V for VendettaSave

We open in a dystopian England circa 2032. The country is ruled by Norsefire, a far-right authoritarian government led by Chancellor Adam Sutler. Civil liberties have been suspended. Homosexuality is criminalized. The state controls media, surveillance, and prison camps. Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman), a young woman working at the state broadcaster, is caught past curfew by Fingermen — secret police — who attempt to assault her.

She is rescued by V (Hugo Weaving), a masked vigilante wearing a Guy Fawkes mask. V has been planning a guerrilla campaign against Norsefire for years. He brings Evey to a nearby rooftop and detonates the Old Bailey courthouse to the tune of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture — the symbolic destruction of the state's judicial seat. V invites the public, through a captured broadcast, to join him in destroying the Parliament building exactly one year later — on November 5, 2032 — Guy Fawkes Day.

The Norsefire government investigates V relentlessly. We learn that V was created by the government itself — Subject IX, a former inmate of the Larkhill detention center where Norsefire conducted experimental drug testing on dissidents in the late 1990s. V is the only escapee. His memory of Larkhill drives his entire revenge campaign — targeting every government official who participated in his torture.

Evey, having sheltered with V, eventually becomes his protégé. She undergoes Larkhill-style imprisonment — V kidnaps and tortures her himself to break her of her fear of the government. The interrogation sequence is the film's most-discussed ethical centerpiece. Evey emerges from V's torture freed of state-fear; the film's ambiguity about whether V's actions are heroic is deliberate.

Sutler, increasingly unstable, orders Norsefire to seize total power. Evey delivers V's recorded testimony — exposing the entire government conspiracy at Larkhill — to the state broadcaster. The footage airs nationally. Public opinion turns against Norsefire.

V, on November 5, 2032, takes a Tube car loaded with explosives to the Houses of Parliament. He is killed in the final confrontation with Chief Inspector Finch (Stephen Rea), who has been investigating both V and the original Larkhill experiments. Finch realizes V's revolution and joins him in solidarity. V dies of his wounds. Evey, wearing V's mask, detonates the Tube car. Parliament explodes.

The film closes with thousands of Guy Fawkes-masked citizens marching on the destroyed Parliament site, removing their masks one by one. The visual moment — democracy reasserted through anonymous solidarity — became the film's most-iconic image. V for Vendetta grossed $134 million globally on a $54 million budget — modest commercial success that grew through home-video and political-cultural impact. The Wachowskis (then known as 'the Wachowski Brothers') produced and wrote the screenplay. Alan Moore declined credit.