Agent Argylle twist goes viral after “spoiler” resurfaces

Bryce Dallas Howard in ArgylleUniversal Pictures

It’s time for you to meet the real Agent Argylle… as the movie’s big spoiler seems to have been uncovered from a tweet three years ago.

Matthew Vaughn’s new super-budget spy flick has been a major source of curiosity since its trailer dropped last year; did Taylor Swift ghost-write the script, why does the cat look like that, what’s going on with Henry Cavill’s hair, and, notably, who is the real Agent Argylle at the center of the film?

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The film follows Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), a reclusive author who specializes in espionage novels. However, as the outlandish stories in her books conspicuously mirror real-life missions, the line between fiction and reality starts to blur.

The trailer ended with Samuel L. Jackson’s character telling Elly that it was “time to meet the real Agent Argylle“, a reveal that’s fuelled the movie’s marketing campaign. Alas, the cat’s long been out of the bag. This is your last chance to stop reading.

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Argylle’s biggest twist was spoiled years ago and nobody noticed

Bryce Dallas Howard’s Elly Conway is the real Agent Argylle, if a 2021 tweet by DiscussingFilm is anything to go by.

The account shared an Observer article after the film’s initial announcement, writing: “Matthew Vaughn is set to direct a thriller about a best-selling female novelist who turns out to be a world-class spy suffering from amnesia.”

https://twitter.com/DiscussingFilm/status/1412771411299647497

It was right in front of us the whole time – but if you read the report, there’s even more. “Bryce Dallas Howard is in talks to star in the lead role. Tricked into thinking she’s a writer, her lethal skills return with her memories, setting her down a path of revenge against the shadowy organization she used to work for, the Division,” the outlet wrote.

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The post has been retweeted en-masse over the past 12 hours (often without any keyword or hashtag you could mute to prevent the spoiler from appearing on your feed).

“Not that I care much about Argylle, but general Twitter etiquette is to avoid being the overly-excited user so desperate for likes that you must share a spoiler-filled tweet in order to make the point that the tweet exists. Take a second & realize sharing is NOT always caring,” one user wrote.

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“Time to log off, Argylle spoilers are out there,” another tweeted. “Oh I just saw Argylle spoilers. I won’t say them now but when they ANNOUNCED THE MOVIE 3 years ago they spoiled it lol,” a third wrote.

You can read our three-star review of Argylle here, which we described as “Austin Powers on steroids.”