V

V is the titular main protagonist of the comic series V for Vendetta and its 2006 film adaptation of the same name. He is a terrorist and freedom fighter from a dystopian future battling against a corrupt fascist regime in England known as the Norsefire party. It was intended by the author of the story Alan Moore that V be sufficiently morally gray so as to be seen as both a hero and a villain. According to Moore, he was designed to be morally ambiguous, so that readers could decide for themselves whether he was a hero fighting for a cause or simply insane. While V in the comics is well-meaning and battling against unambiguously evil individuals, he himself is also depicted as a completely ruthless and callous figure who is willing to kill anyone who gets in his way. Conversely, the movie version of the character, though still occasionally indulging in ethically sketchy and ruthless behavior, is still ultimately more heroic. In the movie he is shown to be disfigured (a result of burns) instead of being described as being ugly. His abilities are a result of biological weapons experiments instead of hormonal experiments, as they were in the comics. He claims to have lost all memory of his past, completing his transformation into the "every man" he claims to be in the comic. At the end of the film, he says that he has fallen in love with Evey. There are several other plot deviations between the book and the movie. In the film, he only bombs the Old Bailey and Houses of Parliament buildings and not the Jordan Tower, Post Office and 10 Downing St buildings. It is Peter Creedy who confronts V at the end of the film, instead of Eric Finch. Creedy shoots and kills Norsefire leader Adam Sutler (Adam Susan in the graphic novel), but V refuses to uphold his end of the bargain he made to Creedy, who is just as evil as Sutler. Creedy and his men then shoot V, but V wore a breastplate to keep the barrage of bullets from killing him. Though still mortally wounded he manages to kill Creedy and his men. He then goes to Evey and dies in her arms. Evey then gives him a Viking funeral, as she did in the graphic novel. Finch then confronts Evey, but puts down his weapon after giving in to his hatred of the corruption of the Norsefire regime and joining Evey as they watch V's bomb destroy the Houses of Parliament. V is an enigmatic figure who speaks eloquently. He is impeccably sophisticated, obsequious, and talkative, with an exceptionally wide vocabulary, and particularly showing a fondness for quoting Shakespeare, and has an encyclopedic knowledge of Early Modern English literature. Also, V loves to act with a flair of theatrics. For example, as he abducts Prothero, he ushers the man through a stage-like setup of Larkhill while dressed in a clownish Vaudeville attire. In another particularly poignant scene, he stands before the statue of Lady Justice and enacts a pseudo-rendezvous between ex-lovers, declaring that he has found a new mistress in Anarchy after she "whored herself" to Norsefire and leaving Lady Justice a "farewell present" of an explosive. In the film, V demonstrates an intense capacity for hatred underneath his serene exterior: while in captivity, V described hate as the only thing he seemed capable of - it fed him for years until he finally lost all capacity for fear. He is completely unfazed by physical threats from others, from being held at gunpoint by several armed men, to having explosives strapped to him. He is completely calm, reserved, and unexcitable in nature, and never loses his temper once throughout his appearance, and even when in intense pain he speaks softly and calmly. V was also pathologically obsessive and psychopathic, and his one and true goal throughout the story is to avenge himself upon key members of Norsefire. However, he has an incredible ability for justifying his actions. He is capable of love, despite his ruthless and almost emotionless character, and though he cannot remember anything that happened to him before his captivity he describes Evey as his one true love. His favorite film is the Count of Monte Cristo. V's background and identity are never revealed. He is at one point an inmate at "Larkhill Resettlement Camp"—one of many concentration camps where black people, Jews, beatniks, homosexuals and Muslims are exterminated by Norsefire, a fascist dictatorship that rules Britain. While there, he is part of a group of prisoners who are subjected to horrific medical experimentation, conducted by Dr. Delia Surridge. Lewis Prothero is the camp's commandant, while Father Anthony Lilliman, a paedophile vicar, is at the camp to lend "spiritual support". All prisoners who are part of the experimentation eventually die, with the sole exception of "the man in room five" ("V" in Roman numerals). As a result of the experiments, the man develops Olympic-level physical abilities and