FILM · 2009 · USA
Watchmen
- Directed by
- Zack Snyder
- Runtime
- 163 min
- Studio
- Warner Bros. Pictures, Paramount Pictures, Legendary Pictures
196 archived facts 6 topics 1 source Last reviewed Nov 2026
In a gritty and alternate 1985, the glory days of costumed vigilantes have been brought to a close by a government crackdown. But after one of the masked veterans is brutally murdered, an investigation into the killer is initiated. The reunited heroes set out to prevent their own destruction, but in doing so they uncover a sinister plot that puts all of humanity in grave danger.
196 Interesting Facts About Watchmen
Interesting Facts (56)
- #001
Jackie Earle Haley holds a black belt in Kenpo, but he left it out of the fight scenes, feeling Rorschach would brawl rather than fight with discipline.
- #002
Casting the Comedian was hard for Zack Snyder: the character is grumpy and grey-haired, and most of the actors he met seemed too polished. Jeffrey Dean Morgan was very grumpy in his meeting with Snyder, and Snyder loved it.
- #003
Matthew Goode hadn't read the graphic novel when he was offered Adrian Veidt. He called a friend who had read the script to ask if it was worth his time; the friend not only said yes but told him to read the graphic novel right away and take the part, no questions asked. Once Goode had read both, he admitted his friend had been right.
- #004
Contains a major spoiler — show
Sam Hamm's first draft looked very different from the finished film. Its most notable departures: Veidt's plan to change the world was to travel back in time and kill Jon Osterman with a sniper rifle before he became Doctor Manhattan; Doctor Manhattan then killed Veidt instead of letting him live, as he does in the graphic novel and the film; and Rorschach dealt with a child rapist the same way as in the case that created him, smearing the man with cow blood and meat and feeding him to his own dogs. In the finale, Doctor Manhattan destroyed himself in the past, before Jon became Doctor Manhattan, tearing a rift in time and space; Laurie, Dan and Rorschach were pulled into an alternate dimension where they found they were characters in a popular comic book series, and decided to go back to fighting crime.
- #005
The first trailer, which ran with The Dark Knight (2008), stirred up so much interest that the graphic novel shot back onto the bestseller lists, and Barnes and Noble reported it had sold out across the country.
- #006
Contains a major spoiler — show
(About 2 hours 15 minutes in) There's a meta joke near the end. In the film Ozymandias tells Nite Owl II, "Dan, I'm not a comic book villain"; in the graphic novel the comparison is to a film villain: "Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain."
- #007
Offered the role of Dan Dreiberg, Patrick Wilson called one of his closest friends, a big comic book fan, and asked what he knew about the Watchmen graphic novel. His friend told him that if he was ever going to make a superhero movie, this was the one. Once cast, Patrick invited that friend to the set for the prison escape scene.
- #008
About 10 minutes in, the opening montage shows Neil Armstrong on the Moon saying "Good luck Mr. Gorsky." According to an urban legend, as a boy Armstrong was looking for a baseball in his neighbor's backyard when he heard Mrs. Gorsky yell from her bedroom: "Oral sex?! You'll get oral sex when the kid next door walks on the Moon!" Hence, supposedly, "Good luck Mr. Gorsky" was among his first transmissions from the Moon back to Earth. Armstrong himself and others have debunked the story, but it has turned up in other films, including the short "Good Luck, Mr. Gorski" (note the spelling), written and produced by John Huston's adopted daughter Allegra and centered on Gorski's marriage. In Watchmen, Gary Houston, who plays John McLaughlin, plays Mr. Gorski, and Fran Marton plays Mrs. Gorski.
- #009
Contains a major spoiler — show
Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays the Comedian, Edward Morgan Blake. He first said no after reading only the opening three pages of the script, assuming the part was a cameo; his manager talked him into reading the whole thing before deciding.
- #010
Writer Alan Moore disowns every film adaptation of his work in advance, because he sold the rights to his first few books when he was young and naive and has regretted it ever since. In an interview with ReelzChannel.com, Zack Snyder was quoted as saying: "Worst case scenario — Alan puts the movie on his DVD player on a cold Sunday in London and watches and says, 'Yeah, that's not too bad.'" When this was put to Moore in a later interview with the British comics fanzine Tripwire, he replied: "That's the worst case scenario? I think he underestimated what the worst case scenario would be… 'That will never happen on my DVD player in London [Moore famously lives in Northampton]. I will never watch this damn thing.'" (On another occasion, in better humor, Moore reportedly said it was probably a good film in its own right but that films based on his work left him indifferent.) Snyder, for his part, said his greatest hope was that Moore would one day actually watch it and see it as a faithful version of the comic.
- #011
Contains a major spoiler — show
Around the 2-hour mark, as Dr. Manhattan talks about the absence of life on Mars, the shot over the Martian surface opens on a close-up of something that looks like the Face on Mars in Cydonia, and the Martian "Smiley Crater" appears in the final scene. Both are real features on Mars.
- #012
Contains a major spoiler — show
One of the inkblots from Rorschach's examination, the one he sees as two lovers but describes as "some nice flowers," turns up twice in his final encounter with Dr. Manhattan: on his mask and in the pattern of blood in the snow.
- #013
After his accident, Dr. Manhattan builds himself a perfect human body to replace the old one. For that extremely ripped, muscular look, his physique was modeled on actor and model Greg Plitt, who died in a tragic accident in 2015 when he was hit by a train.
- #014
Zack Snyder wanted his 300 (2006) star Gerard Butler in this film and even promised him a part. When every role was cast and Butler was left out, Snyder had him voice the Sea Captain in Tales of the Black Freighter (2009), an animated adaptation of the comic within the Watchmen comic. It was meant to be woven through the theatrical cut, but the running time was already too long, so it came out on DVD as a separate short around the time Watchmen opened. The later 215-minute Ultimate Cut on home media put the Black Freighter segments back in, so Butler finally made it into the movie.
- #015
About 8 minutes in, the shooting of President John F. Kennedy is framed exactly like the Zapruder film (1970), the only real footage of the assassination; in the foreground, an actor playing Abraham Zapruder holds his camera at the very moment Kennedy is hit.
- #016
Contains a major spoiler — show
About 2 hours 30 minutes in: while writing the original comic, Alan Moore was surprised to find that his planned ending closely resembled the TV episode The Architects of Fear (1963). Near the end of the film, Sally Jupiter is watching that series on TV.
- #017
Sir Christopher Nolan's verdict on Watchmen: "a masterpiece made 10 years too early."
- #018
At around 1 hour 14 minutes, the War Room scene mirrors Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
- #019
Three Bob Dylan songs are used, all of them also mentioned in the original comic: "The Times They Are a-Changin'" over the opening titles, "All Along the Watchtower" near the end and "Desolation Row" over the end credits. Only "The Times They Are a-Changin'" is Dylan's own recording; the other two are covers by Jimi Hendrix and My Chemical Romance.
- #020
The Smashing Pumpkins song in the trailer, "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning," is the B-side of "The End is the Beginning is the End," the theme song of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997).
- #021
At around 48 minutes, there's a copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl" on Moloch's bedside table; the word "moloch" recurs in the poem.
- #022
At around 3 minutes, the Hustler Magazine on the Comedian's desk is the August 1985 issue, with the headline "Comic Relief: A Christian Sex Manual."
- #023
Contains a major spoiler — show
Nobody told Lee Iacocca about his part in the film, and he wasn't pleased to learn he gets killed in the attempt on Veidt's life. Zack Snyder said: "It's nothing against Lee; I think Lee's awesome. But he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." As for legal trouble, Snyder added: "I think we got away with it because the film has a satirical quality and there were a lot of famous people who looked like Richard Nixon, Annie Leibovitz or John F. Kennedy in it. These are the people we needed to create the 80s atmosphere in the film, and Lee stood out as a famous person you associate with the 80s as one of Adrian's captains of industry, but also as someone in the automotive industry." Iacocca later admitted that Walter Addison looked good in the role.
- #024
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 1 hour 45 minutes, the love scene between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II plays over Leonard Cohen's 1984 recording of Hallelujah. Films usually use the song, in one cover or another, for moments of sadness or heartbreak; here it's used for the opposite. Tellingly, the section heard includes the last verse, which most covers drop but which suits this scene.
- #025
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 33 minutes, the soldiers carrying the Comedian's coffin all wear the black-and-white beret flash of the 5th Special Forces Group, which fits his Vietnam service: it was one of that war's most visible and most decorated units.
- #026
At around 2 minutes, the ad the Comedian is watching on TV remakes and pays tribute to Sir Ridley Scott's famous "Share the Fantasy" commercial for Chanel No. 5, which didn't use "Unforgettable." The version in the film advertises Nostalgia, the perfume made by Adrian Veidt, aka Ozymandias; nostalgia is a running theme in both the film and the comic.
