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I’m not going to spoil any of the plot twists in Argylle in this piece. I could, and others certainly already have, but the answers mean less than the questions here. Some movies fall apart when you know the big reveal, but Argylle is a movie made out of surprises. There are few positive qualities Apple and Universal could have used to promote the film beyond the twist of the title role. Argylle‘s marketing set it up for failure.
Argylle Twists Itself into a Pretzel
A successful subversion of expectations requires an audience to develop expectations. If you want me to gasp when a character does something evil, I must first know, believe, and care that the character is good. Argylle wants you to watch three or four characters switch moral sides again and again without losing interest. Almost everyone who matters in this movie will, at some point, appear as a positive and negative force in the plot. Argylle‘s marketing featured Samuel L. Jackson promising a chance to meet “the real Agent Argylle.” That reveal is its trump card. They think we’d be so excited to learn whether Henry Cavill is fictional within the narrative that we’d see the movie. That prominent line from the trailer is only part of this bizarre gimmick. Argylle based its entire marketing strategy on a twist that few would bother worrying about.
Matthew Vaughn packed Argylle with gags at its own expense and references to other projects. So much of the film features a cat in a bag, if only so they can reference letting it out. Bryce Dallas Howard’s Elly Conrad spends most of the narrative asking questions everyone else knows the answer to. It’s a mess of reveals, one turn after another without a break. Vaughn is trying to create a world in which nothing is certain. We should be on the edge of our seats, terrified that a character might turn to the dark side for good this time. I wasn’t, and you probably won’t be, either. Building a movie out of twists has the same problem as selling one on its reveals. A twist only works in an engaging story. Moreover, it only works as long as the reveal is a surprise.
Argylle Wasn’t Always Sold on its Twists
I, and a few million other unsuspecting Twitter users, had Argylle spoiled for me before it came out. Universal and Apple announced the film with an article in Deadline that reached social media through Discussing Film. Their headline explained the central twist in a few words, but its cast list was incomplete. Henry Cavill went unmentioned in the initial reveal. I’m no insider and have no evidence to back this up, but I firmly believe Cavill’s introduction changed the marketing tactic. Cavill is front and center in the poster, trailers, and media surrounding the film. You could blink three times while watching the official trailer and miss John Cena. Henry Cavill is the centerpiece, but he’s in the movie about two minutes longer than in the trailer. I believe his inclusion and megastardom led Apple and Universal to use the “Who is Agent Argylle?” angle in the promotions.
What is Argylle without the twists? Not much is the unfortunate answer. It’s a spy movie flitting incoherently between two incontrovertibly varying tones. It’s a goofy action blockbuster delivering neither the epic nature of a Marvel movie nor the jaw-dropping stunts of a Mission: Impossible sequel. Argylle wants to start a new franchise and reignite an old one. Apple and Universal want a franchise out of Matthew Vaughn, and he’s happy to oblige. Some people will enjoy the absurdity. The film goes suitably off the rails in later scenes, including an extended ice skating/knife fighting sequence that almost justifies the price of admission. They could have promoted the absurdity of it all, putting neon lights and quick-cutting action all over the trailers. That would have at least emphasized some of the film’s limited strengths. They chose not to, sealing an unfortunate fate.
If they tell us through their marketing that the twist is the draw, Argylle has to live and die on that reveal. With that expectation, it’s hard to care about the rest of the events in the plot. Anyone going in with spoilers will likely be turned off, but those who lost interest in the overwrought characters won’t stay engaged long enough to care. The best their gimmick could hope for is to intrigue viewers into the theater, but the film’s broadly negative critical reception will counter that drive. Argylle wasn’t entirely failed by its marketing. It provides accurate expectations, but that’s rarely the goal. If they’d followed their initial instinct and started from the spoiler, Argylle could have felt less like a mystery box and more like mindless fun.
