Trivia for
V for Vendetta (2005) More at IMDbPro »

• Being huge fans of the original comic series, The Wachowski brothers (Andy Wachowski and Larry Wachowski) wrote a draft of the script in the '90s before they worked on The Matrix (1999), which shares several similar themes with "V for Vendetta".
  
  
• Natalie Portman was chosen for the role of Evey over Scarlett Johansson and Bryce Dallas Howard.
  
  
• 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 the Clock Tower from midnight to 4.30 am. Furthermore, they were only allowed to stop traffic for four minutes at a time.
  
  
• 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. For the shaving scene, the crew and the shaving guys had only one take to do it.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Natalie Portman worked with Barbara Berkery, the dialectologist who also worked with Gwyneth Paltrow, to perfect her English accent.
  
  
• 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. They were largely destroyed again in World War Two and rebuilt to the original design in the late 1940s.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• The skit making fun of the High Chancellor was a tribute to "The Benny Hill Show" (1969) as many of the skits used this music ("Yakety Sax") and high speed footage.
  
  
• In the original graphic novel, V's cause was anarchy, not freedom. Alan Moore was specifically and harshly critical of the movie for changing what he called the "anarchy vs. fascism" structure of his graphic novel into what he saw as an exploration of "American neo-liberalism vs. American neo-conservatism" that should have been thusly set in the U.S. instead of Britain.
  
  
• In the original graphic novel, the leader's name is Adam Susan, not Sutler.
  
  
• The name Evey is pronounced EV, with E being the fifth letter of the alphabet, V being five in Latin and Y being the 25th letter (5 squared)
  
  
• Interestingly, John Hurt played Winston in the film Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) - in this film he was the victim of the totalitarian state (and the original "Big Brother"). In Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984), TV screens with Big Brother's face were watching and spying citizens.
  
  
• On a clock that has an hour hand and a minute hand, the time 11:05 makes a V. These two numbers, 11 and 5, where 11 is November, and 5 is the day of November, spell out: the fifth of November. "Remember, remember the 5th of November."
  
  
• The original comic series was originally created by Alan Moore. However, following his negative experience with From Hell (2001) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), Moore decided to reject all money and credit from Hollywood on any adaptations of his work. Thus, he gave all the money he would've gotten to the artist who drew the character with him, and rejected his own "created by" credit from the film.
  
  
• Ben Miles plays Dascomb in "V for Vendetta". A scene depicts a security van with listening devices cruising through a neighborhood. One of dialogs picked up is "I'm Dick Darlington" from the 'The End of the Line' episode of Season 2 of the comedy "Coupling" (2000) that also stars Ben Miles.
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• Towards the end of the movie when V meets Creedy he announces his presence by saying, "Penny for the Guy." This is a reference to a children's custom in England around November 5th ("Guy Fawkes day") when children make a Guy Fawkes mannequin to be burned on the bonfire in the evening and ask for money in the meantime with which to buy fireworks.
  
  
• The tune V's humming along to when he was cooking eggs for Evey is "The Girl From Ipanema."
  
  
• The symbol of the Norsefire Party is one form of an ancient heraldic symbol called the "Croix de Lorraine". A similar symbol was adopted as the official symbol of General Charles de Gaulle's Free French Forces between 1940 and 1944. It was later used for various Gaullist political parties in France, notably the RPR (Rally for the Republic).
  
  
• 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.
  
  
• According to the police archives, the St Marys virus outbreak started May 13 2006.
  
  
• The musical theme accompanying the explosions in the beginning and at the end of the film is Tchaikovsky's "1812 Overture"
  
  
• Among the paintings in V's lair are Waterhouse's "The Lady of Shalott", "Puberty" by Edvard Munch, "Bacchus and Ariadne" by Titian, and "Elohim Creating Adam" by William Blake.
  
  
• The exchange between Evey and V that ends with V saying, "A revolution without dancing is a revolution not worth having!" is a reference to a famous paraphrase of the words of American Anarchist Feminist, Emma Goldman (1869-1940). One version of the familiar line attributed to her is, "If I can't dance to it, it's not my revolution." While this particular phrase is not hers, it is a distillation of a passage from her autobiography, "Living My Life" published in 1931.
  
  
• After V sends out Guy Fawkes masks to everyone and the riots start, the TV announcer mentioned that the first riots started in Brixton. This is a reference to the Brixton riots of 1981 in London.
  
  
• Just to the left of the jukebox is the painting "Giovanni Arnolfini and His Bride" (1434) by Jan Van Eyck.
  
  
• The voice-overs about the futility of non-violence and the definition of humanism that can be heard during the end credits are sound bites from speeches given by Malcolm X and Gloria Steinem, respectively.
  
  
• In the special features of the DVD, John Hurt states that the film is rather like a combination of Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) and Alien (1979), both of which he starred in.
  
  
• Most of the forbidden objects in V's shadow gallery are classical works of art and culture but a few modern ones can be seen, most prominently (though still discretely), The Vitra Lounge Chair by Eames and Valerio Bottin's Bubble Lamp.
  
