The ending of Watchmen (mild spoiler)

[LARF]

Questions:

1. In reality would the ending of Watchmen actually prevent the world ending in a nuclear holocaust?

2. Is the ending of Watchmen similar to 911, and therefore the answer to Q.1 is no.

3. If the answer to 2. is yes, and the answer to 1. is no then how the bloody hell will Hollywood make the ending of Watchmen work to a modern audience?

[Funtwangle]

aliens goign splat isnt the same as terrorists

[Funt Solo]

In the Hollywood version, Rorshach (sp?) will not smell bad or wear a mask:  in fact they'll get Brad Pitt in a loin cloth to play him.

Ozimandius will be played by an English "villain" actor.

He will be stopped from actually committing the crime by the blue dude, and they'll all live happily ever after.

[Matt Timson]

I think...





spoiler space for all three of you that don't know...







...that the point of the Watchmen was that mankind were led to believe that they would be uniting against an alien/other dimensional race and that such an enemy was the only thing that would unite human beings as one race and stop them fighting each other.

At the end of the day, terrorists are still human beings (just about).

[Byron Virgo]

I know Jude Law was apparently very keen on playing Ozymandias.

Dear god, let us hope he dies in a freak yachting accident before that ever comes to pass!

[ming]

Well let's just hope the casting isn't anything like this poster seems to hope for...http://xanadb.com/images/watchmenposter.jpg">

[Quirkafleeg]

The 'real' ending of Watchman isn't at the end of the book imho

Gilliam's script had at different but interesting ending.
(At least the idea of painting Arnie blue has gone right out of the window)

Link: http://www.quirkafleeg.freeserve.co.uk/Midnight.htm" target="_blank">Close to Midnight

[Art]

At the end of the day, terrorists are still human beings (just about).

Not in America.

[Richmond Clements]

What I like about the ending is that Ozymandias actually wins, because the world does unite together.

[Matt Timson]

Ah, but contrary to everything they might want to believe, America do not yet speak for the entire Human race...

;)

[Byron Virgo]

"What I like about the ending is that Ozymandias actually wins, because the world does unite together."

What I like is the ambiguity - the fact that you don't know whether or not Veidt's plan will work (although, as D. Manhatten ambiguously suggests, nothing is eternal), or indeed whether Rorschach's diary will be discovered, or if they will be believed if they are.

Like all the best stories, it carries on in your mind long after it's finished.

[pauljholden]

I think the point of watchmen was how a society influenced by yer actual superheroes might have evolved - with the plot being simply a device to allow that exploration of that society (the fact that the plot was both lifted wholesale from an episode of the outer limits and that this lift was tacitly admitted in watchmen would suggest that).

- pj

[Tordelbach]

I always thought that the point of the end of Watchman emerges clearly from  Jon's last exchange with Adrian:

The ends can never justify the means, because *nothing* actually ends.

Or to put it another way, Vedit's plan *might* have been admirable if it could have been guaranteed to work for ever - unfortunately life goes on, the world turns, and every sacrifice may be undone as history proceeds.  Our noble defenders working in secret commit foul deeds in what they believe to be our interests (witness recent events), but who gets to determine (on our behalf) what our true interests are?  (Check out the quote from the Iran-Contra enquiry opposite the last page).

Even Ozymandias (even Jon for that matter) can't see all ends.  Rorshach's diary emerges from the crank file, and Veidt's house of cards unravels...  How are the Russian's going to react to the news that this was an American hoax designed to get them to disarm?  How much worse is Veidt's new world, built on innoicent corpses, going to be?
 
Doncha just *love* Watchmen?

[Matt Timson]

Yeah, I think that was just bad English on my part.  Clearly I didn't mean 'the point' at all.  What I was really trying to do was address the fact that even terrorists have sympathisers, whereas (presumably) aliens would not- and I don't think you can really compare the the aftermath of 9-11 with the aftermath of the Watchmen 'incident' because of this.

Is that better?

[Funt Solo]

You've got to love Watchmen.  Everyone's got a take on "the point", and yet nobody's wrong.  Not only does everyone get something different out of it, but it seems to have a wide variety of points to make:  and leaves us pondering at the end...