Johnny English Strikes Again

Johnny English Strikes Again is a 2018 British action comedy film directed by David Kerr; it is a sequel to the film of 2011 Johnny English Reborn and the third instalment in the Johnny English series.

The film was released in cinemas in the United Kingdom on 5 October 2018, and will be released on 26 October in the United States, by Universal Pictures. It received generally unfavorable reviews and has grossed $96 million worldwide.

Plot
One night, MI7 is on the receiving end of a massive cyber attack from an unknown entity which results in the exposure of the identities of all its current agents. Subsequently, MI7 is forced to reinstate older inactive agents, including Johnny English, currently a geography teacher, who instead spends most of his time secretly training his young students in the art of espionage. Upon arriving at the MI7 headquarters, English finds himself with three much older retired agents at the reception. He accidentally incapacitates the three and thus is now tasked to complete the mission all by himself. But he asks for the services of his old sidekick, Bough, who is still a clerk in the MI7.

English and Bough travel to the south of France to begin their investigation, where they were told the cyber attack roughly originated from. Once there, they discover clues that the attack may have came from a super yacht, the Dot Calm. They locate the yatch and try to infiltrate it by reaching it via a dingy. However, they are both immediately captured and locked in a old storage room. They manage to break-out and stumble into a vast network of servers inside the yacht. English attaches a concealed transmitter in the server room to mark it as a potential target for future military action. As they try to leave, they are held up by a Russian operative on board, Ophelia. But she appears to let them fall overboard and escape. The next day, English and Bough decide to stalk Ophelia and follow her if she leaves the Dot Calm. When they eventually spot her leaving the yacht, they give chase on the wildly curving mountainous roads of South France, until they run out of petrol. She comes back instead and requests to meet them at a local hotel and bar later on.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom is considering a meeting with a Silicon Valley billionaire, Jason Volta, to form an agreement that she can bring to a meeting between G12 nations. She meets Volta, at 10 Downing Street, where the latter proceeds to show his ability to hack the city's traffic management system, and resolve an ongoing cyber attack on the traffic system, by moving its operation onto his own servers.

While English is meeting with Ophelia at the bar, Bough discovers evidence that suggests she could be a spy. English has become infatuated with Ophelia and totally refuses to consider Bough's premise. He retires to his room for the night. Ophelia is revealed to be a Russian spy and is shown receiving orders from her superiors to eliminate English. Fortunately, she fails to execute English, after he accidentally consumes a pill that causes him to become hyperactive just as she silently approaches his door with a gun.

After dancing at the bar all night, the next morning, as the side effects of the pill still linger, Bough informs English that the yacht belongs to Volta. English and Bough then rush back to MI7 and report it to Pegasus. However, Pegasus is unconvinced and asks for a concrete evidence. Thus, English and Bough decide to infiltrate Volta's British mansion residence. Meanwhile, after further series of cyber attacks, the Prime Minister and Volta solidify an agreement to be revealed during the G12 meeting. In preparation for the infiltration, English is asked to complete a virtual reality simulation in which he explores the billionaire's mansion.

He unknowingly assaults a few civilians in the process, after failing to set his simulation to remain isolated within the room. Afterwards, English proceeds on the infiltration mission, where he meets Ophelia within the mansion. After recording evidence about Volta's true objectives with Ophelia's phone, English is captured when she betrays him. English manages to escape with a driving school car, but accidentally takes the wrong phone and fails to convince Pegasus and the Prime Minister regarding Volta's schemes. The Prime Minister fires English and decides to proceed with the G12 meeting in Scotland.

Bough convinces English to move forward and stop Volta without MI7 support. They enlist the assistance of Bough's wife Lydia, the captain of a Navy submarine. In Scotland, Volta reveals to Ophelia that he has known her true identity since the beginning. Fortunately, English manages to intervene before Volta is able to kill her, but he also fails to capture Volta as Ophelia escapes.

Volta then joins the Prime Minister and the other G12 nations' leaders for the meeting. English tries to stop Volta again but fails. The tech billionaire then reveals his true plan of extorting the G12 nations' leaders for control over their countries' data. After failing the second time, English decides to call Pegasus for help as he forgets about the warning that Bough's wife gave him about using a phone near the submarine.

English's call inadvertently causes the submarine to launch a missile that destroys the Dot Calm, which was previously marked by English and effectively ruining Volta's scheme. Volta tries to escape but English finally manages to incapacitate him. Afterwards, upon completing the mission, English returns to his teaching job. There, he introduces his students to the gadgets that he used during the mission, but the headmaster accidentally uses one of them.

Cast

 * Rowan Atkinson as Johnny English, a geography teacher and retired MI7 agent who is reinstated for a mission.
 * Olga Kurylenko as Ophelia, a Russian spy who is investigating a Silicon Valley tech billionaire.
 * Ben Miller as Jeremy Bough, an MI7 agent who was an old assistant to English.
 * Adam James as Pegasus, the head of MI7.
 * Emma Thompson as the British Prime Minister
 * Jake Lacy as Jason Volta, a Silicon Valley tech billionaire who is promoting a system that could improve data management.
 * Pippa Bennett-Warner as Lesley
 * Miranda Hennessy as Tara
 * Irena Tyshyna as Viola Lynch
 * David Mumeni as Fabian
 * Tuncay Gunes as Ted Guest
 * Samantha Russell as the Prime Minister of Sweden
 * Nick Owenford as an Australian aide
 * Junichi Kajioka as a Japanese diplomat
 * Matthew Beard as P

Additionally, Charles Dance, Michael Gambon and Edward Fox had cameo appearances as Agent Five, Agent Seven and Agent Nine respectively.

Production
In May 2017, it was announced that Rowan Atkinson would be returning to play Johnny English in the sequel to the film Johnny English Reborn (2011). On 3 August 2017, Working Title Films announced that they had begun production and filming with the director David Kerr. Parts were also filmed in Welham Green, Hertfordshire; and in Gloucestershire.

Filming continued in France from 26 September, at the Saint Aygulf beach in Var. The cinematographer is Florian Hoffmeister, and the production designer is Simon Bowles. On 4 April 2018, the title was revealed to be Johnny English Strikes Again, with a teaser trailer released the day after.

Release
Johnny English Strikes Again was scheduled to be released in both the United Kingdom and United States on 12 October 2018 by Universal Pictures; the date for the United States was later moved up to 20 September 2018, before being pushed back to 26 October 2018. It was released on 5 October 2018 by Cinemax - Angola.

Reception
On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 38% based on 47 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Johnny English Strikes Again might get a few giggles out of viewers pining for buffoonish pratfalls, but for the most part, this sequel simply strikes out." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 35 out of 100, based on five critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".