Question: I don't quite understand why Dr. Manhattan had to kill Rorschach. That is, I don't quite get why that was the only solution. Rorschach was a valuable member of the Watchmen, and in the type of world they were in (chaos, corruption, murder, etc) one would think that they would want to keep as many of themselves banded together as possible. Couldn't some sort of negotiation or compromise have been reached/agreed to by Rorschach instead of him being killed?
Question: How come the surviving members of the Watchmen (with the exception of Rorshach) agreed to let Dr. Manhattan take the blame for the murders of so many people? Wouldn't it have been easier to just arrest Veidt and let everyone know who was truly responsible for everything?
Answer: The entire reason they don't arrest Veidt is because his actions, while evil and genocidal, did in fact cause the two warring nations to unite. Exposing Veidt would revert the world back to its chaotic state and the peace would end. The millions Veidt killed would've died in vain and the Watchmen can't have that. All of this is discussed in great detail.
Question: Who really killed the Comedian? I've always assumed it to be Veidt but after watching it again the other night, I saw that the assailant's mask is raised to show his face and it wasn't Adrian. The attacker seemed to have a salt and pepper mustache, but that might have been a trick of the lighting of the scene. (The Comedian's killer is shown in a series of flashbacks when Adrian explains everything to the other Watchmen while they are in Karnak.)
Answer: It was Adrian Veidt. Most likely, he was disguised in case anyone should see him entering or leaving Blake's apartment, or, in case he should not be able to defeat the Comedian.
Answer: It could only have been Veidt, as Comedian was still at peak physical condition. To beat him would require superhuman (bullet catching) speed and strength.
Question: Some of the costumed heroes in the film (Comedian, Ozymandias, both Silk Spectres) appear with very minimal masks or even no masks at all while in costume. How are they supposed to be able to keep their identities secret?
Answer: The short answer is that they weren't really trying to. Ozymandias later revealed, and monopolised on, his costumed identity, Comedian was officially endorsed by the U.S.A. Government at the time so his real identity would have been public record, the first Silk Spectre publicly revealed her identity after retiring, though there is no evidence that the current Silk Spectre has. There is no evidence (even in the graphic novel) that anyone tried to hide their identity to the extent that other comic-book heroes like Batman/Superman do. The only exception being Rorschach where even his follow costumes don't know his real identity until they bust him out of prison.
Question: Why do Rorschach and Night Owl go searching at Veidt Enterprises for further clues about Pyramid Deliveries? They go there after interrogating the guy at Happy Harry's about Roy Victor Chess. He tells them that Janey Slater had him give the sealed envelope (with the assasination orders) to Chess. So is this the link, that they know Slater is also working for Veidt Enterprises? Furthermore: Can it be assumed that Slater was in on the staged assassination on Adrian Veidt, as she was delivering the envelope? Or did she also not know what was in it?
Answer: They go to Veidt's place because they think he will have business contacts that will help them uncover more about what is going on at Pyramid Transnational. It's only once they look through Veidt's office that they learn that Pyramid Transnational is a subsidiary of Veidt's corporation. The man at the bar mentioned that Janey's job at Pyramid was to give work to ex-cons, so it's unlikely she was in on the red herring assassination attempt on Veidt. She would have just been doing her job to give assignments to people under her.
Question: Why did Adrian Veidt also have to infect Moloch with cancer? The comedian mentions to Moloch that Moloch's name was on a list together with Janey Slater's (and others?), who were presumably the ones Veidt infected with cancer. So why Moloch, too? In order to make Dr. Manhattan and the world think that Dr. Manhattan was causing cancer? He had already infected Janey Slater and Wally Weaver who had more contact with Dr. Manhattan. I would think, Moloch and Dr. Manhattan only had brief contact with each other when Moloch was captured.
Answer: Moloch knowingly worked for Adrian at one time, installing carcinogenic gas canisters in ventilation ducts to give people cancer at the high-energy research facility. That's how Moloch developed terminal cancer; but Adrian killed Moloch with a bullet between the eyes before Moloch could reveal any more information to Rorschach. Adrian then set-up Rorschach for murdering Moloch. Anyone who worked "on the inside" of Adrian's plans or who might be an obstacle to those plans was a target for assassination. Adrian murdered his super-associates (The Comedian and Moloch, and he later attempted to kill Dr. Manhattan), he murdered his own hit-man, and he murdered his entire staff of scientists in order to protect his secret plans.
