Words and Pictures

In the near future, Britain is ruled by a totalitarian government under the fascist Norsefire party. Evey Hammond, a young woman who works at the state-run British Television Network, is rescued from an attempted rape perpetrated by members of the secret police by a Guy Fawkes-masked vigilante known as "V". He leads her to a rooftop to watch his destruction of the Old Bailey. Norsefire tries to explain away the incident as a controlled demolition, claiming the building was no longer structurally sound, but V takes over the state television broadcast the next day, exposing the lie. He urges the people of Britain to rise up against the oppressive government and meet him in one year, on 5 November, outside the Houses of Parliament, which he promises to destroy. Evey helps V to escape, but is knocked out in the process.

V brings Evey to his lair, where she is told that she must stay in hiding until the 5th of November, in the following year for her own safety. Upon learning that V is killing government officials, she escapes to the home of one of her superiors, Gordon Dietrich (Stephen Fry). Dietrich has a comedy TV show and one night he satirises the government. The secret police raid Dietrich's home, capturing him and Evey. She is incarcerated and tortured for days for information about V. She finds solace in notes seemingly written some years earlier by another prisoner, an actress named Valerie Page, who was arrested for being a lesbian. Finally, Evey is told that she will be executed immediately unless she reveals V's location. An exhausted but defiant Evey says she would rather die, and is released. Evey discovers that she has been in V's lair all along, and that her imprisonment was staged to free her from her fears. The notes were real, but they were passed to V when he was similarly imprisoned. Although Evey initially hates V for what he did to her, she realizes she now feels stronger and free in spirit. She leaves him with a promise to return before 5 November.

Inspector Finch, Scotland Yard's chief of police, learns how Norsefire came to power and about V's origins in the course of his investigation. Fourteen years earlier, the United States had collapsed, the victim of its own accidentally unleashed bio-weapon. Britain suffered in the resulting chaos. Norsefire led a reactionary purge to restore order during which "enemies of the state" frequently disappeared. The country was divided over the loss of freedom until a coordinated bio-terrorist attack upon a school, a water treatment plant and a subway station resulted in mass casualties. The fear generated by the attack allowed Norsefire to win the next election, thereafter silencing all opposition and turning Britain into a totalitarian state under High Chancellor Adam Sutler. A cure for the virus used in the bio-terrorist attack was later unveiled by a pharmaceutical company with ties to Norsefire. Finch comes to realize that Sutler and his now security chief, Peter Creedy, engineered the catastrophe to gain power. The virus was developed through deadly experimentation on "social deviants" and political dissidentsat a detention center in Larkhill where V had been detained with Valerie Page. Unlike the rest of the doomed prisoners, V gained heightened abilities and managed to escape when the center was destroyed.

As 5 November nears, V's various schemes cause chaos in Britain and the population grows more hostile towards Norsefire. V organizes the free public distribution of at least 100,000 Guy Fawkes masks. On the eve of 5 November Evey visits V, who shows her a train in the abandoned London Underground which he has filled with explosives to destroy Parliament. He leaves it up to Evey whether to use it, believing that he is unfit to decide. V then leaves to meet Creedy, who had made a deal with V to hand over Sutler in exchange for V's surrender. Creedy kills Sutler in front of V, but V refuses to surrender and is shot multiple times by Creedy's praetorian guard. V survives due in part to his concealed armour breastplate, and kills Creedy and his men. Mortally wounded, V returns to Evey to thank her, and dies in her arms.

As Evey places V's body in the train, she is found by Finch. Having learned much about the corruption of the Norsefire regime, Finch allows Evey to send the train on its way. Thousands of Londoners, all wearing the Guy Fawkes masks but unarmed, march on Parliament to watch the event. Because Sutler and Creedy are dead and unable to give orders, the military stands down in the face of a civil rebellion. Parliament is destroyed as Evey and Finch look on, giving V a Viking funeral.

source: Wikipedia