The ABCs of 'V for Vendetta' : rockymountainnews.com

V for Vendetta, the latest movie from the Wachowski brothers, isn't as dense as the Matrix movies, but there's still plenty to chew on. Adapted from a graphic novel that was serialized in the 1980s, the movie follows a terrorist (or freedom fighter - take your pick) named V, who wears a Guy Fawkes mask and, like Fawkes, has designs on blowing up Parliament.

The movie takes place in the near future where a "limited" nuclear war has devastated most of the world, but left England intact. A fascist, single-party state rules through a controlled media, a surveillance-happy secret police, and concentration camps for dissidents and those who are "different."

Here's a guide to V's world and the influences behind it.

• A is for Avian Flu. Whenever England's populace begins to stir from the sheepish slumber and question authority, the government alerts the British Television Network to lead the nightly news with fictional, fear-inducing stories. The avian flu is a perennial favorite.

• B is for British Television Network (BTN). The country's lone operating television station, providing a clearinghouse of information sanctioned by England's fascist dictatorship. As one of the network's news anchors helpfully explains: "Our job is to report the news. It's the government's job to create it."

• C is for Count of Monte Cristo. The 1934 swashbuckling revenge classic is V's favorite movie. And why not? You've got a hero, wrongly and royally messed with, imprisoned in a mask, determined to seek vengeance upon the vile souls who jailed him.

• D is for Dominoes. There's a scene, right before V launches his big blast of final payback, where he tips over 22,000 dominoes, forming (what else?) a giant letter V. Four professional domino assemblers spent some 200 hours putting the dominoes in position. "These people were a little mental," director James McTeigue says.

• E is for "England Prevails". The sign-off slogan for ranting BTN news program host Lewis Prothero. His catch phrase is meant to instill the idea that one nation's interests should be put above the rest of the world's.

• F is for Fawkes, Guy. Member of a group of Roman-Catholic conspirators who hatched the Gunpowder Plot of 1605, an attempt to assassinate James I and members of both houses of England's Parliament. Fawkes and his group burrowed beneath Parliament with 2.5 tons of gunpowder, aiming to blow it up. They were discovered and summarily executed.

V wears a Guy Fawkes mask throughout Vendetta.

• G is for Gallery, Shadow. V's version of the Phantom of the Opera's lair. Hidden in Victoria Station, part of London's abandoned underground, the arched, Tudor-like space includes a vast library, dressing room, kitchen and a screening room.

• H is for Head, Shaved. The film's most striking image isn't V's mask or its bleak vision of a near-future London, but Portman's bald dome. Portman's head was literally shaved while the cameras were rolling in a scene (one of many) containing Holocaust imagery.

• I is for Ipanema, Girl From. The bossa-nova classic is one of two songs - Corcovado (Quiet Nights of Quiet Stars) being the other - featured in the film from the 1963 landmark "Getz/Gilberto" album from saxophonist Stan Getz and guitarist Joao Gilberto.

• J is for Jukebox. Music is integral to V's world. He sets the detonation of the Old Bailey (see O entry) to Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture. A Wurlitzer jukebox, holding 872 songs (when the DVD comes out, freeze frame on it to get a fuller sense of V's musical leanings) holds a prominent place in the Shadow Gallery. ("An iPod just wouldn't cut it visually," McTeigue says.)

• K is for Koran. One of an endless number of books, movies, music and paintings banned by the Ministry of Objectionable Material.

• L is for Lloyd, David. Illustrator of the V for Vendetta graphic novel. Has seen the film and believes it keeps "the integrity and essential messages" of the piece alive.

• M is for Moore, Alan. Writer of the graphic novel. Has not seen the film. Famous contrarian, has hated previous Hollywood adaptations of his other work (From Hell, A League of Extraordinary Gentlemen). Moore withdrew his name from the Vendetta credits and told Warner Bros. to send his share of the rights payment to collaborator Lloyd.

• N is for Norsefire. The name of the pseudo-Nazi regime ruling England. Norsefire's power grab has elements of Hitler's ascent in the chaos of post-World War I Germany.

• O is for Old Bailey. The first London landmark blown up by V, the Old Bailey is the country's criminal high court.

• P is for Purefoy, James. Original actor cast as V, replaced a few weeks into shooting by Wachowski collaborator Hugo Weaving (Agent Smith in the Matrix movies).

"James is a good actor, but he found the mask very constraining and claustrophobic," McTeigue says.

• Q is for Quarantine. Action taken by Norsefire's secret police whenever a particular neighborhood or street resists complete obedience. Those placed in quarantine are rarely heard from again.

• R is for Reed, Lou. Another musical favorite of V. Reed's I Found a Reason from the Velvet Underground's Loaded album is heard in the film, sung by modern indie darling Cat Power.

• S is for Strength Through Unity, Unity Through Faith. Government slogan seen on posters plastered throughout London.

• T is for Thatcher, Margaret. When Moore and Lloyd serialized V for Vendetta in the 1980s, it was meant to skewer then-Prime Minister Thatcher and the country's ruling Conservative party.

• U is for United States. Currently reeling from the literal fallout of the "limited" nuclear war. To quote Prothero: "There was a country that had everything, and now, 20 years later, is what? The world's largest leper colony."

• V is for "Vi Veri Veniversum Vivus Vici." Translated from Latin: "By the power of truth, I, a living man, have conquered the universe." One of V's favorite phrases - what with the "v" alliteration - it comes from Christopher Marlowe's The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus.

• W is for Wachowski, Larry and Andy. Wrote the screenplay for V for Vendetta before writing and directing the Matrix movies.

• X is for X, Malcolm. Excerpts from the black nationalist leader's "On Black Power" can be heard in Ethan Stoller's BKAB, which plays over the movie's closing credits.

• Y: Yellow-coded curfew. Not found in the graphic novel, this color-coded means of government control is a cinematic nod to the cryptic warnings emanating from America's Department of Homeland Security.

• Z is for Zealot. "Bottom line," Lloyd says, "V for Vendetta is a cautionary tale about what happens when people are in a bad situation and they follow zealots down the road to hell."

The ABCs of 'V for Vendetta'

To the letter, guide traces influences behind movie plot