Awesome / V for Vendetta

Comic

• The crowner of V for Vendetta, has to be after V's done temporarily shrugging off several bullets.
  V: There. Did you think to kill me? There's no flesh or blood within this cloak to kill. There's only an idea. Ideas are bullet-proof. Farewell.
• Shortly after which, Inspector Finch gets his own CMOA: "I killed you, you bastard... I KILLED YOU!"
• Everyone believes V's dead, and the government's challenged him to prove them wrong. The way Evey, having become V, proves them wrong, is epic.
  E!V: (over loudspeaker) They say anarchy's dead, but see, reports of my death were... exaggerated.
• V, meeting the bishop:
  V: Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste.
• Rosemary, after suffering months of degradation, shoots Chancellor Susan in the face in front of an entire Norsefire Party political rally; knowing full well that she will be ripped apart by the jackbooted Fingermen; which she is. However, unlike her erstwhile husband, she actually remembered to load the revolver.
• Rosemary's final soliloquy deserves a mention too.
  Yes.
  Yes, despite my fear, because it's insignificant. Like everything about me...
  Yes, though they'll kill me, because if I don't, life means nothing...
  Yes, because our lives were wasted on your visions, and they were all we had.
  Yes, because I can't bear what you've done to us...
  Yes, because history's moving my legs and nothing can stop me...
  Yes, because your kind led us to Hell and now you say our only hope is sterner leaders...
  Yes, because I'm nearly there and everyone's thinking "She must be important" and I'm not, but I will be...
  Yes, because I had a life, a world, a marriage and I valued them but you didn't...
  Yes, because we've met a dozen times before and my Derek died for you and God, you don't even, don't even remember my face!
  Yes. Yes...
  YES.
• Speaking of that scene, when Derek Almond realises his gun is empty when he confronts V on the bedroom landing hallway of Dr. Surridge's house. You don't need sound bubbles to know what happens on the next page.
• Delia's diary reveals that V annihilated Larkhill's military contingent and escaped the camp by using napalm and mustard gas that he made out of gardening supplies.
• There is Evey, imprisoned and tortured but, inspired by Valerie's story and her lesson about the value of personal integrity in face of such tyranny, she chooses rather to die behind the chemical sheds when told to sell out V. Once coming to this Defiant to the End epiphany, she learns she is truly free, as he once discovered himself, that the whole experience was V's effort to give her that kind of indomitable strength of character to continue his fight once he was gone.
• The fact that V somehow creates the Shadow Gallery deep within the bowels of the London Underground and stores not only all the computing powers of a FAITH twin system in which he can tap into and control all aspects of the fascist government's surveillance; but also accrue a vast collection of banned ancient culture in the form of music records and a gigantic renaissance library to preserve for subsequent generations when his anarchistic violence is no longer necessary.
• The telecommunication hack and V addressing the whole of dystopian England over the box. All the while, Fascist government goons are about to kick the door in. V is unconcerned and goes on an emotional tirade against what's left of humanity; daring them to do better.
