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How Colin Firth’s Harry Hart Comes Back To Life in Kingsman: The Golden Circle

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Updated on July 5, 2023

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The actioner Kingsman: The Secret Service, directed by Matthew Vaughn, had a dazzling variety of spy-movie goodies and blazing combat sequences, but the film’s driving force was undoubtedly its delightful group of characters. The likes of an emerging Taron Egerton as Eggsy and Mark Strong’s portrayal of Merlin were apparent standouts, but no one shone brighter than Colin Firth’s scene-stealing performance.

The issue of whether Harry Hart, a.k.a. “Galahad,” aka “the main reason Kingsman: The Secret Service ruled in the first place,” will return was quickly answered. There was speculation about how Firth may comeback despite his character’s mid-movie demise almost as soon as filmmaker Matthew Vaughn revealed a sequel to 2014’s crazy espionage thriller parody.

The moment in question is Samuel L. Jackson’s assassination of super-spy Harry Hart (Colin Firth). Hart is a perfected version of James Bond, one of the most unkillable characters ever created in fiction. When Jackson’s Richmond Valentine deploys his mind-control weapon in a tiny church, Harry’s seeming invulnerability is on full display seconds before his death.

Hart, charged with determining the scope of his scheme, travels to the United States to dine with Valentine while posing as a rich donor. During the evening, Harry gets a lead: Valentine is planning something that involves an obscure hate organization in Kentucky.

Inside, everyone becomes mad and attempts to kill one another. When all is said and done, Harry is the only one left standing. He walks out and runs into a waiting Valentine, who shoots him in the face.

Ginger discovers the frequency used by Valentine to trigger the church slaughter that occurred just before Harry was shot in the flashback, and she travels to the scene with Agent Tequila (Channing Tatum). They discover Harry minutes after he was shot by Valentine and utilize Alpha Gel, a headshot healing technique created by the Statesman.

The victim’s head is placed in a bandage-like piece of technology, and two injectors are utilized to deliver Alpha Gel and nanotechnology known as nanites to the damage through the bandage. The gel preserves what’s left of the brain after the headshot, while the nanites heal the tissue and rebuild the brain’s neurological networks, as Ginger explains. However, the procedure isn’t flawless, and it frequently results in retrograde amnesia, which means the sufferer wakes up in early adulthood or infancy. The Statesman will utilize a prior shock or trauma to activate the agent’s recollections in attempt to restore his or her memory.

Temporary amnesia is a side effect of the damage and recovery process, which Harry battles with for the majority of The Golden Circle. When Eggsy and Merlin first learn that he’s still alive, they realize that he’s suffering from the cognitive dissonance of not remembering anything about his past as a Kingsman. Instead, Firth’s character believes he took the path of a lepidopterist (a specialist in butterflies and moths), and it isn’t until Eggsy delivers a heartbreaking reminder of Harry’s early days as a Kingsman that he realizes his true identity. As a result, Harry rejoins his colleagues as a Kingsman, although one with a brief issue with depth perception.

Bringing back one of the original Kingman’s major actors would almost certainly boost the film’s box office, but if Harry was not brought back, it might have been devastating for the film’s artistic direction.

People will undoubtedly protest that if Harry didn’t die, if the characters in Kingsman may return to life at any time, then there are no stakes in this reality. I believe filmmaker Matthew Vaughn anticipated this criticism and countered by packing The Golden Circle with more than enough character fatalities (including Roxie played by Sophie Cookson, Merlin played by Mark Strong, and even Eggsy’s beautiful pug).

Even if none of these characters survive Kingsman 3, the choice to bring Colin Firth back was well worth it. Keep in mind that James Bond can’t die, even if he’s trapped in an unavoidable death trap. It doesn’t matter if a laser is steadily creeping on his trash; 007 always manages to find a way out. Bond’s escapes from grave jeopardy have become increasingly ludicrous over the years – nearly as silly as walking away from a gunshot to the head.