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What we need right now is a clear message to the people of this country. This message must be read in every newspaper, heard on every radio, seen on every television. This message must resound throughout the entire InterLink! I want this country to realize that we stand on the edge of oblivion. I want every man, woman and child to understand how close we are to chaos. I WANT EVERYONE TO REMEMBER WHY THEY NEED US!
~ Chancellor Sutler to his high council and his most famous quote.
My fellow Englishmen: tonight, our country, that which we stand for, and all we hold dear, faces a grave and terrible threat. This violent and unparalleled assault on our security will not go undefended... or unpunished. Our enemy is an insidious one, seeking to divide us and destroy the very foundation of our great nation. Tonight, we must remain steadfast. We must remain determined. But most of all, we must remain united. Those caught tonight in violation of curfew will be considered in league with our enemy and prosecuted as a terrorist without leniency or exception. Tonight, I give you my most solemn vow: that justice will be swift, it will be righteous, and it will be without mercy.
~ Adam Sutler to his nation.
Tonight, I will speak directly to these people and make the situation perfectly clear to them. The security of this nation depends on complete and total compliance. Tonight, any protester, any instigator or agitator, will be made example of!
~ Adam Sutler threatening his citizens.

High Chancellor Adam Sutler is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Peter Creedy) of the 2006 dystopian action film V for Vendetta, based on the graphic novel of the same name.

He is the leader of the fascist Norsefire Party and dictator of a dystopian England. He is based on the real-life Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and the character of Adam Susan from the comic book of the same name.

He was portrayed by the late John Hurt, who also played Caligula in I Claudius, the Horned King in The Black Cauldron, Claudandus in Felidae, General Woundwort in Watership Down, Mr. Mole in Thumbelina, Harry in Pride, Lord Cotys in Hercules, Percival Graves in King Ralph, Sailor John in Sodor's Legend of the Lost Treasure, and Richard Rich in A Man For All Seasons.

Personality[]

In the movie, Sutler is presented as an ambitious man with a penchant for power and a strong dislike for anything foreign to England. During his time as Norsefire's leader, he is also presented as extremely controlling, giving orders on absolutely everything, even smaller details, and berating others when they fails to execute them. This is proved by his increasing wrath when he starts to lose control little by little on his country because of V. In relation to this, he is delusional and thinks himself to be a good person who prevented his country from falling into chaos. He seems to be easily offended, as he orders the arrest of Dietrich because he hosted a comedy sketch playfully mocking Sutler on his talk show. In the light of these facts, he is a very ruthless character, and one can see at the end another character trait: his cowardice, as demonstrated by how fearful and cowardly he is when his death came.

Biography[]

In the film, Sutler is described by V as arriving at the public scene as "a young and upcoming politician" and "a deeply religious man and a member of the Conservative party". Sutler is elected Prime Minister by promising to restore order to the country after terrorists supposedly killed 80,000 people with a self-ignited bio-weapon that created a viral epidemic (it is later revealed that Norsefire had actually launched the attack). He then uses the supposed terrorist threat as a pretext for genocide, along with an ongoing propaganda campaign in the state-run media, to cow the public into silence and appoint himself High Chancellor, turning the country into a single-party state with himself as an autocrat.

For most of the film, he is only seen communicating with his high council via an enormous viewscreen, until the end when he finally appears in person moments before his death.

When Sutler discovers he is being lampooned in a farce on a talk show, he is enraged and orders the show's host, Gordon Dietrich, arrested in the dead of night and executed (the official story is that Dietrich was killed only after a Qur'an was discovered among his belongings).

Sutler's death

Sutler is killed by the very system that gave him power in the first place.

Sutler blames his right-hand man Peter Creedy for the failure to stop V and threatens to fire him. In order to secure his own power, Creedy subsequently makes a deal with V to assassinate Sutler. Creedy and his men kidnap Sutler from a news studio where Sutler is giving a speech to the people of the country, none of whom are listening due to being out protesting. After beating him up, Creedy's men bring Sutler to V in the London Underground, where Creedy personally executes Sutler, shooting his hated boss in the head at point-blank range.

Differences from the graphic novel[]

Unlike his original counterpart, Sutler is a much more socially adept and assertive man, often speaking directly to his people. There is no indication he is celibate or refrains from alcohol. An example of his sociability stems from him running a skit show that makes fun of V to remind the public how futile rebellion is and to remind them how powerful he is.

Trivia[]

  • Sutler's name is apparently an amalgamation of his name in the comic book, Susan, and "Hitler". Interestingly, Sutler is also a word for a merchant who trades with the military, befitting the dictator of a military-industrial complex.
  • In the comic book, Susan is a timid introvert who worships the FATE supercomputer as a goddess and believes it and himself to be the only two real beings on Earth. Deep down, Susan wants to connect with his people and ultimately makes an effort to change his ways. Sutler is radically different, depicted as an arrogant tyrant who lives in luxury at the expense of his people. The FATE computer is also absent from the film and here, Sutler is described as a devout Christian.
  • Sutler is also given visual similarities with Oswald Mosley and Adolf Hitler, having a similar hairstyle, figure, mustache and style of military dress Mosley wore (the "blackshirt"). However, Sutler is described as having broken away from the center-right Conservative Party, while in real life, Oswald Mosley's New Party, which developed into the British Union of Fascists, was a breakaway from the center-left Labour Party. He seems to share similarities, in his dangerous paranoia, his disdain for his own people and his relationship with Creedy with Lenin and Stalin (famous for their mustaches, too), not to mention that these two also used to forcefully deport to and execute ethnic groups and (potential) dissidents in the infamous gulags set up by Lenin and imitated by other Marxist dictators and their regimes (like Mao, Che Guevara and Castro). Adam Susan shares more similarities with Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Hirohito, and other dictators or leaders with authoritarian like beliefs.

External Links[]

Navigation[]

           Vendetta logo Villains

Norsefire
Adam Susan (Adam Sutler) | Peter Creedy (film) | Anthony Lilliman (film) | Lewis Prothero (film) | Derek Almond

Others
V | Delia Surridge | Alistair Harper | Helen Heyer

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