Why Couldn't Watchmen's Original Ending be Adapted to Film? (2024)

While Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons' Watchmen altered the landscape of comics forever, it's 2009 film adaptation didn't leave much of a cultural mark, arriving in a landscape that included the early MCU movies, Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight trilogy, and critically panned 20th Century Fox releases like X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The industry knew that superheroes could potentially draw big numbers, but audiences didn't seem to know what to make of a brutal, R-rated deconstruction of the expected tropes. If the public didn't know how to process Watchmen in 2009, imagine the Average Joe's response to a faithful adaptation that was in development all the way back in 1988? Well, "faithful," but with one major exception.

What is Watchmen's "Real" Ending?

While streamlining some scenes, omitting all of the flashbacks, and opening with an entirely new prologue set in 1976, Sam Hamm's 1988 screenplay for Watchmen does follow the basic outline of Moore and Gibbons' twelve-issue miniseries. In 1980s Manhattan, secret agent the Comedian is thrown out of his penthouse window, leading outlaw vigilante Rorschach to probe his murder. The investigation brings Rorschach into contact with one-time heroes Nite Owl and Ozymandias. Meanwhile, Doctor Manhattan grows increasingly distant from humanity, leaves Earth for Mars, and his lover Silk Spectre reconnects with the unassuming Nite Owl. Manhattan's disappearance emboldens the Soviet Union to invade Afghanistan, and the planet's left on the brink of nuclear war.

Anyone familiar with the source material would likely assume that Hamm's screenplay would continue down the story's path and recreate the miniseries' gruesome ending. The final two chapters of the miniseries are without a doubt memorable, even if Moore and Gibbons' creative choices were controversial even during the series' release in the 1980s.

The climax of Moore and Gibbons' Watchmen has the shrewd and calculating Ozymandias revealed as the Comedian's killer, and the mastermind behind the creation of a genetically engineered, squid-like "alien" creature. As Ozymandias coldly explains to Rorschach and Nite Owl, he's already triggered the creature's release, and the accompanying psychic attack has murdered millions of civilians in New York City.

The "alien" was in fact the creation of a curated crew of science fiction authors, geneticists, and artists, unaware of what exactly they were developing. (Their cryptic mission has been a subplot for most of Watchmen's run until the finale.) Having grafted a brain cloned from a powerful psychic onto the creature, Ozymandias used experimental teleportation technology to transport the squid monster to New York. The teleportation process instantaneously killed the "alien" and the subsequent psychic reaction slaughtered those nearby (an image depicted in horrid detail by Gibbons for several pages in the opening of Watchmen #12.)

Ozymandias is convinced his stunt will unite the United States, the USSR, and the world against a common enemy. Global conflict will end, ushering in a new era of peace. His former friends are appalled by his actions, but come to the understanding that notifying the public will only lead to more chaos and death. The lone dissenter is Rorschach, rejecting compromise even in the face of Armageddon. Doctor Manhattan refuses to allow Rorschach to jeopardize this potential utopia and disintegrates him into the snow.

The closing scenes have Doctor Manhattan accepting Silk Spectre and Nite Owl's new relationship, before departing with some cryptic words for Ozymandias and the tease that he might create new life in some other galaxy. Weeks later, during Christmas, Nite Owl and Silk Spectre visit her mother in a retirement community. On a television in the background is an episode of the 1963 science fiction series The Outer Limits. Finally, at Rorschach's favorite newspaper The New Frontiersman, an oafish editorial assistant is inches away from pulling a copy of Rorschach's journal out of the crank file.

The Lingering Controversy of Watchmen's Final Chapters

Alan Moore has stated in the past that, after plotting out Watchmen's ending, he discovered in a guide to cult television programs an entry on The Outer Limits episode "The Architects of Fear." The concept, he was stunned to discover, was quite similar -- a human plot to fake an alien invasion and unite warring Cold War factions against a common enemy. Moore couldn't rule out subconsciously lifting the idea, and included an homage to that episode in the final issue.

Watchmen's editor Len Wein and Moore reportedly argued over changing Watchmen's ending, with Wein later telling the fanzine Wizard: "I kept telling him, 'Be more original, Alan, you've got the capability, do something different, not something that's already been done!' And he didn't seem to care enough to do that."

Wein also stated bluntly that the finale "simply stole the ending to an episode of The Outer Limits, which Alan fully admitted!" According to some accounts, Wein's departure from Watchmen in its final issues was a direct response to Moore "stealing" from The Outer Limits. When writing his own Watchmen material, decades later in 2012's Before Watchmen: Ozymandias, Wein explicitly referenced "The Architects of Fear" as Ozymandias' in-universe inspiration for the idea.

To be fair to Moore, the concept of individuals faking an alien invasion in the hopes of inspiring world peace isn't unique to "The Architects of Fear." If Moore subconsciously lifted the plot from anywhere, it's just as likely he saw it in 1951's Weird Science #5, by comics legend Harvey Kurtzman. In Kurtzman's "The Last War on Earth," a scientist fakes a Martian threat in the hopes of uniting world governments against Mars. Kurt Vonnegut's novel The Sirens of Titan and Theodore Sturgeon's short story "Unite and Conquer" also feature similar plots and predate "The Architects of Fear."

How Did Sam Hamm Alter Watchmen's Ending?

When talking to Amazing Heroes in 1988, Sam Hamm didn't hide his ambivalence towards Moore's ending. Speaking to interviewer Andy Mangels, Hamm stated, "I will come out and say I didn't think the ending of the comic book worked. … It was really sort of a doctored up version of an old, old plot which has been done on The Outer Limits, among other places. While I appreciate the ideological intent of what I think Alan was trying to do with that notion -- trying to establish that it's wrong to place our faith in Nietzschean characters who are willing to take very, very Draconian measures to achieve aims which may or may not be good for mankind. He was saying that our costumed heroes, be they Superman or Oliver North, really don't have the right to decide the things that will affect everyone's lives.

