“Argylle” is purposefully vague about the Directorate. By the end of the movie, we don’t really have any hard facts about the organization. We assume that Ritter and Ruth are at the top of its food chain, but we don’t actually know for certain that they’re the leaders. In this movie, the Directorate works as a sort of generic evil espionage group, but the ending gives us a little more insight into what the Directorate is really up to — and possibly what Elly and Aiden will be dealing with next.
About halfway through the movie, we learn that the Directorate used brainwashing techniques to convince Elly of her new identity. They wanted to use her books to find out more about her work with Alfie and Aiden, but the movie’s climax shows us that’s not all they planned to do. Ruth is able to use a music box to make Elly fight Aiden, and that has some terrifying implications for the Directorate’s real plan.
The Directorate could be gearing up to take over the world. If brainwashing currently lets the Directorate turn trained spies into weaponized puppets, there’s no telling what the group could accomplish if it had access to world leaders. Anyone’s memories could be rewritten, and with a simple audio cue, the Directorate could alter the course of world events. At the end of the movie, Ruth and Ritter are dead, but those brainwashing techniques are almost certainly still out there.
