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V for Vendetta (2005) More at IMDb Pro »

The following FAQ entries may contain spoilers. Only the biggest ones (if any) will be covered with spoiler tags. It is assumed that no one who is diligently avoiding spoilers will be visiting this page in the first place.

For detailed information about the amounts and types of (a) sex and nudity, (b) violence and gore, (c) profanity, (d) alcohol, drugs, and smoking, and (e) frightening and intense scenes in this movie, consult the IMDb Parents Guide for this movie. The Parents Guide for V for Vendetta can be found at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0434409/parentalguide.

Guy Fawkes was an English Roman Catholic terrorist who tried to blow up Parliament (with King James I and the Protestant aristocracy in it) on the 5th of November in 1605. This is known as the Gunpowder Plot. V is loosely based on Guy Fawkes, and his plot to destroy the parliament building is similar.

That's a Guy Fawkes mask. V used Fawkes as a sort of role model in his quest to end the Norsefire rule. V felt Guy Fawkes was right in trying to bring down what he felt was an oppressive government. Similar masks were/are traditionally used for Fawkes effigies on Bonfire Night in the United Kingdom when the effigies are burned. The burning and accompanying use of fireworks is the traditional centre-piece of the festivities.

Fawkes is the victim in this ritual- it is daring and initially puzzling for someone to take the mask on himself, as if saying 'here is the one you have killed' and also, 'here I am to be killed.' V also briefly explains the significance of the mask: "This visage, no mere veneer of vanity, is a vestige of the vox populi, now vacant, vanished."

Yes and no. The injections they gave him at Larkhill have the result of increased kinesthesia in V-- improved reflexes and agility (motor skills) and also reduced sensitivity to pain. However, if you listen to the coroner's exact words, there is a suggestion of superpowers having developed: "The mutations seem to have triggered the abnormal development of basic kinesthesia and reflexes." It's possible that The Wachowski brothers misunderstood, or decided to expand, the definition of kinesthesia, which is in fact that sense that allows us to determine the physical positions of our extremities in relation to ourselves - for example, it allows us to touch our nose with our eyes closed. I suspect in the case of V we are supposed to believe that he was able to comprehend his position, and the position of other objects, in the physical universe with greater speed and claity than an average human. This, combined with his increased strength, does suggest he was a form of superhero.

In the graphic novel, no such mention of "increased abilities" is made, nor are we given any reason to believe that he acts with any abnormal capability. He is not presented as a 'superhero' in the classic, 'spandex-clad-with-no-visible-means-of-support' sense. In the source material, V is described as 'a psychopath... in its most precise sense.' The experimentation at Larkhill had no physical effect on him, but rather altered his perception of the world and how he occupied it. It essentially removed the subconscious censor that we all have between thought and action. Our minds/bodies work on a sequence of perception-evaluation-planning-conscience-reaction (we see a threat, we take a moment to work out how dangerous it is, then how to counter it, then we have a moment's doubt, and then we defend/attack/run away). V has lost the middle steps of the sequence and as a result, his body reacts instantly and instinctively, doing exactly what he needs to in order to counter any threat without conscience. To 'normal' people, the ability to act without fear of the consequence may seem inhuman...but not Superhuman.

They are Creedy's special police force. They do the black-bagging and interrogations, as well as having the authority to make on-the-spot judgements for offenders, without due process. Finch is the leader of the Nose, which is essentially the regular police force - they sniff out criminals. The Fingers do the dirty work. The Eyes and Ears are visual and auditory surveillance. The Mouth is the news outlets, the propoganda machine. Together they make up the Head. Well, the fingers aren't literally a part of the human head, as we know, but all five together make up our five senses, though only the term "Fingermen" survived the novel's translation to film, with the Nose, Mouth, etc left unmentioned by those names.

Sutler is perhaps the Brain in this little game of metaphors, as well.

In the film, breaking curfew is a crime for which Fingermen (the secret police) get judicial discretion on dealing with suspects (in effect, acting as judge and jury, meting out punishment themselves). The men Evey runs into in the film were planning to use this discretion to rape her with a legal seal of approval.

