"remember, remember, the fifth of november, the gunpowder treason and plot. i know of now reason why the gunpowder treason should ever be forgot."
those were almost the very first words he spoke to me and, in a way, that is where this story began, four hundred years ago, in a cellar beneath the houses of parliament.
in 1605, guy fawkes attempted to blow up the houses of parliament.
he was caught in the cellars with enough gunpowder to level most of london.
sometimes i wonder where we would be if he hadn't failed. i wonder if it would have mattered.
i suppose the answer is in the rhyme. more than the man, what we must remember is the plot itself.
for in the plot we find more than just a man, we find the idea of that man, the spirit of that man, and that is what we must never forget.
this, then, is the story of that idea, of that spirit that began with an anarchist's plot four hundred years ago.
i was born near the end of the millennium, the year 1997. my father used to say that people were so afraid that the world was going to end that they were willing it to happen.
i don't remember much of the century's turn. i don't remember the market crash or the plague or any of the trafalgar riots.
i've read about them since but i don't recall how any of them impacted my life except for the fear. they would hide it from me, like a secret between them.
but i could feel it.
of the chaos that seemed to swallow the beginning of the 21st century, there is one thing i do remember.
very clearly, i can remember that sound.
and i remember those boots, black leather that gleamed bright in the morning sun. i had never seen such boots. all moving in perfect unison.
it must have seemed so easy to them. they offered such a simple deal; give up control and we will restore order.
at first, the arrests were political. dissidents. radicals. liberals.
when my parents were younger, they had been activists. they had marched with labor in the great train strike.
i never saw them again. overnight, my life, my entire world was erased.
it was done so quickly and violently, so completely, that it began to seem that it had never even existed.
the homosexuals were next. what god had started with aids had to be finished by man. it was god's work. that's what we were told.
but once they were gone, there was someone else. someone different.
someone dangerous.
there were those who understood what was happening, who knew it was wrong but who kept silent.
and in the vacuum of that silence, order was imposed.
order that was like those boots, order that required rigorous discipline. order that is exactly the same, where each single step falls with every step. the order of the many shaped into one.
somehow in my heart, i knew it wouldn't last.
what they thought they had crushed, the spirit they believed trampled and ground beneath the marching of their boots, rose up, rose as if from a four hundred year old grave, rose to remind us all that day.
i don't know what brought us together that night. i had never been to that part of westminster but ever since i've known him, i've stopped believing in coincidence.
excuse me? uh.  excuse me, mister?
would you like.  uh, would you like to sleep with me?
i mean, for money.
oh god, i'm sorry.
yes, no, i mean for money. but i know what you want and i'll do it.
anything you want, mister. please, i need the money. i know i'm young but i promise i know what i'm doing.
christ, you're a fingerman.
oh god, please. it's my first time. please don't hurt me.
oh no!
please, don't!
who -- who are you?
evey.
why did you do that? why did you.  help me?
for what?
music?
is that why you're wearing a mask?
uh.  november fourth.
i don't know.
to your music?
i can't hear anything.
oh my.
it's beautiful.
wait. i've lost you.
oh.
a jukebox? where did you get it?
oh, it's beautiful. i've never heard anything like it.
this place is amazing.
stay here.  with you?
i.  i don't even know your name.
v? v.  i like that.
v, v, v, v, v.
oh, v, you scared me.
i was reading the inscription. what is it?
yes, i suppose you have. this place is the only universe i have right now.
i don't know. i'm so grateful to you -- i just feel i should help you, you know, the way you're helping me. i mean, that's the deal, isn't it?
i think i do. part of me wants to stay here forever and never have to face what's going on outside. but that's not right. is it? that's not taking responsibility. not conquering my universe.
i want to help you, v. i want to do something. can we make a deal?
good. that's that, then.
v, you said that latin thing was a quote. who said it?
uh.  thank you.
listen -- i was kind of hoping --
no --
v?
v, what are you doing?
oh no.
you can't kill him!
oh god, v. i can't -- i can't --
no.  i made a mistake.
i have to find someone.
oh no.  v?
you've made a mistake.
please. i haven't done anything --
no, please, i didn't do anything.
no.
no, i --
oh god, i don't --
no --
i don't know.