- #027
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 1 hour 17 minutes, as Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) talks with the industry leaders on the way to the lobby, a Muzak version of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" is playing.
- #028
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 2 hours 20 minutes) Richard Nixon's address to the world at the end closely echoes George W. Bush's response to the September 11 attacks: "We will never forget this day, and yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you, good night and God bless America." Nixon's version in the film: "This is a day we will never forget, and yet we go forward to defend the human race and all that has gone before. Good and just in our world, God bless us all."
- #029
Contains a major spoiler — show
In an early draft by David Hayter, Dan and Laurie still spend the night at Karnak after Veidt has assassinated the leaders of nearly every country. Laurie wakes up and gets badly drunk on champagne, probably grieving Jon and Rorschach, then finds Dan fighting Veidt; it ends with Dan killing Adrian Veidt with a boomerang.
- #030
(Around 1 hour 55 minutes) The computer in Adrian Veidt's office is a black Apple Macintosh SE/30 with an inverted display. Apart from the Macintosh TV (essentially a Performa 520 with a TV card, built to do double duty in cramped dorm rooms), Macintoshes of that era were never officially sold in black. It's running an old version of Mac OS, which was still black and white at the time, so the production team inverted the colors to make it look different.
- #031
(Around 2 hours 10 minutes) In the clip from Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) on one of Ozymandias's screens, Martin Kove is wearing a Smiley button, the image most associated with Watchmen and the Comedian, though in Rambo the Smiley is actually frowning.
- #032
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 32 minutes) The song at the Comedian's funeral, the heavily overdubbed 1965 version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," is often linked to the assassination of John F. Kennedy, though Paul Simon has said he started writing it at twenty-one, at least a year before the assassination. The film's opening reveals that the Comedian was the man who shot Kennedy.
- #033
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 2 hours 15 minutes) As the atomic blast hits New York, a TALES OF THE BLACK FREIGHTER poster is visible on the brick wall to the right.
- #034
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 1 hour 55 minutes) Look behind Rorschach when he and Nite Owl II walk into Veidt's office: among the Egyptian artifacts, the biggest is the famous Narmer Palette, one of the earliest known images of a pharaoh.
- #035
(Around 1 hour 40 minutes) [director's cut and final version only] During one of his investigations Rorschach finds a matchbox with the "Happy Harry" logo; Happy Harry made an animated trailer for a "Watchmen" cartoon that never existed.
- #036
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the Comedian's death scene, an old photo of Silk Spectre I, the mother of his child, hangs on the wall, along with a photo of their daughter.
- #037
At around 6 minutes, during the opening credits, watch closely as Silk Spectre poses for a photo with the police: the Police Chief sneaks a look down her blouse, then turns his head away with a smirk.
- #038
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the graphic novel, Dr. Manhattan goes back to the compound after killing Rorschach as if nothing had happened and talks with Ozymandias. In the film he stays put for a while and gently catches Rorschach's fedora on the wind. Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II, absent from this scene in the graphic novel, is there in the film and breaks down crying for Rorschach. And when Dr. Manhattan teleports back to the compound, he says goodbye to Laurie before leaving Earth. He comes across as more remorseful in the film than in the book.
- #039
At about 1 hour 19 minutes, the GD on the Gunga Diner awning looks like the Grateful Dead logo; the graphic novel has several Grateful Dead references.
- #040
About 3 minutes in, a bottle of Nostalgia perfume sits in the Comedian's apartment. In the graphic novel it turns up in Laurie and Dr. Manhattan's scene on Mars, as one of Veidt's product lines.
- #041
Contains a major spoiler — show
The extended director's cut, also called the Ultimate Cut, includes Tales of the Black Freighter (2009), the comic the young boy is reading. Parts of it are almost identical to Pharsalus (2005): in both, the bloated corpses from a sunken ship are lashed together into a raft to escape a deserted island, and in both the survivor catches a live seagull, eats it raw and later throws up.
- #042
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the graphic novel, Dan isn't there when Jon Osterman/Dr. Manhattan kills Walter Kovacs/Rorschach: he's in bed with Laurie Juspeczyk/Silk Spectre II, the two of them carelessly having sex in the face of millions of innocent deaths. In the film he's on the spot and is devastated by Rorschach's death; along with Hollis Mason/Nite Owl, Dan counted Rorschach among his few friends.
- #043
After its $55.7 million opening weekend, Watchmen didn't pass $100 million until its 21st day, the slowest climb to $100 million for any film that had opened above $50 million. The previous record belonged to 8 Mile (2002), which got there twenty days after a $51.2 million opening. Two years later Paranormal Activity 3 (2011) broke the record again, taking 23 days after a $52.6 million opening.
- #044
Contains a major spoiler — show
A line heard only in the theatrical version, at around 1 hour 15 minutes, has Richard Nixon say: "Humanity is in the hands of a higher authority than mine. Let's just hope he's on our side." Cut straight to Adrian Veidt.
- #045
Part of the inspiration for how Laurie Juspeczyk looks at the Gunga Diner was the white woman in Foreigner's I Want to Know What Love Is (1984) video.
- #046
Contains a major spoiler — show
Rorschach's journal opens on October 12, 1985 and ends on November 1, 1985. October 12 is the day Christopher Columbus reached America (and the day Rorschach discovers the Comedian's death); November 1 is All Saints' Day, known in Latin countries as the Day of the Dead, when the living honor departed friends and loved ones (and the day Dr. Manhattan kills Rorschach).
- #047
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 1 hour 18 minutes, the assassin's foot crushes a box marked "PYRAMID - A New World Delivered," a "delivery" that points to the climax. PYRAMID is one of Veidt's companies, and Veidt hired the assassin.
- #048
Gunga Diners, the fictional restaurant chain that runs through much of the story, was explained by Alan Moore in a 1987 interview: "It was Dave Gibbons' idea to have Indian restaurants instead of McDonald's, and it made sense because in this world there's a different political situation, there will be wars in different places. In our story, some kind of conflict in Asia caused a great famine in India, so a huge number of Indian and Asian refugees flooded into America, and as a result Indian food became popular and you get the Gunga Diners spreading across the country."
- #049
At around 2 hours 10 minutes, one of the images on Adrian's giant wall of monitors at Karnak is Marvin the Martian, right after Laurie and Jon's argument on Mars.
- #050
Contains a major spoiler — show
Before his arrest, Rorschach is seen unmasked five times: first and fourth as the man with the "the end is nigh" sign at the newsstand; second walking past the restaurant window while Dan and Laurie have dinner; third at the cemetery before and after the service; and fifth on the sidewalk when Laurie agrees to move in with Dan.
- #051
As part of director Zack Snyder's water bucket challenge, Malin Akerman and Carla Gugino, who play daughter and mother in Watchmen, kissed in a 30-second video.
- #052
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the second-to-last scene, Sally Jupiter is watching The Outer Limits (1963). DC Comics editor Len Wein had objected to Watchmen's ending, in which Adrian Veidt teleports a squid-like creature into New York, because he felt it was too close to the Outer Limits (1963) episode The Architects of Fear (1963).
- #053
Contains a major spoiler — show
After Jon kills Rorschach to supposedly preserve world peace, Daniel and Laurie leave Adrian Veidt's ruined Karnak facility in Archie, and a piece from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem Mass is clearly playing in the background. In the HBO Watchmen (2019) miniseries, the scenes featuring the Master often use classical orchestral pieces as background music, the most prominent of which is a different selection from the same Mozart Requiem.
- #054
Contains a major spoiler — show
In their first conversation, Adrian Veidt tells Dan Dreiberg that the USSR has about 51,000 nuclear bombs. That's well above the real-world total for 1985 (estimated at around 15,000), but the figure makes sense if you consider how much Dr. Manhattan's appearance in 1959 frightened the USSR into building up its arsenal as far as it could, hoping to beat not just the US but Dr. Manhattan too.
- #055
At around 39 minutes, judging by their speed, wingspan and size, the jets in the Vietnam sequence are F-105 Thunderchiefs, the main fighter-bomber of the Vietnam War, and the helicopters are UH-1 Iroquois, better known as "Huey."
- #056
Before Zack Snyder, David Hayter was set to direct his own script, and in 2003 he shot test footage starring Ray Stevenson as Rorschach and Iain Glen as Dan Dreiberg.
Production Story (108)
- #057
Asked what he thought of a film version of his groundbreaking graphic novel, Alan Moore sighed: "Do we really need another shitty film in the world?" He had made no secret of how unhappy he was with the adaptations of V for Vendetta (2005) and The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), and, like many others, believed the graphic novel simply couldn't be filmed.
