History Fridge / VForVendetta

* Evey's name is subtle foreshadowing. "E-" as a prefix means "from."

* The robber that shouts "Anarchy in the UK" is clearly quoting the Sex Pistols song even in-universe... But the fact he ''knows'' the song and has the wit to quote it shows that the hold the Norsefire had on the country and its culture was never as secure as it seemed.

* The film does not cover the state of the British monarchy, whereas in the graphic novel it is mentioned that Zara Phillips is queen albeit as a puppet. In the film, Sutler's image is prominently displayed in places where one might expect the monarch, such as portraits in homes and on poundnotes. It is likely that the monarchy was deposed early on in the regime to ensure that Sutler did not have anyone who could even remotely pose a threat to his rule.

* Why does V kill his targets by injecting them with poison? Simple, [[spoiler:he was experimented on in order to create the bioweapon that Norsefire used to claim power. His use of poison is his form of [[PayEvilUntoEvil paying evil unto evil.]]]]

* Imagine how long it took Valerie to write her life story without destroying the thin toilet paper from her camp. Imagine the dedication and the despair and the need behind the act of writing it, and how difficult it must have been for V to keep it safe after he received it.

* The film does not cover the state of the British monarchy, whereas in the GN it is mentioned that Zara Phillips is queen albeit as a puppet. In the film, Sutler's image is prominently displayed in places where one might expect the monarch, such as portraits in homes and on poundnotes. It is likely that the monarchy was deposed early on in the regime to ensure that Sutler did not have anyone who could even remotely pose a threat to his rule.

** For bonus brilliance points, V was a test subject at Larkhill, gaining his abilities as a side effect of those tests, making Sutler responsible for both the virus that he used as part of his rise to power ''and'' the man who brings about his downfall.

* There's a scene where Evey tells V that she doesn't want him to die, and he replies that that was the kindest thing she could have said to him. She had fallen in love with an idea, not a person.

* V's calling-card for his assassinations is the Scarlet Carson, [[spoiler: a rose specially grown by Valerie's lover for Valerie]]. Since her story was the only thing that kept [[spoiler:V (and later, Evey, although this is unrelated)]] somewhat sane [[spoiler:during V's incarceration and torture at Larkhill]], maybe the assassinations themselves are V getting his revenge for her as well as for himself. Oh, and, of course, to bring down the government and to stop anyone identifying him.

** It goes a step further: Finch is the only one who "failed" in the room, in Chancellor Sutler's eyes. Everyone else has plans in action and has positive updates for the Chancellor. News is covering up the attack, Creedy's men are rounding people up, the surveillance has picked up V and Evey. Finch is the only one with negative news (that V is practically a ghost). He's also the only one who compliments V's attack. It's obvious from the get go that Sutler likes everyone (as much as someone like Sutler can like people) but Finch. It ties back in later after the Archbishop's murder, when Creedy essentially tells Finch that Sutler doesn't trust him, and his Irish ancestry on his mother's side has a lot to do with it.

* The scene where the Ears are listening to Lilliman's murder. One of them says "Children's Hour at the Abbey." Then they chuckle as they listen until they hear Lilliman calling out for help.

** Not to mention that V is the last surviving test subject of the virus, making him an unintended consequence of Sutler's sins, as well as a symbol of those sins coming back to haunt him.

** Also can be read as foreshadowing the big reveal that [[spoiler: Sutler released the St. Mary's virus on his own people.]] The Chancellor was the biggest terrorist threat in the country's history.

** Also can be read as foreshadowing the big reveal that [[spoiler: Sutler released the St. Mary's virus on his own people.]] The chancellor was literally the biggest terrorist threat in the country's history.

* When V shows Evey his rose garden for the first time, she asks if there's a rose for Mr. Susan. V replies, 'Oh no, for him I have cultivated a very ''special'' rose.' It took me a few read-throughs before I realized he was referring to Rosemary Almond, and another read-through before I realized that this meant that V was probably responsible for everything awful that happened to Rosemary - the death of her husband, the government refusing to give her widow's pension (after all, he can hack into FATE, who says he can't change those records), probably even arranging that the only job she gets is as a dancing girl. V deliberately arranged for Rosemary's life after losing her husband to be as horrible as possible, to expose to her how privileged she had been, and the lie that she had lived - as well as how truly corrupt and vile the Susan administration could be, and to give her the motivation to kill Susan. In other words, V really did cultivate a very special rose for the Leader.
** Her husband's death wasn't planned-after all, Derek Almond ''did'' catch V with his pants down, and had he remembered to load his gun he would have killed him then and there. That said, I agree that V manipulated Rosemary to get her to kill Susan (and ''did'' kill the man providing for her after Derek's death, leaving her no choice but whoring herself), what we can't know is if he was planning that since the start (hence he had already planned to kill Derek, it just came earlier than expected) or if he decided to do it after killing Derek.

