Hugo Weaving credited as playing...
V • William Rookwood
- Evey Hammond: My father was a writer. You would've liked him. He used to say that artists use lies to tell the truth, while politicians use them to cover the truth up.
- V: A man after my own heart.
- V: [Evey pulls out her mace] I can assure you I mean you no harm.
- Evey Hammond: Who are you?
- V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what and what I am is a man in a mask.
- Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.
- V: 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.
- Evey Hammond: Oh. Right.
- V: 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.
- V: 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 by-gone vexation, stands vivified and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin vanguarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.
- [carves "V" into poster on wall]
- V: 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.
- V: [giggles]
- V: 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.
- Evey Hammond: Are you, like, a crazy person?
- V: I am quite sure they will say so. But to whom, might I ask, am I speaking?
- Evey Hammond: I'm Evey.
- V: Evey? E-V. Of course you are.
- Evey Hammond: What does that mean?
- V: It means that I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence. Are you hurt?
- V: ...A building is a symbol, as is the act of destroying it. Symbols are given power by people. Alone, a symbol is meaningless, but with enough people, blowing up a building can change the world.
- V: I told you, only truth. For 20 years, I sought only this day. Nothing else existed... until I saw you. Then everything changed. I fell in love with you Evey. And to think I no longer believed I could.
- Evey Hammond: But I don't want you to die.
- V: That's the most beautiful thing you could have ever given me.
- Creedy: Defiant to the end, huh? You won't cry like him, will you? You're not afraid of death. You're like me.
- V: The only thing that you and I have in common, Mr. Creedy, is we're both about to die.
- Creedy: How do you imagine that's gonna happen?
- V: With my hands around your neck.
- Creedy: Bollocks. Whatchya gonna do, huh? We've swept this place. You've got nothing. Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks. We have guns.
- V: No, what you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty I'm no longer be standing, because if I am you'll all be dead before you've reloaded.
- Creedy: That's impossible. Kill him.
- [the fingermen open fire on V, but he still stands after their magazines are empty]
- V: My turn.
- [V proceeds to kill all fingermen with his knives before they manage to reload]
- Creedy: [desperately shooting at the approaching V] Die! Die! Why won't you die?... Why won't you die?
- V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy. And ideas are bulletproof.
- V: Good evening, London. Allow me first to apologize for this interruption. I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of every day routine- the security of the familiar, the tranquility of repetition. I enjoy them as much as any bloke. But in the spirit of commemoration, whereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat. There are of course those who do not want us to speak. I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way. Why? Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power. Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission. How did this happen? Who's to blame? Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable, but again truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only look into a mirror. I know why you did it. I know you were afraid. Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease. There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense. Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent. Last night I sought to end that silence. Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten. More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory. His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives. So if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass unmarked. But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.
- V: Would you... dance with me?
- Evey Hammond: Now? On the eve of your revolution?
- V: A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having!
- Evey Hammond: [reads] Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici.
- V: [translates] By the power of truth, I, while living, have conquered the universe.
- Evey Hammond: Personal motto?
- V: From "Faust".
- Evey Hammond: That's about trying to cheat the devil, isn't it?
- V: It is.
- Evey Hammond: Who are you?
- V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask.
- Evey Hammond: Well I can see that.
- V: 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.
- Evey Hammond: [watching a news report about Prothero's death] V, yesterday I couldn't find my ID. You didn't take it, did you?
- V: Would you prefer a lie or the truth?
- Evey Hammond: Did you have anything to do with... that?
- V: Yes, I killed him.
- Evey Hammond: You...? Oh god.
- V: You're upset.
- Evey Hammond: I'm upset? You just said you killed Lewis Prothero!
- V: I might have killed the fingerman who attacked you, but I heard no objection then.
- Evey Hammond: What?
- V: Violence can be used for good.
- Evey Hammond: What are you talking about?
- V: Justice.
- Evey Hammond: Oh. And are you going to kill more people?
- V: Yes.
- V: [Quoting Macbeth from Macbeth Act I Scene 7] I dare do all that may become a man; Who dares do more is none.
- V: [Disguised as William Rookwood, meeting with Inspector Finch] Our story begins, as these stories often do, with a young up-and-coming politician. He's a deeply religious man and a member of the conservative party. He is completely single-minded convictions and has no regard for the political process. Eventually, his party launches a special project in the name of 'national security'. At first, it is believed to be a search for biological weapons and it is pursued regardless of its cost. However, the true goal of the project is power, complete and total hegemonic domination. The project, however, ends violently... but the efforts of those involved are not in vain, for a new ability to wage war is born from the blood of one of their victims. Imagine a virus - the most terrifying virus you can, and then imagine that you and you alone have the cure. But if your ultimate goal is power, how best to use such a weapon? It is at this point in our story that along comes a spider. He is a man seemingly without a conscience; for whom the ends always justify the means and it is he who suggests that their target should not be an enemy of the country but rather the country itself. Three targets are chosen to maximize the effect of the attack: a school, a tube station, and a water-treatment plant. Several hundred die within the first few weeks. Until at last the true goal comes into view. Before the St. Mary's crisis, no one would have predicted the outcome of the elections. No one. But after the election, lo and behold, a miracle. Some believed that it was the work of God himself, but it was a pharmaceutical company controlled by certain party members made them all obscenely rich. But the true genius of the plan was the fear. A year later, several extremists are tried, found guilty, and executed while a memorial is built to canonize their victims. Fear became the ultimate tool of this government. And through it our politician was ultimately appointed to the newly created position of High Chancellor. The rest, as they say, is history.
- Finch: Can you prove any of this?
- V: Why do you think I'm still alive?
- Finch: Right. We'd like to take you into protective custody, Mr. Rookwood.
- V: Oh, I'm sure you would. But if you want that recording, you'll do what I tell you to do. Put Creedy under 24 hour surveillance. When I feel safe that he can't pick his nose without you knowing, I'll contact you again. Until then, cheerio.
- Finch: Rookwood. Why didn't you come forward before? What were you waiting for?
- V: For you, Inspector. I needed you.
- V: And thus I clothe my naked villainy / With old odd ends stolen forth from holy writ/And seem a saint when most I play the devil.
- [quoting Shakespeare's Richard III, Act I Scene 3]
- V: [Quoting Polonius from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1] 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.
- Evey Hammond: I don't even know what you really look like.
- [Evey tries to remove V's mask]
- V: [V stops her] Evey, please. There is a face beneath this mask but it's not me. I'm no more that face than I am the muscles beneath it or the bones beneath them.
- Evey Hammond: I understand.
- V: Thank you.
- V: It is to Madame Justice that I dedicate this concerto, in honor of the holiday that she seems to have taken from these parts, and in recognition of the impostor that stands in her stead. Tell me Evey, do you know what day it is?
- Evey Hammond: Um, November the 4th.
- V: [midnight church bells ring] 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.