Which Watchmen Ending Do You Prefer?
Which Watchmen Ending Do You Prefer?
Posted by
SexiVixxEN
245 days ago
*** BEWARE! THIS BLOG CONTAINS SPOILERS THROUGHOUT FOR WATCHMEN, THE FILM AND THE BOOK ***
By now, many of you will have seen Zack Snyder's Watchmen. Those of you who are new to the story may have found it baffling, or dense, or rather good. Those of you who know the book, on the other hand, will know that while Snyder has often been slavishly faithful to the graphic novel on which it is based, he and his team have changed the ending. Let's reflect on the changes for a moment.
The Book
In the graphic novel of Watchmen, the big bad plan is to use a group of abducted / co-opted / recruited scientists, artists, writers and general imagineers to create a giant squid-lookin' monster with psychic abilities, cloned and expanded from the brain of a deceased human psychic. Using teleportation gleaned from Dr Manhattan's demonstrable ability to translocate, the monster would be transported to New York. Without Manhattan's supermind to control the process, the creature would explode upon arrival, but that explosion was designed to send out a psychic pulse that would kill anyone within a considerable radius not already killed by the explosion - and since the signal was coded with horrific stories, images and sounds, there was a fair chance it would drive more people mad, and give "sensitives" worldwide bad dreams for weeks. To neutralise the threat posed to the scheme by Dr Manhattan, our schemer plotted to give his old associates cancer (for which Manhattan might blame himself), increasing his withdrawal from the world, and tachyon particles were generated leading up to the event, to disrupt Manhattan's ability to see, and perhaps change, the future. This apparently alien threat would, our schemer hoped, unite the world and cause them to abandon their arms race and look inward.
The Film
In Zack Snyder's take, the big bad plan is to mimic Dr Manhattan's own energy signature and use it to attack 15 cities worldwide, making it appear that the blue god had become insane and turned his powers on mankind. To neutralise the threat posed to the scheme by Dr Manhattan, our schemer plotted to give his old associates cancer (for which Manhattan might blame himself), increasing his withdrawal from the world, and tachyon particles were generated leading up to the event, to disrupt Manhattan's ability to see, and perhaps change, the future. This superhuman threat would, our schemer hoped, unite the world and cause them to abandon their arms race and look inward.
So which one's better? The film's solution is, in a way, more elegant - certainly, in a two-hour film the makers would have struggled to cram in references to those many missing scientists and artists.
But could either plan really work? Would an alien landing and immediately dying in New York be enough to turn our gazes outwards? Would one apparently random occurrence (in the book, it's almost immediately dismissed as a chance tragedy: "Could further attacks be imminent?"; "We think not. Imagine an alien bee, not very intelligent, that stings reflexively upon death...") do the job? Perhaps not. On the other hand, in the film's scenario wouldn't the USSR simply blame the US's own super-powered "walking deterrent" for its loses and lash out against the West, perhaps dismissing any claims of Nato-member deaths as mere propaganda?
Seems to me that the film's changed ending is a decent compromise for the screen, thematically - but does either really make sense when you think about it?
By now, many of you will have seen Zack Snyder's Watchmen. Those of you who are new to the story may have found it baffling, or dense, or rather good. Those of you who know the book, on the other hand, will know that while Snyder has often been slavishly faithful to the graphic novel on which it is based, he and his team have changed the ending. Let's reflect on the changes for a moment.
The Book
In the graphic novel of Watchmen, the big bad plan is to use a group of abducted / co-opted / recruited scientists, artists, writers and general imagineers to create a giant squid-lookin' monster with psychic abilities, cloned and expanded from the brain of a deceased human psychic. Using teleportation gleaned from Dr Manhattan's demonstrable ability to translocate, the monster would be transported to New York. Without Manhattan's supermind to control the process, the creature would explode upon arrival, but that explosion was designed to send out a psychic pulse that would kill anyone within a considerable radius not already killed by the explosion - and since the signal was coded with horrific stories, images and sounds, there was a fair chance it would drive more people mad, and give "sensitives" worldwide bad dreams for weeks. To neutralise the threat posed to the scheme by Dr Manhattan, our schemer plotted to give his old associates cancer (for which Manhattan might blame himself), increasing his withdrawal from the world, and tachyon particles were generated leading up to the event, to disrupt Manhattan's ability to see, and perhaps change, the future. This apparently alien threat would, our schemer hoped, unite the world and cause them to abandon their arms race and look inward.
The Film
In Zack Snyder's take, the big bad plan is to mimic Dr Manhattan's own energy signature and use it to attack 15 cities worldwide, making it appear that the blue god had become insane and turned his powers on mankind. To neutralise the threat posed to the scheme by Dr Manhattan, our schemer plotted to give his old associates cancer (for which Manhattan might blame himself), increasing his withdrawal from the world, and tachyon particles were generated leading up to the event, to disrupt Manhattan's ability to see, and perhaps change, the future. This superhuman threat would, our schemer hoped, unite the world and cause them to abandon their arms race and look inward.
So which one's better? The film's solution is, in a way, more elegant - certainly, in a two-hour film the makers would have struggled to cram in references to those many missing scientists and artists.
But could either plan really work? Would an alien landing and immediately dying in New York be enough to turn our gazes outwards? Would one apparently random occurrence (in the book, it's almost immediately dismissed as a chance tragedy: "Could further attacks be imminent?"; "We think not. Imagine an alien bee, not very intelligent, that stings reflexively upon death...") do the job? Perhaps not. On the other hand, in the film's scenario wouldn't the USSR simply blame the US's own super-powered "walking deterrent" for its loses and lash out against the West, perhaps dismissing any claims of Nato-member deaths as mere propaganda?
Seems to me that the film's changed ending is a decent compromise for the screen, thematically - but does either really make sense when you think about it?
15
Interesting Story?
- Add Comment
- Share on Facebook
- Share on Twitter
- Save this Story