an incredibly expanded intellect. During that time, the man had some level of communication with Valerie Page, a former actress imprisoned for being a lesbian, kept in "room four", who wrote her autobiography on toilet paper and then pushed it through a hole in the wall. Over time, the man is allowed to grow roses (Violet Carsons) and raise crops for the camp officials. The man eventually starts taking surplus ammonia-based fertilizer back to his cell, where he arranges it in bizarre, intricate patterns on the floor. He then takes a large amount of grease solvent from the gardens. In secret, the man uses the fertilizer and solvent to make mustard gas and napalm. On a stormy night (namely, 23 December in the novel or 5 November in the film), he detonates his homemade bomb and escapes his cell. Much of the camp is set ablaze, and many of the guards are killed by the mustard gas. The camp is evacuated and closed down. He adopts the new identity "V", and dons a Guy Fawkes mask and costume. V spends the next five years planning his revenge on Norsefire and building his secret underground base, which he calls "The Shadow Gallery". He then eliminates most of the over 40 surviving personnel from Larkhill, making each killing look accidental. Four years after his escape from Larkhill, V blows up the Palace of Westminster on 5 November, Guy Fawkes Day. In the process he stumbles across Evey Hammond as she is being accosted by several members of "the Finger", Norsefire's secret police, and saves her, bringing her back to his lair. V then kidnaps Prothero, who is now the "Voice of Fate" on the government's propaganda radio, and drives him insane by destroying his prized doll collection in a satire of the exterminations that occurred at Larkhill. V kills now-Bishop Lilliman by forcing him to eat a communion wafer laced with cyanide. V then injects Surridge, the one Larkhill official who feels remorse for her actions, with a poison that kills her without pain. V stages an attack on the government's propaganda broadcasting station, strapping himself with explosives and forcing the staff to follow his orders under threat of detonating them. V then broadcasts a message to the people, telling them to take responsibility for themselves and rise up against their government. He systematically kills the department leaders of Norsefire, except for Eric Finch, the head of Norsefire's police force, whom V senses is a decent man. V also radicalizes Evey by abducting her and making her believe she has been thrown into a government prison, where she undergoes humiliation and torture to make her confess; when she announces that she would rather die than inform on V, he reveals the ruse to her. While she initially condemns him, she eventually comes to understand what he was trying to do and becomes his accomplice. V explains to her that he is an anarchist in the strict political sense of the term, and essentially believes all governments will eventually turn into oppressive fascist states. V's goal is not simply to overthrow the Norsefire regime, but to destroy the organized state entirely. He hopes that from the rubble will emerge a utopian anarchistic society – not "the land of take what you want" but "the land of do as you please". As the graphic novel reaches its climax, V destroys the government's CCTV surveillance buildings, eroding its control over British citizens. However, V is confronted by Finch in a London Underground passage and mortally wounded when he is shot by Finch. V staggers back to the Shadow Gallery where he dies in Evey's arms. Evey then puts him in state, surrounded by Violet Carson roses, lilies and gelignite, in an Underground train that strikes a blockage on the tracks right under 10 Downing Street, which V had previously prepared. The explosives-laden train detonates, giving V a Viking funeral, fulfilling his final request to Evey, who takes on the mantle of "V." Quotes: "Voila! In view, a humble vaudevillian veteran, cast vicariously as both victim and villain by the vicissitudes of fate. This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished. However, this valorous visitation of a bygone vexation stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition! The only verdict is vengance, a vendetta, held as a votive not in vain, for the value and voracity of such shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous. (Chuckles) Verily this vichyssoise of verbiage veers most verbose, so let me simply add that it's my very good honor to meet you and you may call me V." "People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." "Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea. And ideas are bulletproof." "The building is a symbol. As is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone a symbol is meaningless. But with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world."