Note that in the graphic novel, the charge is prostitution and the Fingermen clearly state they are going to rape AND kill Evey.

The Old Bailey is the Central Criminal Crown Court in Central London, and yes, it is actually known today as "The Old Bailey," not just in the movie.

Whilst the Central Criminal Court is colloquially known as "The Old Bailey," officially that is just the name of the road on which the Court is located.

Although they might have been real explosives, many believe that they were not actually rigged to go off. It is rather believed that they were a decoy to keep people busy while V made his escape. The reasoning here is that, if the bomb had gone off, V would have still been in the building when it did.

Others maintain that an explosive of that size would not have been enough to cause significant damage to the building (or V, already a good ways away from it), but it would have been strong enough to destroy a good part of the surrounding floor; thus significantly crippling the BTN propaganda apparatus, at a very crucial moment. In this other line of thinking, the bomb was sizeable enough to cripple the BTN facility, and was intended to go off at about the time it was cut. But V's self-taught bombmaking wasn't so intricate that it prohibited Dascomb from simply lucking out, and defusing it by a fortunate choice. Dascomb's luck then allowed the BTN to immediately broadcast their somewhat disheartening "terrorist captured" response. Even this luck, however, ultimately proved futile.

It can be argued against this that V doesn't display a tendancy to kill without specific reason - therefore, it isn't very likely that he would blow up a room full of people who had done nothing in particular to him. The counterargument to this, however, is that V clearly has no qualms about killing police-lackeys of the state, and that the state propagandists are equally, if not more, to blame for the horrors of Norsefire than the average policeman. V would be too consistent to not blame the BTN personnel for this active and deceitful complicity ("We do sugar o'er the devil himself").

In either case, it's clear that V's plans regularly entail massive risk to innocent civilians. His demolition of the Old Bailey played music in order to get people out into the streets just before it exploded, and his great "Domino Plan" revolved around inspiring violent anarchy in the UK, provoking Norsefire into outrage-inspiring atrocities.

The movie is The Count of Monte Cristo. It was released in 1934.

It is Latin for, "By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe." Although V attributes the phrase to Faust both in the graphic novel and the movie, it doesn't occur either in Marlowe's Faustus or Goethe's Faust but in fact was a motto of the 20th century occultist Aleister Crowley.

No one knows. It's not stated in either the movie or the graphic novel why V was sent to Larkhill. Furthermore V says that he lost his memory while at Larkhill, so during the timeframe of the movie's events, even he didn't know why he had been sent there. It's only stated that he was an "undesirable," which could mean that he was not heterosexual, a non-Christian, had posessions that were deemed offensive, that he spoke out against the political regime or anything else the totalitarian government prohibited. Although we can probably rule out the possibility that V is a homosexual, since in the end of the movie he tells Evey that he's in love with her, it's still possible then that he was bisexual.

In an interview Hugo Weaving did with IndieLondon, he offered the following...

---

You understand that he's been tortured and physically abused and that's what has created him. But at the same time the reason he was imprisoned in the first place was, I would suggest, because he was some kind of political activist. And I think he was probably an actor so he has very strong opinions.

---

The original graphic novel's Larkhill was based loosely off of Hitler's concentration camps and the Nazi atrocities, so it is likely that he was taken for his political views. However, it's possible that he was not being specifically punished, seeing as he was placed in a group that was almost certain to be unceremoniously disposed of. A man who can fashion explosives and destroy a detention facility in which he's being held captive is likely to make authoritarians nervous wherever he goes.

This actually has two answers. First off, it's V shaving her head in the movie universe; he just used makeup to disguise his hands. In the real world, since they would only be able to shave Portman's head once, they had to get the shot in one take; therefore, they had one of the hair dressers do it. The person actually shaving Evey's head is Jeremy Woodhead (hair designer/stylist) for the film.

Some think the fingers do look scarred, but it's not that clear through the white latex gloves.

