V For Vendetta (film) - Plot

Plot

In the early 2030s, the world is plagued by environmental blight. The United Kingdom is ruled by a totalitarian government under the fascist Norsefire party. The party sets up concentration camps where political prisoners, homosexuals, and other unwanted populace in general are exterminated by Britain's new fascist regime. Evey Hammond, a young woman who works at the state-run British Television Network, is rescued from an attempted rape perpetrated by members of the secret police known as the "Fingermen" by a Guy Fawkes-masked vigilante known as "V". He leads her to a rooftop to watch his destruction of the Old Bailey. Norsefire tries to explain away the incident as a controlled demolition, claiming the building was no longer structurally sound, but V takes over the state television broadcast the same day, exposing the lie. He urges the people of Britain to rise up against the oppressive government and meet him in one year, on November 5, outside the Houses of Parliament, which he promises to destroy. Evey helps V to escape, but is knocked out in the process.

V brings Evey to his lair, where she is told that she must stay in hiding until the November 5 in the following year for her own safety. Upon learning that V is killing government officials, she escapes to the home of her boss, comedian and talk show host Gordon Deitrich (Stephen Fry). In return for Evey's trust in him with her very safety, Deitrich reveals to her an inner sanctum in his home housing a collection of materials outlawed by the government such as subversive paintings, the Quran, and to her surprise – homoerotic photos by Robert Mapplethorpe. Deitrich explains that even though she believed she was meeting him for a date that night V saved her from the fingermen, his intentions toward her was actually a cover under which he hides his actual sexuality. Rather than be his true self in the police state they live in, he has to keep up the expected image of someone who dates young girls such as herself lest he be imprisoned like all the other undesirables. One night, Gordon satirises the government on his television show. The secret police raid Deitrich's home, capturing him and Evey. She is incarcerated and tortured for days for information about V. She finds solace in notes written by another prisoner, an actress named Valerie Page (Natasha Wightman), who was arrested for being a lesbian. Finally, Evey is told that she will be executed immediately unless she reveals V's location. An exhausted but defiant Evey says she would rather die, and is released. Evey discovers that she has been in V's lair all along, and that her imprisonment was staged to free her from her fears. She finds out Deitrich was executed for having a copy of the Quran. The notes were real, but they were passed by Valerie to V years earlier when he was similarly imprisoned. Although Evey initially hates V for what he did to her, she realizes she now feels stronger and free in spirit. She leaves him with a promise to return before November 5.

Inspector Finch, Scotland Yard's chief of police, learns how Norsefire came to power and about V's origins in the course of his investigation. Fourteen years earlier, the United States had collapsed, due to being the victim of an unleashed bio-weapon, which was secretly and deliberately utilized by the people who would become the core of the group Norsefire. It is also mentioned later on that the United States is suffering another civil war between the Midwestern states. Britain suffered in the resulting chaos. Norsefire led a reactionary purge to restore order, during which "enemies of the state" — anyone who did not meet the Party's standards of "purity" — frequently disappeared. The country was divided over the loss of freedom until a coordinated bio-terrorist attack upon a school, a water treatment plant and a tube station resulted in at least 80,000 deaths. The fear generated by the attack allowed Norsefire to win the next election, thereafter silencing all opposition and turning the United Kingdom into a totalitarian state under High Chancellor Adam Sutler (John Hurt). A cure for the virus used in the bio-terrorist attack was later unveiled by a pharmaceutical company with ties to Norsefire. Finch comes to realize that Sutler and his now security chief, Peter Creedy (Tim Pigott-Smith), engineered the catastrophe to seize power. The virus was developed through deadly experimentation on "social deviants" and political dissidents at a detention centre in Larkhill where V had been detained with Valerie Page. Unlike the rest of the doomed prisoners, V gained heightened abilities and managed to escape when the centre was destroyed. Finch realizes that a string of murders involving high profile Norsefire party members are actually V taking revenge on those involved with Larkhill.

As November 5 nears, V's various schemes cause chaos in the UK and the population starts questioning Norsefire's rule. V organizes the distribution of thousands of Guy Fawkes masks. On the eve of the 5th, Evey visits V, who shows her a train in the abandoned London Underground which he has filled with explosives to destroy Parliament. He leaves it up to Evey whether to use it, believing that he is unfit to decide. V then leaves to meet Creedy, who had made a deal with V to hand over Sutler in exchange for V's surrender. Although Creedy executes Sutler as V watches, V still refuses to surrender and is shot multiple times by Creedy's bodyguards. V survives due in part to his concealed armour breastplate, and kills Creedy and his men. Mortally wounded, V returns to Evey to thank her and admits he is in love with her. V dies in her arms afterwards.

As Evey places the dead V in the train, she is found by Finch. Having learned much about the corruption of the Norsefire regime, Finch allows Evey to send the train on its way. Thousands of Londoners, all wearing the Guy Fawkes masks, and unarmed, march on Parliament to watch the event. Because Sutler and Creedy are dead and unable to give orders, the military stands down in the face of a civil rebellion. Accompanied by the "1812 Overture", Parliament and Big Ben are destroyed as Evey and Finch look on. Finch asks Evey for the identity of V, to which she replies, "He was all of us."