  V: I suppose you're wondering why I called you here this evening. Well, you see, I'm not entirely satisfied with your performance lately... I'm afraid your work's been slipping, and... And I'm afraid we've been thinking about letting you go. Oh, I know, I know. You've been with the company a long time now. Almost... let me see. Almost ten thousand years! my word, doesn't time fly? It seems like only yesterday... I remember the day you commenced your employment, swinging down from the trees, fresh-faced and nervous, a bone clasped in your bristling fist... "Where do I start, sir?" You asked, plaintively. I recall my exact words: "There's a pile of dinosaur eggs over there, youngster." I said, smiling paternally the while. "Get sucking." Well, we've certainly come a long way since then, haven't we? And yes, yes, you're right, in all that time you haven't missed a day. Well done, thou good and faithful servant. Also, please don't think I've forgotten about your outstanding service record, or about all the invaluable contributions you've made to the company... Fire, the wheel, agriculture... It's an impressive list, old timer. A jolly impressive list. Don't get me wrong. But... Well, to be frank, we've had our problems, too. There's no getting away from it. Do you know what I think a lot of it stems from? I'll tell you... It's your basic unwillingness to get on with the company. You don't seem to want to face up to any real responsibility, or to be your own boss. Lord knows, you've been given plenty of opportunities... We've offered you promotion time and time again, and each time you've turned us down. "I couldn't handle the work, guv'nor," you wheedled. "I know my place." To be frank, you're not trying, are you? You see, you've been standing still for far too long, and it's starting to show in your work... And I might add, in your general standard of behaviour. The constant bickering on the factory floor has not escaped my attention... Nor the recent bouts of rowdiness in the staff canteen. Then of course there's... Hmm. Well, I really didn't want to have to bring this up, but... Well, you see, I've been hearing some disturbing rumours about your personal life. No, never you mind who told me. No names, no pack drill... I understand that you are unable to get on with your spouse. I hear that you argue. I am told that you shout. Violence has been mentioned. I am reliably informed that you always hurt the one you love...The one you shouldn't hurt at all. And what about the children? It's always the children who suffer, as you're well aware. Poor little mites, what are they to make of it? What are they to make of your bullying, your despair, your cowardice and all your fondly nurtured bigotries? Really, it's not good enough, is it? And it's no good blaming the drop in work standards upon bad management, either... Though, to be sure, the management is very bad. In fact, let us not mince words... The management is terrible! We've had a string of embezzlers, frauds, liars and lunatics making a string of catastrophic decisions. This is plain fact. But who elected them? it was you! You who appointed these people! You who gave them the power to make your decisions for you! While I'll admit that anyone can make a mistake once, to go on making the same lethal errors century after century seems to me nothing short of deliberate. You have encouraged these malicious incompetents, who have made your working life a shambles. You have accepted without question their senseless orders. You have allowed them to fill your workspace with dangerous and unproven machines. You could have stopped them. All you had to say was NO! You have no spine. You have no pride. You are no longer an asset to the company. I will, however, be generous. You will be granted two years to show me some improvement in your work. If at the end of that time you are still unwilling to make a go of it... You're fired. That will be all. You may return to your labours.
• In one of the bonus comics, it focuses on a nameless doorman working at a hotel. The only job he has is to open the door for anyone going in or coming out, and salute them. He's next to invisible to everyone. One night he looks into the hotel to see V running for the door with pursuers hot on his tail. If the doorman barricades the door for even a second, V's as good as caught. Instead, the doorman does his job. He opens the door for a man coming out and salutes the passer-by. V even takes the moment to look at his saviour as he passes.

