Adam Sutler

High Chancellor Adam Sutler is the secondary antagonist/bigger bad in the 2006 film, V For Vendetta, the other being Peter Creedy. He is the fascist dictator of a dystopian Great Britain, based on the character of Adam Susan from the comic book of the same name.

He was portrayed by the late John Hurt, who also played Lord Cotys, Caligula, The Horned King, and General Woundwort.

Biography
In the film, Sutler is described by V as arriving on the public scene as "a young and upcoming politician" and "a deeply religious man and a member of the Conservative party". Despite being the Chancellor, he serves as the Bigger Bad/secondary antagonist of the film, as his second in command, Peter Creedy is the main obstacle to the heroes. 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 blames Peter Creedy for the failure to stop V and threatens to fire him. In order to secure his own power, Creedy subsequently promises to 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. Creedy's men bring a severely beaten Sutler to V in the London Underground where Creedy personally executes Sutler, shooting his hated boss in the head at point-blank range.

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, anhedonic 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 Conservative Party, while in real life, Oswald Mosley's New Party, which developed into the British Union of Fascists, was a breakaway from Labour. Adam Susan in comparison, however, is extremely different and shares more similarities with Benito Mussolini.