- #058
Zack Snyder considers casting the Comedian to have been a difficult process, because the character is grumpy and grey-haired. He felt most of the actors he met were too well groomed. Jeffrey Dean Morgan behaved very grumpily during his meeting with Snyder, which greatly appealed to him.
- #059
When Matthew Goode was offered the role of Adrian Veidt, he had never read the graphic novel. He called a friend who had read the script and asked whether it was worth the trouble of reading it. The friend not only said yes, but insisted that Goode read the graphic novel immediately and accept the role without question. After later reading both the script and the novel, Goode admitted that his friend had been right to advise him to take the role without delay.
- #060
The opening sequence contains many cultural references from history, slightly altered: * The Silhouette takes the place of the sailor in Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous photograph of the V-J Day celebration in Times Square, kissing the nurse. The sailor can be seen in the background. * Sally Jupiter's retirement party recreates Leonardo Da Vinci's The Last Supper. * The photograph of the Comedian shaking hands with President Nixon is based on a photo of Richard Nixon and Elvis Presley. * The image of a peace protester placing a flower in a gun barrel mirrors the famous "Flower Power" photograph taken by Bernie Boston in 1967. The scene itself also evokes a later event: the shooting of protesting students by National Guard soldiers at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970. * Ozymandias is outside Studio 54. Actors representing The Village People can be seen behind him to his right; David Bowie, as Ziggy Stardust on the left, and Sir Mick Jagger also appear in the shot.
- #061
Sam Hamm's original draft has a vision very different from what is depicted in the final film. The most notable sequences are: * Veidt's plan to change the world (traveling back in time and killing Jon Osterman with a sniper rifle before he becomes Doctor Manhattan). * Doctor Manhattan then kills Veidt, instead of allowing him to live as in the graphic novel/final film. * Rorschach's treatment of the child rapist in the case that created him (smearing the man with cow blood and meat and feeding him to his own dogs). In addition, in the finale, Doctor Manhattan destroys himself in the past before Jon becomes Doctor Manhattan, causing a rift in time and space. Laurie, Dan and Rorschach are then drawn into an alternate dimension, where they discover a world in which they are characters in a popular comic book series and decide to take up crime-fighting again.
- #062
Traditionally, CGI characters like Doctor Manhattan require two shoots for every scene in which the character appears. First the scene would be filmed with a stand-in instead of the CGI character, and then the character's movements would be recorded in a "motion capture" shoot to provide reference for creating the CGI character. Given the amount of screen time Doctor Manhattan has, this would have been an expensive process. Instead, Billy Crudup provided both Manhattan's stand-in and the motion capture on set at the same time. Crudup wore a specially designed motion capture suit and facial markers, and was continuously filmed by at least two cameras, one trained on him for general movement and another on his face to track his expressions. In this way, his on-set performance as the stand-in could be used directly in creating the CGI character. To achieve the effect of Doctor Manhattan's eerie glow, Crudup's suit was adorned with 2,500 blue lights, so that it could serve as an "exotic lighting instrument." For this reason, Manhattan's glow follows his movements more closely than a light on set could, and illuminates his surroundings more convincingly than a computer effect.
- #063
Zack Snyder's first official photo (a test shot of Rorschach holding the Comedian's button) was actually hidden in the trailer for Snyder's previous film, 300 (2006). In it, the film's associate producer Wesley Coller wears a makeshift mask in front of a composite New York City backdrop, created as an experiment to establish the mood and look of the Watchmen project Snyder was proposing. Snyder's wife Deborah Snyder bet him 100 dollars that no one would find it, while he was convinced someone would find it immediately. He won.
- #064
(About 2 hours 15 minutes) There is a meta joke near the conclusion. In the film, Ozymandias scolds Nite Owl II with "Dan, I'm not a comic book villain." In the graphic novel, however, he says he is not a film villain, specifically "Dan, I'm not a Republic serial villain."
- #065
(About 5 minutes in) During the opening title sequence, the original Nite Owl stops a robbery. Batman comic book covers and Fleidermaus posters hang on the street walls. It can be assumed that the people he saves from being attacked are Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce Wayne's parents leaving the theater. This is also implied by a poster reading "GOTHAM." Gotham is the city where Batman operates, but since his parents are alive, Bruce Wayne does not need to become Batman in the Watchmen universe.
- #066
When Patrick Wilson was offered the role of Dan Dreiberg, he called one of his closest friends, a big comic book fan, and asked him what he knew about the Watchmen comic. He told Patrick that if he was going to make a superhero film, this was the one he should do. Patrick, who took the role, invited his friend to visit the set while filming the prison escape scene.
- #067
(About 1 hour 9 minutes in) The symbol Dr. Manhattan writes on his forehead depicts the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom: a proton (center dot) with an electron (top dot) in orbit. Hydrogen is the most common and fundamental element in the universe. In the original story, a promotions official tried to give Manhattan a helmet with a six-electron symbol on it. Manhattan refused, saying he would have a symbol he could "respect," and then burned the hydrogen symbol onto his head.
- #068
Jeffrey Dean Morgan plays the Comedian, Edward Morgan Blake. Morgan initially turned down the role after reading only the first three pages of the script, assuming the character was just a cameo. His manager convinced him to read the entire script and then make a decision.
- #069
The popular John F. Kennedy assassination conspiracy theory suggests that the President was killed by a bullet fired from the front, specifically from behind a fence on a grassy knoll. It is also said that three transient men arrested shortly after Kennedy's murder were "additional assassins." In the opening montage, the Comedian is depicted firing the fatal shot from the fence on the grassy knoll, dressed identically to one of the "Three Tramps" at the time they were photographed. The gun smoke said to have been seen turns out to be Blake's cigar smoke. At Blake's funeral, the soundtrack plays Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," which is reported to have been inspired by the national emotional trauma stemming from the Kennedy assassination.
- #070
Zack Snyder based his storyboards for the film on the comic's panels. He stated that in adapting a comic book to the screen, the original visual art must be respected as much as the written portion in order to remain faithful to the source. Snyder personally asked the novel's artist, Dave Gibbons, to design the first teaser poster. Gibbons accepted enthusiastically and designed the poster to include subtle visual clues pointing to the film's subject. During casting, each actor was given a script and a copy of the book. They were allowed to bring the latter to the film set and rewrite dialogue to better match the source material. Dozens of scenes recreate panels from the novel. A good example is Rorschach crouching on the window ledge to enter the Comedian's apartment early in the film.
- #071
Rorschach's name comes from the famous Rorschach inkblot test used in psychotherapy. The comic explains that the material in his mask was designed for a dress belonging to Kitty Genovese. The widely reported version of her murder was long a byword for bystander apathy and group inhumanity; however, this perception stems almost entirely from a largely inaccurate account of the murder that was substantially debunked in the twenty-first century, including The Times publishing an apology in 2016 because of its reporter's fabrication.
- #072
Writer Alan Moore, having sold the film rights to the first few volumes of his work when he was young and naive, preemptively rejects all filmed adaptations of his work and regrets the sale. In an interview with ReelzChannel.com, when asked about his rejection of the film, Zack Snyder's words were quoted: "The worst-case scenario — Alan puts the DVD in his player in London on a cold Sunday and watches it and says, 'Yeah, it's not that bad.'" In a later interview in the British comics fanzine Tripwire, when the subject came up with Moore himself, the writer commented: "That's the worst-case scenario? I think he underestimated what the worst-case scenario would be… That will never happen on my DVD player in London [Moore famously lives in Northampton]. I will never watch the damn thing." (In another instance, a more good-humored Moore was reported to have said that it was probably a good film in its own right, but that he was indifferent to films based on his own work.) Even so, Snyder said his greatest hope was that Moore would one day actually see the film and regard it as a good representation of the original graphic novel.
- #073
(Around the 2-hour mark) During Dr. Manhattan's speech about the absence of life on Mars, the pan across the Martian surface begins with a close-up of something resembling the Cydonia Face on Mars. The Martian "Smiley Crater" is shown in the final scene. Both are real features of the Martian surface.
- #074
(About 30 minutes in) While Dan and Laurie are having dinner, you can hear someone in the background say, "I'm glad I ordered the four-legged chicken!" In the corresponding scene in the original graphic novel, there is an image of a waiter carrying a four-legged chicken.
- #075
(At about the 36-minute mark) When the Minutemen's photo is taken in 1940, Nite Owl shakes hands with the photographer and says, "Thank you, Weegee." Arthur 'Weegee' Fellig was an Austrian-born photographer and photojournalist known for his stark black-and-white street photographs of the 1930s and '40s. He also worked with Stanley Kubrick, among others.