"While I thought that the tenor of the metaphor was right, I couldn't go for the vehicle. I couldn't go for this mad scientist plot to create an extra-dimensional attack against New York City, firstly because I did not believe it would lead to world peace. I didn't think that the threat of some big tentacled alien critter appearing in New York was going to prevent the incipient nuclear war which was only moments away from starting.

"Secondly, it seemed to me that even if it did have that effect, you would have to keep doing it over and over again every six months. If Earth were poised for attack by an extra-dimensional force, it strikes me that the logical thing that would happen would be that the super-powers would arm themselves to the f---ing teeth waiting for these hairy, slimy critters to show. … And once six or eight months passed and it became obvious that it wasn't going to happen again, they'd say, 'Well, we've got all this weaponry and people are in a state of teeth-gnashing ready to go for it…and all this aggression has to be turned somewhere.'"

Deviating wildly from the comics' final chapters, Hamm's 1988 screenplay goes to unexpected places when Doctor Manhattan confronts Ozymandias in his Antarctic private retreat. As detailed in an earlier CBR article on Hamm's screenplay:

Ozymandias no longer unites the world against a feigned alien attack. Instead, his scheme is to travel back in time and kill Jon Osterman before he can become Doctor Manhattan. Ozymandias' reasoning is that the emergence of a literal "superman" has created global unrest, and that his elimination will negate the impending nuclear Armageddon. "I see what the watchmaker made. I see the universe!" said Doctor Manhattan, who realizes Ozymandias is right only shortly after he's been vaporized. Traveling to 1962, Doctor Manhattan rescues his younger self from the accident that granted him powers, causing the timeline to readjust.

The three heroes observing this event are suddenly transported to the streets of our New York City, where superheroes only exist in comic books. As beat cops approach, they question whether anyone will believe their story. "They'd better," hisses Rorschach as the screen cuts to black.

Why Was Alan Moore's Ending Unsuitable for Film?

Although 2009's Watchmen film (written by David Hayter and Alex Tse) didn't alter the ending as radically as Hamm's script, the movie did generate some controversy among fans for its own deviation from the original story. The 2009 ending has Ozymandias succeeding in his plan -- rigging energy reactors derived from Doctor Manhattan's powers to explode across the world's major cities, killing 15 million civilians. The energy signature belongs to Doctor Manhattan, enabling Ozymandias to effectively frame his former colleague for the murders.

Ozymandias explains to Doctor Manhattan that the world's governments have set aside their conflicts and turned their attention to Doctor Manhattan, a judgmental god they think will return some day. Ozymandias' former friends reluctantly agree to go along with the lie, except for Rorschach, who is also killed by Doctor Manhattan in this version, although the film rearranges events so that Rorschach's partner Nite Owl witnesses the death firsthand. (And Nite Owl's melodramatic reaction has since been deemed meme-worthy, likely not something the creators intended.)

When promoting the movie, director Zack Snyder justified altering the ending to MTV by stating, "we figured it took about 15 minutes to explain [the squid's appearance] correctly; otherwise, it's pretty crazy." One alteration to the ending that Snyder wouldn't go for was the death of Ozymandias (as some involved in the production felt he must face real punishment for his actions), which was in early drafts of the screenplay.

While it would seem that the various creators involved with adapting Watchmen had defensible creative justifications for altering the ending, a recent interview with Sam Hamm indicates that an even more significant motivation lies behind the choice -- potential costly litigation.

When recently interviewed on the Superhero Stuff You Should Know podcast, Hamm revealed more unknown Watchmen tidbits -- like David Bowie's discussions to star as Rorschach! When discussing his own take on Watchmen, Hamm made this revelation:

"I was sitting with Joel Silver who was the original producer of the project and I said, 'Now you know the end of the comic comes from an Outer Limits episode.' This is one I saw as a kid and I had an issue of Famous Monsters of Film with the monster from that episode. I want to say it's an episode called 'The Architects of Fear' and it's a deal where they create an invading space man that they're going to drop at the U.N. and when the people of Earth see that there is this invasion force headed their way, they will unite and they will drop their sabers and they will unite against this common foe.

"And I said, 'You know the problem is that Alan references that episode at the end of Watchmen, he has people sitting and watching that particular episode in issue 12 of Watchmen and so there's no defense, right?'

"You know, bless his heart, he's an honorable guy and somebody said, 'Wait a minute, this is an awful lot like an Outer Limits episode,' and he remembered having seen [it]…and he would have to go back and say, 'Now that you mentioned it, yes, holy wow'…once he realized where the inspiration for this had probably come from, he gives them a shout-out, but the problem is, you know, if you make what would have cost probably 120, 140 billion dollar movie even back then, and you release it and it has a borrowed ending and you can prove that the people who made the movie know where it's borrowed from, then you're going to have major legal issues.

"And so I said, let's try something different and I think that I think they came up with a smart solution in the final movie where it's basically a matter of framing Doctor Manhattan. I mean, I thought that was a clever idea. I would have been happy with that if I'd come up with it, you know, but I basically just tried to get out from under the problem of 'Okay here's where we have announced that the ending comes from…"

The prospect of a Watchmen film created during the actual Cold War is one of the great lost opportunities of that era. Even as a trainwreck, it would've been a fascinating trainwreck. But as Hamm points out, Moore's willingness to credit his inspiration ultimately created more problems than he could've envisioned. Whether the justification is creative or business, it seems Moore's intended ending was never destined to be adapted to the big screen.