Johnny English
Strikes Again
IMDb Rating
79K
IMDb Votes
34%
Rotten Tomatoes
$158M
Box Office
Synopsis & Review
Directed by David Kerr and written by William Davies, Johnny English Strikes Again (2018) finds its titular hero in the most unlikely of circumstances: he has retired from MI7 and is now teaching geography at a boarding school in the English countryside, running field exercises with his students as substitute espionage training. The comic premise that launches the plot is sharp — a massive cyber-attack exposes the identities of every active British undercover agent simultaneously, leaving Her Majesty's intelligence service entirely without operatives. Facing complete embarrassment on the eve of hosting a major international summit, the Prime Minister (Emma Thompson, delivering a precisely observed comic portrait of hapless political authority) has no choice but to reach into the archives and reactivate the only agent whose identity was never compromised — because he was never important enough to be in the database in the first place. English is recalled and sent to investigate tech billionaire Jason Volta (Jake Lacy), a Silicon Valley CEO whose company's servers the government suspects are linked to the attack, and who is suspiciously charming. Along the way, English collides once more with the Russian operative Ophelia (Olga Kurylenko), whose actual allegiances remain productively ambiguous throughout.
The defining comic thread of Strikes Again is English's spectacular war with modern technology. He is a man of analogue conviction in a digital world — insisting on paper maps over GPS navigation, operating a vintage car with no electronic components whatsoever, and regarding smartphones with the deep suspicion of someone who has seen what they do to concentration and decorum. This technophobia gives the film a consistent running joke that lands more often than not, particularly in a virtual reality sequence in which English, wearing a VR headset, wreaks havoc on a sophisticated restaurant while believing he is in a training simulation. David Kerr directs with reasonable efficiency, and Emma Thompson's Prime Minister steals every scene she inhabits with the kind of effortless comic timing that reminds you she is among the finest screen comedians of her generation. The 5.9 IMDb score and 34% Rotten Tomatoes rating correctly identify this as the weakest entry in the trilogy — the screenplay is thinner, the villain less vivid than Malkovich's Sauvage, and some set-pieces overstay their welcome. Yet for fans of Atkinson's particular brand of delusional grandeur, Strikes Again delivers enough reliable pleasures to earn its place as a comfortable, undemanding watch.
Why Watch This Movie?
Emma Thompson Is Simply Magnificent
Thompson's portrayal of the flustered, fundamentally well-meaning but thoroughly out-of-her-depth Prime Minister is one of the film's genuine delights. She plays the role with complete seriousness — never winking at the audience — which makes her exasperation at English's catastrophic methods land with the precision of a perfectly aimed custard pie. Every scene she shares with Atkinson crackles with excellent comic energy from two consummate professionals.
The VR Restaurant Sequence Is Peak Slapstick
The film's standout set-piece — in which English dons a virtual reality headset and proceeds to devastate an upscale French restaurant believing himself to be in a training simulation — is the kind of sustained physical comedy that only Atkinson can execute at this level. Watching him hurl expensive crockery at imaginary digital enemies while bewildered diners flee around him is gloriously, precisely timed slapstick that belongs in any highlight reel of his career.
A Fond Farewell to the Trilogy
As what appears to be the final Johnny English film, Strikes Again has the comfortable, unhurried quality of a favourite comedian doing a crowd-pleasing encore. It does not reach the heights of Reborn, but it is a warm, generous film that clearly loves its central character. For anyone who has followed English across three films, there is real affection in watching him go out — delusional, incompetent, triumphant — on his own terms.
Cast & Crew
Director
David Kerr
Screenplay
William Davies
Producer
Working Title / Universal
Johnny English
Rowan Atkinson
Prime Minister
Emma Thompson
Ophelia
Olga Kurylenko
Jason Volta
Jake Lacy
Bough
Ben Miller
Original Score
Howard Goodall
Official Trailer
© Working Title Films / Universal Pictures. Trailer embedded via YouTube.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Johnny English Strikes Again the last film in the series?
As of 2025, Johnny English Strikes Again is the most recent and third entry in the Johnny English film series. No fourth film has been officially greenlit or confirmed by Universal Pictures or Working Title Films. Rowan Atkinson has given mixed signals about returning to the character — he has described the role as physically demanding but has not categorically ruled out a fourth film. The $158 million worldwide gross on a relatively modest budget means the commercial argument for a sequel exists, but nothing has been announced. For now, Strikes Again stands as the trilogy's closing chapter.
Why does the film focus so heavily on English hating technology?
The film's technophobia theme serves two overlapping comic purposes. First, it updates the character for 2018 by placing his specific brand of anachronistic British pomposity in conflict with Silicon Valley tech-bro culture — a collision that generates genuine satire alongside the slapstick. Second, it solves a structural problem that all long-running comedy franchises face: how do you keep the central character's incompetence credible when he has now survived three films? Making English competent at traditional analogue spy craft but catastrophically helpless with modern technology allows the jokes to feel fresh rather than repetitive. The VR sequence is the clearest example of this strategy paying dividends.
How does Emma Thompson's role compare to previous films' supporting casts?
Emma Thompson's Prime Minister is widely regarded as the best supporting performance in the entire trilogy — surpassing even the fun of Ben Miller's Bough, John Malkovich's Sauvage, and Rosamund Pike's Kate Sumner. Thompson brings the specific authority of a genuine two-time Oscar winner to a pure comedy role, which gives every scene she is in an unexpected weight and precision. She and Atkinson operate on the same frequency of deadpan comic restraint, and their interactions have a sparring quality missing from the franchise since Malkovich in 2003. Many reviewers who were largely negative about the film made an exception for Thompson, with several suggesting she deserved a better film around her.
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