Product Code Database
Johnny English is a 2003 Spy film action comedy film directed by Peter Howitt and written by Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and William Davies. Produced by StudioCanal and Working Title Films, the film centres on a clumsy MI7 agent in a mission to find the thieves of the Crown Jewels and retrieve the regalia.
Starring Rowan Atkinson in the title role along with Natalie Imbruglia, Ben Miller and John Malkovich, it is the first installment of the Johnny English film series and serves as a parody and homage to the spy genre, mainly the James Bond film series, as well as Atkinson's Mr. Bean character. The character is also related to Atkinson's bumbling spy character from a series of adverts in the United Kingdom for Barclaycard in the 1990s. The film was filmed in various locations across England, particularly in London and Buckinghamshire. Specific sites include Mentmore Towers, the Maughan Library, and the Freemason's Hall. The movie's climax was filmed on the French Riviera.
Distributed by Universal Pictures, the film was released theatrically in the United States on 18 July 2003. The film received mixed reviews from critics but was commercially successful and grossed $160 million worldwide against a budget of $40 million. The film was released in the United Kingdom on 11 April 2003 and topped the country's box office for the next three weekends, before being overtaken by X2. It was followed by two sequels, Johnny English Reborn (2011) and Johnny English Strikes Again (2018).
Assigned to thwart a plot to steal the newly restored Crown Jewels at an event hosted by French prison Business magnate Pascal Sauvage, English meets a mysterious woman named Lorna Campbell at the jewels' unveiling at the Tower of London. During a sudden blackout, the Crown Jewels are stolen and English accidentally knocks out the head of security. He fights an imaginary assailant to cover his mistakes, and gives a false description of the unseen suspect to MI7 head Pegasus.
English and his assistant Jeremy Bough follow a tunnel dug beneath the jewel's display case and confront German thieves Dieter Klein and Klaus Vendetta, who escape in a hearse. English loses them by pursuing a different hearse and ends up gatecrashing a funeral, until Bough saves him by having him pretend he is an escaped mental patient.
Sauvage is revealed to be Klein and Vendetta's employer, and instructs the thieves to eliminate English. Pegasus, a friend of Sauvage, refuses to believe English and Bough's claims that Sauvage is involved and orders them to exclude him from the investigation. English and Bough are attacked by Vendetta, who escapes when English mistakenly attacks Bough. English again encounters Campbell and, having seen her at two crime scenes, his suspicions deepen when no record of her can be found on a single government computer.
Determined to expose Sauvage, English and Bough infiltrate his headquarters and learn that Sauvage, a descendant of Charles Edward Stuart, plans to make himself king using an impostor Archbishop of Canterbury. English observes that the fake Archbishop has a tattoo on his backside saying Jesus is coming – look busy. They encounter and try to interrogate Klein, but English accidentally injects him and himself with a powerful muscle relaxant. Campbell appears and rescues the two, revealing herself to be an Interpol agent also tracking Sauvage. Attempting to inform Pegasus of his discoveries, English crashes a party hosted by Sauvage and makes a fool of himself due to the relaxant. As a result, Pegasus dishonourably removes him from the case.
Sauvage abandons his plan to use the fake Archbishop and instead blackmails Queen Elizabeth II into abdicating and erasing her line of succession by threatening her Royal corgis. Campbell, now in charge of the assignment, convinces English to travel to Sauvage's French château and investigate behind Pegasus' back. After learning that Sauvage intends to turn mainland Britain into the world's largest prison, English accidentally blows their cover attempting to steal an incriminating DVD but accidentally takes the wrong disc before he and Campbell are captured.
Bough rescues English and Campbell, and they race to stop Sauvage's coronation. English exposes the Archbishop's bare bottom and discovers by the lack of the expected tattoo that he is genuine. Undeterred, English has Bough play the incriminating DVD, only to find it is footage of himself, from a bug placed by Sauvage in his flat, lip-syncing to ABBA's "Does Your Mother Know" in his underclothes. Having snuck away, English swings back in on a wire to steal St Edward's Crown from the Archbishop. Sauvage draws a gun and shoots at English, making him drop the crown, and moments before he is crowned, English lands on the throne knocking Sauvage off, and is crowned himself. As king, English has Sauvage arrested before restoring Elizabeth to the throne, requesting only a as a reward.
A radio newsreader announces that Sauvage is awaiting trial for high treason and execution, and that he has requested his brain be donated to schizophrenia research. English and Campbell drive to southern France but English accidentally Ejection seat Campbell from his car while attempting to kiss her. In a mid-credits scene, she lands in a swimming pool where Bough and a man matching the description of the imaginary assailant are on holiday.
Additionally, the film's director Peter Howitt played a cameo in the film, as the man Bough threatens to play the DVD at Sauvage's coronation.
In July 2002, Johnny English principal photography commenced. The film shot for fourteen weeks, filming at Shepperton Studios, on location in London and St. Albans, and finally setting down in Monte Carlo for two days to complete filming the final scene. In September 2002, it was announced that Natalie Imbruglia would star alongside Atkinson.
The character of Johnny English himself is based on a similar character called Richard Latham, who Atkinson played in a series of British television adverts for Barclaycard. The character of Bough (pronounced 'Boff') was retained from the adverts though another actor, Henry Naylor, played the part in the ads. Some of the gags from the adverts made it into the film, including English incorrectly identifying a waiter, and inadvertently shooting himself with a tranquilliser ballpoint pen, although he shot Pegasus' secretary with it in the movie.
The film was released on Blu-ray on 28 February 2012, along with its sequel Johnny English Reborn. The film was released on Netflix in February 2016.
In May 2017, it was announced that pre-production had begun on a third film titled Johnny English Strikes Again, which was released on 5 October 2018.
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