That was one thing about the movie that bugged me: did it ever say how the Comedian found out what Ozymandias was planning? In the comic he happened across Veidt’s secret island of artists and writers, but with that plotline cut out in favour of the fake Manhattan explosion, it seems that Veidt’s secret would be much more, well, secret: it’s not as if anyone else knew about the scheme and there was no material evidence, so how did a semi-retired government cutthroat stumble across it?
I’m a little curious how anyone in the movie knew Osterman had gone to Mars.
He left a note on the fridge.
I’m pretty sure that’s implicit, if not outright stated, in the comic book. Manhattan has already made possible the advances in energy production that he is working toward in the movie as a way to avert World War III.
(Which made no sense. I don’t think the Codl War had much to do with the price of oil.)
Scissorjack: They did mention it, kinda. They sort of backhanded, but Blake was evidently spying on the former Watchment and sundry other superheroes.
Which bugged me, as there were no “former Watchmen.” Nite Owl and the heroes of his generation never called tehmselves that and never really organized beyond ad hoc team-ups anyway.
I found it vaguely amusing that, in the movie version of the Crimebusters mobilization-that-wasn’t, they didn’t include “black power problems” in the Southern states as one of the problems they were to address. I expect this was because Ozymandias was the person organizing things here, rather than Captain Metropolis, and they didn’t want the clearly racist implications of that. Apparently mass murder is less offensive than thinking the word nigger.
Just this morning occured to me that the title of Hollis Mason’s autobio, Under the Hood, has a double meaning. Heh.
What double meaning do you refer to? I see at least four ways to take that title. Hollis could have been referring to his post-superhero life as a mechanic; he could have been talking about masked men in general; he could have been talking about the great contradictions between the public personas and private natures of super-heroes, as exemplified by the outstandingly macho and closeted gay Hooded Justice; and he could have been talking about owls.
Was it as much a problem in 1970 (the year the meeting in the movie took place) as in 1966 (the comic equivalent)?
I figure the main reason for the year-shift was so Malin Akerman could play Laurie at 16 and 31, instead of 16 and 35, which would require a bit more of a stretch.
Well, I was just thinking about the masked identity / car mechanic thing. I hadn’t previously made the connection to the latter.
I thought exactly the same as the OP, so much as to question why Ror-“Evil must be punished”-schach didn’t kill him. Then I realised; Rorschach even says it;
“The Comedian saw society’s true face - chose to be a parody of it, a joke…”
The one thing bugging me about Watchmen now is the same as Bryan Ekers: how the heck did anyone know Dr. Manhattan went to Mars? My only guess is that they possess some technology to detect where Manhattan’s energy signature is, or that they see a big blue flash on Mars and put 2 and 2 together.
Been a while since I read the book, but I seem to recall that, after the press conference where he gets accused of causing cancer, Dr. Manhattan is with Laurie and a few government guys, and he says something to the effect of “Screw this, I’m outta here.” Someone asks where he could go. He says, “I don’t know. Perhaps to Mars.” And then he teleports out. (Though he takes a side trip to the old lab where he first got his powers, first.)
They cut that scene out of the movie.
I have the book in front of me. Osterman casually says to an army private that he’ll go to Arizona and then, he thinks, Mars. The private at first thinks he’s joking but when Osterman disappears without another word, passes the message to his sergeant.
The word apparently got out fast because the news headline DR. MANHATTAN LEAVES EARTH appears the next morning.