No, V is a master of disguise and he's able to disguise his voice as well. In some shots the "interrogator" moves briefly into the light and you can actually see that it is Hugo Weaving. The graphic novel explains that V wore masks to look like different people in the shadows.

In the bit of dialogue where the man tells Evey that all the men want is one piece of information, and subsequently that she is free, it is clearly Hugo Weaving speaking, in a similar manner to how he spoke as Elrond in Lord of The Rings.

V and the other prisoners were injected with a virus that was later used at St. Mary's, Three Waters (water treatment plant), and a London tube station. More specifically, the Larkhill prisoners were the "lab rats" in Norsefire's experiments while the party was attempting to develop a super-bioweapon.

There is an implication that the St. Mary's virus came from the blood of V himself, since he was the trial which gave the coroner hope and since he was the only subject who survived the Larkhill explosion. This would provide another reason for his vendetta against the government, since he felt partially responsible for the virus. This is seemingly contradicted by the diary of Delia Surridge, who claims that all her work was destroyed in the explosion at Larkhill; however, she might have been writing that as merely an assumption, as she afterwards distanced herself from the project and might well not have known if any data had survived.

During the 'flashback' scene it was rather definitively implied that everybody who was injected died... except for V. Thus, we may assume that for whatever reason he is unique, or at the very least an extremely rare specimen in some biological or physiological sense, and that most people would not develop as he did... or else Larkhill would have been overrun by V-type super-people. The movie does seem to imply V is given some sort of superhuman ability by the experimentation at Larkhill, as Delia's diary says: "the mutations seem to have triggered the abnormal development of basic kinesthesia and reflexes."

Those responsible for Three Waters and St. Mary's also came out with a miracle vaccine for the virus that made them very wealthy and allowed them to be saviors in a time of fear and utter chaos. It would stand to reason that this vaccine would be developed from V's blood, as he was the only one able to resist the virus. V's role in the viral attacks would then be as the originator of the vaccine. This would explain how V knew of the history of the virus and vaccine that he relates to Finch and Dominic.

The graphic novel merely implies that the prisoners were experimented on with no real purpose, like the Nazis with Jews in WWII. The super-soldier story line is the Wachowskis take on the purpose of the experimentation.

This is explained in an expanded voiceover of Delia Surridge's (the coroner that V killed) journal, which exists in the original script but was cut much shorter for the final product. While at Larkhill, V was allowed to tend the garden there, for which he had access to chemical supplies, grease solvents, ammonia, and fertilizer. He used those to produce napalm and mustard gas.

No. The doctor is talking metaphorically, i.e. she couldn't see his eyes because of the fire, but knew he was looking at her.

V can be seen throughout the movie reading books, watching movies, and visually noticing people.

This is explained in an expanded voiceover of the coroner's diary that exists in the original script but was cut shorter for the final product. In it, she explains that V was allowed to tend the garden at Larkhill, where he "grows roses. Beautiful roses." Therefore, she knew it was V when she saw the rose Finch handed to her.

The scarlet carsons were grown by the lesbian lover of the actress of Salt Flats, who wrote the autobiography on toilet paper that she passed to V during their incarceration. That autobiography inspired V to live without fear, and he used those flowers as a signature for the killings he committed as retribution for Larkhill.

The dominoes are real. Weijers Domino Productions proposed and designed the pattern including the falling sequences as well as the coloring effects. It took 4 professional domino assemblers 200 hours to set up 22,000 tiles.

Each tile is 1 7/8" tall by 7/8" wide and 1/4" thick.

The man visible in the mirror is Inspector Finch.

Yes, they are. The most literal interpretation is that the death of V has raised the dead; consistent with a good deal of messianic images and the Paschal tone of the final scene. If so, it's grounded in a gnostic or Arian Christology. The 'new world' is not shown, but is more than a political change.

Alternatively, they aren't there physically and it's not a film blooper. They're there in spirit, carried in the hearts and minds of those who really do stand there. It's also notable that this is the only scene in the film (apart from the flashbacks) where any black people are seen. The graphic novel was more explicit about the fact that the Norsefire party had performed extensive racial cleansing in England, whereas the film merely hinted at it, focusing more on the persecution of homosexuals.