- #076
After his accident, Dr. Manhattan creates the perfect human form to replace his old body. To achieve Dr. Manhattan's extremely ripped, muscular look, his physique was modeled on that of actor and model Greg Plitt (who died in a tragic accident when he was struck by a train in 2015).
- #077
Zack Snyder wanted 300 (2006) star Gerard Butler to appear in this film and even promised him a role. When all the roles were cast and Butler had not gotten one, Snyder chose him to voice the Sea Captain in Tales of the Black Freighter (2009), an animated segment based on the comic-within-a-comic in the Watchmen graphic novel. Although this story was originally meant to be interwoven throughout the theatrical cut of Watchmen, the running time was too long, and so it was released as a separate short film on DVD around the time Watchmen opened in theaters. The later 215-minute Ultimate Cut of Watchmen, released on home media, put the Tales of the Black Freighter segments back into the film, so that Butler finally got his role in the movie.
- #078
(About 8 minutes in) The assassination of President John F. Kennedy in the film is framed exactly with the famous Zapruder Kennedy Assassination Film (1970), the only actual footage of the assassination. In the foreground you see an actor playing Abraham Zapruder with his camera at the exact moment Kennedy is shot.
- #079
Because of the many flashbacks in the story, Zack Snyder cast younger actors than his characters. Snyder decided that it would be easier for makeup and special effects artists to make the actors look older rather than younger. During filming, 37-year-old Carla Gugino (born 1971) plays Malin Akerman's (born 1978) 67-year-old mother, who is presumed to be younger than Laura Mennell's (born 1980) character. However, since it was thought that Jeffrey Dean Morgan could not play a 16-year-old, it was decided to change the Comedian's birth year from 1924 to 1918. In the film, the 45-year-old Rorschach is played by 47-year-old Jackie Earle Haley. The Rorschach news program gives his age as 35, but this is a character error, since all the other chronology in the film indicates that Rorschach is 45, not 35.
- #080
(At about 2 hours 30 minutes) While writing his original graphic novel, Alan Moore was surprised to learn that his intended ending bore a remarkable resemblance to the television episode The Architects of Fear (1963). Near the end of the film, Sally Jupiter is seen watching the series on television.
- #081
(Around 55 minutes in) As Dr. Manhattan carries a generator into Veidt's laboratory, a large sign at Karnak reads '(S)ub (Q)uantum (U)nified (I)ntrinsic Field (D)evice' — initials that spell out SQUID when read from top to bottom. At the same time, when the first generator explodes for the first time in New York City just before the blast, it emits tentacle-like energy discharges inside a plasma sphere. This is a nod to the original ending of the comic book series, which focused on Veidt creating a cloned squid-like creature to attack New York City; the blame for the terror is attributed not to Dr. Manhattan but to aliens.
- #082
A copy of the "Watchmen" comic book is clearly visible on Dan's table while he and Laurie have sex for the first time. Malin Akerman confirmed its presence in public statements. About 2 hours 10 minutes into the two-disc director's cut, a copy of the same book sits on the bottom shelf of Hollis Mason's bookcase as he is beaten by the Knot Tops.
- #083
Ozymandias is the Greek name of Pharaoh Ramesses II and the title of Percy Bysshe Shelley's sonnet. The inscription on a ruined statue quoted in the sonnet appears beneath a giant Egyptian bust in his lair.
- #084
(Around 2 hours 30 minutes) At the finale, Laurie says Jon (Doctor Manhattan) will say "nothing ever ends." In the comic book, the meaning of this remark is more obvious. The line is delivered by Doctor Manhattan in response to Ozymandias asking whether Ozymandias's plan was worth the sacrifice "in the end."
- #085
(Around 18 minutes) [director's and final versions only] When Dan Dreiberg and Hollis Mason watch a television news report referring to Rorschach, they see black-and-white "file footage" of Rorschach quickly walking away to the right of the camera position, briefly glancing back over his right shoulder, and then continuing to walk away. This image was deliberately designed to exactly mimic the famous controversial Bigfoot film (known as the Patterson-Gimlin Film (1967)).
- #086
(Around 1 hour 40 minutes) When Silk Spectre and Nite Owl II rescue people from the burning apartment, Silk Spectre can be seen for a while placing paper cups into a compartment. At this point in the comic book panel, Nite Owl II is offering coffee to the people he has just rescued.
- #087
(Around 14 minutes) When Rorschach enters the Comedian's apartment through the window with his grappling gun, he goes to the closet to reveal the Comedian's hidden stash of weapons and equipment. In a quick shot, we can see a photograph of Sally Jupiter's daughter Laurie (Silk Spectre II). In fact, a harbinger that he is her father.
- #088
(Around 2 hours 30 minutes) In the final chapter of the original comic book, after the Squid attack in Times Square, it is revealed that Robert Redford is considering running for president in the next election. In the film, however, it is revealed that Ronald Reagan (who was in fact an actor and successfully ran for president) is running for president. This may be a nod to Frank Miller's 'The Dark Knight Returns,' another famous dark comic book published by DC Comics, in which Ronald Reagan is President of the United States and the Justice League has been forcibly retired and forgotten by the public, except for Superman, who is in fact a government agent and serves the same purpose as Doctor Manhattan as a nuclear deterrent against the Soviets. Redford became president in the sequel series Watchmen (2019).
- #089
(Around 29 minutes) Early in the film, as US-Soviet tensions escalate, the 1983 song "99 Luftballons" plays. This song by German singer Nena is a protest song against nuclear weapons; in it, 99 balloons in the general air are mistaken for UFOs and fighter jets are sent to shoot them down. However, a neighboring country perceives this action as an attack on its own territory, which inadvertently starts a total war that will devastate the world. The idea for the song originated at a Rolling Stones concert in West Berlin, where Nena's guitarist noticed a bunch of balloons being released. He wondered whether the balloons might drift over the Berlin Wall into Soviet-controlled East Berlin, and whether something so innocent could be mistaken for missiles and trigger a nuclear war.
- #090
(Around 43 minutes) The Zippo lighter the Comedian uses during the Crimebusters meeting where he burns a map of the United States bears an image of Sally Jupiter.
- #091
Ozymandias's costume was deliberately designed after the notorious Bat Nipples in Joel Schumacher's much-maligned Batman & Robin (1997).
- #092
(Around 1 hour 55 minutes) A copy of Hollis Mason's fictional biography "Under the Hood" can be seen on Veidt's desk. The book was quoted in the comic book and used to reveal plot points that would otherwise have remained undiscovered. The song "Ride of The Valkyries," which Dr. Manhattan plays during the Vietnam War, is referenced when Mason recounts a sad childhood memory.
- #093
(Around 2 hours 5 minutes) Doctor Manhattan likens Laurie's birth to the "thermodynamic miracle" of "turning air into gold." In the comic book, Doctor Manhattan details that a "thermodynamic miracle" is an event so energetically unfavorable that it is like an oxygen atom spontaneously turning into a gold atom. In quantum mechanics, although the probabilities are beyond astronomical values, such a classically forbidden event can still occur.
- #094
(Around minute 9) The opening scene in which a girl places a flower in the barrel of a soldier's rifle references a famous photograph by Marc Ribaud: "An American Young Girl".
- #095
(Around minute 6) In the opening montage you see a B-29 bomber named "Miss Jupiter". The name of the pilot written on the plane is that of the writers, Peter Aperlo.
- #096
Ozymandias's fondness for ancient Egyptian royal attributes is not limited to his furniture. He wears a belt bearing the Udjat eye, the ancient Egyptian symbol of protection. Beneath his belt, on his hip and over the trouser portion of his costume, he wears a purplish short version of the ancient Egyptian Shendyt. This is a pleated royal apron or skirt. Ozymandias's Shendyt is a rubber replica of what was once cloth and, given that he still needs to move his legs freely, is much shorter than those of the pharaohs. In addition to these Egyptian-inspired costume details, he also wears a modernized version of the ancient Roman golden laurels around his head; another nod to his love of all things ancient and powerful.
- #097
(Around 1 hour 55 minutes) As Rorschach and Nite Owl II investigate Pyramid International at Veidt Enterprises, we can see an ancient Egyptian artwork, the Palette of Narmer, on the covering above Veidt's cabinets. The palette recounts the rise to power of King Narmer, who after much violence united the Upper and Lower Kingdoms of Egypt under a single ruler. Similarly, in the film Ozymandias plans to unite the world's divided nations against a common enemy by carrying out acts of violence on a global scale and blaming Dr. Manhattan.
- #098
It was sent to some cinemas under the code name "Old Heroes Never Die".
- #099
Sir Christopher Nolan called the film "a masterpiece made 10 years too early."