Question: During Jon's backstory into becoming Dr. Manhattan, why did Janey leave Jon in the chamber instead of letting him out? There was plenty of time for Janey to get Jon out of there, but she simply walked away.
Answer: Wally says "we can't override the time lock." Janey sees that he's locked in there and leaves because she can't bear to watch him die. That's why she bursts into tears as soon as she leaves the room. If it was possible to open the door, Wally would have done so.
Question: Is there any explanation regarding Adrian Veidts' fighting skill? All Watchmen are obviously very well trained in unarmed combat, but Adrian easily takes out both Night Owl and Rorschach attacking together, and he manage to grab a bullet fired from close range. I'm curious if it's explained in novel or somewhere in the movie that I might have missed.
Answer: Veidt has, through unspecified training, become able to use considerably more of his available mental capacity at any given moment than the average human. This allows him heightened intelligence, speed, reflexes and coordination, allowing him to easily out-think his opponents and accomplish physical feats at the absolute peak of human possibility. More than enough to give him an edge over the well-trained Nite Owl and Rorschach.
Question: In the scene where Silk Spectre shoots Ozymandias and he catches the bullet, can someone please explain where the gun just suddenly came from? Earlier in the film when she is escaping her government handlers she is shown briefly holding an automatic pistol but the one she shoots Ozymandias with is a revolver, and besides, there isn't exactly much space in her costume for concealing anything.
Answer: This is from IMDb and they list it as Incorrectly regarded as a goof because: "It is hard to catch, but she takes this from a guard at Sing Sing during the breakout of Rorschach. Later it can be seen tucked away in her belt."
Question: Ref. the switching of stilettos to flat soles during action sequences (as in Watchmen/Silk Spectre), is there really any way round this in practical terms? Even if the heels were to be put on as CGI, the actors' stance would have to be altered as well. Anybody got a way round this problem at the moment?
Answer: A good editor will catch shots that too clearly expose the flat heels. In this film, that simply didn't happen because they are woefully obvious throughout the jail fight scene. Another choice is to have the stunt woman wear high heels. This will limit her options during the action, but in this example, there was little shown in the fight that was very risky. Spectre threw a kick here and there, in slow-motion- no fast-moving sequence of multiple martial arts moves. The last option would be to CGI the fight- which is expensive and puts the stunt woman out of work.
Question: Does Rorschach's unusual mask get any explanation in the novel?
Chosen answer: Do you mean how is it made? The explanation given is that he was working as a manual laborer in the garment industry when in 1962 "Special order for a dress in new Dr. Manhattan spin-off fabric. Viscous fluids between two layers of latex, heat and pressure sensitive." The girl who ordered it thought the dress was ugly and never picked it up. Rorschach used the material to make his mask.
Question: Did the Comedian know that he was the biological father of Laurie/Silk Spectre II? His interaction with her during a flashback doesn't seem to indicate so, but since Sally knew the truth of the matter, wouldn't the Comedian have at least some suspicion that he was Laurie's father?
Chosen answer: Yes he knew, when he first meets Laurie and Sally scolds him for talking to her he is distraught and asks why he can't talk to his own... he cuts off there but he is saying he knows she's his daughter.
Question: Did this movie have some sort of point? That genocide of several million to prevent war was a good idea? That and how did they avoid being sued considering Batman's got an Owl Man, a Spider Woman was in existence before this spider super heroine and the white masked guy seems to be a take on The Question.
Answer: Why would they be sued? DC own both the DC comics properties and the Watchmen characters.
Answer: You forgot where DC ended up owning Captain Marvel claiming he was a Super Man ripoff and how Marvel sued the name away from the character.
Answer: There is no "spider super heroine" in this movie. Silk Spectre has no superpowers, so I'm not sure where you're getting the connection to Spider-Woman from. Watchmen is a DC property, as are Batman and The Question, who was acquired by DC several years before the Watchmen graphic novel was published, so there would be no plagiarism lawsuits in response. The point of the movie, much like the graphic novel it is based on, is to illustrate the dangers of nuclear tension and war, and how regular people pay the price of the actions of contentious governments.
And to show that someone who is supposedly super-smart is also usually super-insane.
Answer: I mean as in Bob Kane suing since Owl Man's sort of like Batman.