Film

What an amazing fireworks display.

• V's first scene in which he effortlessly disarms and beats up three armed would-be-rapist secret policemen, embarks on a tongue twisting introduction, and carves his initials into a state propaganda poster -- and the wall beneath.
  • Bonus points for the Ironic Echo that V ends the fight with:
  V: "We are oft to blame in this, it is much too proved, that with devotion's visage and pious action we do sugar o'er the devil himself".
  Pantsed Fingerman: (terrified) What's that mean?!
  V: "Spare the rod..." (brings the Fingerman's club down on the man's head)
• Even though they're the bad guys, Norsefire's response to V blowing up Old Bailey is pretty impressive with how quickly they investigated and then covered it up. It all took place in just four hours. And then V completely undoes it before the day is done.
• V's speech to London, followed by his escape by making his hostages wear imitation Guy Fawkes masks, wigs and black cloaks.
  • The single line "While the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power." Especially epic because its obvious that Gordon takes the words to heart as a motivator for his later awesomeness.
  • Dascombe talking back to Sutler on the phone, explaining very bluntly that it was Sutler himself that wanted the emergency broadcast to be unblockable.
• The smug and sadistic Louis Prothero bragging about how he'd have taken V down if he'd had the chance. Then when V appears seconds later about to seek revenge, Prothero is just about pissing himself with terror.
• V meeting the bishop. Only here, instead of the off-panel death of the comics, we get V kicking a solid wooden door down and in the process shattering it into so many splinters with an accompanying guitar riff. Followed by Lilliman trying to dispatch V with a gold-plated, engraved Beretta 1919 (hidden in a cut-out of his bible, of course), only for V to Flash Step the shot up close and get the pedophile priest in a joint-manipulation lock from the wrist; breaking probably every bone the dirty old man has in his arm. V fittingly giving him a pre-mortem eulogy via another quotation from Shakespeare is just gravy at this point.
  V: Thus I clothe my naked villainy with old odd ends, stolen forth from holy writ, and seem a saint when most I play the devil.
  Lilliman: (sobbing with terror) Please, have mercy...!
  V: Oh... not tonight, bishop. Not tonight.
• Gordon gets one with his sketch lampooning Sutler. Awesomeness is to be expected when Stephen Fry is present.
• "God is in the rain."
  • And the scene previous this. Evey screams at V after finding out the prison she thought she was in was actually just a walled-off section of V's home, and the warden/guard V himself. It's her epiphany scene. V didn't know how else to free her from her fear other than subject her to a fraction of what he went through. Both Natalie and Hugo gave masterful performances here.
• V escaping from prison with self-made explosives derived from fertilizer. MacGyver himself could not have topped that one.
• The explanation of Sutler's ascension to power.
• One of the corrupt policemen gun down a child for wearing a V mask. An angry mob shows up and one guy beats the bastard's head in with a shovel.
  • The crowner? This event gave the necessary push for a full-scale revolution!
• Also, the dominoes scene in which all the tension builds towards the end, and the government slowly loses control of the city the country. Ah, hell, the whole movie, too.
• V's Last Stand, especially the part that begins with the following line:
  Creedy: You won't cry like [Sutler], will you? You're not afraid of death. You're like me.
  V: The only thing that you and I have in common, Mr. Creedy, is we're both about to die.
  Creedy: How do you imagine that's gonna happen?
  V: With my hands around your neck.
  Creedy: Bollocks. What you gonna do, huh? We've swept this place. You've got nothing. Nothing but your bloody knives and your fancy karate gimmicks! We have guns.
  V: No. What you have are bullets, and the hope that when your guns are empty I am no longer standing, because if I am... you'll all be dead before you've reloaded.
  Creedy: That's impossible! Kill him.
  (Lots of gunfire ensues. V remains standing)
  V: Ahhh... My turn.
  • And so V proceeds to do exactly as he said he would, the only wrinkle being that Creedy does manage to reload his revolver and fire it at V again.... only for it to do apparently nothing.
  • And then, the cherry on top: "Beneath this mask, there is more than flesh. Beneath this mask, there is an idea, Mr. Creedy, and ideas are BULLETPROOF!" (Neck Lift, Neck Snap)
  • Physically shaken after that? What about the citizen's march on Parliament?
    • Especially the part where the confused armed soldiers lower their guns rather than firing into the unarmed crowd, letting the marchers pass.
    • Then, after that, when the view switches to an overhead shot of the absolutely enormous crowds of people heading into Trafalgar Square. "Governments should be afraid of their people," indeed.
• Um? The ending? PARLIAMENT BLOWING UP to the 1812 OVERTURE?!?!?!?
  • How about the Vs all taking off their masks, and they're all people who've died. Yeah, it's SYMBOLISMOMFGBRILLIANT!!!1, but it's awesome SYMBOLISMOMFGBRILLIANT!!!1.
• The fact that Hugo Weaving didn't need a shred of face time and still knocked the acting ball out of the park with his performance; witty and childish one moment, yet terrifying the next.
• Mention must be made to late cinematographer Adrian Biddle. This was the last film he completed before suffering a fatal heart attack, and it was his magnum opus: he managed to capture the shadowy, silhouetted environment of London and its characters, and enabled V to possess an atmosphere of anonymity and mystery.

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