When Kingsman: The Secret Service hit cinemas a couple of years ago, for many it felt like a cheeky, retro blast of fresh air for an espionage genre mired in modern-day gloom, terror and seriousness. Matthew Vaughn’s comic book adaptation had a spring in its step and a tongue firmly placed in its cheek, with a whole brace of inspirations not far behind.
As Vaughn returns this week for the much-anticipated sequel, The Golden Circle, Set The Tape tunes into some of those key touchstones Vaughn, writer Jane Goldman and the rest of his team have mined for their franchise.
JAMES BOND
This is obvious, isn’t it? Bond has inspired so much over the past fifty years it almost seems pointless to mention, but you can’t have a conversation about Kingsman without talking 007. Vaughn is on record as a major Bond fan (even if his straight talking probably means he’ll never get to helm one), so much so he found a way to make an X-Men film half a 60’s Bond movie – no mean feat. Bond is everywhere in Kingsman; from the gadgets to the apocalyptic villain’s plan and his lair, the unusual henchmen, the overt sexual mores, and of course the emphasis on British suave couture.
And yet at the same time it feels as much an inversion as an homage, with Vaughn intentionally pushing the boundaries of down & dirty gags, backstories and outlandish storytelling in a way that makes it post-modern in its love affair with Bond. Some loved it for that and some, well… didn’t!
HARRY PALMER
When you think of Michael Caine and the Sixties, you probably either think of The Italian Job, Alfie or maybe even Zulu, but one of Sir Mike’s other iconic roles serves as a visible visual inspiration for Taron Egerton’s Eggsy – downtrodden British spy Harry Palmer, who Caine played first in The Ipcress File in 1965 and would go on to portray three more times over the next three decades, playing the character from Len Deighton’s adapted novels.
Though Kingsman is much brighter in tone and slicker in style, Harry Palmer’s suited and booted in spectacles look is very clearly something Vaughn, and of course original comic book writer Mark Millar, had their eye on when creating their template.
JOHN STEED
So we’ve talked about the inspiration on the character of Eggsy in terms of his gritty, London origins and eventual stylistic look, but what about Harry Hart, Colin Firth’s erstwhile Kingsman mentor? On the face of it, Bond serves as the obvious template, but honestly Harry has much more in common with John Steed, hero of The Avengers.
No, not *that* one, rather the 1960’s bonkers as butter British TV series which starred the late Patrick Macnee as Steed, a gentlemen spy for The Ministry, replete with bowler hat, umbrella and impeccable tailoring. Where Bond drinks hard, plays hard and swaggers about, Steed is the epitome of “manners maketh man” as goes Harry’s instantly iconic catchphrase, later adopted by Eggsy. The Kingsman style may be Bond, but the English gentleman cool is all John Steed.
THE MEN FROM U.N.C.L.E.
Ironically this kitsch example of 60’s espionage was recently given the big screen treatment, much like The Avengers was in the 1990’s (though we try not to talk about that), and from Vaughn’s mentor & alumni Guy Ritchie no less. The connections again are clear: suave American agent Napoleon Solo on international missions stopping world-destroying plots with his Russian partner, but in truth the inspiration lies more with how U.N.C.L.E operates as part of the UN, and independent organisation outside of specific governmental, bureaucratic oversight, which to a degree is how Kingsman seems to work.
Though The Man from U.N.C.L.E isn’t perhaps as heavy a touchstone for Vaughn as some of these other examples, there’s no doubt it factors in, and the period stylistics of Ritchie’s damn good recent update prove their films, and the show that inspired it, share more than a little DNA.
THE AMERICAN COWBOY
One of the most appealing new aspects of The Golden Circle looks to be the inclusion of the American version of the Kingsman – Statesman. Sure, the name is corny but no less so than the King and country basis for the English debonair espionage genre Vaughn is homaging and lampooning, and with Statesman he gets to do the same for American culture – given Channing Tatum, Pedro Pascal and Jeff Bridges are all very much dressed as modern cowboys more in line with the Old West than the new world.
This is intentional. Kingsman has always had one eye on class, culture and the fashion of espionage, with Eggsy moving from, essentially, a ‘chav’ to elegant spy in the first picture. The cowboy is synonymous in American culture with a level of derring-do, of rugged manliness, of men in hats on horses saving villages and rescuing damsels in distress – not a million miles away from the British example of tailored Savile Row gentlemen working for King or Queen and country. Statesman looks to be cleverly doing for American culture what Kingsman did, tongue in cheek, for classic British espionage.
Did we miss any inspirations here? And what did you think of Kingsman: The Golden Circle? Let us know here or on social media.