The full-color English film Fahrenheit 451 was made a film in 1966 and is based off of the Ray Bradbury book also named Fahrenheit 451. The movie takes place in a futuristic dystopian society in Britain. Everyone is controlled by the totalitarian government and literature and books have been outlawed by the government. This prevents any individuality in thinking, revolutions, or any free thought. As a result, people in this world conform to every norm of society, always try to fit in, and engage themselves in shallow, dopamine-producing activities such as watching interactive televisions or destroying cars. To carry out the will of the government, there is a force known as the Firemen, who seek out any outlaws guilty of reading or possessing books, and proceed to burn the books.
One of these firemen is Guy Montag, the protagonist of the film. He is a senior member of the firemen and he loves his job. The smell of kerosene and the thrill of burning down the books with his flamethrower add to the excitement and satisfaction he gets from the job. His wife, Linda, is a rather ordinary member of society, glued to her huge wall televisions where she is enamored by various interactive gameshows. Montag and Linda fit the ideal of their repressive society. However, Montag suddenly changes his way of thinking when he talks with his neighbor, a 20-year-old schoolteacher named Clarisse. Clarisse is on the verge of being fired from her occupation due to her strange style of teaching and the film hints that she may be hoarding books. Montag slowly loses the resolve of his position that he once had until Clarisse finally asks him if he has read any of the books he burns.
Montag starts to secretly keep some of the books he finds and hides them at his house, slowly spending more and more time pouring over the various novels, fascinated by the differing opinions. Linda finds out and is immediately terrified, constantly arguing with him to get rid of what she calls horrid books. Montag refuses and continues to keep the books, while the film foreshadows that the firemen captain might have an inkling about Montag's suspicious behavior. When Montag is later called to the house of an illegal boom collector, his captain makes sure to reinstate the government ideology into Montag's head, essentially giving him a pep talk on why books are a menace to society. Montag is unconvinced and watches as the book collector refuses to leave, instead letting herself be engulfed by the flames that destroyed her and her books.
He comes home to Linda and her friends gathered around the television, engaging in meaningless dialogue. Montag snaps and lectures the women about the horrible conditions of the society they live in and proceeds to read parts of a book out loud to them. The women are extremely terrified and some even break down in tears. They quickly run away while Linda can only sit there bewildered, growing more and more afraid of the books and the fact that her husband seems to support these books. Later that night, Clarisse's house is raided and all the books she had are burnt. Somehow she managed to flee her home before the authorities arrived and later proceeds to tell Montag that she is part of the book people, individuals who memorize books to keep them alive.
Montag has had enough of his occupation and the society they live in and wants to quit his job, but his captain makes go on one last burning trip. The movie reaches a climax when the camera pans to the home and the audience realizes it belongs to Montag. Linda had turned him into the authorities with a tip, and flees from the home in a taxi. Montag is stunned and then furious as he is forced to burn his books and parts of his house. Once more, the captain belittles Montag, reminding him of the grave crime he has committed. This only infuriates Montag and he proceeds to kill the captain by burning him, and then has to go on the run as the government chases him down with the mechanized dog. He escapes and finds out that the authorities killed an innocent bystander on television to make it seem like they got him. Guy Montag then decides to become one of the book people Clarisse told him about and vows to memorize a book by Edgar Allan Poe.
