Argylle Ending Explained: Who's The Real Agent Argylle?
Contains spoilers for "Argylle"
In the vein of so many underrated spy movies, "Argylle" plays out like a spy thriller full of irreverent twists. The movie stars Henry Cavill as the titular spy, but in a brilliant subversion of expectations, it's really all about Bryce Dallas Howard's character Elly Conway. Elly is a famous novelist who's spent the last five years writing an elaborate series about espionage and shady organizations, but reality starts melding with fiction when she's pulled into a spy adventure of her very own.
Director Matthew Vaugn calls "Argylle" a date movie, and he's not wrong. There are plenty of eye-popping action sequences, but at its heart "Argylle" is about people and relationships. The movie tells a compelling story that leaves you wanting to learn even more about its character, but the ending leaves you hanging in the best way. In the last few minutes, "Argylle" shifts from being a twisty tale unto itself to being a mysterious junction between Vaughn's "Kingsman" franchise and something entirely new. If "Argylle" is your first exposure to this sprawling universe, you're bound to be a bit confused — but even longtime "Kingsman" fans had to be thrown for a loop by the one-two punch at the finale. We don't have all the answers, but we've got more than enough info to unpack what's really going on at the end of "Argylle."
What you need to remember about the plot of Argylle
"Argylle" is one of those movies where nothing is ever as it seems. The movie starts by introducing Elly Conway, a mystery novelist who lives a quiet life taking care of her cat Alfie and working on her world-famous book series about a spy named Argylle. Elly is currently working on the fifth and final installment of the series, but she can't think of an ending to Argylle's struggle against an evil shadow organization called the Directorate. The pressure is mounting on Elly to find a perfect ending, so she boards a train and heads toward her parents' house for a brainstorming session with her mother Ruth (Catherine O'Hara). That's when things take a sharp left turn.
On the train, Elly is approached by a man named Aiden (Sam Rockwell) who explains that he's a real-life spy. It turns out that the Directorate is real, and they're chasing Elly down because her books have been eerily predicting real-life events. Now Elly is on the run with Aiden, and together they're trying to hunt down the Master File that will reveal to the world everything the Directorate has ever done. Things get even stranger when Elly meets Aiden's boss Alfie (Samuel L. Jackson) and learns that she was once a spy named Rachel R. Kylle. After a mission went south, Elly was kidnapped by the Directorate and brainwashed into believing she was a novelist.
What happened at the end of Argylle?
As Elly and Aiden race to find the Master File, they start growing closer, and Aiden admits that before Elly was captured by the Directorate five years ago, the two of them were in love. Eventually, Elly and Aiden are captured by Elly's "parents" Ruth and Ritter (Bryan Cranston), who are some of the Directorate's top officials. Ritter brings Elly and Aiden back to the Directorate's secret base on an aircraft carrier in the ocean. Elly uses her history as Agent Rachel R. Kylle to convince Ritter that she's working for the Directorate.
Crafting an escape plan on the fly, Elly and Aiden take down dozens of the Directorate's best men. Elly's cat helps the two of them kill Ritter, and they make their way to the ship's main deck to get a signal that will send the Master File. Unfortunately, Ruth is still prowling around, and she uses a music box to trigger something in Elly's brainwashed mind. Elly starts trying to kill Aiden, but the two of them are saved by Keira (Arianna DeBose), a spy they worked with back in the day.
The battle is won, and the Directorate is exposed to the world. Elly reconciles her two identities, and with the perfect ending for the Argylle series now in mind, she publishes her final novel. At the novel's launch event, Elly's shocked to see a man who looks exactly like her mental image of Argylle except with a mullet — but before we get any answers about him, the movie cuts to credits.
What was the Directorate's real plan?
"Argylle" is purposefully vague about the Directorate. By the end of the movie, we don't really have any hard facts about the organization. We assume that Ritter and Ruth are at the top of its food chain, but we don't actually know for certain that they're the leaders. In this movie, the Directorate works as a sort of generic evil espionage group, but the ending gives us a little more insight into what the Directorate is really up to — and possibly what Elly and Aiden will be dealing with next.
