Poppy Adams

Poppy Adams
Character information
Died	2015
Hair color	Red
Occupation	Global entrepreneur Leader of the Golden Circle
Affiliation	Golden Circle
Status	Deceased - Injected in the neck with an extreme amount of her own infected heroin by Eggsy, which caused an overdose
Behind the scenes
Role	Main Antagonist
Portrayed by	Julianne Moore
Appearances
First	Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Last	Kingsman: The Golden Circle - The Official Movie Novelization

"My drugs are all over the world."

― Poppy first appeared in Kingsman: The Golden Circle while talking to Angel, and Charles.

Poppy Adams is the main antagonist of Kingsman: The Golden Circle. She is a notorious criminal mastermind and a global entrepreneur. More accurately, she is the CEO of The Golden Circle, a drug cartel with a monopoly on all major recreational drugs. She plans to dispose of all the Kingsman in order to prevent them from stopping her master plan. She is portrayed by famous actress Julianne Moore.

Biography

Backstory

Poppy Adams graduated from Harvard Business School and made her fortune in the drug market and was possibly one of the richest women on Earth, though she was forced by the obvious illegality of her work to hide in the middle of the Cambodian jungle where she found undiscovered ancient ruins and adapted them to look like a small town from the 50's, as she was raised in the nostalgic '70s. She named her facility "Poppy Land", featuring a beauty salon, a cinema, fast food stands, a bowling alley and even a diner called Poppy's, which she used as her office, including everything in a retro '50s style.

While Richmond Valentine kidnapped celebrities all around the world for his plan to cull the human race, Poppy took this opportunity to kidnap Elton John and keep him as a prisoner in Poppy Land, forcing him to do private concerts for her and her staff. She also hired Charlie Hesketh as her right hand, after Charlie lost his right arm and vocal cords following Valentine's death. Poppy implanted on him a cybernetic-enhanced arm (called "ARMaggedon" by Poppy) that could retract as his will.

Attacking the Kingsman Agency

Charlie was sent over by Poppy to hack into the Kingsmen' mainframe, which he managed to succeed with his cybernetic arm during a car chase in London. This allowed Poppy to have her forces send out missiles to destroy the Kingsman HQ, killing many of the agents there, including Roxy, except for Eggsy and Merlin, who had to travel to America and find the American counterpart of Kingsman, Statesman.

Meanwhile, in Poppy Land, one of the members of the Golden Circle, Charles, introduced Poppy to Angel, who wanted to be a member of the Golden Circle, Poppy agrees, but told Angel that to become a member of The Golden Circle, he had to eat Charles. Initially, they took this as a joke, but then, Poppy turned on her grinder and sent her two cyberdogs, Jet and Bennie, to attack Charles, and eventually Angel himself put Charles inside the grinder. Poppy congratulated him and told him to go to the salon to get a "makeover", where Angel's fingerprints were erased, his teeth filed and a robot tattooed him a 14 karat golden circle on the chest actually made of gold to signify him as a member of Poppy's organisation.

Back in Poppy's Diner, Poppy presented to Angel a "Poppy Burger", cooked by herself, made out of Charles' meat, and forced him to eat it.

Later on in the movie, Charlie was talking to Poppy, and she reveals that she felt homesick and tired of having to hide in the jungle when she had such an empire. She told Charlie that all illegal drugs were as harmful to humanity as legal drugs, and that they should be legal as well. Poppy then revealed her plan of poisoning all of her customers with a toxin laced within every recreational drug available that caused a blue rash before killing the user.

During one of her private Elton John concerts with Charlie, she discovered that Elton had been using her drugs with someone, as he had the blue rash. Elton was forced to reveal who he "partied" with, and he confessed that it was Angel. Poppy then punished Angel by sending her dogs to brutally kill him in front of a horrified Elton, though the dogs couldn't kill Elton John, as they were programmed to identify him as a "friend".

Revealing her Plot

Poppy broadcasted a message telling the world about a toxin she laced within every recreational drug available, which caused users to develop a blue rash before progressing through mania, paralysis and ultimately, death. However, she said that she had the antidote and could give it to the entire world if the President of the United States agreed on ending the War on Drugs and giving the Golden Circle diplomatic immunity. Poppy then demonstrated the antidote on Elton John, curing him entirely in seconds. The President decided to have every affected user quarantined, including his Chief of Staff, Fox, intending to make it appear that he was acquiescing to Poppy's demands, while secretly, he intended to let all the affected die in order to "win" the war against drugs.

At the Statesman HQ, Eggsy and Merlin discovered the Statesman saved Harry Hart's life after Valentine shot him in the eye, but also discover that Agent Tequila had been poisoned as well. Eggsy, Harry and Agent Whiskey went to Italy to steal the antidote from a Golden Circle research facility. Eggsy managed to steal a vial containing the antidote, but Agent Whiskey broke it "accidentally" while pushing him out of the crossfire when attacked by Golden Circle artillery. Harry discovered he is a traitor and shot him in the head, nearly killing him. Eggsy didn't believe Harry and used the Statesman Alpha Gel to save Whiskey. Back in Statesman HQ, they discovered the location of Poppy's hideout in Cambodia, south asian. Harry, Eggsy and Merlin flew there to steal the remote control for the antidote drones, while the President and Poppy had already closed the deal to legalise drugs.