Bob Kane undoubtedly received royalties for creating Batman, but the character is owned by DC. It's not as if he had the right to start his own comic book company and take Batman away from DC, so even if he felt slighted by Nite Owl II having some similarities to Batman, he would have no legal grounds to sue for it. Furthermore, characters would have to be blatant ripoffs in many ways in order for comic book companies to be able to sue over. Marvel and DC have many characters that are similar in powers, appearance, etc, but those similarities are usually so superficial that they can be dismissed as homages or parodies and it would prove difficult for one company to sue the other over it. A really good example would be Deadpool who was practically created as a parody of Deathstroke. The only case I can think of where a lawsuit had enough merit to go to court was Marvel suing Awesome Entertainment for redesigning Fighting American into a shameless ripoff Captain America.
Question: For Silk Spectre 2's boots during the prison fight scene, being an alternate universe with very different technology, could she be able to remove her heels from her boots to do the fight scene, then reattach them afterwards?
Chosen answer: Technically possible, however, with absolutely nothing in the film to support such a supposition, something that speculative could not realistically be considered a credible correction for the current mistake covering the topic.
Question: Why does the Comedian say, "I'm sorry, Mother," in the movie? He says this as he is dying and also when he visits Moloch. Could "Mother" be a reference to the two mothers of his children - the Asian one that he killed as well as Laurie's mom whom he raped? If this is not the case, then I just don't get it.
Question: Perhaps I'm missing something here but given what we see in the opening montage it's public knowledge from the get go that Sally Jupiter is the Silk Specter (given she's seen holding a certificate from the police with both names on it and the bomber plane we see has her actual surname painted under her portrait on its fuselage rather than her crime fighter moniker). While I'm aware this is a carry over from the graphic novel, the logic of this still makes no sense. She's supposed to be a masked superhero like the other Minutemen, reliant on her mystery and sexual appeal to subdue villains, why put herself at the unnecessary risk of being even more vulnerable to retribution by letting everyone know both of her identities?
Answer: The concept of "dual identities" is a convenient story device for comic books. However given the ways in which the "masked vigilante" phenomenon evolved in the Watchmen universe, it is often little more than a policeman on steroids with a mask. Given that mentality, it makes sense. Policemen do not work in anonymity. And while they may worry about repercussions on their families from time to time, in general most of their personal lives stay safely away from their professional lives, aside from the time they have to devote to being a keeper of the peace.
Question: I've just finished reading the Graphic Novel and I was just wondering, since Synder did such a faithful adaption why did he include super-powers to the heroes in the film, since the heroes in the comic don't have any.
Answer: What makes you think he did? None of them display any more powers or special abilities than what is shown in the graphic novel. Some of these might be exaggerated (Rorschach walking in the Arctic wearing only his trenchcoat, for instance), but as this is shown in the novel as well, you can not say that Snyder changed this in his adaptation.
Question: How does the public know they are called "Watchmen"? Was information slipped from the 1966 meeting when Ozymandias calls the group "Watchmen"? I wonder this because I don't know why the public would spray paint, "Who Watches the Watchmen?"
Answer: The phrase "Who Watches the Watchmen" comes from "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?", a Latin phrase from the Roman poet Juvenal, and refers to any group of people who polices the public (especially vigilantes). Basically, it means "they are watching us, but who is watching them?"
Question: If Rorschach's considered nuts then why kill him? Why kill the Comedian? Why wasn't he heavily guarded in prison once caught? Why not arrest Veidt?
Answer: The Comedian discovered what Veidt was planning to do, so Veidt killed him to silence him. Rorschach isn't causing problems for the prison once he's in there. Every violent thing he does is in self-defense. There's no reason for him to be heavily guarded. He's killed because they can't risk anyone exposing what Veidt did and ruining the world peace that was achieved. Veidt is not arrested for the same reason.
Answer: He has spent years as a costumed vigilante despite the fact that it was illegal. He has a very strict idea of what is right ("never compromise") and has proven himself incapable of doing otherwise. So no, there was no real chance of negotiating with him - Rorschach himself made it clear he'd have to die if they wanted his silence.
Garlonuss ★
Death was not the only choice. Doc M could easily have teleported/banished Rorschach to Mars/anywhere secluded in an oxygen bubble. He could have spared his life and just made him mute or manipulate his brain chemistry/atoms to remove the memory of what happened. The point is Doc M is all powerful and could manipulate matter at his whim; death was just a plot device creating a chance of an emotive martyrdom/sacrificial ending.
Ethically speaking, exiling him to Mars or erasing his memory of the event can be considered just as cruel as killing him, because then his agency is being taken away from him. Rorshach's malcontent with the situation poses a problem for the other heroes, and since Dr. Manhattan isn't willing to let him tell the truth of what happened, he obliges Rorschach's demand that he kill him instead.
Phaneron ★