- #100
(Around 1 hour 14 minutes) The scene in the War Room mirrors Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964).
- #101
In an interview, Malin Akerman said she had no problem being naked in her role because, unlike many other actresses, she grew up learning that nudity is nothing to be ashamed of. "In Sweden, nudity is natural. It isn't considered sexual. We grew up with breasts on television. People are topless on the beach. My mother and father would sometimes walk naked from the bedroom to the bathroom. You don't blink because it's so natural. When I take a role, I always think of my family. If I had grown up in a prudish family, maybe I would think differently. But if the role is good, nudity isn't even an afterthought."
- #102
(Around 2 hours 10 minutes) On Ozymandias's wall of television monitors, the following titles can be seen: Tweetie Pie (1947), Haredevil Hare (1948), Dough Ray Me-ow (1948), The Giant Gila Monster (1959), The Tonight Show (1962), The 300 Spartans (1962) (a nod to Zack Snyder's earlier film) 300 (2006), Fail Safe (1964) (another film about nuclear war), Dallas (1978), Mad Max (1979), The Jesus Film (1979), Altered States (1980), The Road Warrior (1981), 1984 (1984), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), MTV's 20 Most Outrageous Moments (2001), the Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" commercial and Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" music video.
- #103
(Around 30 minutes later) While Laurie and Dan are having dinner, Walter Kovacs walks by in the background.
- #104
Three Bob Dylan songs are used in the film. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" for the opening title sequence, "All Along the Watchtower" near the end, and "Desolation Row" for the closing title sequence. All three songs were also mentioned in the original comic book. "The Times They Are a-Changin'" is the only one to use Bob Dylan's version, while the other two are covered by Jimi Hendrix and My Chemical Romance.
- #105
(Around minute 52) Rorschach's lines referring to Pagliacci going to the doctor are taken from a poem by the Mexican writer Juan de Dios Peza, 'Reír Llorando', based on the famous English comedian David Garrick.
- #106
The trailer features The Smashing Pumpkins' "The Beginning is the End is the Beginning," the B-side of the single "The End is the Beginning is the End," which was the theme of Joel Schumacher's Batman & Robin (1997).
- #107
(At about 48 minutes) On Moloch's bedside table is a copy of Allen Ginsberg's "Howl." The word "moloch" appears several times in the poem.
- #108
(At about 3 minutes) The Hustler Magazine on The Comedian's desk is the August 1985 issue and contains the headline "Comic Relief: A Christian Sex Manual."
- #109
Lee Iacocca was not informed about his role in this film and was not pleased to hear that he was killed during the assassination attempt on Veidt. Zack Snyder said: "It's nothing against Lee; I think Lee's awesome. But he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time." Regarding the legal consequences, Snyder added: "I think we got away with it because the film has a satirical quality and there were a lot of famous people who resembled Richard Nixon, Annie Leibovitz or John F. Kennedy (in the film). These are the people we needed to create the 80s atmosphere in the film, and Lee stood out as one of the captains of Adrian's Industry, as a famous person you associate with the 80s but also as someone in the automotive industry." Lee later admitted that Walter Addison looked good in the role.
- #110
Laurie's surname, Juspeczyk, is never spoken at any point in the film. In the graphic novel, although Laurie is angry that her mother used Jupiter to distance herself from her Polish roots, Rorschach even calls her Jupiter in one scene. At one point in the film, her name is still written as Juspeczyk. This is probably a nod to the fact that neither Dave Gibbons nor Alan Moore agreed on the pronunciation of the name when the graphic novel was being prepared, although some made guesses. Some native Poles came forward and explained that it should be pronounced you-SPETCH-ick, and this was used in Watchmen (2008).
- #111
(At about 1 hour 45 minutes) The song playing during the sex scene between Nite Owl II and Silk Spectre II is Leonard Cohen's 1984 version of Hallelujah. This song is usually used in films (by several cover artists) to depict a moment of sadness or heartbreak. In this case it is used in the opposite situation. Significantly, the part used includes the final verse, which is usually omitted in most cover versions but fits the context of the scene.
- #112
(At about 33 minutes) The soldiers carrying the Comedian's coffin to his grave all wear the black-and-white beret flash of the 5th Special Forces Group, which seems likely given the Comedian's service in Vietnam, as it was one of the most visible and highly decorated units of that war.
- #113
(About 2 minutes) The clip the Comedian watches on television is a remake of and homage to the famous "Share the Fantasy" Channel No. 5 commercial directed by Sir Ridley Scott. The real commercial does not include the song "Unforgettable." The clip in the film advertises Nostalgia, the perfume of Adrian Veidt, a.k.a. Ozymandias. Nostalgia is a recurring theme of both the film and the comic book.
- #114
(About 1 hour 17 minutes) As Adrian Veidt (Ozymandias) talks with leading figures of the industry and they walk toward the lobby area, a Muzak version of Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" can be heard playing.
- #115
(Around the 3rd minute) [final cut only] The names of the old news vendor and the young African American man reading a comic book about pirate ships at his stand are both Bernard. In the comic book they serve as a "Greek chorus" representing the common man, and in the end they are killed by Veidt's attack.
- #116
(About 2 hours 20 minutes) Richard Nixon's speech to the world at the end of the film strikingly resembles George W. Bush's response to the September 11 attacks: "None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world. Thank you, good night and God bless America." In the film, Nixon's line is "This is a day we will never forget, and yet we go forward to defend the human race and all that is good and just in our world, God bless us all."
- #117
(Around the 7th minute) In the opening title sequence, we see Sally Jupiter's retirement party, which references The Last Supper. The Comedian sits directly to Sally's right. In The Last Supper, Jesus sits in the center, and the person to his right is regarded by many as Mary Magdalene. It is also claimed that Mary was the mother of Jesus' child. Thus, placing the Comedian to Sally's right is a reference to his being the father of her child, Laurie.
- #118
(About 1 hour 18 minutes) When the armed man enters Adrian Veidt's building, the arrow glows purple just before the elevator opens. This is the symbol of the Pyramid Company.
- #119
In an early draft by David Hayter, after Veidt assassinates the leaders of nearly every country, Dan and Laurie still spend the night at Karnak. However, Laurie later wakes up and, probably because of the loss of Jon and Rorschach, gets seriously drunk on champagne. She then discovers that Dan has fought with Veidt, and this ends with Dan killing Adrian Veidt with a boomerang.
- #120
(About 1 hour 55 minutes) The computer in Adrian Veidt's office is a black Apple Macintosh SE/30, and the screen runs in inverted mode. Apart from the Macintosh TV (essentially a Performa 520 with a TV card - designed for double duty in cramped dorm rooms), Macintoshes of the era were never officially sold in black. The program running is an old version of Mac OS. At that time these versions were still black and white, and the production team inverted the black and white colors to make it look different.
- #121
In the first trailer released for this film, the only words spoken (apart from the song) belong to the two Watchmen who die in the film. Both are given as voiceovers (The Comedian's "God help us all" and Rorschach's "The world will look up and shout 'save us!' and I'll whisper 'no'").
- #122
Most of the songs featured in the film are directly referenced in the comic book. The title of the first issue was taken from a verse of "Desolation Row." "Unforgettable" and "The Times They Are A-Changin'" are used in the advertisements for Adrian Veidt's cologne Nostalgia. "You're My Thrill" is played by Nite Owl II while he and Silk Spectre II get people away from the burning building. Issue 11 took its name from a verse in "All Along The Watchtower." "Ride of the Valkyries" is mentioned by the first Nite Owl as the saddest thing he can think of because of an event in his childhood. Also, the name "Tales of the Black Freighter" is taken from the Marc Blitzstein translation of Kurt Weill & Bertolt Brecht's "Seeräuber-Jenny" ("Pirate Jenny") from "The Threepenny Opera," a favorite source of ideas for Alan Moore's comic books.
- #123
(About 2 hours 10 minutes) In the clip from Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985) seen on one of Ozymandias' television screens, the actor Martin Kove is wearing the Smiley button, an image particularly associated with Watchmen and The Comedian. In Rambo, however, the Smiley is actually frowning.
- #124
The discovery of Rorschach's journal by a New Frontiersman employee at the end of the film, after the world has united in peace, implies that even though Dr. Manhattan killed Rorschach to prevent the truth from coming out and shattering the fragile peace, the contents of the journal will eventually leak to the public and could once again bring humanity to the brink of mass extinction. Veidt's efforts will therefore have been in vain, delaying only the inevitable. Thus justice—the fundamental principle Rorschach believed in and died for—prevails.
- #125
(Around 32 minutes) The song played during the Comedian's funeral, the heavily overdubbed 1965 version of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," is often associated with the assassination of John F. Kennedy, but Paul Simon has stated in interviews that he began writing the song at the age of twenty-one, at least a year before the assassination took place. In the film's opening sequence, it is revealed that the man who shot Kennedy was the Comedian.
