely, he looked away and flinched when he shot, so the possibility of him missing the shot is high in and of itself.
- It also helps that, in the first movie, nobody actually checked to make sure he was dead.
- Harry's lack of shooting accuracy could be explained by his lack of depth perception from only having one eye.
- Why is Fox News featured so prominently in lieu of the traditional news montage with many different sources? 20th Century Fox made the movie and doesn't want to give free publicity/doesn't want the rights to other brands of news. Also, because even Kingsman need a bit of Product Placement, especially product placement related to the Fox brand.
- How does Tequila know that he can use Eggsy's watch to stun him? Because Statesman had already encountered a man in similar attire who was wearing a watch with that functionality. In other words, this detail foreshadows the reveal in the next scene.
- Why is Whiskey the one to pull Harry out of the bar fight, while Eggsy and Merlin just sit there and watch him get beaten? Because his friends know perfectly well what Harry used to be capable of and are expecting him to find his footing soon. Whiskey, on the other hand, does not have that background knowledge, plus he already demonstrated his condescending "watch and learn" attitude in an earlier scene.
- Elton John was kidnapped during the rash of disappeared celebrities that accompanied Valentine's plan in The Secret Service, which happened over a year before the events of The Golden Circle. Poor guy was at the whim of an insane psychopath the whole time while the rest of the world most likely believed him dead and never would've searched for him, let alone rescued him.
- Even worse. Those assuming he was killed and was one of the celebrities abducted by Valentine probably thought he was one of those who approved Valentine's plan.
- The novelisation includes a brief reference to that; after he and Harry have destroyed the robot dog, Harry reflects that he always liked Elton's music and is glad to learn that the man wasn't a Valentine supporter after all.
- So now America has two Presidents in a row that willingly support mass genocide of people they think don't deserve to live, the first being the mass population of the world, the second being drug users across the world. How's that gonna look for international image? (Though there were a number of other world leaders who notably supported Valentine, like the Swedish Prime Minister, and a news broadcast indicates that at least some world leaders supported the refusal of the antidote.)
- Not to mention, what does it say about the voters and/or the current state of American politics? Either the American people actively desire these kinds of sociopaths, or things are so screwed up that they're legitimately the best options that the voters have.
- While it is a good thing that The Kingsman had the Doomsday protocol to fall back on this time, what happened to all the Statesmen (and their considerable resources) during the Valentine incident? Were they part of the furor, much like Harry was in the church during the testing phase?
- Presumably after they got wind of Valentine's plan from Harry's glasses footage, as well as their prior detection of the low-frequency signals, they took appropriate countermeasures, recalling all active agents and holing up in a bunker. Plus they probably never needed the SIM cards in the first place due to their considerable resource.
- The towers of rounded up drug users in cages is not only a horrifying visual, the unseen implications could keep you up at night. People at the bottom die, and the smell of the body rises up to everybody above, and cannot be easily removed. People at the top die, and everybody below is topped with their blood and liquid brain mass, paralysed to the spot. The bottom cages were put in place first, sure. But this doesn't reflect the order of people dying in any way.
- Plus, these people do still have to pee and poop. Imagine that.
- The situation of some of the drug users gets considerably worse when you think about it. A small percentage of them could have taken up drug use after they lost their loved ones, jobs, etc, to Valentine's hate plague.
- Not to mention the ones who were drugged forcibly by would-be date rapists, kidnappers who incapacitate their captives, pimps who dope up their prostitutes to control them, etc.
- The third stage paralyses all of the patients muscle movement. How are they breathing?
- As explained by Poppy: Not for very much longer. Once the muscles required for respiration seize up, they asphyxiate. The real question is just what causes them to start hemorrhaging after that, beyond the production team's love of the occasional over-the-top gore?
- Poppy feeds Angel his friend's minced remains. Consuming human flesh massively increases your chances (however small if the human in question was healthy) of developing a prion disease, since it's possible that a person has prions but isn't symptomatic yet. There's no way Poppy would be able to use a grill hot enough to denature a prion. It's very unlikely that she wouldn't know about the risk... proving that she really, really doesn't care about her henchmen.
- The burger also probably included bits of bone, teeth, internal organs, brains, etc. It most likely wasn't a very good burger even before considering it being made from Angel's late friend. And he's eating it right after having his teeth worked on without anesthetic. Ouch.
- For the Evulz, I reckon.
Fridge Logic can be discussed appropriately on the Headscratchers page