they were going to rape me, kill me --
please. i didn't do anything.
i read her letter. hid it. slept. woke. they questioned me. and i read her letter again.
over and over.
her name was valerie.
no. no, that isn't true --
no, wait!
i had come to know every inch of those four walls in that dark hell and they knew every inch of me. every inch.
except one.
no.
thank you but i'd rather die behind the chemical sheds.
what?
you.
you did this.  to me.
you did this to me!
you -- you hit me and -- and cut my hair. it was you. it was just you all this time.
you tortured me. you tortured me --
oh god, why?
love?
set me free? don't you realize?
don't you realize what you did to me? you nearly drove me mad!
i hate you.
i hate you! set me free? you put me in a prison to set me free?!
shut up! i don't want to hear it. i wasn't in a prison. i was happy! i was happy here --
that's warped! that's evil and it's wrong! what gives you the right to judge? who are you to say what's not good enough?!
shut up! you're mad! i don't want to hear it!
i can't feel anything! there's nothing left to feel! don't you understand?
i don't know what -- oh god -- i can't breathe --
what are you doing to me? i can't breathe --
i feel -- i feel like i'm going to burst.
oh god -- i felt --
like an angel --
oh god, v, i'm so scared. what's happening to me?
the roof? outside?
i -- i don't want to be blindfolded.
everything's so -- different.
that was beautiful.
i've wanted to do this for a long time.
thank you, v. thank you for everything you've done for me.
it was a good backdrop. i believed it. i really did. it's still a bit hard for me to accept that it wasn't real. that it was just you. especially the letter.
it is a beautiful letter, v. every time i read it i could feel valerie, almost like she was holding me. i believed in her most of all. i believed that she loved me and i loved her back.
i feel a bit foolish telling you this. i know that you must have written it and thought you should have it back.
what?
valerie?
she's beautiful.
roses. you grew them for her.
they're beautiful.
two days before the first day we met.
you're planning something, aren't you, v?
what are you going to do?
i've never been here before.
oh, v, it's lovely. where on earth did you find it?
what's in these packages?
what are you going to do with all of it?
where does this train go?
whitehall.  v, that's the new government building.
but the underground has been shut down for years. how are you going to make it run without any power?
oh, v, turn it off, please.
what is that, v?
v?
v, what's going to happen?
is it going to be violent?
but why? why must is be violent?
what is the other face, v?
yes, v?
of course.
tell me.
it would be my pleasure.
all it takes is a little practice.
v? what are you going to do?
you're coming back though, aren't you?
v, i won't let you leave unless you promise me that you will come back.
just promise.
v?
you came back.
v! v!
oh god, what happened?
you need a doctor.
no, don't say that!
yes, they need you, v.
what?
i don't understand.
i promise.
v, you are not going anywhere!
you're not going to die, v!
i won't let you die!
v!
i remember.  i remember staring at the mask, at that smile.
part of me couldn't believe he was dead and maybe that was why. the smile was still the same. it made me want to tear it off so i could see the face, so i could see that he was dead.
but i had promised.
i began to try to imagine his face. of course, i had long pictured my father behind that smile but i knew in my heart that v was not my father.
yet every time i pictured another face, any face, something was lost, something important was somehow diminished. v was more than a face. v was v.
and then, quite suddenly, quite naturally, i realized whose face must be beneath that mask. it was the only face that mattered.
i won't let you die.
goodbye, my love.
"ave atque vale."
i looked it up the next morning.
"hail and farewell."
they will, my love. they will.
"remember, remember, the fifth of november!"
i have come here tonight to keep a promise. a promise that is over four hundred years old. tonight i am here to give you your freedom!
since mankind's dawn a handful of oppressors have accepted the responsibility over our lives, responsibility that we should have accepted ourselves. by doing so, they took our power. by doing nothing, we gave it away.
tonight, our world will change. our leaders will be gone and we must choose what comes next. a return to the chains of others or lives of our own. a world of the past or one of the future.
let us choose carefully, london, and when we do, let us mark well and remember, remember this fifth of november!
yes, my love. yes it is.
i know that there is only one way to repay him for what he did.
and i know that that way is going to take a lot of hard work.
I know this like I know the sun will rise tomorrow and beneath that new sun, our work will begin.