About halfway through the movie, we learn that the Directorate used brainwashing techniques to convince Elly of her new identity. They wanted to use her books to find out more about her work with Alfie and Aiden, but the movie's climax shows us that's not all they planned to do. Ruth is able to use a music box to make Elly fight Aiden, and that has some terrifying implications for the Directorate's real plan.
The Directorate could be gearing up to take over the world. If brainwashing currently lets the Directorate turn trained spies into weaponized puppets, there's no telling what the group could accomplish if it had access to world leaders. Anyone's memories could be rewritten, and with a simple audio cue, the Directorate could alter the course of world events. At the end of the movie, Ruth and Ritter are dead, but those brainwashing techniques are almost certainly still out there.
Did Elly really get her memory back?
Elly's memory is at the center of everything that's happening in "Argylle." The Directorate wants to unlock her memories on its terms so it can take all of her secrets and use them to further its evil plan. Aiden and Alfie, on the other hand, want to restore Elly's memories so they can get their friend Rachel back. Elly herself is torn because she wants to remember her past, but she also enjoys being Elly Conway the novelist.
By the end of the movie, Elly has accepted both of her identities, and she's regained all her memories of being Rachel R. Kylle. At least, that's what she thinks. She might remember her relationship with Aiden and her fight against the Directorate, but the movie's final moment seems to be telling us that there's more to discover still trapped in Elly's mind.
When Henry Cavill's mysterious mullet-wearing character stands up at Elly's book reading, he already knows who she is, and he knows that she's going to have some questions for him. Could he be someone else from Elly's past? We know that Rachel R. Kylle had plenty of secrets, so Cavill's character could be tied to another of Rachel's missions that Elly just doesn't remember yet, which would explain why her mental image of Argylle also has his face. Things are never clear-cut in the world of international espionage, and the ending of "Argylle" seems to be hinting toward another surprising twist related to Elly's lost memories.
Why did Elly write the next Argylle book?
Because of the brainwashing plot thread in "Argylle," it might be tempting to think that Rachel R. Kylle is the "real" person and Elly is just a fake identity created by the Directorate. To a certain extent, that's true, but in a way, Elly always existed inside of Rachel. Aiden says as much near the end of the movie when he tells Elly that her kindness has always been a part of her, even when she was Rachel.
By the end of the movie, Elly has gotten back most of her memories, but that doesn't mean the five years she spent living as an author are meaningless. The last scene shows us that she really took Aiden's message to heart: she's not giving up on the last half-decade and going back to life as usual. The fact that she decided to go ahead and write the last book in her series shows us that Elly has truly accepted herself. She remembers her life as a hardcore spy, but she's allowing herself to keep enjoying her work as an author.
Fully accepting both parts of her identity could lead to some complications in the future. How Elly balances being a world-famous author with being a renowned spy could make good fodder for another "Argylle" movie. In this movie, though, what's important to see is that Elly couldn't find the perfect ending for Argylle until she unlocked her memories, and now that she has, her world is full of new possibilities.
Will Elly keep working as a spy?
"Argylle" doesn't show us much of what Elly's life is like after her big adventure with Aiden. The two of them blow up the Directorate's ship, and then the movie skips right ahead to Elly's book release. We know for sure that Elly is continuing to work as an author, but now that she remembers her life as Rachel R. Kylle, the real question is whether or not she's going to get back into the spy business.
Two moments at the end of the film might give us a clue here. First, there's Elly's big dance fight with Aiden on board the Directorate's ship. It's easy to get lost in the colors and wild choreography of the scene, but in a few close-up shots of Elly, she seems to be deeply happy. Clearly, Rachel was good at being a spy — otherwise, the Directorate wouldn't have been chasing her so intently — but Elly also seems to enjoy spy work. If it pairs well with her writing, why wouldn't Elly pursue another career?
The last scene in the movie also lightly indicates that Elly is truly living a double life. Elly's spy team is right alongside her at her book release event. Of course, Aiden was always going to show up to support the love of his life, but the fact that Keira is there too might indicate that the three of them are still working together. The movie's ending sets them up as a new team, and a sequel could give them a new adventure.
Who was Henry Cavill's real character?
Henry Cavill plays the titular Argylle, and throughout the movie, he appears as a figment of Elly's imagination. Sometimes he's playing out scenes from her books, and sometimes he's taking the place of Aiden or Elly herself when they're tapping into their spy expertise. Cavill is basically the embodiment of the perfect spy, which makes his appearance at the end of the movie extremely confusing.
