Mr. Freedom 1968

Mr. Freedom, John Abbey, is a Washington, D.C. police officer who drinks Colt 45 on duty and moonlights as a government-sanctioned, vigilante superhero. After the 1968 Washington riots, he is summoned to the Freedom Tower—an office hub for the nation’s most powerful companies—to meet with Dr. Freedom, Donald Pleasence, his handler, who informs him that Capitaine Formidable, Yves Montand, has been killed in France by operatives of a shadowy organization called FAF. Dr. Freedom warns that this could signal the first salvo in a Soviet invasion, and he dispatches Mr. Freedom to investigate the death and to try to keep France under the influence of Western capitalism. As a last resort, Dr. Freedom equips him with the Big One, a portable nuclear device intended to destroy the country if it succumbs to Communist sway.

In France, Mr. Freedom teams up with Capitaine Formidable’s wife—Capitaine Formidable, Delphine Seyrig—to lead his own anti-Communist Freedom organization. Marie-Madeline explains that she and Capitaine Formidable ran a string of state-sponsored brothels, using the proceeds to finance anti-Communist activities while also gathering intelligence on diplomats and politicians who used their services. Arriving at a pro-USA rally, Mr. Freedom delivers an extended speech praising democracy and capitalism while openly denouncing “undesirables” and implying trouble ahead if Communism takes hold. The crowd swells into an army of followers, and he proclaims the aim to build a “white wall of freedom” around the United States.

Mr. Freedom travels to the U.S. embassy, which appears as a supermarket, to meet with the American ambassador to France. The ambassador warns him about the influence of two foreign superheroes—Moujik Man, Philippe Noiret in this tale, and Red China Man—who have been trying to tilt France toward their respective ideologies. Mr. Freedom also encounters his French counterpart, Super French Man (an inflatable), whose sympathies lie with the Communist side, prompting Mr. Freedom to sever ties with his own ally. In a later metro confrontation, he meets Moujik Man and Red China Man—Red China Man depicted as a giant, talking Chinese dragon/lion dog (another inflatable). The trio debates the merits of their political systems; Moujik Man tries to downplay responsibility for Capitaine Formidable’s death. After an accidental blow leaves him unconscious, Moujik Man brings Mr. Freedom to a Communist Party HQ to recover; upon waking, Mr. Freedom kills Moujik Man’s girlfriend, Marie-Rouge, a character portrayed by Catherine Rouvel.

Returning to Marie-Madeline’s apartment for a liaison, Mr. Freedom experiences a crisis of conscience when her son calls him a fascist. He later discovers that the guilt is being driven by Red China Man, who is broadcasting subliminal messages through a hidden radio in one of his teeth. After the tooth is removed, Mr. Freedom oversees the construction of a secret base for anti-Communist operations in France and delivers a political speech that inflames his followers into looting, raping, and rioting. Soon the French masses respond with anti-U.S. demonstrations of their own.

Mr. Freedom rainstorms a peaceful crowd with machine-gun fire, shocking Marie-Madeline, who then reveals herself as an FAF ally and a conspirator in Capitaine Formidable’s death. She confesses that she was the one who killed Capitaine Formidable, and Mr. Freedom retaliates by killing her. FAF forces, demonstrators, and Moujik Man’s soldiers—riled by Marie-Rouge’s death—storm Mr. Freedom’s base and slaughter the remaining followers.

Convinced that France neither desires nor deserves American-style democracy, Mr. Freedom detonates The Big One. In a twist revealed by Dr. Freedom in a cutaway, he had actually supplied Mr. Freedom with a smaller device called Medium One. The explosion wipes out Mr. Freedom, but leaves everyone else unharmed. The French continue their anti-U.S. protests, seemingly unaffected by the act or its consequences.