V for Vendetta

Remember, remember The 5th of November

The gunpowder treason and plot

I know of no reason Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

But what of the man?

I know his name was Guy Fawkes...

...and I know in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament.

But who was he really?

What was he like?

We are told to remember the idea and not the man.

Because a man can fail.

He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten.

But 400 years later...

...an idea can still change the world.

I have witnessed firsthand the power of ideas.

I've seen people kill in the name of them...

...and die defending them.

But you cannot kiss an idea...

...cannot touch it or hold it.

Ideas do not bleed. They do not feel pain.

They do not love.

And it is not an idea that I miss.

It is a man.

A man that made me remember the 5th of November.

A man that I will never forget.

So I read that the former United States is so desperate for medical supplies...

...that they have allegedly sent several containers filled with wheat and tobacco.

A gesture, they said, of good will.

You wanna know what I think?

Well, you're listening to my show, so I will assume you do.

It's high time we let the colonies know what we really think of them.

I think it's payback time for a tea party they threw us a few hundred years ago.

I say we go down to those docks tonight and dump that crap...

...where everything from the Ulcered Sphincter of Ass-Erica belongs!

Who's with me? Who's bloody with me?!

Did you like that?

U.S.A., Ulcered Sphincter of Ass-Erica. I mean, what else can you say?

Here was a country that had everything, absolutely everything...

...and now, 20 years later, is what?

The world's biggest leper colony. Why?

Godlessness.

Let me say that again.

Godlessness.

It wasn't the war they started. It wasn't the plague they created.

It was Judgment.

No one escapes their past. No one escapes Judgment.

You think he's not up there?

You think he's not watching over this country?

How else can you explain it? He tested us, but we came through.

We did what we had to do.

Islington. Enfield. I was there. I saw it all.

Immigrants, Muslims...

...homosexuals, terrorists.

Disease-ridden degenerates. They had to go.

Strength through unity. Unity through faith.

I am a God-fearing Englishman, and I'm goddamn proud of it!

That's quite enough of that, thank you very much.

Oh, shit.

A yellow-coded curfew is now in effect.

Any unauthorized personnel will be subject to arrest.

This is for your protection.

A yellow-coded curfew is now in effect.

Any unauthorized personnel will be subject to arrest.

This is for your protection.

- Whoa! Excuse me. - Sorry, I didn't see you--

- In a hurry, are we? - I was just--

- It's past curfew, you know. - My uncle, he's very sick.

- Sick uncle? What you think, Willy? - It's a load of bollocks.

I made a mistake. I shouldn't be out after curfew. I know that.

Maybe you could look after us before getting back to your uncle.

See, my friend, he's kind of sick. Ain't you?

Real sick. Bad case of the blues. You can feel them.

- Don't touch me! - Look, Willy, kitty's got claws.

- She just threatened us. - That she did, that she did.

You know what that means, don't you?

It means that we exercise our own judicial discretion.

And you get to swallow it.

- You're Fingermen. - She's getting the picture.

No, please, I didn't know. I'm sorry.

Not yet you're not. But you will be.

By sunup, if you're not the sorriest piece of ass in all of London...

...then you'll certainly be the sorest.

Oh, God, no. Please don't do this.

I'll go home. I won't do it again, I swear! Please!

- What do you think, lads? - Spare the rod, spoil the child.

Help me! Someone help!

The multiplying villainies of nature do swarm upon him.

- What the hell?! - Bugger off!

Disdaining fortune, with his brandish'd steel...

...which smoked with bloody execution.

We're Fingermen, pal.

Aha!

Jesus Christ! Mercy!

We are oft to blame in this-- 'Tis too much proved.

- -That with devotion's visage and pious action...

...we do sugar o'er the devil himself.

- What's that mean? - Spare the rod.

I can assure you, I mean you no harm.

- Who are you? - Who?

Who is but the form following the function of what...

...and what I am is a man in a mask.

- Oh, I can see that. - Of course you can.

I'm not questioning your powers of observation.

I'm merely remarking upon the paradox of asking a masked man who he is.

- Oh. Right. - But on this most auspicious of nights...

...permit me then, in lieu of the more commonplace sobriquet...

...to suggest the character of this dramatis persona.

Voilà!

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 van guarding vice...

...and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

The only verdict is vengeance, a vendetta...

...held as a votive not in vain, for the value and veracity of such...

...shall one day vindicate the vigilant and the virtuous.

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.

Are you, like, a crazy person?

I am quite sure they will say so.

But to whom, might I ask, am I speaking?

- I'm Evey. - Evey?

E-vey. Of course you are.

- What does that mean? - It means that I, like God...

...do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence.

Are you hurt?

No, I'm fine.

- Thanks to you. - Oh, I merely played my part.

- But tell me, do you enjoy music, Evey? - I suppose.

You see, I'm a musician of sorts...

...and on my way to give a very special performance.

What kind of musician?

Percussion instruments are my speciality.

But tonight I intend to call upon the entire orchestra for this event...

...and would be honored if you could join me.

I don't think so. I should be getting home.

I promise you, it'll be like nothing you've ever seen.

And afterwards, you'll return home safely.

All right.

It's beautiful up here.

A more perfect stage could not be asked for.

I don't see any instruments.

Your powers of observation continue to serve you well.

But wait. It is to Madame Justice that I dedicate this concerto...

...in honor of the holiday she seems to have taken from these parts...

...and in recognition of the imposter that stands in her stead.

Tell me, do you know what day it is, Evey?

- November the 4th? - Not anymore.

Remember, remember The 5th of November

The gunpowder treason and plot

I know of no reason Why the gunpowder treason

Should ever be forgot

First, the overture.

Yes.

Yes, the strings.

Listen carefully, can you hear it?

Now the brass.

I can hear it!

Look outside, Mommy! They're playing music!

- How do you do that? - Wait.

Here comes the crescendo!

How beautiful, is it not?

Gentlemen, you have had four hours. You had better have results. Mr. Creedy.

The Bailey area is quarantined.

All significant witnesses have been detained.

Good. Mr. Etheridge?

A recording device was found wired into the central emergency-broadcast system.

The DCD was Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture.

Add it to the blacklist. I never want to hear that again.

Yes, sir.

We also doubled our random sweeps and are monitoring phone surveillance...

...indicating a high percentage of conversation about the explosion.

Mr. Dascomb, what are we doing about that?

We're calling it an emergency demolition.

We have spin coverage on the network and throughout the interlink.

Experts have been lined up to testify against the Bailey's structural integrity.

I want Prothero to speak on the dangers of these old buildings...

...and how we must avoid clinging to the edifice of a decadent past.

He should conclude that the New Bailey will become the symbol of our time...

...and the future that our conviction has rewarded us.

Mr. He yer.

Our surveillance cameras captured several images of the terrorist...

...though the mask obviously makes retinal identification impossible.

We also managed to get a picture of the girl that Creedy's men were detaining.

- Who is she, Mr. Finch? - Not sure yet, sir.

- But we're working on several leads. - Anything else?

We located the fireworks launch...

...and found traces of the explosives used at both sites.

Unfortunately it appears that despite the heavy level of sophistication...

...these devices were homemade with over-the-counter chemicals...

...making them very difficult to trace.

Whoever he is, chancellor, he's very good.

Spare us your professional annotations, Mr. Finch. They are irrelevant.

Apologies, chancellor.

Gentlemen, this is a test.

Moments such as these are matters of faith.

To fail is to invite doubt into everything we believe...