The character that Cavill plays in the final scene of the movie isn't exactly the Argylle of Elly's imagination, but the two might turn out to have a lot in common. At the book reading, Cavill's character doesn't really look like a spy — he's wearing a t-shirt and sporting a goofy-looking mullet — but then again, Aiden didn't look the part at the beginning of the movie either. The fact that Cavill's character clearly knows Elly and realizes that she might have some serious questions for him is at least a hint that he's somehow part of the spy world.
The next hint comes during the movie's mid-credit sequence. We pick up at The King's Man bar (more on that later) where a young mulleted man introduces himself to the bartender as Aubrey Argylle. Something seriously fishy is going on, and this scene gives the movie one final twist. There's even more to Elly's Argylle character than we thought, and the ending of "Argylle" sets us up for another deep dive into a spy world mystery.
Is Argylle in the Kingsman universe?
You can add "Argylle" to the ever-growing list of movies that are part of a cinematic universe. That said, "Argylle" plays it coy and doesn't reveal that it's part of a larger universe until the mid-credits scene. Even then, the movie's big reveal actually brings up more questions than it answers.
In the scene, a young Aubrey Argylle shows up at the King's Man bar looking for some help. The bar has played a prominent role in "The Kingsman" films, which kicked off back in 2014. Since then, the original movie has gotten a direct sequel and a prequel, but it's not exactly clear how "Argylle" fits in with the other movies.
When Aubrey's singular scene ends, we see a title card that says "Argylle: Book One: The Movie. Coming Soon." The fact that the "Argylle" books are called out seems to imply that Aubrey's scene actually takes place inside of Elly's first novel. If that's the case, it's possible that Elly invented the King's Man, and that all of the "Kingsman" movies take place inside her imagination. Then again, if Cavill is supposed to be playing a real-life Aubrey Argylle at Elly's book reading, the entire situation gets even more complicated. It's clear that "Argylle" and "The Kingsman" are connected somehow, but the exact nature of their connection is going to be a secret for a little while longer.
What has Matthew Vaughn said about the movie?
We might not have all the answers about Elly's spy life, and we definitely don't know all the ins and outs of how she's connected to the "Kingsman" movies. What we do know, at least to a certain degree, is what comes next for this universe. Director Matthew Vaughn has been pretty clear about his plans for the future of this strange spy series.
Vaughn wants to dive into Aubrey Argylle's story in a big way, and he's already got some thought-out ideas for his next movie. The current plans for the "Argylle" sequel probably aren't what you'd expect. "Book one is about: how did Argylle become a spy?" Vaughn told GamesRadar. "That will be the next film." After that Vaughn hopes to make another film exploring how the younger version of Argylle becomes the Henry Cavill character that we met in this film.
Given Vaughn's plans for the future, all the surprises at the end of "Argylle" make a little more sense. We're gearing up for a longer story with several more movies already in the works to one degree or another. Assuming the next film is Vaughn's planned sequel, we might be waiting a while before we catch up with Elly, Aiden, and Keira.
Are we getting Argylle 2?
We know that Matthew Vaughn wants to make more "Argylle" movies, but it takes more than one person's determination to make a film. Looking at the likelihood of an "Argylle" sequel, there's both good and bad news. The good news is that several of the most important pieces are already in place. Vaughn has plans for at least two more movies, and stars like Bryce Dallas Howard and Henry Cavill have both said that they'd be willing to come back to help make those films a reality.
On the other hand, "Argylle" initially met with rough reception. It has a 34% score from critics on Rotten Tomatoes, which is the lowest of any of the "Kingsman" movies. Luckily for "Argylle" fans, the audience score is above 70%, so clearly crowds are disagreeing with critics here. Critically, both of the "Kingsman" sequels performed worse than the original, and so far that hasn't slowed the series down much at all.
Despite getting some bad reviews, there's a very good chance that "Argylle" will get a sequel. Vaughn clearly believes in the story that he's telling, and the stars seem to be sold on it as well. As long as the movie finds as many fans as Vaughn's previous projects did, "Argylle 2" will likely be here before we know it.