While the Kingsman series might be slightly less profitable than the James Bond one for UK cinemas and beyond, there’s no denying the franchise is picking up more clout. Not just because they had the gumption to go with someone “weirder” (and patently more British) than Billie Eilish for the soundtrack’s lead single, but because the latest film’s narrative seems to want to do its best to, if not one-up, then at least match the Bond films in action-spy absurdity.
Whatever the story may end up amounting to beyond being about “a collection of history’s worst tyrants and criminal masterminds gather[ing] to plot a war,” FKA Twigs is here to remind that “the measure of a hero is the measure of a man.” Regardless of The King’s Man being a prequel (a.k.a. “spinoff”) to Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle, in lieu of Colin Firth, it will rely on Ralph Fiennes (a Bond alum himself) as Orlando being the one taking center stage…along with Harris Dickinson, Gemma Arterton, Rhys Ifans, Djimon Hounsou, Matthew Goode and Tom Hollander.
Possibly relishing watching Daniel Craig in the role of Bond so much over the years, maybe Fiennes wanted to get back into a lead “spy role” after 1998’s The Avengers. Whatever the case, FKA Twigs treats his character as Bond would be, noting, “Nobody feels the pain behind the love you show/Nobody feels the burden that is yours alone.” It’s a tone that mimics the drama of a line like, “Just goes to show/That the blood you bleed/Is just the blood you owe.”
The intonation of FKA Twigs’ vocals when she really belts out, “Only you can truly understand/The measure of a hero is the measure of a man” is also highly reminiscent of the way Eilish sings, “No time to diiiiiiiiie,” really laying on the “i” as the song builds to a crescendo.
For the video, Twigs opted to get back into some level of the stripper shape she was in for “cellophane,” adopting the vampy persona evidently required of providing the primary song for a spy movie, even if a comedic one. Moments of slicing through liquid (complete with a tiny yolk-looking drop) briefly make one flash to that iconic Yeah Yeah Yeahs album cover as Twigs alternates between writhing around in a form-fitting lace number and seemingly imitating that famed snow fight scene between Lucy Liu and Uma Thurman in Kill Bill: Vol. 1. Maybe that’s the movie she really wanted to soundtrack, and this was her best chance at homage—but then, considering her lack of tolerance for sexual abusers (yes, a reference to Shia LaBeouf) and their enablers, it doesn’t feel like she would be all that enthusiastic about a Tarantino movie.
Incidentally, Kingsman writer-director Matthew Vaughn has forever-strong ties to Guy Ritchie, frequently billed as a Tarantino “knockoff” (or the British Tarantino, if one prefers a gentler term), after producing both Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch. And so, regardless, FKA has some degrees of separation as an entrée toward Tarantino.
Reiterating how her backup dancing chops gave her a start in the entertainment business, Twigs busts a move behind Central Cee as he delivers his own verse to the track. By the end of the video, however, Twigs has decided to lean fully into “cellophane” territory by appearing in full stripper regalia as she wiggles around and generally does her own “Like A Virgin” choreo atop a giant Kingsman ring. After all, “Measure of a Man” is a song title rife with innuendo that, indeed, could just as easily provide the theme—in a pinch—for the next hopefully Idris Elba-starring Bond series. A little “ooo-ooo-oooo” to conclude her statement harkens back to how LDR (who illustriously called out “Twigs” for being “allowed” to “get on the pole” without judgment) vocally ended “Honeymoon.”
In the final frame, director Diana Kunst takes us back to the screening room where Orlando has been showing this “piece,” now looking very hot and bothered indeed. In this regard, it reminds one of how Madonna is incorporated into the Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me narrative by way of the “Beautiful Stranger” video. For a spy must always have his singing muse for the sake of film and music synergy. Even if Eilish herself didn’t get that memo in how she opted to go about the visual approach for “No Time to Die.”
