Johnny English; the name, the man, and the comic life of a spy

Johnny’s new strike

This is a full simple sentence that reinforces something akin to revenge antecedent. This of course reminds us of the first two instalments of the Johnny English series. The “strikes again,” where the adverb “again” modifies the verb “strikes” inspires some sort of curiosity around the kind of force with which Johnny comes down at any obstacle preventing him from achieving his aim. He has always struck, but this time, we are eager to know what instigates his comeback, and how he goes about striking.

The title and the name

You are probably made curious by the movie title. You are wondering how a person’s name would be the name of a Language and people. Johnny is the minuscule of the name John which has its early origins in Hebrew. Johnny sounds more like a nick name than a personal name. It is in the playfulness surrounding the morphology of this name that the love for the titular character is first depicted.

It is said that people have a way of creating nicknames for their loved ones. John is a theophoric name which entrenches the name of a god thereby inspiring the protection of such a god. John in its Hebrew origin means “Yahway/Jehovah has been gracious.” Yahway is really gracious to Johnny English in this movie as he navigates through dangerous moments in the bid to hack down the enemy.

An endearing name

Johnny English’s linguistic, place, and people name, “English,” is symptomatic of how much of a people’s person he is. This naturally sets on his shoulders, the societal burden of spy and protector. English redefines the popular notion of heroism. It doesn’t matter whether you are a dead serious handsome, sophisticated James Bond or crude awkward Johnny English, what is important to people is that you get the job done at the end of the day.

Johnny wittily makes a case for a life devoid of all the accoutrements of modern technology as he rejects the phone and the sophisticated car in favour of a car which in his opinion cannot be tracked therefore making it a spy’s perfect accomplice. He does not have so much faith in the gun that he picks as he is not seen trying to save his life or anyone’s with a gun. He uses the traditional devices to do his battle. He uses a door to knock off Ophelia who Moscow sends to terminate him. When the lady bounces back, English uses music and dance to take her out.

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A date with Ophelia

Eventually, after a mad car chase, he is to have a date with her at Hotel De Paris. It happens to be an interesting night as English does things that so set him apart from lots of men that Ophelia has met that she could not but verbally acknowledge, “I am not sure I’ve met a man quite like you,” to which he replies, “well, let me clear the doubt. You haven’t.” And truly, Johnny English is not the kind of man everyone meets every day. The meeting changes many things, among which is winning Ophelia to Johnny’s side.

Paris mission

What is Johnny English doing in Paris? The cyber-attack is rumoured to be launched from the Wi-Fi of Hotel De France. He and his sidekick unwittingly set the hotel ablaze while they steal a phone through which they get information about a ship where the enemy is speculated to be. They device a means of entering the ship. It involves the use of magnetic boots.

But the body of the ship is metal, so as they climb up, the cutlery in the kitchen is also moving up. That’s a hilarious announcement of their presence. So much for being secret agents! While running for dear life on the ship, Johnny gets the information that the P.M. hires Jason, a tech Guru who with just a tap on his high-tech phone turns the traffic lights in London from red to orange.

Dramatic Irony

Meanwhile, Johnny English, from his encounters with Jason, finds out that the real enemy is just being hired. He uses Ophelia’s phone to record Jason while he is talking about being the brain behind the cyber-attacks. He escapes from Jason’s residence by the skin of his teeth, mistakenly taking another person’s phone in the process. The dramatic irony heightens the comic effect as Johnny boasts in his capabilities before bringing out the phone to show the P.M. the video of the digital enemy. Alas, the videos on the phone are of the family of the woman who owns the phone. P.M. fires Johnny English immediately, she could not stand him accusing Jason, the saviour, of high treason.

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Stuck in an amour

Johnny English rushes to London to save the day. While on his way, Jason is in a meeting with leaders of G12 nations. He wants to have access to the data bank of the G12 countries. Just a signature does it. Once he has the access, he wields unspeakable power – to halt the traffic flow, to kill the glow of bulbs, to switch off internet and perpetrate many more digital evils. He is already in charge of London data so he holds the government at the jugular as he toys with the codes that control pubic facilities and the internet especially.

In London, Johnny English heads for the venue. Right inside the building, he is stuck in an amour, the kind that knights wear. It slows him down but does not in any way deter him from exposing and stopping Jason who immediately tries to escape in order to wreak more havoc. English catches up on him and hits him with a tablet. As soon as Jason falls, English breaks the phone with his sword and that marks the end of continuous cyber threat.

A digital warning

While this is a comedy, the actions, the conflicts, the diction are in no way exaggerated beyond the purview of realism. The focal point is the fragility of modern life as everything is now controlled by algorithms. The data are more volatile than we can imagine.

The movie makes us ponder on the potential threats which may arise around our use of internet. The internet would not be the enemy; the enemy would be a sinister human being with an unquenchable thirst for power. He’d be the one that would form a gang that would hold the world to ransom. World, beware, there are many more Jasons out there.

Johnny English Strikes Again now playing in cinemas.

Written by Omidire Idowu.