This is a physical representation of one of V's guiding principles: that you can't kill an idea; each of them represents part of the idea of freedom and self-expression. An idea, literally, is a form or archetype - so this is physically shown in the people's being antitypes of V. The obvious symbolism here, coupled with that present from the beginning of the movie with regards to a Guy Fawkes comparison and the constant mention of 'ideas' suggests that it was an intentionally symbolic scene. This 'idea' being the most important element of the movie, it makes sense that it would be steadily expanded upon and culminate in its most visceral representation during the movie's climactic final scene. V leads into it himself, during Creedy's death, by suggesting that he is still alive due to the fact that he is not just a man: "beneath this mask there is more than just flesh... beneath this mask, there is an idea," despite the fact that we have alternative and deliberately presented reasons as to why he is alive, if only briefly. With the explosion of the Parliament building, the 'idea' culminates in the visual depiction of various individuals who fought for this idea... people we know to already be dead. The people are still dead, but the idea is alive, the idea has triumphed.

This scene can also be interpreted to illustrate what Evey said to Inspector Finch at the finale: "He (V) was Edmond Dantés... and he was my father. And my mother... my brother... my friend. He was you... and me. He was all of us, " meaning that V did it all for them (Gordon, the little girl with glasses, Evey's parents, etc.). In this sense, V symbolized the victims, both living and dead, of the government's atrocities.

The most literal explanation would be that none of them actually did die; we never see any of these characters die on-screen. Gordon is black bagged, the girl is only shot once, and the two lesbians are killed/black bagged in a possibly subjective flashback. However, this explanation stretches plausibility for a number of reasons: While we never see Gordon die, he is arrested and beaten, and it seems highly unlikely he would have simply been released, in light of his collection of forbidden items as well as his mockery of Sutler. We do see Valerie's body in a mass grave in an earlier flashback, one not based on the contents of her letter, and she and Ruth appear in the crowd without having aged at all in the twenty years since their arrest. Finally, we would also have to believe that the parents of a child suffering a gunshot wound to the chest would take her out of the hospital and involve her in a potentially violent conflict with armed soldiers.

It's worth noting that, while the little girl did not die (and was not shot) in the graphic novel, Ruth, Valerie, and Gordon definitely did.

It is the Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, on the bank of the River Thames in London. The structure serves a similar function as the United States Capitol building, which houses Congress, but in the film the Houses of Parliament are no longer being used since the British government no longer contains a legislature. The building's famous Clock Tower displays clock faces on all four sides and contains enormous bells which sound four times each hour (the moniker of "Big Ben" belongs to the largest of these bells, which weighs over fifteen tons).

It's the finale of the 1812 Overture by Tchaikovsky. It is a programmatic piece celebrating the victory of Russia over Napoleon, and the big theme is the old Russian anthem. [edit] It is a quote of the liturgical hymn roughly translated 'God Save the Czar'.

"Yakety Sax" by Boots Randolph. Also regularly used in the old British comedy series The Benny Hill Show.

John Hurt plays both doubles. However, it is unknown who in the movie world plays the doubles.

Edmond Dantès is mentioned near the end of the movie in the exchange, "'Who was he (V)?' 'He was Edmond Dantès, he is you, he is me....'"

Edmond Dantès is the main character in The Count of Monte Cristo - V's favourite movie.

Read Count of Monte Cristo online here: http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/1184

There are several songs that play during the end credits. In order, they are: 1. "Street Fighting Man" by the Rolling Stones 2. "BKAB" by Ethan Stoller (with excerpts from Malcolm X and Gloria Steinem) 3. "Out of Sight" by Spiritualized The remainder is original score from the film composed by Dario Marianelli. The song most folks seem to be interested in is "BKAB" by Ethan Stoller. For more information please see: http://www.dynamiteham.com/BKABFAQ.htm

Specifically, it is a bit of both the 7th and 8th tracks from the sound track. It starts with a section of "Valerie" and then blends the tail end of "Evey Reborn.". This is a rare soundtrack as it actually contains the theatrical score. For example, there is a Rolling Stones tune from the movie that is not included on the soundtrack CD.