- #126
(Around 1 hour 55 minutes) When Nite Owl II and Rorschach enter Veidt's office, Rorschach stands in front of several Egyptian artifacts. The largest of these is the famous Narmer Palette, which depicts one of the earliest known representations of a pharaoh.
- #127
(Around 22 minutes) While Veidt addresses the press, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center can be seen outside his office window. There is also a zeppelin in the background, and it appears to be flying very slowly toward the towers. In the end, when New York City is reduced to ruins and Veidt Enterprises rebuilds the city, the towers are still standing undamaged.
- #128
In an interview with the German magazine Spiegel, director Zack Snyder said he wanted the violence in this film to be portrayed as extremely as possible, entirely different from the highly sanitized depiction of violence in the media (such as in PG-13 films). He thought he wanted viewers to catch themselves enjoying the horrific scenes, so that they would wonder whether there was something wrong with them and would think about the violence in the other films they usually watch.
- #129
(Around 1 hour 40 minutes) [director's cut and ultimate cut only] During one of Rorschach's investigations, he finds a matchbox bearing the "Happy Harry" logo. Happy Harry prepared an animated trailer for a "Watchmen" cartoon that never existed.
- #130
In the Comedian's death scene, you can see an old photograph of Silk Spectre I, the mother of his child, on the wall. There is also a photograph of their daughter.
- #131
(Around 2 hours 30 minutes) Near the end of the film, the word Pioneer above the New Frontiersman logo features Rorschach's "calling card" symbol, using a reversed P in front of Pioneer.
- #132
(Around 6 minutes) During the opening credits, while Silk Spectre is having her picture taken with the police, if you look closely you can see the Police Chief surreptitiously trying to look down her blouse, then turning his head away and smirking.
- #133
The pistols used by the Comedian are D&L Sports "Professional Model".45 long-slide pistols, and they are real firearms, not prop pieces.
- #134
(Around the 3rd minute) In the opening scene, when the intruder enters Edward Blake's apartment, Blake throws a mug at him. The mug shatters against the door and strikes the number above the peephole. The apartment number is clearly visible as 3001, but as the mug shatters it ricochets to the right, casting a shadow over the number and concealing the "1," which is deeply in shadow. This leaves a very well-lit "300." This may be an editing effect referencing Zack Snyder's earlier film 300 (2006).
- #135
"Who watches the watchmen?" is a Latin phrase ("Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?") attributed to the Roman poet Juvenal, not to Aristotle. In the graphic novel, this phrase is never seen in full; it is always either partially obscured or written incompletely. In the film, the complete sentence appears at least twice.
- #136
In the graphic novel, after killing Rorschach, Dr. Manhattan returns to the compound as if nothing had happened and talks with Ozymandias. In the film, after killing Rorschach, he remains where he is for a while and gently catches Rorschach's fedora in the wind. Likewise, Dan Dreiberg/Nite Owl II, who does not appear in this scene in the graphic novel, is in the film and breaks down in tears for Rorschach. When he teleports back to the compound, Dr. Manhattan says goodbye to Laurie before disappearing from Earth. Dr. Manhattan appears more remorseful in the film than in the graphic novel.
- #137
(Around 1 hour 19 minutes) The GD on the Gunga Diner tent resembles the Grateful Dead logo. There are several Grateful Dead references in the graphic novel.
- #138
(About 3 minutes in) At the start of the film, Nostalgia perfume appears in the Comedian's apartment. In the graphic novel it appeared in Laurie and Dr. Manhattan's scene on Mars and was shown as one of Veidt's product lines.
- #139
(About 2 hours 15 minutes in) Just before the New York City explosion, the prison psychiatrist's briefcase is opened and Rorschach cards fall out; a close-up of the clasp on the briefcase shows the numbers "300," a reference to director Zack Snyder's previous film.
- #140
The extended director's cut, also known as the Ultimate Cut, shows scenes from the comic book the young boy is reading, Tales of the Black Freighter (2009). Some parts of this story are nearly identical to Pharsalus (2005). In both, the bloated corpses of a sunken ship are lashed together to form a raft and used to escape a deserted island. In both stories they catch a live seagull, eat it raw, and later vomit.
- #141
Patrick Wilson said Zack Snyder is "the most detailed, focused director I've ever worked with. He knows exactly what picture he wants to paint. Whether it's your taste... I mean, you can find a hundred people who absolutely love Watchmen, and then there are people who will say it's too close to the graphic novel. But whatever, that's Zack! He just attacks every film and knows exactly the picture he wants to paint in every frame."
- #142
(About 42 minutes in) During the Crimebusters meeting, the labels for national security issues include: Illegal Immigration, Murder, Kidnapping, Civil Unrest, Race Riots, Extortion, Prostitution, Anti-War Demonstrations, Disorder, Corruption, Drugs and Draft Dodgers. While some of these are genuinely important issues ("Corruption" and "Murder"), others were probably suggested by a single member and reluctantly included by the group: that is, "Promiscuity" was seen as dangerous only by the moralistic Rorschach, and "Illegal Immigration" and "Draft Dodgers" were seen as dangerous by the ultra-nationalist Comedian.
- #143
(At about the 29th minute) While Laurie and Dan are having dinner at Rafael's restaurant, there is a yellow rose on every table. Yellow roses traditionally symbolize infidelity, foreshadowing that Laurie and Dan will sleep together; an event Dr. Manhattan implied he had foreseen in the previous scene. However, when Dan and Laurie finally do sleep together, Laurie had already broken up with Dr. Manhattan after growing tired of his emotional unavailability in their relationship.
- #144
The film strongly implies that Adrian Veidt is gay and that Dan Dreiberg is Jewish. The first is suggested by Veidt's interactions at Studio 54 and by the presence of a computer file titled "BOYS" when Night Owl and Rorschach access his computer. The second is implied by Veidt mocking the Comedian's death by calling him "practically a Nazi" and then looking closely at Dreiberg and saying "you knew that better than anyone," and possibly by the Comedian's contempt for Night Owl during the rioting crowd sequence (though this could also mean that the ultra-conservative Comedian has no patience for Dan's more liberal views).
- #145
(At about 1 hour 15 minutes) [theatrical version only] Richard Nixon says, "Humanity is in the hands of a higher authority than mine. Let's just hope he's on our side." Immediately after this, the film cuts to Adrian Veidt.
- #146
The first date in Rorschach's journal is marked as October 12, 1985, and the last date is November 1, 1985: October 12 is the date America was discovered by Christopher Columbus (the Comedian's death is discovered by Rorschach), and November 1 is All Saints' Day, known in Latin countries as the Day of the Dead, when the living pay their respects to the presence of deceased acquaintances and loved ones (Rorschach is killed by Dr. Manhattan).
- #147
(At about 1 hour 18 minutes) The assassin's foot crushes the "delivery," a box labeled "PYRAMID - A New World Delivered" that points to the climactic ending. PYRAMID is a Veidt company, and the assassin was hired by Veidt.
- #148
When Rorschach dies, his blood takes the shape of an inkblot on the snow. However, some viewers noted that Rorschach's blood takes the shape of a butterfly. Butterflies symbolize change, transformation and freedom.
- #149
Gunga Diners is a fictional restaurant chain that appears throughout much of the story. In a 1987 interview, Alan Moore explained: "It was Dave Gibbons' idea to have Indian restaurants instead of McDonald's, and it made sense because in this world there is a different political situation, there will be wars in different places. In our story, some kind of conflict in Asia caused a major famine in India, so a huge number of Indian and Asian refugees flooded into America, and as a result Indian food became popular and you have Gunga Diners spreading this trend across the country."
- #150
(At about 2 hours 10 minutes) Among the images on Adrian's giant monitor wall at Karnak is an image of Marvin the Martian. This scene comes immediately after the argument scene between Laurie and Jon on Mars.
- #151
Before his arrest, Rorschach appeared unmasked four times. The first and fourth times as the friend holding the "the end is nigh" sign at the newsstand. The second time he passes in front of the restaurant window while Dan and Laurie are having dinner. The third is at the cemetery before and after the service.
- #152
In the opening montage on the right, Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice stand close together and talk away from everyone else, a nod to their secret relationship implied in the comics.
- #153
Malin Akerman and Carla Gugino, who play the mother and daughter in Watchmen, kissed each other in a 30-second video as part of director Zack Snyder's ice bucket challenge.
- #154
Gerard Butler was supposed to have a role in the film, but when he didn't get it, his voice was used as the ship captain in the comic books the boy reads at the newsstand. You only see this if you're watching the extended cut. Butler and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) had previously appeared together in the earlier "The Phantom of the Opera" film, in which Butler played the Phantom and Wilson played Raoul.
