If you’re going to watch the movie in preparation for the HBO series, there’s at least one big difference between the comic and the movie you should know about:
At the climax of the movie, Doctor Manhattan is framed for a horrifying attack that levels New York City, killing millions of people. That’s not how it goes down in original. In the comic, the attack that levels New York City appears to have been caused—but was not actually caused—by a giant alien squid that slips through a trans-dimensional portal.
The "alien attack"—and the implication that the Earth might be in more danger from an extraterrestrial force—is enough to scare both the United States and the Soviet Union away from the brink of nuclear apocalypse, banding together against a greater alien threat.
Which, as it turns out, was the goal all along. Because the "alien attack" was actually an elaborate hoax engineered by a billionaire businessman and philanthropist named Adrian Veidt—also known as Ozymandias—who will be played by Jeremy Irons in the HBO series.
The comic begins with a series of mysteries, and eventually reveals that Adrian Veidt is the culprit behind most of them. Before the events of the comic, Veidt had analyzed the geopolitical landscape and concluded that the United States and Soviet Union were on a path that would lead to the destruction of the entire world. So he secretly used his vast resources to fake the alien attack, concluding that the millions of people who died in New York were a necessary sacrifice for the greater good. And whether you agree with Veidt’s method or not, it worked.
由《Lost》、《The Leftovers》創作人Damon Lindelof創作，《The Leftovers》、《The Killing》導演Nicole Kassell共同擔綱執行製作。劇集版Watchmen並非直接改編自同名 DC 超級英雄漫畫，而是以漫畫原著為基調，在當代世界打造全新故事，將會有漫畫裡沒有的新角色登場。
劇集背景為原著漫畫故事結束的34年以後，即架空的2019年，美國總統任期限制遭廢除，Robert Redford 已經執政二十七年，成為美國歷史上任期最長的總統。在此，「超級英雄」被視為不法分子。故事發生在美國奧克拉荷馬州土爾沙，一個沒有網際網路和智慧型手機等先進科技的城市。劇情中的背景延續著 Rorschach 的死後社會，一個新的神秘組織疑似繼承了 Rorschach 的精神發動恐怖攻擊，警察因此戴上面具隱藏身份。
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