Final Battle and Death

"Come snuggle with me. I like you."

― Poppy's last words before dying

Upon their arrival at Poppy Land, Eggsy stepped on a land mine, but was saved by Merlin, who sacrificed himself while taking the lair's guards with him. Poppy realised that she was under siege, as Eggsy and Harry stormed through the lair. She sent all of her staff to kill them, but Harry and Eggsy managed to eliminate all of their adversaries, causing heavy casualties to Golden Circle forces. Meanwhile, Elton John managed to free himself from Poppy's agents. Poppy then sent Charlie to kill Eggsy, and Jet and Bennie to kill Harry. Eggsy defeated Charlie, causing him to lose his prosthetic arm and snapping his neck, while Harry managed to destroy Jet with the help of Elton John (who used his immunity to protect Harry) and Bennie using the molten gold at the salon.

Seeing herself defeated, Poppy, as the only remaining Golden Circle member, offered no resistance, but refused to give the code. Eggsy then injected her with infected heroin modified by Merlin to speed up the effects of the toxin, informing Poppy that she needed to reveal the code in order to receive the antidote to cure herself. Unaware that the President reneged on the deal to sign the doctrine to legalise all drugs, Poppy gave Eggsy and Harry the code, before dying of an accidental overdose, smiling maniacally as she fell on the ground to her death.

Following Poppy's death, Agent Whiskey arrived and tried to stop them from entering the code as he intended to kill all drug users (due to having lost his wife and unborn child to two drug users), but Harry and Eggsy managed to kill him by using Poppy's grinder. They entered the code and the drones were released saving almost everyone, including Fox, who had the President impeached for conspiring to commit genocide on the drug victims, leaving Poppy's plans in complete vain.

Personality

Poppy appears as a rather cheery, eccentric, effervescent, and vivacious person, despite also being a criminal mastermind. She was more of a puppeteer who planned her work behind the scenes, although unlike Richmond Valentine, she seemed to have no problem with violence as she worked using mainly computers to commit terrorist attacks, although, she did futilely attempt to take action, when threatened by Eggsy and Harry, only to be restrained and promptly injected by Merlin's secret weapon. If one looked closely, a 1911 Colt Pistol can be seen underneath Poppy's torso, implying that she had a sidearm for use in emergency situations. Due to reasons already stated, she never got a chance to use anything to fight back, apart from her dogs, Charlie and her henchmen.

Poppy was a psychopathic, yet charismatic (from her underlings' perspectives), drug lord who exhibited the following traits: a complete lack of conscience, a lack of empathy and remorse, and a lack of fear. Poppy was also distinctly uncharitable and sadistic, and took pleasure in killing people, as her face never shifted from a creepy, sadistic grin, only doing so much as frowning whenever pushed over the edge, as seen when an offended Poppy ordered her dogs to kill Elton John. She was highly manipulative and intelligent, driven and was the most successful businesswoman on Earth. Poppy had no problem with killing hundreds of millions of people and was extremely driven in her pursuit of legalizing all drugs.

Despite being the world's most powerful drug lord, she does not use drugs herself. The fact she does not use drugs is how she ODed. She also does not drink and is a devout vegan, with her password being Vivalasvegan, yet she sadistically forces her new henchmen to commit cannibalism. She also never uses sugar as its more addictive and more lethal than drugs, but still legal.

Appearance

Poppy is a middle-aged woman with long ginger hair, pale skin and a wide smile, which rarely breaks unless she is pushed over the edge. She wears a variety of different clothes and has a rather eccentric and unique fashion taste.

Relationships

Allies

• The Golden Circle
  • Charles "Charlie" Hesketh - Subordinate and Friend
  • Clara Von Gluckfberg - Member of the Golden Circle
  • Charlie (formerly)
  • Angel (formerly)

Enemies

• Charlie - Victim
• Angel - Victim
• Kingsman
  • Eggsy Unwin/Galahad - Killer
  • Harry Hart/Galahad
  • Merlin
  • Roxy Morton/Lancelot - Victim
  • Sir Giles/Arthur - Victim
• Elton John

Trivia

• Julianne Moore based her characterisation of Poppy on Gene Hackman's performance as Lex Luthor in the Superman movies.
• Poppy is an appropriate name for a villain who deals in drugs, as many drugs are synthesised from the poppy plant.
• Appropriately, the marquees in Poppy's compound all bare the names of Elton John song titles (The Bitch is Back, Captain Fantastic, etc.)
• Poppy was shown to have an obsession with Elton John, even going as far to kidnap him and force him to play some of his greatest hits. She also named her two robotic dogs 'Bennie' and 'Jet' after Elton's album Bennie and the Jet's.
• Poppy's robot dogs seem to be based on Rottweilers.
• The actress who plays Clara Von Gluckfberg, Charlie's girlfriend is actually named Poppy.
• Poppy's bowling alley could be a reference to the iconic cult movie The Big Lebowski starring Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges who also appears in The Golden Circle as Agent Champagne.
• Poppy's apparance, the Poppy Burger and the overall red-coloured tone of Poppy's kitchen could be a reference to the Hong Kong cult movie Ebola Syndrome.

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