What Does the End of ‘Argylle’ Mean for Elly?

Argylle is here and now we all have some questions. The latest film from Matthew Vaughn gives us a look at the life of Agent Argylle, as written by Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard). But everything isn’t as it seems in Elly’s life when it becomes its own spy story.

Elly has written numerous novels about Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) and his missions to find the “silver bullet” and take down the Directorate with his partner, Wyatt (John Cena). Argylle learns that the Directorate—the spy organization he used to work for— wants him dead when a mission with LaGrange (Dua Lipa) comes to an end. That is where we leave off this latest chapter of the Argylle series at the very start of the movie.

Cutting from the action of the novel to the “real world” at a book signing and reading from Elly, we are transported into her reality as a writer who loves her cozy sweaters and her cat. But all that is upended when Aidan (Sam Rockwell) tells her that her novels are not just a work of fiction.

Spoilers for Argylle lie ahead and shhhh keep the secrets.

As Elly comes to realize that she is the actual Agent Argylle, we watch as she learns all about her past life as Agent Rachel Kylle. Slowly remembering that Argylle’s missions were her own, with Aidan serving as her Wyatt at her side, we get to the end of the movie with the real-life Directorate, known as the Division, being taken down.

Elly remembers who she is as Rachel Kylle, just in time to be brainwashed by the doctor she once thought was her mother (played by Catherine O’Hara) using an activation phrase and a music box. On the verge of killing Aidan, the team is saved when another one of Elly’s characters reveals herself: Keira (Ariana DeBose). It’s clear Elly’s creation of the Argylle novels is a way to recreate people and moments from her past.

She cast herself as Argylle, Aidan is her Wyatt, but Keira always remained the same. In Elly’s books, Keira is presumed dead but Elly had plans to bring her back after a fan sent her in a great theory. We learn in these final moments that the “theory” was just what happened to actual Keira.

After breaking the music box that had hypnotized Rachel, the team all leave on a boat together (including Elly’s cat, Alfie).

What does the final moment mean?

As the team is sailing away, the film cuts from Argylle, Wyatt, and book Keira all in the boat together, and we’re transported back to Elly at a book signing. This time, there is no threat of a secret spy coming to get her and all the characters we’ve met along the way are there to see her reading. That does, however, include a twist.

A man raises his hand during the post-reading Q&A and says to Elly that he’s sure she has some questions for him. That man is Henry Cavill with a mullet and an American accent. What exactly does that mean?

Tied to the post-credits scene set 20 years earlier, in which a young Agent Aubrey Argylle goes to a pub called The King’s Man, there are some unanswered questions left to us in the final moments of Argylle. So now we need to know: Was there an actual man named Agent Argylle? Did Elly know him as Rachel and she just forgot because of her brainwashing? We have questions!

(featured image: Universal Pictures)