V for Vendetta - Trivia, Questions and Fun Facts

[discussimdb]

Fan of V for Vendetta or just want to share your movie knowledge? This topic is dedicated to all trivia and questions related to V for Vendetta

[lonnie]

The Guy Fawkes mask which V wears in this movie inspired the appearance of the computer hacking group "Anonymous".

[tammy]

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".

[fred]

The Houses of Parliament destroyed in this movie 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 thirty years to build, finishing in 1870. They were largely destroyed again in World War II, and rebuilt to the original design in the late 1940s.

[kyle]

Euan Blair, son of former Prime Minister Tony Blair, worked as a runner for this movie's production company. The role drew criticism after Stephen Fry suggested that political connections affected obtaining permission to film in government buildings. The producers strenuously denied the allegations. Conservative Member of Parliament 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."

[bernard]

Alan Moore, writer of the original graphic novel, greatly disliked this movie, criticizing the script for "having plot holes you wouldn't have gotten away with on Wizzer and Chips in the 1960s." He ended cooperation with his publisher, DC Comics, after its corporate parent, Warner Brothers, failed to retract statements about Moore's supposed endorsement of this movie. Producer Joel Silver said at a press conference that Screenwriter Lana Wachowski had talked with Moore, and that "Moore was very excited about what Lana had to say." Moore disputed this, reporting that he told Wachowski "I didn't want anything to do with films. I wasn't interested in Hollywood", and demanded that DC Comics force Warner Brothers to issue a public retraction and apology for Silver's "blatant lies". Although Silver called Moore directly to apologize, no public retraction appeared. Moore was quoted as saying that the comic book had been "specifically about things like fascism and anarchy. The words 'fascism' and 'anarchy' occur nowhere in the film. It's been turned into a Bush-era parable by people too timid to set a political satire in their own country." This conflict between Moore and DC Comics was the subject of an article in The New York Times on March 12, 2006, five days before the U.S. release. In the New York Times article, Silver stated that about twenty years prior to this movie's release, he met with Moore and David Gibbons when Silver acquired the movie rights to V for Vendetta and Watchmen. Silver stated: "Alan was odd, but he was enthusiastic and encouraging us to do this. I had foolishly thought that he would continue feeling that way today, not realizing that he wouldn't." Moore did not deny this meeting, nor Silver's characterization of Moore at that meeting, nor did Moore state that he advised Silver of his change of opinion in those approximately twenty years. The New York Times article also interviewed David Lloyd about Moore's reaction to the movie's production, stating, "Mr. Lloyd, the illustrator of V for Vendetta, also found it difficult to sympathize with Mr. Moore's protests. When he and Mr. Moore sold their film rights to the comic book, Mr. Lloyd said: 'We didn't do it innocently. Neither myself nor Alan thought we were signing it over to a board of trustees who would look after it like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls.'"

[clayton]

In the scene where V is speaking with cops in a costume of Rookwood, the sculpture of dancing children is a copy of the fountain "Barmaley" in Stalingrad, which survived after massive bombing of the city during World War II by Nazis in 1942.

[jamie]

A Wilhelm scream can be faintly heard at the end as the inferno hits the clock tower.

[tamara]

The tagline references "The Bonfire Prayer". This is a song that commemorates "Guy Fawkes night", November 5th. It goes as follows: "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.

[ruby]

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

[eli]

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

[bessie]

Stephen Fry (Gordon Deitrich) is seen drinking champagne with Evey. Fry is highly allergic to champagne, so much so that he has been hospitalized just by being in the same room as some.

[melinda]

In the memorial for those that died as a result of the virus, the statues are of children playing "Ring a Ring o' Roses". It is often assumed that the nursery rhyme was created in reference to the Great Plague of the mid seventeenth century.

[ivan]

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.

[phyllis]

Costume designer Sammy Sheldon had only five weeks' prep time.

[gabriel]

Sir John Hurt felt the this movie was rather like a combination of 1984 (1984) and Alien (1979), in both of which he had appeared.

[toni]

The movie omits or changes several important details in order to make V and his actions more morally appealing. Also, the government, while more sinister in this movie, is, at the same time, less human, with the authorities in the graphic novel being more complex. For instance, Chancellor Sutler (Adam Susan in the novel) is an awkward and timid man, who sincerely believes in fascism, and leaves all important decisions to F.A.T.E., a supercomputer also absent in the movie. V, on the other hand, is way more violent and less selective in who he kills, often murdering innocents in the process. His aim is not liberty, but anarchy, and he is actually abusive with Evey, an illiterate sixteen-year-old prostitute in the novel. Gordon Deitrich is a criminal, and Evey's lover, and he is killed by another criminal. Also, the central plot of the movie, of the government targeting the population with a virus attack, is not present in the book, and while it is hinted that a nuclear war happened, the ones responsible are left unseen. All of these changes infuriated Alan Moore, who claimed that the fascist government in his work had been "defanged", and refused to have any credit for this movie.

[aaron]

The sun rises at exactly 7 a.m. in London, which is the time Finch's (Stephen Rea's) alarm clock goes off before he sees the sun rise after his sleepless night.

[nora]

This movie has many similarities to George Orwell's 1984. Sir John Hurt starred in its movie adaptation, but played the hero instead of the villain (which he plays in this movie).

[toni]

The cast and crew were only allowed to shoot near the British Parliament and the Clock Tower from midnight to 4:30 a.m., and they could only stop traffic for four minutes at a time.