Film Quote of the Day: The ‘V for Vendetta’ Line That Made November 5th Unforgettable

I vividly remember going to Regal Downingtown on opening night to see the new movie written by the Wahchoski siblings and directed by James McTeigue, based on one of my favorite Alan Moore graphic novels.

It was an insane mix of anarchy and entertainment, steeped in Guy Fawkes lore and specific dates I recall every year, thanks to some catchy quotes.

So, how did this movie use seventeenth-century British history to bridge cinematic pop culture and become a brain worm we repeat this time of year?

Let's dive in.

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The Scene in Question

This is one of those movies that grips you right from the get-go. We're in darkness, and then Evey Hammond (Natalie Portman) begins a quiet narration as we get the real Guy Fawkes's historical backstory.

On November 5th, 1605, Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators attempted to blow up the House of Lords in the famous Gunpowder Plot, but the plan went awry when someone sent an anonymous letter to the authorities, and they found Guy with all the incriminating evidence. Whoops.

This history gets juxtaposed against the authoritarian state Evey deals with right now. She invites the audience to consider why we remember the man behind the plot rather than the political machinery that condemned him to death for trying to fix a broken system.

And then we get our famous line, the Guy Fawkes line that has been uttered for many years since his demise. The line that kicks off the story.

"Remember, remember the fifth of November, the gunpowder, treason, and plot."

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What The Quote Means

This is one of those fun times when the quote has real historical context. I'd encourage you to spend some time reading about Guy Fawkes and get sme historical context, which will only make you appreciate the movie more.

Anyway, all this is to say that when screenwriters Lilly and Lana Wachowski used the Fawkes saying, they bridged historical reality with a dystopian future. They delivered the thematic spine of what matters.

Now, obviously, Alan Moore laid the tracks in the graphic novel, but this adaptation works because it identified that core and brought it to the screen.

The opening scene directly tells us what the movie is about and infuses it with energy by reviving an old quote through the circumstances of fiction. We want to know how this plays into Evey's story moving forward.

This explores people who have had enough and are willing to fight back. They are an enduring power that lives on, even in death, because they offer a vision for change.

We open on November 5th because it symbolically continues an unfinished historical impulse that will carry the movie and its characters.

I really like how we dive in and hear it echo in our minds as the story soldiers onward.

Summing It All Up

Now, I don't know that I think about V for Vendetta every November 5th, but when that quote comes up, I do. We get this sort of dramatic recall that takes us back to this movie and the imagery of the Guy Fawkes mask.

That's the power of both gunpowder and cinema.