Argylle arrived in theaters on February 2nd and is quite the twisty spy action comedy from director Matthew Vaughn. Though the numerous plot twists make up a large part of the appeal, the story was already spoiled back in 2021.
**Spoilers for Argylle ahead!**
The film follows Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), a reclusive author who has written a best-selling series of spy novels focused on Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill). However, her quiet life with her cat, Alfie, is turned upside down when she learns that the events of her novels are somehow coming true in real life. The idea that she’s some kind of fortune teller puts her on the radar of a criminal organization, Division, which needs the unwritten final chapter of her fifth novel to reveal the location of the coveted Masterkey. As a result, she is sought out by Agent Aiden Wilde (Sam Rockwell), who takes her on an adventure to find the Masterkey before Division.
Argylle may very well be in the running for the movie with the most plot twists ever, as nothing is ever as it seems. Arguably the biggest twist is the identity of the real Agent Argylle. Conway learns that her novels are so close to reality that her characters even have real-life counterparts. Additionally, it’s revealed that Conway often imagines Argylle speaking to her throughout their adventures. Needless to say, the most burning question in the movie is: Who is the real Agent Argylle?
Agent Argylle’s identity was leaked in 2021
Partway through the movie, Alfie (Samuel L. Jackson) drops a massive bombshell when he reveals the real-life Argylle is Elly Conway. Suddenly, everything falls into place as viewers realize she wasn’t predicting the future in her books; she was writing down repressed memories from when she was Agent Rachel R. Kylle. It turns out Kylle suffered an accident during one of her missions, leaving her with severe amnesia. Hence, the Division used this opportunity to brainwash her, giving her the identity of Conway and coercing her to write everything she knew in her books.
For many viewers, it’s a clever twist they didn’t see coming. However, others—especially those who follow film industry news—will already know that Conway is Argylle due to an almost three-year-old plot leak resurfacing. Back in 2021, The Observer revealed the film’s biggest twist. The outlet was trying to give a synopsis of the film as described by “sources” but instead ended up spelling out the Conway/Argylle bombshell.
“Vaughn is set to direct a new movie about a best-selling spy novelist who turns out to be a world-class spy suffering from amnesia,” the outlet wrote. The popular X (then Twitter) account DiscussingFilm shared the article and put the spoiler in its caption, with the post earning 1.2k reshares.
Of course, at the time, no one knew that this was a massive spoiler, and it’s unlikely that a large number of people suddenly remembered reading that 2021 synopsis while watching the film this year. According to Dexerto, though, most of those 1.2k reshares have occurred recently, with fans excited to share this unusual nugget of information. However, most are resharing with no spoiler warning. Hence, the rediscovery of this leak has caused a lot of recent spoilings.
Director Vaughn hasn’t responded to the leaking of the plot, so it’s difficult to know how this happened. Since The Observer indicated it received the plot from insiders, it seems someone attached to the film leaked the plot twist. Shooting on the film hadn’t even begun and the novel was far from being written, so it’s possible whoever leaked it didn’t know that the information would become Argylle‘s biggest plot twist.
The moral of the story is that if someone is working on a film or book where an enormous portion of the story is plot twists, everyone needs to remember to be very, very careful when figuring out how to word the synopsis. Fortunately, the film seemed to make up for this flub by determinedly keeping the identity of the real-life Argylle author a secret up until the film’s premiere.
(featured image: Universal Pictures)