* Now that Evey has taken V's mantle and chosen Dominic as the new apprentice....does that mean that she will also at one point viciously torture him in order to become ''free''? Just because she refuses to kill, that doesn't mean she refuses to do morally ambiguous things....
** Oh, it got worse. Just after V's speech of how he was going to break the chains and let the people have a choice, we get Evey's speech how she has to 'help' her people (she disclaims leadership, but isn't that what revolutionary leaders always do?). V just has set up a new leader. And with the moral ambiguity you just mentioned this shades into Fridge Horror alright.
** She probably ''wouldn't'' need to do that to Dominic though (leaving aside whether she actually ''could'' or not). Remember, V wanted to open Evey's eyes to the way the world was under Norsefire, and to confront her with beautiful, scary freedom. But thanks to V, Dominic's actually living in that world now. No Norsefire, no architecture of social oppression, just a blank slate England. He's literally just lived through that experience.
* I realised this at around 20 to 2 this morning—In the comic, when [[spoiler: Evey is imprisoned by V, she mentions in her narrative having an invasive search done of her genitalia. Now, this sounds nasty but not necessarily that bad until you remember that Valerie says in her letter that she hid a pencil "inside of her", which means that in the original prison, which means they weren't doing cavity checks to that extent, so it can't even be justified for realism's sake..]]
** Well except for one thing: [[spoiler: Valerie's letter states the pencil is "a small one they didn't find". She ''was'' searched, they just missed the pencil stub. V was factual to the end.]]
* Remember V's speech over the news, saying how disappointed he was in humanity, and that he'd give them two years to shape up? [[OmnicidalManiac How is he the good guy again?]]
* Consider how long Valerie's chapter is, and the medium of its presentation. Imagine how thin concentration camp toilet paper must be. Imagine how long it took Valerie to write her life story without destroying the paper. Imagine the dedication and the despair and the need behind the act of writing it, and how difficult it must have been for V to keep it safe after he received it.

* V's dominoes sequence is very cool and visually striking, but also has a secondary meaning; it represents the idea that one action (him striking the first domino/starting a revolution to overthrow Norsefire) can begin the unstoppable chain of events that leads to the revolution's victory. One domino is left standing after all have fallen, symbolizing the final event (Evey pulling the lever to send the train to destroy Parliament) that must occur for the chain of events to be complete.
* In ''Film/VForVendetta'', there's a scene where Evey tells V that she doesn't want him to die, and he replies that that was the kindest thing she could have said to him. It took me a few viewings to realize that it was because she knew nothing about V, and that he was the personification of everything for which he worked, that it meant so much to V (he could rest assured that she would continue his work). She had fallen in love with an idea, not a person.
* The shipping service in the film uses fingerprint scanners to verify the identity of its recipients. It's also a brilliant way to get everybody's fingerprints on file for the government's use, if they're already not on a database.
* From the sketch: the scene where Sutler unmasks V, only to find that the terrorist is actually himself. Brilliant because in a totalitarian system, the government is the one that's terrorizing the people. Also the fact that they both order the soldiers to open fire, and end up dead - a totalitarian government essentially destroys itself.
** The satire also suggests that V is a false-flag operation, which is how Norsefire came into existence in the first place. That Gordon is unaware of this might be why he was so certain there wouldn't be serious repercussions despite clearly being very very wrong. Sutler may not have been reacting to being mocked and instead silencing someone he thought might know too much.
* When V gives Sutler a rose for "the only thing he has left", it may fly over one's head at first. But remember what Valerie said in her letter? Something along the lines of "Our integrity may be a small part of us, and it's all we have left next to our lives. But even if we die, it still remains." This makes it a very [[MeaningfulEcho meaningful]] (or [[IronicEcho ironic]]) call back. Basically, V is telling Sutler that he has no integrity, that all he has left is his life, which he is about to promptly lose to Creedy.
* Every time you see Sutler on the big screen in Norsefire HQ, his pupils are expanded to the point where his iris is a millimeter band around it. Deranged much?
** I always figured he must be a drug addict of some sort. He lives in an underground bunker all by himself with everything he wants being transported to him, and probably is so paranoid and egomaniacal he takes something to deal with it. Which shows the main flaw of most dictatorships: creating a CultOfPersonality around guys that qualify as TheDitz or TheCaligula.
** It also hits home that '''everyone''' in a society like theirs is living in constant terror, even the ones who ostensibly control the tyranny they'd engineered.
* At the end, when the massive crowd takes off their masks to see the fireworks better, people who have clearly died during the film [[spoiler:Dietrich, Valerie and her lover, the glasses-wearing girl, Evey's parents]] are present unmasking themselves. So, how much of this film is all in Evey's head?
** Or it's symbolic: even those who ''died'' in the pursuit of liberation are metaphorically participating in V's moment of triumph.

