Word of Kitchener's death reaches Orlando, spurring him to head to Russia with Shola, Polly, and Conrad to deal with Rasputin once and for all. Their ship is torpedoed by a submarine and sunk. Knowing the Western Front will be left vulnerable if Russia leaves the war, Conrad delivers this information to Kitchener and his aide-de-camp Major Morton, who set sail for Russia. Conrad is notified of Rasputin's manipulation by his cousin, Prince Felix Yusupov. Rasputin, on the orders of the Shepherd, manipulates Tsar Nicholas by poisoning his young son Alexei, and only curing him when Nicholas promises to leave the war. The group, headed by the mysterious Shepherd from a secret mountain-top headquarters, have their own network of agents, including the Russian mystic Grigori Rasputin, a trusted adviser to Tsar Nicholas of Russia. Orlando's group, relying on information from other dignitaries' socially invisible servants, learn that Princip was part of a plot to pit the German, Russian, and British empires against each other. Later, however, Princip happens to run into the Archduke's entourage again, this time succeeding in fatally shooting the Archduke and his wife Sophie. Conrad, eager to fight, is forbidden to join up by the protective Orlando, who persuades Lord Kitchener, Secretary of State for War, not to let him join the army.Īt the behest of Kitchener, Conrad and Orlando ride with Orlando's friend Archduke Franz Ferdinand through Sarajevo, and Conrad saves the Archduke from a bomb thrown by Gavrilo Princip, a rebel intent on sparking a war. Twelve years later, Orlando has recruited two of his servants, Shola and Polly, into his spy network dedicated to protecting the United Kingdom and the British Empire from the approaching Great War. Emily is killed during a Boer sniper attack on the camp, causing pacifistic Orlando to determine that the world needs someone to head off such conflicts before they occur. In 1902, British aristocrat Orlando, Duke of Oxford, his wife Emily, and their young son Conrad visit a concentration camp in South Africa during the Second Boer War while working for the Red Cross. The film received mixed reviews from critics, grossing $115 million against nearly a $100 million budget. The King's Man was released in the United States on December 22, 2021, and in the United Kingdom on Decemby 20th Century Studios, delayed several times from an original November 2019 release date, partially due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film features an ensemble cast that includes Ralph Fiennes (who also serves as one of the film's executive producers), Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Matthew Goode, Tom Hollander, Harris Dickinson, Daniel Brühl, Djimon Hounsou, and Charles Dance, and focuses on several events during World War I and the birth of the Kingsman organization. The third installment in the Kingsman film series, which is based on the comic book The Secret Service (later retitled to Kingsman) by Mark Millar and Dave Gibbons, the film serves as a prequel to Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) and Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017). The King's Man is a 2021 spy action comedy film directed by Matthew Vaughn from a screenplay by Vaughn and Karl Gajdusek and a story by Vaughn.