Quotes

Dialogue

Laurie: Hey, you remember that guy? The one who pretended to be a supervillain so he could get beaten up? What was his name..? Captain Carnage. Dan: Yeah he was one for the books. Laurie: You're telling me! I remember, I caught him coming out of this jeweller's. I didn't know what his racket was. I start hitting him and I think "Jeez! He's breathing funny! Does he have asthma? Dan: He tried that with me, only I'd heard about him, so I just walked away. He follows me down the street… broad daylight, right, screaming "Punish me! PUNISH ME!" I'm like "No! Get lost!" Laurie: What ever happened to him? Dan: Well, he pulled it on Rorschach, and Rorschach dropped him down an elevator shaft. Laurie: Oh, God, I'm sorry, that isn't funny. Dan: Maybe a little

Dialogue

Rorschach: An ordinary burglar, kill the Comedian? Ridiculous. Dan: I heard he'd been working for the government since '77, knocking over Marxist republics in South America. Maybe it was a political killing or something? Rorschach: Maybe. Maybe someone's picking off costumed heroes. Dan: You don't think that's a little paranoid? Rorschach: That what they say about me now? Paranoid?

Dialogue

Dan: Look, I don't like what you're implying. And I like being followed even less. Rorschach: Maybe I was keeping an eye on you. In case someone's gunning for masks. Dan: You were never that sentimental. Rorschach: Attack on one is an attack on all of us. Dan: What do you suggest we do about it? Rorschach: Retribution. Dan: Watchmen are over. Rorschach: Says Tricky Dick. Dan: Says me.

Dialogue

Doctor Manhattan: Why would I save a world I no longer have any stake in? Laurie: Then do it for me. If you ever cared. Doctor Manhattan: When you left me, I left Earth. Does that not show you that I care?

Dialogue

The Comedian: This is all bullshit. Nite Owl II: Maybe we should agree on "no drinking at meetings"? [Comedian snorts] Look, Rorschach and I have made real headway on the gang problem by working together. Ozymandias: We can do so much more. We can save this world. [the Comedian scoffs; Ozymandias looks at him pointedly] With the right leadership. The Comedian: And that'd be you, right, Ozzy? I mean, hell, you're the smartest man on the planet. Ozymandias: It doesn't take a genius to see the world has problems. The Comedian: Yeah, but it takes a room full of morons to think they're small enough for you to handle. You people, you hear Moloch's back in town, you get your panties all in a bunch... You think catching him matters?

Dialogue

The Comedian: Goddamn, I love working on American soil, Dan. Ain't had this much fun since Woodward and Bernstein. Nite Owl II: How long can we keep this up? The Comedian: Congress is pushing through some new bill that's gonna outlaw masks. Our days are numbered. Till then, it's like you always say: we're society's only protection. Nite Owl II: From what? The Comedian: You kidding me? From themselves. [aiming at a rioter] Son of a bitch. Nite Owl II: No, Comedian, WAIT! [grabs his arm, too late to stop him shooting the rioter] The Comedian: Get your stinking hands off me. Nite Owl II: We were supposed to make the world a better place! What the hell happened to us? What happened to the American dream? The Comedian: "What happened to the American Dream"? It came true! You're looking at it!

Dialogue

Rorschach: We need to squeeze people. Dan: [sarcastic] Sure. Why don't we just pick names out of a phone book? Rorschach: You've forgot how we do things, Daniel. You've gone too soft. Too trusting. Especially with women. Dan: Okay, no, listen: I've had it with that! God, who do you think you are, Rorschach?! You live off people while insulting them, and nobody complains because they think you're a goddamn lunatic! [uncomfortable beat. Rorschach approaches Dan, who sighs] I'm sorry. I... I shouldn't have said that, man. Rorschach: Daniel... You are a good friend. [extends his hand and Dan takes it.] I know...it can be...difficult with me sometimes... Dan: Forget it. It's okay, man. Let's do it your way.

Dialogue

Doctor Manhattan: She was pregnant, and you gunned her down. The Comedian: Yeah, well you know what, you watched me do it. You could have turned the gun into steam, the bullets into mercury, the bottle into goddamn snowflakes, but you didn't, did you? You really don't give a damn about human beings. You're drifting out of touch, Doc. God help us all.