Absolutely not. V states within a minute of meeting Evey that he is a man. Twice. The doctor's diary also refers to V as the man in room 5 (V).

See the above reasons. We also see Valerie's lifeless body thrown into a pit with other corpses before lime (Calcium oxide - CaO - that white powder commonly used in mass graves to reduce odor and speed decomposition) is thrown on top of them. Though it's not stated in the movie, Ruth kills herself after she gives the Fingermen Valerie's name. And on top of that, V is over 6 feet tall, and neither Ruth or Valerie are that tall.

The setting is London during the decade of the 2020s as confirmed by director James McTeigue in the book "V for Vendetta: From Script to Film."

Influenced by, certainly, as Alan Moore quite clearly states in the Afterword to the comic book. However, just because a work is similar in subject does not mean it is plagiarized or a "rip-off." 1984 was itself largely influenced by Yevgeny Zamyatin's We and, to a lesser extent, Jack London's The Iron Heel, and all dystopian novels ultimately stem from such classics as Thomas Moore's Utopia and Plato's Republic, which depict "ideal" societies that many people today would find oppressive. 1984 was also largely influenced by world events ocurring at the time it was written (1948), and this is clearly true for V as well.

Fundamentally the stories are actually quite dissimilar, as V for Vendetta tells the tale of a revolution planned, announced, anticipated and then carried out. In 1984, there is no revolution. The rulers are never threatened and the status quo remains constant. There is a brief moment of recognition that a revolution would be beneficial for the masses, but before that thought is given a chance to grow it is swiftly snuffed out by a brutal and torturous form of systematic mind reconditioning.

Not a direct attack, no. Art, as a medium, is often too subtle for such methods. It tends to run to the sort of scathing sarcasm and derision that undermines its target rather than attempting to assault them directly. On the other hand, the fact that you have asked the question demonstrates not only that the designed purpose of the film and its story is to enlighten the viewer while exposing cheap political demagoguery and social elitism for what they truly are, but that it succeeded in achieving that goal as well by actually stimulating the thinking processes which is ultimately the true goal of all art.

The original comic book was written by a Briton named Alan Moore and illustrated mostly by David Lloyd, starting in 1982 and published through 1988. It was aimed directly at Margaret Thatcher and Fascism. Alan Moore took umbrage with the film adaption, making comments to the effect that the filmmakers did not have the courage to make an out-and-out attack on Bush, so they decided to adapt the story he'd written for their own purposes. In one scene, a protestor is carrying a sign which appears to have the word "BUSH" written on it. Plus, if you're aware of the 'Doc Frankenstein' comic series the Wachowskis created, they seem very liberal, so the question isn't that far-fetched. Nevertheless, it does bear remembering that the script for this film was in development as far back as the mid-nineties, well before Bush took office.

The visual imagery of the Norsefire party, with its red and black flags that used an old, largely outmoded religious symbol as it chief device and the scenes of Sutler campaigning with fervent shouting and gesticulating seem clearly designed to evoke recollections of the Nazi regime rather than any modern political situation. The slight alteration of the Leader's name from the novel (originally Adam Susan rather than Sutler) also seems to be a deliberate attempt to reference Hitler. The party's practice of marginalizing and shipping ethinic and social minorites to detention camps is also a clear reference to the Third Reich, rather than modern America.

Of course, certain details from modern times were included to make the story more identifiable to a modern audience, such as Prothero's similarity to media pundits such as Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh, as well as the brief reference to an avian flu outbreak and the general notion that the media exists to distract and worry the public rather than inform them of the facts. The Nazi references in this movie were far more obvious and deliberate than any disparagement of George Bush. The Wachowski Brothers' work is replete with warnings about government growing too big.

