V for Vendetta (2005) - 22 questions

Question: In Gordon's ''secret room'', why is there a Union Jack-flag with a swastika in the middle? Does Gordon sympathise with Nazis or was there something behind it? It seemed a little odd to me, since a Neo-Nazi wouldn't enjoy reading the Quran and, more importantly, be gay.

Answer: The item in question is intended to be a protest poster - it's an artistic piece protesting the similarity between the totalitarian government taking power in the UK and Nazi Germany, a comparison that Gordon likely feels is not unjustified. A poster of that nature would likely be banned immediately; as such, Gordon has every reason to want to keep one as a symbol, but obviously keep it well concealed.

Question: At the TV station, how does the gun type apparatus V uses to seal the doors work? I've watched it several times and all I can garner is it pierces the door in some manner, then floods it with a type of liquid that I guess locks them in place.

Answer: Correct. It pierces the door and fills it with some type of fast setting/expanding substance, possibly foam, plastic or even a concrete-like substance, this then solidifies and jams the lock in place requiring the blow-torches we see later to open the doors.

Question: Was any explanation ever given for why V's signature flower was changed to the Scarlet Carson for the movie when in the graphic novel it's the Violet Carson (keeping in tone with his obsession with the letter V)? It doesn't seem to serve any plot significance so I'm rather puzzled why they felt a modification was necessary.

Answer: The Violet Carson is an uncommon rose, and the requirement to frequently require a rose in a state of perfect bloom meant that production crew were required to purchase hundreds of roses during the course of production. As such, they chose to go with a more common rose, the Grand Prix, which they renamed to the fictional Scarlet Carson to tie the name in to the original. There's also the point that the Violet Carson is named after a real person, a British actress who passed away in 1983. Her family might well not appreciate having her name prominently associated with a serial killer anti-hero in a major Hollywood movie.

Question: It becomes clear that V gives his victims Scarlet Carson roses in memory of Valerie, but how does Delia work out that the murderer is V from the roses? Surely she didn't know that Valerie had written to V mentioning them. Also, are we ever told what V was originally imprisoned for?

Answer: Nothing is ever revealed about V's history before Larkhill so we don't know why he was there. As for the roses, in the original comic book, in order to keep him compliant during his time in captivity, V was allowed to tend a small garden while his health was monitored. It was during that time that he first grew the Scarlet Carson roses and also surreptitiously obtained the chemicals that he would use to destroy Larkhill and make his escape. Whether this can be considered consistent with the film storyline is an open question - certainly nothing in the film actively appears to contradict it.

Question: V was incarcerated in a concentration camp for homosexuals, and has an obvious affection for Evy, as demonstrated by V's reaction when she leaves - breaking of the mirror with the mask. V also speaks with a voice which would pass but seems soft for a male. This was probably deliberately left ambiguous, but still - is V male or female?

Answer: Other "undesireables" were kept in the concentration camp as well: Jews, blacks, political dissenters, etc. V is male, since he's referred to as "The Man in Room Five," but what he was in the camp for is unknown.

Question: What exactly are V's (for lack of a better word) "superpowers"? Also, can V see?

Answer: Yes, V can see. As a result of the experiments performed upon him, V has increased strength, stamina, reflexes and speed. All of these could be considered to be at least at the maximum possible level for a human and possibly slightly in excess of that. His mental capacity has also been enhanced to genius level or above.

Question: Why did V even need Evy to help him kill the priest? If it was just a regular girl instead of Evy in the bedroom, V was gonna barge in through the window anyway. Was he just trying to show her how he does things or something?

Answer: She made a big deal out of wanting to help V, so he figured out some way that she could. Whether he really needed her for anything is debatable, but her use in the plot was calculated by V to make her feel useful (and the further the movie plot).

Question: Delia Surridge tells V that she didn't know what the virus was going to do. How could she not have known? She created the virus and was administering it to people and seeing what it did.

Answer: Of course she had an idea as to what it did. What she couldn't foresee was what it did to V.