  
• In the memorial for those that died as a result of the virus, the statues are of children playing "Ring a Ring o' Roses". There is a frequently cited urban legend that this nursery rhyme was about the Great Plague of London.
  
  
• V quotes Polonius from Shakespeare's Hamlet Act 3, Scene 1 when he first meets Evey: "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."
  
  
• Adrian Biddle's final film. He died on December 7 2005 from a heart attack. The film is dedicated to him.
  
  
• The supervising art director, Kevin Phipps, and the production designer, Owen Paterson, are listed on the Larkhill staff list.
  
  
• Hugo Weaving based his accent on Harold Wilson - the British Prime Minister 1964-1970 and 1974-1976.
  
  
• In the comic, illustrator David Lloyd often subtly changed the Guy Fawkes mask worn by V so as to suit the mood or tone a particular scene. The filmmakers considered replicating this in the movie, by designing a number of subtly different masks, but they ultimately decided that it would be better to simply alter the shadows and lighting in post-production rather than literally having different masks for different scenes.
  
  
• All of V's dialogue was recorded via ADR. Initially, a mask was designed with a small microphone inside it and another mike was designed to sit along the hair line of actor Hugo Weaving, but neither worked very well.
  
  
• Costume designer Sammy Sheldon had only 5 weeks prep time.
  
  
• The exact same font is found on all the posters and signs seen throughout the movie except the posters for Valerie's movies.
  
  
• All of the models (the Old Bailey, the Clock Tower and the Houses of Parliament) were built at tenth scale, and together, they took 20 people 10 weeks to build.
  
  
• When shooting the fight in Victoria Station, the stunt-men literally moved in slow motion on set whilst David Leitch (Hugo Weaving's stunt double) moved in real time - thus making it seem as if he was moving much faster then the Fingermen. Additionally, the scene was shot at 60fps to slow the Fingermen down even further.
  
  
• For the scene when V emerges from Larkhill, stunt double Chad Stahelski literally walked through fire, wearing just a special fire resistant gel and a g-string. Stahelski's body temperature had to be lowered before the scene was shot, and luckily, it was 3 below zero the night of the shoot. 15 minutes before a take, he would put on ice cold flame resistant clothing, and once he took them off, he would be covered with fire resistant gel which had been icing all day long.
  
  
• Prior to shooting the movie, director James McTeigue studied the Gillo Pontecorvo film La battaglia di Algeri (1966)
  
  
• Natalie Portman did research for her role by watching the Sam Green and Bill Siegel documentary The Weather Underground (2002), and by reading the Antonia Fraser book about Guy Fawkes, Fate and Treason, as well as the autobiography of Menachem Begin (the founder of the Irgun Party in Israel).
  
  
• The two tanks used in the scenes in Parliament Square were real army tanks that had been decommissioned. Each night, prior to transporting the vehicles to the shoot, each tank was inspected by government security personnel to ensure their weaponry was not functional and had been altered in any way. They were then taken via trucks to the location, with no stops allowed during transportation, and were accompanied by armed security officials the entire way.
  
  
• For the scenes in Parliament Square, background checks were conducted on every actor and technician who carried a weapon and the bar-codes on each and every piece of weaponry was scanned so as to track the individuals authorized to handle them.
  
  
• Keira Knightley auditioned for the role of Evey Hammond.
  
  
• Certain scenes within the film feature James Purefoy as V, who was originally cast in the role but replaced by Hugo Weaving four weeks into filming. Weaving's voice was simply dubbed over Purefoy's performance. Director James McTeigue said in an interview: "Can I tell the difference? Yeah. Can the audience tell? I doubt it."
  
  
• In the movie Stephen Fry's character Dietrich hosts a variety show in England. In real life, Fry has starred in and hosted several different variety shows, including '"A Bit of Fry and Laurie" (1986)' with fellow British actor Hugh Laurie.
  
  
• The song "Long Black Train" foreshadows on Inspector Finch's alarm in the morning of November 5th, when the film ultimately ends.
  
  
• The reason the secret police are called "Fingermen" is because the New Order was arranged on the model of the human body. The Chancellor was the Head; the television station BTN was the mouth; visual and audio surveillance were the Eye and the Ear; Inspector Finch was part of The Nose, the police force, and Creedy secret police were the Hand.
  
  
• Euan Blair, son of the then British Prime Minister Tony Blair, worked as a runner for the film's production company. The role drew criticism after it was suggested by actor Stephen Fry that permission to film in government buildings was obtained through Blair Jnr's political connections - an allegation strenuously denied by producers. Conservative MP David Davies told the Sunday Times: "It smacks of sheer hypocrisy that Blair's government is willing to arrest a woman for simply making a protest in Whitehall but is happy to open the doors when Blair's son turns up in a film which is about parliament being blown up."
  
  
• The account of Adam Sutler's rise to power that V delivers to Inspector Finch closely parallels the account Leo Tolstoy gives of Napoleon's rise to power in France in Part I, Chapter III of the Epilogue to War and Peace.
  
  
• Several of the main themes (music), when written out on a staff form the letter V if the notes are connected, dot to dot. Specifically the theme that's played at the beginning of "The Dominoes Fall," or the piano solo during "Valerie."
  
