The film V for Vendetta is about a swashbuckling antihero, known only as V, wearing a mask. It is a controversial film that deliberately provokes questions of church and state. V resorts to terrorism against a state that uses religious rhetoric to justify its policies. The film's writers, Larry and Andy Wachowski, have clearly chosen to use religious conservatism as the foil of their story, but the largest truths of the film are neither left nor right. The storyteller's need for heroes and villains should not eclipse insights into what it means to be spiritual. The discussion of this film attempts to move beyond ideological identification ("I like/didn't like the film because it affirms/doesn't affirm my politics").

Sociopolitical controversy is nothing new to the Bible or Christianity. Old Testament prophecy about the anticipation of Zion is as much a political statement as a spiritual one. Later Christian theologians would also rely on utopias and dystopias (a dystopia is a fictional society seen as the antithesis of a utopia) to explore the problems of community and social religious life. Augustine's The City of God is offered in stark contrast to the "City of Man." Jesus himself spoke much about the kingdom of heaven. In Jesus' parables about the kingdom, spirituality and social structures are so closely linked that the Roman government had to convict Jesus of a capital crime. Movies like Vendetta give contemporary Christians the opportunity to explore the genuine controversy of kingdom language.

Because of the complicated nature of the film, it is highly recommended that participants see the entire film before using this study.