Alan Moore had always disdained the idea of his work being adapted for film, and he furthermore suffered a bad legal experience prior to V for Vendetta when his League of Extraordinary Gentlemen was adapted. After that experience, he vowed to remove himself completely from any film adaptations of his work, including financially and in credits, to ensure that he would never have to endure that kind of legal trouble again. Moore also specifically didn't like this particular film because he felt that the script had large plot holes. Its release angered him to the point that he actually left his publisher, DC Comics, since they are owned by Warner Bros, the film's production and distribution company.

It's worth noting, however, that Moore and DC Comics had a number of other issues.

This goes by various names, but the one used in the movie is called "Egg in a Basket," or, as Gordon calls it "Eggy in a Basket" (Alan Moore especially disliked this detail, finding it inauthentic). Butter both sides of a piece of thick bread. Cut a hole in the middle, using a cookie cutter or glass. Drop a small bit of butter into a skillet on low heat. Place bread in the skillet. Give it a few moments, and put 1 egg into the middle of the hole. When the egg begins to set, flip. Keep flipping until the egg is done the way you want. Keep the heat on low and don't get impatient- you'll have ashes on charcoal if you put the heat up too high. If you make more than one, put more butter in the pan each time.

As a slight variation, you can put a slice of your favorite cheese and/or a deli thin slice of ham about a minute before it's done cooking. Do not flip once you've put the cheese on.

This is also known as an Egg in a Frame (in the southern parts of America), or One Eyed Toast. Taken from the egg in a basket, an egg in a frame is the same thing, just without cheese. Both are very very good.

A similar dish using Italian bread and peppers is made in Moonstruck.

http://www.recipezaar.com/162532

No, V is not related to Gordon nor do they ever meet in the film. The similarities are there to illustrate that the two men are similar in their respective situations: V was sent away to a detention camp, Gordon would likely be similarly sent away if his identity as a gay man were publicly known. Both are forced to hide their "true faces" in order to survive. It's also likely that, in the earlier scenes of this nature, that Gordon is being set up as a red herring for a possible secret identity for V, though the film points out rather quickly that this is indeed not the case.

The similarities drawn between various people in this film--which have led to multiple questions along the vein of 'Is this person also THIS person?'--are intentionally designed to demonstrate that everyone is human. Everyone is 'the same' in that they are deserving of freedom, justice, and the chance to live. This would be meant to stand against the Norsefire government's message of minorities, sexual "deviants" and others being a threat due to their perceived differences from the majority.

In the book, V is referred to as an idea/concept, and this could be applied to other characters in the book; no matter how 'normal' you try to make people, their individualism will always show through. Gordon had a secret room and was homosexual, the man in charge of 'The Head' was in love with the computer that fed him information, and it is implied (towards the end) that he masturbates over it, which could also be deemed non-'normal' behaviour.

They are homoerotic pictures of muscle-men in intimate moments. At a glance, it would appear that they are photos by Robert Mapplethorpe.

The two-barred cross appearing on the red-and-black Norsefire flags, as well as nested between wings at the base of the "Strength through unity, unity through faith" posters is the Cross of Lorraine. Carried by the Knights Templar and still used in modern Freemasonry, the cross also was associated with Joan of Arc, and denotes the rank of Cardinal in the Catholic Church. This may be a subtle reference to the infamous "blood flag" of Nazi Germany, which had a similar color scheme and also used a cross variant, the fylfot, as its chief device, now known almost exclusively as the swastika.

It's notable that in the graphic novel, the posters (which originally read "Strength through purity, purity through faith) used the traditional Christian crucifix. This change may have been an attempt to avoid offense.

The scrap of paper was the one she grabbed before going out the night V found her. It had Gordon's address (and I think a time to meet him) on it. For some reason, she still had it the next day when V took over the TV station. She wanted to escape V and she felt she would be safe at Gordon's. She told V all the background stuff to help convince him to take her "out" with him so she'd have a chance to escape.

During Finch's "everything is connected" speech, we see various shots of events past and those yet to come, including Gordon throwing a lighted match into a waste basket and burning something.

