Useless Movie Trivia For
V For Vendetta

V For Vendetta Poster
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V for Vendetta Poster
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Memorable Movie Quotes

V: ...The 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: 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 van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition.

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: 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.

Sutler: Gentlemen, I want this terrorist found... and I want him to understand what terror really means.

Evey Hammond: Remember, remember, the Fifth of November,/ The Gunpowder Treason and Plot... / I know of no reason/ Why the Gunpowder Treason should ever be forgot... But what of the man? I know his name was Guy Fawkes and I know, in 1605, he attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament. But who was he really? What was he like? We are told to remember the idea, not the man, because a man can fail. He can be caught, he can be killed and forgotten, but 400 years later, an idea can still change the world. I've witnessed first hand the power of ideas, I've seen people kill in the name of them, and die defending them... but you cannot kiss an idea, cannot touch it, or hold it... ideas do not bleed, they do not feel pain, they do not love... And it is not an idea that I miss, it is a man... A man that made me remember the Fifth of November. A man that I will never forget.

Sutler: We are being buried under the avalanche of your inadequacies, Mr. Creedy!

V: At last, we finally meet. I have something for you, Chancellor; a farewell gift. For all the things you've done, for the things you might have done, and for the only thing you have left.

Gordon Deitrich: You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.

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.

Evey Hammond: No one will ever forget that night and what it meant for this country. But I will never forget the man and what he meant to me.

V: The time has come for me to meet my maker and to repay him in kind for all that he's done.

V: I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence.

V: Beneath this mask there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

V: Who? Who is but the form following the function of what, and what I am is a man in a mask.

Evey Hammond: He 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.

Lewis Prothero: England Prevails!

Tweed Coat Fingerman: By sun-up if you're not the sorriest piece of ass in all'a London... you'll certainly be the sorest!

V: People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.

Trivia

The rhyme referenced by the tag line is called 'The Bonfire Prayer' and commemorates 'Guy Fawkes night', November the 5th, when a Catholic plot to overthrow the British parliament was foiled. There are several slight variations of the full words, one of which goes... "Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. I see no reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, 'twas his intent to blow up the King and the Parliament. Three score barrels of powder below, Poor old England to overthrow: By God's providence he was catch'd With a dark lantern and burning match. Holloa boys, holloa boys, make the bells ring. Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King! Hip hip hoorah! A penny loaf to feed the Pope. A farthing o' cheese to choke him. A pint of beer to rinse it down. A faggot of sticks to burn him. Burn him in a tub of tar. Burn him like a blazing star. Burn his body from his head. Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead. Hip hip hoorah! Hip hip hoorah!" It is still recited in full at the famous Lewes bonfire night celebrations in East Sussex.

The cast and crew were only allowed to shoot in the area near the British Parliament and Big Ben from midnight to 4.30 am. Furthermore, they were only allowed to stop traffic for four minutes at a time.

The film is dedicated to its cinematographer, Adrian Biddle, who died in December 2005.

Natalie Portman looked forward to shaving her head totally bald for the role of Evey Hammond during the torture scenes, stating that she has wanted to do it for a long time.

James Purefoy was originally cast as V but left the project because he had great difficulty breathing behind the Guy Fawkes mask. Hugo Weaving was then brought in to take his place.

The Houses of Parliament destroyed in the film are not the same buildings which Guy Fawkes planned to destroy in 1605. The original Parliament buildings were destroyed in a fire in 1834. The current buildings are built on the same site and took 30 years to build, finishing in 1870.

The scenes near the end that take place in an abandoned London Underground station were actually filmed at Aldwych, a branch from the Piccadilly line that was closed in 1994. The branch still has its tracks and current rails, allowing an operational train to be used in the scene.

V's pseudonym, "Rookwood", is the last name of another conspirator at the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, as are the names of Rookwood's friends "Percy" and "Keyes".

The domino scene (where V tips over black and red dominoes to form a giant letter V) involved 22,000 dominoes, was assembled by four professional domino assemblers, and took 200 hours to set up.

The masks that the soldiers wear outside The Houses of Parliament are JT X-FIRE brand paintball masks.

The "scrambler device" that Finch uses in his office is in fact a popular type of pocket reading light, with a red bulb or filter added to make it look more high-tech.

The line about God playing dice with the universe comes from Einstein's objections to quantum theory, in which he said that "At any rate, I am convinced that He [God] does not play dice."

When Evey gets up from underneath the desk during V's pirate broadcast, there is a copy of "Watchmen", another comic by Alan Moore on the desk in front of her.

In the scene where V has Creedy cornered in the greenhouse, V plays Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. In Morse Code, the opening notes of this piece are ". . . _", or V. This is also the reason for the piece's enormous popularity in England during World War Two. (The Allied slogan was "V for Victory".)

At the set of Prothero's bathroom, a collection of dolls can be seen in the background. This is a reference to the graphic novel where V burned the dolls.

The tune V's humming along to when he was cooking eggs for Evey is "The Girl From Ipanema."

Included in the images seen on T.V. as Valerie talks about America's war growing worse and then eventually coming to London, is footage of baby Jessica McClure being pulled out of the well she fell into in Texas in 1987.

The building used for the wide-angle shot of Evey on the balcony actually exists, although certain architectural details were digitally modified. It is located at 1 Cornhill, London, and is just across the street from the Bank of England.

The musical theme accompanying the explosions in the beginning and at the end of the film is Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture"

Goofs

When V says that he has never danced to any of the songs on his Jukebox, a song is playing in the background, yet there is no record seen playing on the jukebox. This occurs even after V presses the button to activate the song.

Right after all the soldiers have emptied their guns into V near the end of the film, he retaliates by throwing two of his knives at two of the soldiers. When he throws them, they are rotating at different speeds, but they impact at the same time in the same place on each soldier. You can see the knife farthest from the viewer stop spinning right before impact and slide into the soldier, even though it should have hit him at an angle.

Legend tells us that Guy Fawkes jumped from the gallows to snap his own neck and avoid a prolonged death. The film shows Guy Fawkes struggling to breath while hanging from the rope during his execution.

Evey says "get off of me" when she is being attacked. That is, however, an American expression. British people omit the "of" and would simply say "get off me".

When Finch draws the curtain to watch the sunset, the alarm clock shows 7:00 (pm). On November 5th, 2021 sunset will occur in London at 4:26pm

Box Office Info USA

Budget: $54,000,000

Opening Weekend: $25,642,640

Gross: $70,511,035

Filming Dats: 3 March 2005 - June 2005

Filming Locations