* Look carefully at the jukebox when V first considers asking Evey to dance with him. He presses a button emblazoned with the number 5. Now, what's 5 in Roman numerals?
** Holy crap, what about the symbolism of the letter V?? E'''v'''ey, '''V'''alerie, November the '''5'''th...I'm sure there's more...
*** Evey's name: '''E''' (the 5th letter in the alphabet) and '''V'''.
*** And '''Y''' is the 25th letter of the alphabet. 25 is 5 times 5.
*** The source material played very heavily on the Fifth of November motif including a copious amounts of 5s and Vs all over the place, some meaningful, some just thrown in because it could be done and because strengthening the motif made the meaningful bits more meaningful. The film downplays this somewhat but still strives for the same effect.
*** What appears in November that doesn't appear in any other month? The letter V.
** And in English alphabet V is the '''5th''' letter starting from the end. Implying that V is Evey's polar opposite, anyone?

* "Penny for the Guy?" While it's an awesome way for V to make an entrance at the showdown with Creedy's men, the fridge brilliance comes from the history behind the phrase. Children in London, using this same phrase, would ask for money to buy fireworks around every November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day. On that day, a mannequin of Fawkes would be burned amid a fireworks display. Remember the ending of the movie?

* V very well may be making up the story about the plague being created by the Norsefire government. He was horrifically treated in the extermination camps but the only person whose word we have to trust is his. Which, of course, is perfect because he's trying to teach us to trust no one completely.
* When people believed in V, they found the will to unite against Sutler's reign and got enough power to successfully overthrow it. So the Norsefire slogan (''Strength through unity -- Unity through Faith'', in case you just forgot), backfired really badly. ''Hell'' of irony, anyone?

[[AC:FridgeLogic]]
* The climax involves V destroying the Houses of Parliament with a subway bomb. NoEndorHolocaust aside, consider the fact that the British government depicted in the film is a dictatorship, and the fact that we never get any indication that the British Parliament even still exists (particularly since, for the bomb to go off with zero casualties, the building would have to be completely empty). That means that [[NiceJobBreakingItHero V's final act was to destroy one of the last remaining symbols of Britain's old democratic government]].
** The same old democratic government that had faked a terrorist attack and killed thousands of civilians to get an excuse to become totalitarian. It was to be destroyed and built anew.
** The destruction of the Houses of Parliament is retained from the source material (though in the graphic novel it happens near at the beginning and 10 Downing Street receives the underground explosion treatment) where V is much more actively portrayed as an anarchist (per Creator/AlanMoore's own politics) and his goal is not the reform of government but rather the destruction of it as a whole.
** He's a [[{{Pun}} guy]] with a fondness for explosives going around London in a Guy Fawkes mask. The question about blowing up the Parliament was not ''if'', but ''when''.
** It's been years since I read the comic but I think another reason he destroyed the Parliament was because it was "just a building" and its existence is meaningless if democracy doesn't mean anything either. For example, if America turned totalitarian one day, then what's the point in keeping the Statue of Liberty?
** Evey asks this exact question in the movie. V responds that the building is an idea and something to rally people around.

* Blink, and you'll miss it. When Finch tells his partner about the virus, he calls it the worst biological attack in the ''country's'' history. Almost 100,000 people killed. Not world history, not European history, but English history. What happened to the rest of the world?
** Wars ''are'' frequently mentioned, so likely, a whole lot of the world is screwed out there. You think England's got it bad? Most likely, the other countries have no government, or are [[NukeEm gone.]]
** There's several mentions of the ''former'' United States, in the same way people in real-life talk about the ''former'' Soviet Union. If the world sucks so much that even ''America'' is in bad shape with its almost ideal geographic position to become strong and stay strong on the world scale, you ''know'' you're in trouble. Of course, much like [[Literature/NineteenEightyFour another dystopian Britain]], who's to say that the world is really in such bad sorts as [[UnreliableNarrator Norsefire's propaganda]] lets on?
* The film's V seems to have been given AdaptationalHeroism. However, the hostage early on, dressed in his outfit, was shot and killed in the comic, with no real indication that he's a hostage given by V. And it wouldn't be out of character for V to intend for the hostage to die...
** On the other hand, it also wouldn't be out of character for him to select a [[AssholeVictim particularly odious individual]] to ''be'' that sacrifice-hostage. Like, say, someone who'd gotten his position at [=BTN=] by ratting out another employee for complaining about the censorship.
* The scene where the Ears are listening to Lilliman's murder. One of them says "Children's Hour at the Abbey." Then they chuckle as they listen until they hear Lilliman calling out for help. Think about how they laugh and listen for a minute and of the comment Children's Hour at the Abbey....you're welcome.

* The scene where the Ears are listening to Lilliman's murder. One of them says "Children's Hour at the Abbey." Then they chuckle as they listen until they hear Lilliman calling out for help. Think about how they laugh and listen for a minute and of the comment Children's Hour at the Abbey....you're welcome.

* Blink, and you'll miss it. When Finch tells his partner about the virus, he calls it the worst biological attack in the ''country's'' history. Almost 100000 people killed. Not world history, not European history, but English history. What happened to the rest of the world?

** On the other hand, it also wouldn't be out of character for him to select a [[AssholeVictim particularly odious individual]] to ''be'' that sacrifice-hostage. Like, say, someone who'd gotten his position at [=BTN=] by ratting out another employee for complaining about the censorship.