What you're seeing in that moment is Gordon burning the censor-approved script that he told Evey he'd "thrown out" when he wrote "a new one," i.e. the show lampooning Sutler, which got Gordon arrested.

If you look closely, the paper in the basket is stamped with the word "Approved."

It's a British slang word, the equivalent of a slightly milder version of "bullsh*t," similarly implying "I don't believe this; it's lies!" or "you are talking rubbish." Can also be used as an exclamation like "Damn!" If you are "talking bollocks," then you are being accused of lying or speaking nonsense. It literally is a slang term for testicles. It is very much more commonplace in the south of England, where it is used a great deal.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollocks

The frequency of the term's usage depends greatly upon what region of Britain you are in. There are areas where it is very infrequently used, and areas where its frequency surpasses that in which it is used in the movie.

"Dog's bollocks," on the other hand, means 'excellent,' the total opposite of every other context that bollocks is used in.

When Prothero is on the phone complaining about the DoP, he says "In the morning, the Paddy will be gone." The term 'paddy' is a derogatory term to describe an Irish person. It comes from the common Irish name of Patrick and is often used as nickname.

This movie premiered at the Austin Butt-Numb-A-Thon on 11 December 2005; hence the reason it's listed as a 2005 movie.

Additionally, it was originally scheduled to be released on the 5th of November (of 2005). To illustrate this point, trailers released in the summer of '05 concluded with V's quote "Remember, remember, the 5th of November." However, tragically, a short time before the film's scheduled release date, there was a terrorist attack on a London tube, and since some of the violent actions of this film drew too close a parallel to said real-world events, the studio decided to push the opening date back from November 2005 to March 2006, in order to let passions cool in the wake of the tragedy.

EDIT: It was actually to be released on Friday, November 4th, 2005, in honor of the 400th Anniversary of Guy Fawkes Day.

Creedy keeps his bargain with V and kills Sutler. After V refuses to remove his mask, Creedy orders his men to fire. After being shot repeatedly, and mortally wounded despite a metal plate in his vest to protect him, he massacres all of Creedy's men, including Creedy himself. He then removes the metal plate and stumbles out to Evey. The two share a tender moment and V tells Evey that it is up to her to decide if the train filled with bombs should blow up Parliament, as his exile has made him no longer part of the people. He dies in her arms. Evey places V's body inside the train and is interrupted by Finch. She refuses his orders to stand down, and convinces him of the country's need for hope. Finch lowers his gun, Evey pulls the switch and the train goes off. A mass of people swarm outside in V's mask and cape, overtaking the guards. As the 1812 Overture plays in the background, Parliament blows up while fireworks burst into the air in the form of a 'V.'

Just because you wear body armour doesn't mean that it can stop that many bullets. If a bullet is shot at that close range, such as we see in the film, it can probably pierce through, especially if it's already filled with holes from other bullets.

Body armor also only tends to protect against penetration by diffusing the impact across a larger surface area. Getting shot with body armor is comparable to getting hit at the same speed with a baseball instead of a bullet, which can cause internal bruising and bleeding, and after enough hits, just the impact alone can be fatal.

You also see him getting shot in the hands, arms, shoulders and back, any of which could also harm him.

This depends entirely on your point of view. To the government in the movie and under current legal definitions in the US and UK, he is a terrorist. To the people of London in the film, to Evey and Finch by the end of the film, he was a freedom fighter.

In his conversation with Inspector Finch, William Rookwood, who is actually V is disguise, spells out the plot hatched by the government to seize control of the country, and responds to Finch's suggestion that he be placed in protective custody by stating "If you want that recording, you'll do as I say." However, is is never made clear what recording is being referenced here. In the screenplay, there is an omitted piece of dialogue wherein Rookwood indicates that he recorded the conversation when Creedy came to him with the assignment of taking the virus to St. Mary's. This line was dropped from the finished film, but the subsequent mention of the recording inexplicably remained.

Later events would have revealed that the recording did not exist, and was merely part of a ploy to get the police to place Creedy under surveillance, contributing to his worry that Sutler did not trust him and was spying on him.