Dialogue

Doctor Manhattan: [continuing his work unfazed] Good evening, Rorschach. Rorschach: Doctor Manhattan. You know why I'm here. Doctor Manhattan: Yes... [powers up device] but you're going to leave disappointed. Laurie: Rorschach! [enters room] You shouldn't be here, you're a wanted man. Rorschach: Nice to see you too, Silk Spectre. Laurie: I have a real name I've been using a couple years now. Try it. Rorschach: Whatever you say... Laurie. Laurie: What are you doing here? Doctor Manhattan: The Comedian is dead. Rorschach wants me to look into my future; see if the killer is ever publicly identified. Rorschach: Already warned Dreiberg. Came to warn you too. Doctor Manhattan: Even if I wanted to help, my future is blocked by some kind of temporal interference. I cannot see it clearly. Laurie: Interference? Caused by what? Doctor Manhattan: In all likelihood... nuclear holocaust. If the United States and Soviet Union engage in all-out war, the resulting blast wave would produce a sudden bur

Dialogue

Adrian: Of course, my moral safeguards gave me pause at the necessary sacrifice. A few key regions around the globe... New York, Los Angeles, Moscow, Hong Kong. Disintegrated in an instant. Fifteen million people killed... by Dr. Manhattan himself. The world's punishment for flirting with World War III. Dan: Jon wouldn't do that. Adrian: A fact no one outside this room ever has to know. The energy breakthrough I was working on just came to fruition. All these years, Jon was helping me replicate his power, unaware of how I planned to use it. You see, the Comedian was right. Humanity's savage nature will inevitably lead to global annihilation. So in order to save this planet, I had to trick it with the greatest practical joke in human history. Killing millions, to save billions. A necessary crime. Rorschach: You know we can't let you do that. Adrian: "Do that", Rorschach? I'm not a comic-book villain. Do you seriously think I'd explain my masterstroke to you if there were even the slight

Dialogue

Adrian: [Nixon finishes his speech on Veidt's TVs] Do you see? It's your super powers retreating from war. I've saved the Earth from hell. We both have. This is as much your victory as it is mine. Now we can return. Do what we were meant to. Rorschach: We were meant to exact justice! Everyone's gonna know what you've done... Adrian: Will they? By exposing me, you would sacrifice the peace so many died for today. Dan: Peace based on a lie. Adrian: But peace! Nonetheless. Jon: ...He's right. Exposing Adrian would only doom the world to nuclear destruction again. Laurie: No... we can't do this. Jon: On Mars, you taught me the value of life. If we hope to preserve it here, we must remain silent. Rorschach: Keep your own secrets... Dan: Don't even think about it. [goes after Rorschach] Rorschach! Wait! Rorschach: [turns] Never compromise. Not even in the face of Armageddon. That's always been the difference between us, Daniel. [leaves the building] Adrian: I've made myself feel every death.

Dialogue

Rorschach: Out of my way. People have to be told! Doctor Manhattan: You know I can't let you do that. Rorschach: Suddenly, you discover humanity. Convenient. [takes off mask] If you had cared from the start, none of this would have happened. Doctor Manhattan: I can change almost anything. But I can't change human nature. Rorschach: Of course you must protect Veidt's new utopia. What's one more body amongst the foundations? [pause] Well, what are you waiting for? Do it. [Manhattan hesitates] DO IT!!! Nite Owl: [horrified] NOOOOOOO!!!

About

Q: You drew these panels that were full of carnage and bloody streets, and they're not in the movie. How did you feel as an artist, about not being able to see the actual destruction? A: It relates to the whole question about violence in the whole thing. I think the consequences of violence should be shown graphically, just to show that violence is unpleasant. It isn't just [that] you get a little spot of blood, and then you put a band aid on it and you're all better. A: All in all, using 9/11 as an excuse to change the ending of the movie doesn't sit right with me - especially since the film already shows a little girl in a dog's mouth and plenty of gore earlier in the film. Why spend so much time remaining true to the book, only to drop the ball in the final act? I sympathize with film-makers who have to work with the studios, but they could have tried harder to meet them halfway. Perhaps it didn't have to be as graphic as the novel, but there must have been some way the filmmakers c

About

A: The ending of the book shows just piles of corpses, bloody corpses in the middle of Times Square, people hanging out of windows just slaughtered on a massive scale. To do that in a comic book, and release it in 1985, is different from doing it real life, in a movie, and seeing all of these people brutally massacred in the middle of Times Square post 2001. That's a legitimate concern, and one that I shared. Q: So the studio had reservations about the ending, because of September 11 and because people wouldn't be ready for it. But weren't you worried about changing the ending, as someone who loved the graphic novel? A: Well no, because what I did, the way I sort of convinced myself - And I don't really know what it looks like, because I've only seen a rough cut of the film, without all the FX in the end - But what I did was say, "What if they were all blown into the Hiroshima shadows, which are already set up in the book?" Then you can see the death on a grand scale, you see all the p