Kingsman: Matthew Vaughn defends the ending

Director Matthew Vaughn addresses the last moment of Kingsman: The Secret Service, and the apparent offence it's causing...

This post contains a spoiler for Kingsman: The Secret Service. But not until after the picture of a squirrel.

Matthew Vaughn’s Kingsman: The Secret Service will break through the $100m mark worldwide over the next day or two, as the film continues to be a strong box office performer. For an R-rated comic book movie without a Marvel or DC logo on it, nor anywhere near the level of budget such productions attract, it’s fair to call if a sizeable success.

It helps, of course, that the film is really good too.

However, there’s been one particular area of controversy, which we’re going to talk about after the picture of Daphne the Spoiler Squirrel. If you’ve not seen Kingsman: The Secret Service, don’t scroll down unless you want the ending spoiled for you.

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So, who’s still here?

The moment of contention is, at the end of the movie, Tilde tells Eggsy that, after saving her, he can have anal sex with her. It’s not often we use that phrase here, and we expect our Google search results to take on a different complexion as a result of doing so.

Entertainment Weekly has chatted to Vaughn about the joke, which he admits caused some debate as to whether to include or not.

So what was his thinking?

“If you’ve noticed, this is my Spinal Tap of trying to find 11 with every scene. What happened there was I studied all the old movies, especially the Bond ones. At the end of Moonraker, he’s floating around in space on Dr Goodhead, and they say, ‘Bond is attempting reentry.’ In The Spy Who Loved Me, he says he’s ‘keeping the British end up'”, Vaughn explained.

“The innuendo is pretty strong and always comes from the men. I just thought it would be great to turn it on its head by having the woman say it. I actually think it’s empowering.”

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He added that “Some bloody feminists are accusing me of being a misogynist. I’m like, ‘It couldn’t be further from the truth’. It’s a celebration of women and the woman being empowered in a weird way in my mind, which will cause a big argument again I’m sure. It’s meant to be tongue-in-cheek and crazy”.

Without the line, “it just didn’t feel as brave as the rest of the movie is.” And Vaughn admits that the controversy has caught him by surprise. He’s talked of people coming up to him, saying they loved the film, but that they were offended by the joke at the end. “Really? That’s more offensive than exploding heads, massacres in church, swearing, people being cut in half?”

Kingsman: The Secret Service is in cinemas now. You can read the full piece with Matthew Vaughn at EW, right here.