- #155
Unlike the UK and Australia, where initially only two versions of the film were released, the US first released all three versions of the film on Blu-ray. The US got the Theatrical Cut, Director's Cut and Ultimate Cut. Until the 2019 4K release, both the UK and Australia only saw the release of the Theatrical Cut and the Director's Cut. To make up for the lack of the Ultimate Cut; Warner Home Video released on Blu-ray the twenty-six-minute animated Tales of the Black Freighter (2009), which plays a major role in the Ultimate Cut released in the US.
- #156
Steve Ditko, known for co-creating Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, was a fervent supporter of Ayn Rand's philosophy of Objectivism, which emphasizes moral absolutism, and this was reflected in two of his characters who influenced Rorschach, the Question and Mr. A. Mr. A was published in the underground comic Witzend and was therefore not subject to censorship by the Comics Code Authority, which allowed Ditko to be more explicit in his political message. Mr. A believed that morality was black and white - "A is A," which is where the name comes from - not much different from Rorschach. Alan Moore was a member of the band Emperors of Ice Cream and wrote the song "Mr. A" (sung to the tune of The Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray"), which parodies the character and Ditko's philosophy. Ditko acknowledged Rorschach's connection to Mr. A and described him as "like Mr. A, except he's insane." Ditko's use of nine-panel grids was also influential on Watchmen. In 1987, a year after Watchmen's initial publication, Denny O'Neil began writing a Question comic that departed largely from Ditko's Objectivist messages and formed the basis for many of the character's later interpretations.
- #157
After Jon kills Rorschach to preserve the so-called world peace, Daniel and Laurie leave Adrien Veidt's ruined Karnak facility in Archie, and a piece from Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Requiem Mass is clearly playing in the background. In the Home Box Office (HBO) miniseries Watchmen (2019), scenes featuring the Master often use classical orchestral pieces as background music, the most prominent of which is a different selection from the same Mozart Requiem.
- #158
In the first conversation between Dan Dreiberg and Adrian Veidt, Adrian Veidt tells Dan that the USSR has approximately 51,000 nuclear bombs. Although this is an exaggeration of the real-life number of nuclear bombs in the world in 1985 (estimated to be around 15,000), the figure of 51,000 becomes plausible when one takes into account the fear created in the USSR by Dr. Manhattan's appearance in 1959 and the fear that forced them to increase their nuclear weapons arsenals as much as possible in the hope of defeating not only the US but also Dr. Manhattan.
- #159
David Hayter was originally going to direct as well as write the screenplay, and in 2003 he shot test footage starring Ray Stevenson as Rorschach and Iain Glen as Dan Dreiberg.
- #160
The Comedian was partly based on G. Gordon Liddy, one of the key figures in the Watergate scandal. Alan Moore explained: "If Liddy had comic book muscles… and if Liddy embraced all that Nietzsche philosophy and the nonsense of holding his hand in a candle flame and not feeling the pain even if it burns. So yes, parts of Liddy worked into the Comedian's makeup, that kind of rabid, right-wing adventurers." The character's name was taken from Graham Greene's novel "The Comedians."
- #161
In the opening sequence, while Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin" plays, there is a scene from the '70s (judging by the clothing and shoes) in which a police officer finds two beaten and unconscious thugs tied to a fire hydrant at night with a flashlight. When the officer looks down, he sees a piece of paper with two symbols on it. These are the letters "P" and "R" from the Masonic Alphabet, most likely referencing "Pioneer" & "Rorschach," thus describing how the thugs were tied to the hydrant.
- #162
Gary Houston, who plays conservative Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) talk-show host John McLaughlin, later played Mr. Gorski in the short film "Good Luck, Mr. Gorski," the words allegedly attributed to Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the lunar surface. They are heard in the opening montage sequence of "Watchmen." Although the references were debunked by Armstrong himself, they became the subject of the short film: Armstrong, then a boy, overheard his next-door neighbor Mrs. Gorski tell her husband that she would perform oral sex only when the boy next door landed on the moon.
- #163
In the opening title sequence in the shot where Laurie's traumatic childhood memory is briefly shown (following the fight scene between the Comedian and the disguised Ozymandias), the viewer can immediately see a Snow Globe on the television showing a newsreel about the beginning of America's entry into the Vietnam conflict. While Jon Osterman and Laurie Jupiter are on the planet Mars debating humanity's fate, he said that the Snow Globe is a small but important plot point in the comic book.
- #164
The middle section of the book, the part where the man tries to kill Veidt, is completely symmetrical. In the film they make no reference to this for the fans.
Behind the Scenes (2)
- #165
CGI characters like Doctor Manhattan usually need two shoots for every scene they're in: first the scene is filmed with a stand-in, then the character's movements are recorded in a separate motion capture session as reference for the animators. With as much screen time as Doctor Manhattan has, that would have been expensive. Instead, Billy Crudup served as both stand-in and motion capture performer on set at the same time. He wore a specially designed mocap suit and facial markers and was filmed nonstop by at least two cameras, one for his body and one locked on his face to track his expressions, so his on-set performance could feed straight into the CGI character. For Manhattan's eerie glow, Crudup's suit was fitted with 2,500 blue lights, turning him into an "exotic lighting instrument"; as a result the glow follows his movements more closely than any set light could and lights his surroundings more convincingly than a computer effect.
- #166
Because the story is full of flashbacks, Zack Snyder cast actors younger than their characters, reasoning that it's easier for makeup and effects artists to age actors up than down. So 37-year-old Carla Gugino (born 1971) plays the 67-year-old mother of Malin Akerman (born 1978), whose character is supposed to be younger than Laura Mennell's (born 1980). But since Jeffrey Dean Morgan couldn't pass for 16, the Comedian's birth year was moved from 1924 to 1918. Rorschach, 45 in the book, is played by 47-year-old Jackie Earle Haley. A news program gives his age as 35, but that's a mistake on the character's part, since every other date in the film makes Rorschach 45, not 35.
Characters & Cast (2)
- #167
Gerard Butler was meant to have a role and missed out, so instead he voices the ship's captain in the comic the boy reads at the newsstand, which you only see in the extended cut. Butler and Patrick Wilson (Nite Owl) had already worked together in "Phantom of the Opera," where Butler was the Phantom and Wilson the hero, Raoul.
- #168
Gary Houston, who plays PBS (Public Broadcasting Service) conservative talk-show host John McLaughlin, went on to play Mr. Gorski in the short "Good Luck, Mr. Gorski," named after the line supposedly spoken by Neil Armstrong as he stepped onto the Moon, which is heard in Watchmen's opening montage. Though Armstrong himself debunked it, the story became the short's subject: young Armstrong overhears his neighbor Mrs. Gorski telling her husband she'll give him oral sex when the boy next door walks on the Moon.
Easter Eggs & References (14)
- #169
Zack Snyder's first official image for the film, a test shot of Rorschach holding the Comedian's button, was hidden in the trailer for his previous film, 300 (2006). It shows associate producer Wesley Coller in a makeshift mask against a composite New York City backdrop, made as an experiment to nail the mood and look of the Watchmen project Snyder was pitching. His wife Deborah Snyder bet him $100 that nobody would find it; he was sure someone would spot it right away, and he won.
- #170
About 30 minutes in, as Dan and Laurie eat dinner, someone in the background says, "I'm glad I ordered the four-legged chicken!" In the same scene in the comic, a waiter is carrying a four-legged chicken.
- #171
At around 2 hours 10 minutes, these titles can be spotted on Ozymandias's wall of TV monitors: Tweetie Pie (1947), Haredevil Hare (1948), Dough Ray Me-ow (1948), The Giant Gila Monster (1959), The Tonight Show (1962), The 300 Spartans (1962) (a nod to Zack Snyder's own 300 (2006)), Fail Safe (1964) (another nuclear war film), Dallas (1978), Mad Max (1979), The Jesus Film (1979), Altered States (1980), The Road Warrior (1981), 1984 (1984), Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985), MTV's 20 Most Outrageous Moments (2001), Wendy's "Where's the Beef?" commercial and Robert Palmer's "Addicted to Love" video.
- #172
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 30 minutes, while Laurie and Dan are having dinner, Walter Kovacs strolls past in the background.
- #173
At around 52 minutes, Rorschach's line about Pagliacci going to the doctor comes from "Reír Llorando," a poem by Mexican writer Juan de Dios Peza based on the famous English comic actor David Garrick.
- #174
Contains a major spoiler — show
Trucks bearing the Pyramid Transnational logo turn up all through the film: one outside the Comedian's high-rise while the detectives investigate, another driving past the Gunga Diner, and another in the background as Rorschach, Dan and Laurie leave the restaurant.
