Eric Finch
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Chief Inspector Eric Finch is a fictional character from the graphic novel and film V for Vendetta. In the film, he is played by Stephen Rea.
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[edit] Character overview
He is London's Chief of Police, and a member of Norsefire, a fascist regime that rules post-apocalyptic England. Unlike his amoral, power-hungry superiors, however, he is not a bad man, but simply a dedicated police officer committed to upholding the law and protecting society. While he is (perhaps wilfully) unaware of the full scope of Norsefire's crimes, including state terrorism and genocide, it is implied that he is troubled by what little he does know of, such as the Party's possible role in the death of his family during the regime's initial rise to power.
A peripheral member of Chancellor Adam Susan's inner circle of lieutenants, Finch is charged with hunting down and arresting "V", a masked vigilante who has destroyed the Old Bailey and threatens to destroy the Houses of Parliament.
[edit] Biography
[edit] Graphic novel
In the graphic novel, Finch becomes obsessed with capturing V as the mysterious terrorist systematically kills off Susan's lieutenants, including Dr. Delia Surridge, whom he had occasionally dated. His repressed doubts about the government he serves become harder to ignore as the investigation wears on, however, especially after he reads Surridge's diary and learns of the horrors V suffered in a Norsefire-operated concentration camp. He is also deeply troubled by the increasing prominence in the Party of Peter Creedy, an amoral, power-hungry opportunist. In his desperate bid to discover how V's mind works, Finch ingests LSD while visiting the concentration camp at Larkhill, allowing him to understand V's sense of liberation. Nevertheless, he is still determined to find and catch V; While Finch understands why V has been leading his vendetta against the government, Finch still believes him to be a murderer first and foremost.
In the climactic scene, V seeks Finch out after Susan is killed, and engages him in a final confrontation in an abandoned Victoria Station, in which Finch shoots and mortally wounds him. It is too late to stop the plan, however; V's accomplice, Evey Hammond, takes over his mantle and blows up 10 Downing Street herself.
With British society falling into chaos, a lonely Finch decides to leave the city, and the final panels of the graphic novel shows him walking northward up the M1 motorway into the darkness and an uncertain future.
[edit] Film
In the 2006 film adaptation, Finch's doubts about Norsefire and latent sympathy for V is more explicit; he seems almost reluctant to stop V's plan as he learns the full scope of the atrocities Norsefire has committed. Whatever his personal feelings about the case, however, Finch remains committed to stopping V.
Throughout the film, Finch is told by the Chancellor (here renamed "Sutler") to ignore his own "feelings" towards the investigation. When Heyer states that a military report indicates that V will likely attack Parliament from the air, Finch files a report suggesting use of an underground train. Sutler ignores Finch's report and military defense prepares for an airborne attack. However, it turns out that Finch was correct and Parliament is destroyed by V's funeral train.
The biggest departure this version of the character takes from the novel is that his sympathy for V's cause eventually wins out; Finch does not kill V, who is instead mortally wounded by Creedy's men, and later reluctantly allows Hammond to bomb Parliament.
In the scene where Inspector Finch tells Dominic that he has gone to Larkhill, and while there, seen, all things that had happened, were happening, and were going to happen and hwo they are connected, one of the 'future' scenes shows Evey setting down a vase of Scarlet Carsons and then turning away while the cammera zooms in to a mirror in the background. Interestingly, a reflection of Finch sitting on a couch drinking what is presumably a scotch can be seen in the mirror, hinting at a possible marriage between the two characters at the end. This is also possibly hinted at by the fact that Finch and Evey walk arm in arm from the train station to the roof of the shadow gallery, and stand like a bride and groom while parliament is destroyed.
| V for Vendetta | |
|---|---|
| Main Characters | V | Evey Hammond | Eric Finch | Adam Susan |
| Related | 2006 Film | Novel | Alan Moore | Norsefire | Storm Saxon | This Vicious Cabaret |
