An interesting take on Kingsman: Golden Circle

Today I went and watched Kingsman: Golden Circle at the movies. Prior to this, I have been avidly watching videos on Gaia about a variety of subjects - and one was around how movies contain certain subtle (or not so subtle) messages. A number of movies were discussed like Batman, Inception, 2001, MK Ultra, etc and Kingsman - the first movie. After this I was interested to see if I could pick up on subtle themes or messages from Kingsman: Golden Circle.

For those who haven't seen it, I suggest that you stop reading this now and come back when you've watched it (although I will try to avoid spoilers as much as possible). Here are a few things I picked up from the movie that is currently playing out in the world (btw - this is my opinion only so if you don't agree that's fair enough):

1. The War on Drugs: In the movie, the main "baddie" has laced drugs with a some sort of disease and this has spread to most people around the world. She gets the US president on the phone (saying that he represents the world given that she thinks the European government are essentially idiots) and gives him an ultimatum - legalise drugs and tax them like alcohol otherwise everyone affected by the disease will die. In today's society, there is a BIG push to legalise certain drugs like medicinal cannabis. Further, there is the big argument out there that things like alcohol are worse than drugs in terms of their affects on the body so why is that legal and things like "recreational" drugs aren't? As a side note, there is a scene where the main baddie "Poppy" makes a comment about how sugar is really terrible for your health and has worse reactions on your body than drugs. Go figure.
2. Politics and Media Manipulation: The movie focuses on what the US president's response is going to be in relation to the ultimatum given by Poppy. The US president ends up taking the "higher moral" ground which is essentially "Let's issue a statement to say that we will meet the ultimatum and save everyone but actually I'm happy for them all to die as drugs are evil. I've won the war on drugs!". He says this seeking approval for these strategy from 2 of his advisors - one male, one female. The male one agreed fervently. The female one, less so.. she asks "But what about all the innocent people?". Fast forward it a bit and you see the message being played on the media how the US president is amazing and is saving so many people, etc whilst behind the scenes he seems like a complete *cough*prick*cough*. Sound familiar?
3. The Rise of the Feminine: Here we have an antagonist who is a female who is downright crazy. She has built up a drug empire and pretty much is a very successful business woman but no one knows about her and she's had to essentially hideaway in the mountains (which looks like an old Inca site which has been essentially destroyed to make it look like an American fun park). She has now become fed up that no one has recognised her so decides to unleash her ultimatum on the US president (who she views is the power house of the world). On the other side, we have Halle Berry's character, who is essentially the "brains" and "tech" behind the Statemen's (US equivalent of Kingsmen) operations. She makes a comment that she tried to put her hand up to become a field agent but was voted down each time by a particular male character (who ends up actually not on the "right" side).  The next character of note is the female adviser to the president. It ends up that she also takes the drugs in order to help her get through the 20 hr gruelling day working for the president and she's the one trying to save everyone. Once this comes out, the president has no empathy for her plight, calls her email and sends her on her way to die. At the end of the movie, she is the whistleblower responsible for putting the president behind bars and Halle Berry once again makes a case to be an agent, for which she is welcomed by the rest of the men.
4. Use of Fear to Control: This has probably been done to death but again it was using the whole "fear for one's life" sort of thing in order to control people... either that or make robots so they don't feel anything and just act on orders. To me using the fear to control can be equated to the whole "terrorism" and loss of privacy. The robots can be linked to how a lot of people now are pretty much just programmed not to question, just do as they are told, etc. That said, I feel that more and more people are beginning to fight against this sort of thing and questioning a LOT - which is fantastic. It is almost like the use of "fear" or a "robotic society" in order to control the world is a way of control that is beginning to lose a lot of ground. HOORAY!
5. The Suppression of Emotion: There were a number of times throughout the movie where Eggsy is told to essentially suppress his emotions so he can get on with his job. This sounds familiar in a lot of corporate environments doesn't it? The good thing is that I believe Eggsy actually channels his emotions in order to finish the job.. but it does show that people showing "emotion" are seen as "weak".
6. Meat vs Veganism: This wasn't a BIG theme but I thought it was quite interesting. Essentially, Poppy orders one of her new recruits to kill someone by putting him through the meat grinder. Poppy then takes the new mince meat to make a hamburger patty and then orders her new recruit to eat it.. where he looks at it in disgust and follows through with it (most likely in fear for his life). To me it symbolises man killing animals and using them for meat without any real thought about the feelings of the animal whatsoever. There's also a cartoon that's going around on Youtube and Facebook about how man has just completely destroyed Mother Earth and shows how we are killing all the animals for our own gain sort of thing. The funniest thing closer to the end of the movie is that the password to set off all the drones to fly antidotes to the sick people of the world is "VIVA LAS VEGAN".

So there you have it - I'm sure there were more themes that were tucked away but these ones were the most obvious to me! Maybe this might make you look at other movies from a different perspective.. sometimes the messages are actually given to us in plain sight - if we only just take the time to listen to them (haha doesn't that sound familiar... ;)).