Question: Why isn't V killed by the virus administered to him at Larkhill?

Answer: He has a natural immunity to it.

Question: Why would High Chancellor Sutler blame Creedy if V was not captured by November the fifth and not one of the other members of the Regime.

Answer: Because Creedy is the head of the secret police and therefore he's the one with ultimate responsibility for catching V.

Question: I am a little puzzled by one of Mr. Finch's last investigations towards the end of the movie. As he meets with Dominic to ask him "the question" about the release of the viruses, the two of them also research files of the final three missing involved members, one of whom was Rokewood. Yet after they leave the meeting in the dark with "Rokewood" and are again in the office, Finch states to the man on the phone that Rokewood has indeed been dead twenty years. If Rokewood had been dead already, wouldn't Finch have known that he was being stood up by V (playing the part of "Rokewood") earlier as they met?

Answer: Finch isn't telling the man on the phone that Rokewood is dead, he's simply repeating what the man on the other end of the phone is saying.

Question: How did V get thousands of Guy Fawkes masks manufactured and shipped on a train without the government knowing about it?

Answer: Those masks are mass produced anyway. They're novelties. He probably got them shipped through some sort of deceit, the same way he stole all the items in his home.

Question: I didn't completely understand when V asks for Evey's help and says he needs someone with theatrical abilities. Then it shows the scene where Evey comes in as the woman for the priest. When she is warning him about V, is she acting or is she really trying to get help from him? I figured it was real because she didn't go back to V, she went to Gordon's house.

Answer: The "acting ability" V needed was to convince the priest that she was there "for" him. The confession and warning were real and not planned by V. That's why he abducts her later, so she'll lose her fear and won't be tempted to do something like that again.

Question: Many times in the film 'England' as a country is mentioned, but not Scotland or Wales. Does the comic answer any questions as to what has happened to the 'British' unity of England, Scotland and Wales in this time? (E.g. are they all separate countries, or are the simply never mentioned?).

Answer: The comic never mentions any other parts of the British Isles. There are characters in the comic who speak with an accent that marks them as having grown up in these other areas, but there is no further information about such things.

Question: Why is Gordon equated so often with V? They each have secret chambers full of art, they make the same eggs and some scenes are similarly structured. Are we supposed to think Gordon is V for a while?

Answer: No. It may be for no other reason than to set up the joke Gordon makes about being V. Or it could, more likely, be to make it seem less like V is alone in his views on society.

Question: How old is Evey supposed to be?

Answer: Somewhere in her early twenties.

Question: How exactly is the preparation of the breakfast with the egg and the toast?

Answer: Take a slice of bread. Using a drinking glass, cut a hole out of it by pressing the opening of the glass down. Butter both sides, then put the "frame" slice in the pan (you can discard the cut-out piece of bread), then crack an egg in it. Cook to taste.

Question: I must've missed it during the movie - how exactly does V kill the people from the facility? I'm pretty sure it has something to do with poison, but I didn't quite get it. Also, I'm not sure if it's tied-in, but what is the whitish-orange stuff left on the floor next to most of the victims' heads?

Answer: He poisons them, and they throw up.

Question: In the last scene where all the people pull their masks off, we see Stephen Fry and the woman from the cell and the little glasses girl, all of whom were supposed to be dead. How did they come back? It's not Evey imagining them, because she's not seeing them, she's in a different place.

Answer: You don't have to be in a specific place to imagine that somebody else could be there. V did what he did for freedom and for the victims of the regime that he hated. It's entirely appropriate that Evey should imagine those victims standing among those who chose to rise up against the government.

Question: Why didn't V rescue the woman in the cell after rescuing Evey?

Answer: It's made extremely clear in the film that Evey's 'interrogation' is entirely set up by V. V doesn't rescue Evey; he simply brings things to a close once he's achieved the result he was aiming for. Nobody there is real; the interrogator, guards and the woman in the next cell are all fake.