  
• In the movie Mr. Creedy says: "You've got nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks. We have guns." This line is similar to one from Mr. Almond in the book, a character that was excluded from the movie.
  
  
• In the original graphic novel the leader relies on a centralized computer system called Fate to help maintain control.
  
  
• "Madam Justice" as called by V, doesn't have blindfolds. The reason the common Madam Justice has blindfolds is to represent that justice does not see, therefore she can not be prejudiced towards different races of people. In this movie the government is very racist and discriminating and therefore, Madam Justice does not have blindfolds.
  
  
• During the introduction of V to Evey, starting with "Voila", V uses words that begin with "V" 47 times.
  
  

• SPOILER: There are repeated references to the letter "V" and the number five throughout the film. For example, V's introductory monologue to Evey begins and ends with "V", has five sentences, and contains 49 words that begin with "V". Similar references are made through V's background, choice of words and action. V is held in Larkhill cell number "V". A favorite Latin phrase of V's is said to be from "Faust" but in fact was a motto of the notorious occultist Aleister Crowley: "Vi Veri Vniversum Vivus Vici" ("By the power of truth, I, a living man, have conquered the universe". The word "Vniversum" is mis-spelled in the movie and original comic as Veniversum; ). In a dance with Evey, the song V chooses is number five on his jukebox, though all the songs on his jukebox are numbered "5". When V confronts Creedy in his home, he plays Beethoven's "Fifth" Symphony, whose opening notes have a rhythmic pattern that resembles the letter "V" in Morse code (•••-). The Symphony's opening was used as a call-sign in the European broadcasts of the BBC during World War II in reference to Winston Churchill's "V for Victory". The film's title itself, is also a reference to "V for Victory". In the battle with Creedy and his men at Victoria station, V forms a "V" with his daggers just before he throws them. After the battle, when V is mortally wounded, he leaves a "V" signature in his own blood. The destruction of Parliament results in a display of fireworks which form the letter "V" (just like at the beginning with Old Bailey), which is also an inverted red-on-black "A" symbol for anarchy. Like the Old Bailey and Larkhill, Parliament was destroyed on the fifth of November. Also, Big Ben shows the start of the group of Vs at 11:05 pm, creating a giant V on the clock face. 11:05 is also the month and day format for the 5th of November. The fireworks at the end of the movie also form the letter V. It is also noted that in roman numerals, the number 5 is represented by a V symbol.
  
  
• SPOILER: Of all of V's victims, only Dr. Delia Surridge suffers the same fate in the film as in the original graphic novel. In the book, by contrast, Father Lilliman was poisoned, Creedy was stabbed by a workmate and Commander Prothero was driven insane but not killed, and Chancellor Sutler is shot by Mrs. Almond. Mr. and Mrs. Almond do not appear in the movie version. In the movie, Delia Surridge is painlessly poisoned
  
  
• SPOILER: In the book, while imprisoned at Larkhill, V tricks the doctor and Commander Prothero into thinking that the experiment has driven him mad. While attempting to unravel his psychosis, V litters the camp with canisters of explosives and mustard gas which he has made. That is what blows up the camp; in the movie the explosions are never fully explained. However, during Inspector Finch's monologue after he visits Larkhill, there is a brief scene in the Larkhill montage of Commander Prothero dropping a match into a trash can, and the contents igniting. This insinuates that Prothero was responsible for the destruction of the institution.
  
  
• SPOILER: When Evey is being captured by a member of the commando outside Dietrich's house, if we look closer, we can see that the commando member has burnt flesh (it is visible through the commando mask's hole for the eyes), so it is obvious that he is V. But it is visible only for a second.
  
  
• SPOILERS: Hugo Weaving appears unmasked while V is pretending to be the old man who gives the information to Inspectors Finch and Dominic. He also appears unmasked, though with his face always in shadows, while a disguised V acts as the guard/torturer of Evey while she's imprisoned. Despite rumors to contrary, he doesn't appear in the crowds in Lark Hill flashbacks or at the climax while all the Londoners watch Parliament being blown up.
  
  
• SPOILER: It is commonly believed that Delia is the only one that died that same way in the movie as in the novel, but if you listen closely while the bishop is being killed, when the scene cuts to the survellence van, you can hear V saying "now open your mouth and stick out your tongue" which is how he died in the novel, after eating a poisoned communion wafer.
  
  
• SPOILER: Just after Finch says, "...as though I could see everything that was about to happen..." there is a brief scene of Evey in a green dress, setting up a vase of Scarlet Carson roses; Finch is visible in the background. This implies that after things calm down, Evey and Finch get together.
  
  
• SPOILER: In the graphic novel: V does not kill Creedy; he is instead killed in a political subplot. Also, it is actually Mr. Finch who mortally wounds V, and not Mr. Creedy.
  
  
• SPOILER: At the beginning of the movie, the Old Bailey is blown up and the Houses of Parliament are blown up at the end. However, in the graphic novel the Houses of Parliament are blown up at the beginning with the Downing Street saved for the grand finale one year later. It is also interesting to note that the graphic novel has the grand finale on the 10th of November instead of the 5th.
  
  

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