Last Friday night, I watched the Kingsman: Golden Circle with my friends. The movie centralizes around the story of Eggsy, a spy who loses his organization to the attacks of a drug cartel called the Golden Circle. The Golden Circle takes them down in order to be able to push their agenda of forcing the president to legalize all drugs so they can become part of the legal market. Eggsy has to travel to the US in order to meet up with another spy organization and get their help to take down the Golden Circle.
The whole movie focuses heavily on the hero aspect as it literally is the story of how Eggsy saves the world and becomes a hero however while watching the movie, many characteristics of Eggsy made me think even deeper about who a hero is and what they have to do. After their bases are destroyed, Eggsy is approached by his mentor, Merlin, and reminded that they cannot let their dead comrades, friends and destroyed bases detract from their mission. They must remove emotion from their objectives in order to save the world. The movie shows what happens when one ends up letting their emotions interfere too much with what they are meant to do. (The next sentence is vague due to trying to not reveal too many spoilers.) One of the antagonists reveals they fight Eggsy because his wife and child were killed by one of the people they were trying to save. Ultimately if the antagonist succeeded, millions would have died showing how if one lets their emotions get the better of them, they ultimately lose sight of what being a true hero is.
This scene introduced a new characteristic of who a hero is to me; a hero must be able to work towards their goal or the greater good without letting their personal judgments or demons affect their work. In a way, heroes should be apathetic because while emotions may help push one towards their goal, it can also detract from the morality of what they do or even change what they ultimately end up doing. It reminds me of how in the military, obedience and discipline are hammered into recruits early on because in the end, if they let their emotions get the best of them, they may end up failing their original objective.