- #175
Laurie's surname, Juspeczyk, is never said aloud in the film. In the comic, Rorschach even calls her Jupiter at one point, although Laurie resents her mother for using Jupiter to distance herself from her Polish roots; in the film the name only appears in writing, as Juspeczyk. This is probably a nod to the fact that neither Dave Gibbons nor Alan Moore settled on a pronunciation while making the comic, though people guessed. Some native Poles eventually explained it should be said you-SPETCH-ick, and that's what was used in Watchmen (2009).
- #176
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 7 minutes) The opening titles show Sally Jupiter's retirement party staged like The Last Supper, with the Comedian sitting immediately to Sally's right. In The Last Supper, Jesus sits in the middle, and the figure to his right is widely taken to be Mary Magdalene, who some claim was the mother of Jesus's child. Seating the Comedian to Sally's right points to his being the father of Sally's child, Laurie.
- #177
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 22 minutes) As Veidt talks to the press, the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center are visible outside his office window, with a zeppelin drifting very slowly toward them in the background. At the end, after New York City has been reduced to ruins and Veidt Enterprises rebuilds it, the towers are still standing, unharmed.
- #178
Zack Snyder told the German magazine Spiegel that he wanted the violence here as extreme as possible, the opposite of the heavily sanitized violence of most media (PG-13 films, for instance). He wanted viewers to catch themselves enjoying the horrific scenes, wonder whether something was wrong with them, and then think about the violence in the other films they watch.
- #179
About 3 minutes in, when the intruder breaks into Edward Blake's apartment, Blake hurls a mug at him. It smashes against the door just above the peephole, where the apartment number, clearly 3001, is posted; as it breaks, it glances to the right and throws the "1" into deep shadow, leaving a brightly lit "300". This may be an editing touch referencing Zack Snyder's earlier film 300 (2006).
- #180
Contains a major spoiler — show
About 2 hours 15 minutes in, just before New York City blows up, the prison psychiatrist's briefcase falls open and Rorschach's cards spill out; a close-up of its clasp shows the numbers "300," another nod to director Zack Snyder's previous film.
- #181
On the right side of the opening montage, Captain Metropolis and Hooded Justice stand close together, talking apart from everyone else, a nod to the secret relationship hinted at in the comics.
- #182
Contains a major spoiler — show
The middle chapter of the book, in which a man tries to kill Veidt, is perfectly symmetrical. The film doesn't nod to this for fans.
Deeper Meaning (14)
- #183
The opening sequence reworks many famous moments from history: the Silhouette takes the sailor's place in Alfred Eisenstaedt's famous V-J Day photo in Times Square, kissing the nurse, with the sailor visible in the background; Sally Jupiter's retirement party restages Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper; the Comedian shaking hands with President Nixon is based on the photo of Richard Nixon with Elvis Presley; a peace protester sliding a flower into a gun barrel echoes Bernie Boston's famous 1967 "Flower Power" photo, while the scene itself evokes a later event, the National Guard shooting of protesting students at Kent State University in Ohio in 1970; and Ozymandias stands outside Studio 54, with actors playing The Village People behind him on his right and David Bowie as Ziggy Stardust and Sir Mick Jagger on the left of the frame.
- #184
(About 5 minutes in) During the opening titles, the original Nite Owl foils a robbery. Batman comic covers and Fledermaus posters line the street walls, and the couple he saves, leaving the theater, can be taken for Thomas and Martha Wayne, Bruce Wayne's parents; a poster reading "GOTHAM" hints at it too. Gotham is Batman's city, but in the Watchmen universe his parents survive, so Bruce Wayne never needs to become Batman.
- #185
About 1 hour 9 minutes in, the symbol Dr. Manhattan draws on his forehead is the Bohr model of the hydrogen atom: a proton (the central dot) orbited by a single electron (the upper dot). Hydrogen is the most common and most basic element in the universe. In the original story, a publicity man tries to give Manhattan a helmet with a six-electron symbol; Manhattan refuses, saying he'll wear a symbol he can "respect," and burns the hydrogen symbol into his forehead.
- #186
A popular John F. Kennedy conspiracy theory says the President was shot from the front, from behind a fence on the grassy knoll, and that three vagrants arrested soon after the murder were "additional assassins." The opening montage shows the Comedian firing the fatal shot from behind the grassy knoll fence, dressed exactly like one of the "Three Tramps" in the famous photos, and the gun smoke witnesses claimed to see turns out to be Blake's cigar smoke. At Blake's funeral, the soundtrack plays Simon & Garfunkel's "The Sound of Silence," reportedly inspired by the national trauma of the Kennedy assassination.
- #187
Rorschach takes his name from the famous inkblot test used in psychotherapy. The comic explains that the fabric of his mask was made for a dress belonging to Kitty Genovese, whose murder was long a byword for bystander apathy and collective callousness. That reputation, though, rested almost entirely on a largely false account of the killing that had been substantially debunked by the twenty-first century; in 2016 The Times even published an apology because its reporter had fabricated details.
- #188
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 3 minutes) [final version only] The old newsstand vendor and the young African American man reading a pirate comic at his stand are both named Bernard. In the graphic novel they act as a "Greek chorus" for ordinary people, and both die in Veidt's attack.
- #189
Contains a major spoiler — show
(Around 1 hour 18 minutes) As the gunman enters Adrian Veidt's building, the arrow lights up purple just before the elevator opens: it's the Pyramid company's symbol.
- #190
Contains a major spoiler — show
At the end, with the world united in peace, a New Frontiersman employee reaches for Rorschach's journal. Dr. Manhattan killed Rorschach to keep the truth from coming out and shattering that fragile peace, but the scene implies the magazine will eventually publish it, which could push humanity to the brink of extinction once more. Veidt's efforts would then have been in vain, merely postponing the inevitable, and justice, the principle Rorschach believed in and died for, would win out.
- #191
Contains a major spoiler — show
About 2 hours 30 minutes in, near the end, the word "Pioneer" above the New Frontiersman logo uses the reversed P that serves as Rorschach's calling card.
- #192
About 42 minutes in, at the Crimebusters meeting, the board of national security issues lists: Illegal Immigration, Murder, Kidnapping, Civil Unrest, Race Riots, Extortion, Promiscuity, Anti-War Demonstrations, Disorder, Corruption, Drugs and Draft Dodgers. Some are genuinely serious ("Corruption" and "Murder"), while others were probably pushed by a single member and grudgingly accepted by the rest: only the moralistic Rorschach would see "Promiscuity" as a threat, and only the ultra-nationalist Comedian "Illegal Immigration" and "Draft Dodgers."
- #193
Contains a major spoiler — show
At around 29 minutes, as Laurie and Dan dine at Rafael's, every table has a yellow rose. Yellow roses traditionally stand for infidelity, foreshadowing that Laurie and Dan will sleep together, something Dr. Manhattan hinted in the previous scene that he already foresaw. By the time it actually happens, though, Laurie has already left Dr. Manhattan, fed up with his emotional distance.
- #194
The film strongly hints that Adrian Veidt is gay and Dan Dreiberg Jewish. For Veidt, there's his behavior at Studio 54 and a computer file named "BOYS" that Nite Owl and Rorschach find on his machine. For Dreiberg, there's Veidt calling the dead Comedian "practically a Nazi," then looking straight at Dreiberg and adding "you knew that better than anyone," and possibly the Comedian's scorn for Nite Owl during the riot sequence, though that could just as well be the ultra-conservative Comedian's impatience with Dan's more liberal views.
- #195
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Rorschach dies, his blood spreads across the snow in the shape of an inkblot; some viewers saw a butterfly in it, a symbol of change, transformation and freedom.
- #196
Steve Ditko, best known as co-creator of Spider-Man and Dr. Strange, was a committed follower of Ayn Rand's Objectivism, with its moral absolutism, and it shows in two of his characters who influenced Rorschach: the Question and Mr. A. Mr. A appeared in the underground comic Witzend, outside the reach of the Comics Code Authority, which let Ditko be blunter politically. Mr. A saw morality as black and white ("A is A," hence his name), much like Rorschach. Alan Moore, a member of the band Emperors of Ice Cream, wrote the song "Mr. A" (to the tune of The Velvet Underground's "Sister Ray"), parodying the character and Ditko's philosophy. Ditko acknowledged Rorschach's link to Mr. A, describing him as "like Mr. A, except he's insane." Ditko's nine-panel grids also influenced Watchmen. In 1987, a year after Watchmen was first published, Denny O'Neil began a Question series that largely dropped Ditko's Objectivist message and shaped most later versions of the character.
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