MAJOR SPOILERS for Kingsman: The Golden Circle ahead

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After Harry Hart's death in Kingsman: The Secret Service, we explain how Colin Firth's character is alive in Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Matthew Vaughn's Kingsman: The Secret Service hit theaters in 2015 and introduced moviegoers to Eggsy Unwin (Taron Egerton) and Harry Hart (Firth) - two members of an independent intelligence agency adapted from The Secret Service comic book series by writer Mark Millar and artist Dave Gibbons. The movie, penned by Vaughn and Jane Goldman, was a hit with critics and audiences alike, with Kingsman: The Secret Service garnering positive reviews. Plus, the film was a financial success, earning $414 million at the worldwide box office (on a budget of $81 million) - and prompting 20th Century Fox to green light a sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

The first film followed the introduction and training of Eggsy under the tutelage of Harry Hart, a veteran Kingsman agent who knew Eggsy's father. Their relationship was at the core of Kingsman: The Secret Service, with Harry filling a father-like role to Eggsy, whose birth father died when he was young. Since their mentor-mentee dynamic was so important, the moment in which Harry Hart is shot point blank by the film's villain, Valentine (Samuel L. Jackson), delivers an emotional blow. With Agent Galahad fallen, Eggsy and Merlin (Mark Strong) go on to save the world.

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Of course, the apparent finality of Harry's death in The Secret Service made it all the more surprising when reports surfaced that Firth would reprise the role in the film's sequel, Kingsman: The Golden Circle. Firth's return in the Kingsman sequel was later confirmed, but the details around Harry's miraculous (or sinister) return have been shrouded in secrecy. Now that Kingsman: The Golden Circle has hit theaters, we break down how Harry Hart came back from the dead and what it means for the sequel as well as future Kingsman movies.

How Harry Hart Survived A Headshot

Eggsy, Harry, and Whiskey looking at the front in Kingsman 2 wearing snow gear

Kingsman: The Golden Circle explicitly shows and tells viewers how Harry Hart survived being shot by Valentine through flashback and an explanation from the Statesman's version of Merlin, Ginger Ale (Halle Berry). The flashback features Ginger discovering the frequency used by Valentine to instigate the church massacre that immediately preceded Harry being shot, and she flies to the site with Agent Tequila (Channing Tatum). There, they find Harry moments after he was shot by Valentine and use technology invented by the Statesman to repair headshots called Alpha Gel.

How it works is that a bandage-like piece of tech is wrapped around the victim's head, and two injectors are used to distribute Alpha Gel and nanotechnology known as nanites to the injury through the bandage. As explained by Ginger, the gel protects what's left of the brain after the headshot, and the nanites repair the tissue and rebuilt the brain's neural pathways. However, the process isn't perfect and typically causes retrograde amnesia, which means the victim wakes up and has reverted back to either early adulthood or childhood. In order to return the agent's memory, the Statesman will use a past shock or trauma to trigger those memories.

In the case of Harry, since he's not a Statesman agent, Ginger doesn't know how to jog his memory. So when Eggsy and Merlin discover their friend living in the American organization's headquarters, he's still suffering from amnesia and has reverted to a previous point in his life when he wanted to become a lepidopterist. Of course, they are able to eventually trigger Harry's memory and he's becomes Agent Galahad again - sort of.

Kingsman The Golden Circle Taron Egerton Colin Firth

How Harry Gets His Groove Back

Once Eggsy and Merlin reveal to the Statesman who Harry is and how integral he is to their organization as the previous Agent Galahad, they begin working on jogging his memory. In their first attempt to trigger Harry's memories, Merlin and Ginger recreate a traumatic memory from Harry's past - one that will be familiar to fans of Kingsman: The Secret Service. Merlin fills Harry's room in the Statesman headquarters with water in order to recreate the first Kingsman training exercise fans saw Eggsy endure in the previous film. While Eggsy and his fellow recruits were able to escape through a glass window, the amnesiac Harry is unable to figure a way out and Merlin calls off the experiment when he realizes it isn't have the desired effect of helping Harry recall his memories.

Without knowing how else to jog Harry's memory, the Statesman prepare to send Harry on his way to pursue his dream of becoming a lepidopterist. However, Eggsy has a stroke of inspiration and thinks to recreate a different exercise from the Kingsman training program - one that both he and Harry failed. The exercise includes the agents-in-training being asked to shoot the dogs they had been tasked with taking care of, for Eggsy that was JB and for Harry it was Mr. Pickle. In The Golden Circle, Eggsy buys a new puppy and gives it to the amnesiac Harry, then threatens to shoot it, which eventually triggers Harry's memory. Movie viewers are treated to a flashback scene of a young Harry unable to kill Mr. Pickle as ordered, and present day Harry remembers who he is.

Unfortunately, Harry still isn't the same Agent Galahad that trained Eggsy. Although Harry remembers who he is and his role in the Kingsman, it takes some time for his coordination and skills to catch up, which leaves him as a less than skilled fighter and a disadvantage in the field - though Harry does eventually get his groove back. Additionally, Harry hallucinates butterflies, which distract him during missions. These hallucinations are a side effect of the Alpha Gel repairing his brain tissue and, as a result, cause Eggsy and others to doubt Harry's abilities. Of course, by the final fight sequence of Kingsman: The Golden Circle, Harry is back in fighting form and doesn't get distracted by hallucinations of butterflies, but it remains to be seen if he's fully recovered.

What Harry's Recovery Means Going Forward

Kingsman Golden Circle Colin Firth

Twentieth Century Fox hasn't yet officially given the green light for a third Kingsman movie, but director and co-writer Vaughn has said he and Goldman did come up with an idea for another film while writing The Golden Circle. Further, a Kingsman trilogy and spinoffs may be in the cards, but that remains to be seen. If Fox does give Kingsman 3 the go-ahead, it's unclear how Harry's return from the brink of death will factor into the threequel. Vaughn did reveal that Harry's return for Kingsman 2 was planned even before The Secret Service hit theaters, indicating he and Goldman had a long-term plan for Firth's character.

Certainly, by the sheer fact of Harry being changed by his near death experience, his arc will continue into a potential Kingsman 3, but whether Harry will continue to wrestle with hallucinations or issues with his coordination remains to be seen. Based on the final fight sequence in The Golden Circle, it's possible Harry has completely recovered from his injury - his coordination back to what it had been and his hallucinations gone away - but it's unclear if that will last.

In the larger scope of the Kingsman universe, the introduction of Alpha Gel means both spy organizations have access to a way to heal headshots, which means there's one less way for an agent to be killed (unless, of course, they don't have any Alpha Gel handy). As in the final sequence of The Golden Circle, that means the agents have to get creative in how they kill people, which may carry over into the larger film franchise. Exactly how Alpha Gel and Harry's recovery factor into the future of the Kingsman universe remains to be seen, but it certainly provides for a compelling character arc for Harry in Kingsman: The Golden Circle.

Next: What The Director and Cast Want to See in Kingsman 3

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