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V has Olympic-level reflexes, enhanced strength, speed and dexterity as well as expanded mental capacity, and relies on his wits and his planning to get in and out of any confrontations.

Doubtless he could've foreseen, and prevented himself from, being shot by Creedy and his henchmen who "swept the place clean". Even as they shoot him, V just stands there until they run out of bullets. Only after, V starts throwing his knives!

  1. Why? V could've thrown his knives as soon as they started shooting, and mitigated the gun wounds on V that proved fatal.

  2. Before arriving at that basement (what's the correct term?), he could've armed himself with a gun, then use it to shoot back.

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    Great question - it was a sacrifice move on V's part if I recall correctly - he wanted to take down the current government, but not necessarily survive to see the new one (Eve would be the survivor he could never be) - I need to watch the film again to answer properly, but I believe this was the general gist of it...
    – Jimmery
    Mar 2, 2020 at 17:07
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    @Jimmery Thanks for the compliment. Why did V sacrifice himself though, if you get a chance to re-watch the film?
    – user13434
    Mar 3, 2020 at 3:39
  • FWIW, It's a subway station
    – coblr
    Mar 3, 2020 at 21:36
  • Many film need such non sense to work. e.g. in 1917 why doesn't the general send a pro-team like in Saving Private Ryan whose mission is much less critical for such cricital mission? Yes small team is faster - then why not just send 1 people since that will be faster? It is a balance between power of the team and speed. And 2 rookie is a very bad balance which make zero sense and it is the base for the whole film.
    – jw_
    Mar 5, 2020 at 1:39
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    Maybe the reason is always no enough talent to resolve the non sense part and still keep the goal of the film achieved, or not enough time to work it out.
    – jw_
    Mar 5, 2020 at 1:41

4 Answers 4

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Why? V could've thrown his knives as soon as they started shooting, and mitigated the gun wounds on V that proved fatal.

  1. Given that V was wearing a steel breastplate, he wanted to orient himself in such a way to where the armor would take as many shots as possible. The torso is a much larger and easier target to hit than the head, legs, etc., and V banked on Creedy's entourage shooting just there.

  2. If V would have tried throwing his knives while they were shooting, his accuracy wouldn't be nearly as good and arguably would have risked his hands/arms getting shot even more so than just standing there.

  3. If V would have started running around while they were shooting, there's a good chance that some of Creedy's men could have have circled around V and he'd then be surrounded. By directly facing Creedy's men and letting them all shoot at once, V was most optimally protecting the non-armored parts of his body.

Before arriving at that basement (what's the correct term?), he could've armed himself with a gun, then use it to shoot back.

Simply put -- guns aren't V's style, they're too impersonal.

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    Agreed. He's fighting trained armed guards at point-blank range so they would have easily him him if he was twirling around. His plan in the scene seemed to have been "Let them use all their bullets then stab them while they're reloading." He even tells Creedy as much. "What you have are bullets and the hopes that when your guns are empty, I'm no longer standing. Because if I am, you'll all be dead before you've reloaded."
    – DeeV
    Mar 2, 2020 at 18:06
  • I think that this is the correct answer, but might emphasize in point 1 that it was not at all realistic (even given that this is an action movie) for V to avoid being shot, almost certainly many times, no matter what he did (so moving an fighting isn't exactly an alternative scenario). And in point 2 that V's supply of knives is limited, so a missed throw would be serious penalty given that he would almost certainly not have survived a second round of firing.
    – Upper_Case
    Mar 2, 2020 at 18:25
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    Thanks! I agree with your paras. 2 and 3. But on para 1, why did V assume that he wouldn't get shot in the face or head?
    – user13434
    Mar 3, 2020 at 3:50
  • @Greek-Area51Proposal Possibly because most members of the military or police will be trained to aim for centre of mass (it's a larger target, and it moves more predictably than the head, even when bobbing and weaving), so he deemed it sufficiently unlikely that they would go against that. "If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles." ~Sun Tzu.
    – Chronocidal
    Mar 3, 2020 at 12:41
  • @Chronocidal Right. The phrase, "two to the chest, one to the head", comes to mind. IIRC though, after the soldiers finished shooting there was a close up of V breathing and his mask did incur some damage. So, I guess a few contact shots but nothing direct.
    – Charles
    Mar 3, 2020 at 12:46
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In-universe, there are indeed several problems in this scene, but:

Out-of-universe, him fighting back immediately wouldn't have the same cinematic effect. The scene isn't designed to have Creedy face off against an equal (as you would often get in action film finales), but to have him be utterly powerless against a force he doesn't properly understand. V's quote at the end of the scene sums this up:

Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea... and ideas are bulletproof

As I understand it, this is a reference to a plot point in the original source material, where the original V actually does die, and Evey takes his place wearing his mask. Thus, there really is more behind the mask than "just flesh"; the idea causes "V" to (essentially) reincarnate.

From the enemy's perspective, this would feel quite similar to what we see in that scene.

Also as others have noted, V really had no intention of surviving that night.

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Beneath this mask is an idea Mr. Creedy, and ideas are bulletproof.

That's kind of sums it up. It was either a plan for selfsacrife (he made himself a martyr) or he really believed he is bulletproof.

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    I accept that ideas are bulletproof. But I see no evidence that "he really believed he is bulletproof" As I wrote, V is far from being a cretin.
    – user13434
    Mar 2, 2020 at 10:20
  • @Greek-Area51Proposal That's why he wore steel plate. Bt as you noticed he was very cunning so he knew he could be shot. He just overestimated emount of bullet it can sponge (or assume he is bulletproof to some extend).
    – SZCZERZO KŁY
    Mar 2, 2020 at 15:05
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I don't have much evidence to back this up but I presume it was to eliminate the possibility of accidentally being shot somewhere he didn't want to be shot. Most law enforcement officers are trained to shoot for the torso because it's the easiest part of the body to reliably hit and has a sufficiently high chance of fatally wounding the target. V expected this and wore a protective layer under his cloak to withstand the barrage of bullets.

But for that protective layer to work, he needed to ensure that that's where the bullets would hit him. He gambled that if he gave them a stationary target, none of them would deviate from aiming at his torso and that they were trained well enough to be able to consistently hit their mark. If he were to have attacked, he'd have become a moving target and exposed unprotected parts of his body to the incoming fire, greatly increasing the chances of him being incapacitated before completing his revenge. For example, his hands might get fingers blown off while trying to throw his knives, or he could take bullets to his back when he turned to attack a particular soldier.

So by focusing his defense on the one spot he expected them to focus on and letting them focus on it uninhibited, he gave himself his best chance at surviving long enough to do what he went there to do. In other words, he used his enemy's strength and confidence against them.

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    To be fair, law enforcement officers are only trained to start out shooting center mass (which on a fully exposed subject is torso). But they are also trained in "failure to stop" which involves moving on to either central nervous system or pelvic girdle if center mass shots are not having the desired effect.
    – Jimbo Jonny
    Mar 2, 2020 at 19:37
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    @JimboJonny there is evidence that a number of bullets did hit V's mask since we can see it scratched and battered when he closes in on Creedy, luckily the mask also appeared to be made of some sort of metal
    – BKlassen
    Mar 2, 2020 at 23:31

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