Because the “nukes” were demonstrably created by Dr. Manhattan and he leveled several US cities. The Russians would have to be pretty paranoid to think Americans would do that all to prevent a nuclear war that Dr. Manhattan could have stopped in the first place. Your argument makes no sense unless the Ultimate Cut adds something substantive to the discussion.
I assume the “original vs. film ending which is better” argument has been done to death in this thread already, but you’ve just answered your own question.
In the film, Dr. Manhattan’s reactors are all in the west/3rd world, not the communist states. So all evidence that Dr. Manhattan went nuts and blown up those reactors would be 2nd hand evidence for the Soviets. Dr. Manhattan already altered the MAD dynamics in that alternative universe. When he disappeared after the TV interview, it was like American suddenly lost half of their nuclear arsenal (or even more). Then the Americans said no no no, their ultimate weapon didn’t disappear, he just went nuts, and the Doc would destroy you as well. Look, these are the 2nd hand evidence. Unless the Americans went begging on their KNEES, I don’t think the Soviets would believe it.
Even if the Soviets believe the American story, they would take advantage and say, look, Dr. Manhattan has a grudge against America (because they drove him out), not the Soviets, if you want my help fending off Dr. Mad, you got to give me something, say Alaska. World peace? I don’t think so. So the film ending just doesn’t make sense in that crazy ersatz 80s world.
In the book, the giant psychic squid ‘attacked’ Americans as well as the Soviets, so they would have the same perspective. Both sides would believe the ‘attack’ was only the first wave, and have every reason to cooperate.
Ok enough nerd rage from me.
Its been a while since I’ve read it, but I don’t remember it “attacking” the Soviets. Only NYC…
The movie ending isn’t any better even if you take out any logic as well. There was no shock with the movie ending. In the book, you open the chapter and see a bunch of atrocities whereas in the movie, I felt it was pretty removed. “Here’s a big ass crater.” Boring.
It’s also been a while for me, but I -think- off-camera there were supposed to be other giant squids around the world. We just see the one that hits NYC because that’s where most of the action’s been and that’s how we get the full impact of the carnage - seeing familiar characters broken and bloody in death.
He hadn’t asked a question.
I’m pretty sure you’re misremembering, there was never an implication that more than New York got hit.
Still doesn’t make any sense, Soma. Manhattan’s “nuclear” attack is different from normal nukes, so I imagine it’d be fairly easy to prove that they didn’t originate from classic delivery means… a delivery system which, by the way, went completely undetected until the nukes detonated. Occam’s razor and all that.
From the AMERICAN perspective it would be a ‘slam dunk’. From the Soviets’ perspective, because they knew the Doc only as America’s ultimate weapon, they would take a LOT MORE convincing that he ‘malfunctioned’.
It is like telling an ancient Greek that the earth evolves around the sun instead of the other way round. Even if you give him all the hard evidence you RATIONALLY need to convince him, he would most likely resist that idea for a while: because it is just so foreign and contradictory to his entire belief system, so he thinks it can’t be right. People are NOT perfect rational machines, they need time to absorb shocking new information. They would have cognitive dissonance, they would think of ways to refute the new information etc.
That is why there would not be sudden world peace. Maybe there will be a gradual world peace, like the fall of Berlin Wall and communism didn’t suddenly make US and Russia BFF.
Not with the giant psychic squid: the new information wouldn’t be contradictory, we all know that it is ENTIRELY possible there are extraterrestrials out there. The squid would just confirmed that possibility. At least the giant squid is MORE LIKELY to scare US and Soviets into cooperation than US’ ultimate weapon gone bad. Sure the Americans would want Soviet help, but the Soviets wouldn’t be so accommodating.
One last thing, in the book, there were dozens of psychic giant squid destroying cities all around the world, I think including Moscow.
Are you sure about that? I thought one of the points in the book was that only New York was hit, which made Russia and the world more sympathetic and less suspicious, having not been hit themselves. I need to re-read the book, I loaned it out a few years ago and never got it back.
Only NYC gets hit in the book. The multiple locations is in the movie.
I guess the disconnect is thinking America would nuke several of their own cities to stop a war that Manhattan could have stopped anyway. It’s utterly pointless. Furthermore, if Manhattan can nuke dozens of cities at once he could have simply leveled all of Russia, disabling their nuclear capabilities altogether.
Again, makes no sense!
Having never read the comic I watched this last night and really enjoyed it. I loved the tone and feel of the film even though I’m not a huge fan of comic books or their film adaptations.
I did feel that Night Owl was a bit one dimensional and couldn’t see the goody-two-shoes teaming up with Rorschach’s complete sociopath. It just didn’t gel in my mind.
Having said that Rorschach was definitely the star of the show. The film felt a little flat when he wasn’t on screen.
I really enjoyed this movie, but I think it’s sad that my favorite part of it was the opening sequence (The Times They Are A-changin section). That was so well done. I wish the rest of the movie had been that inventive.
Rorschach wasn’t always that crazy - he was more like Daniel when they were teamed up.
I think they make a point of him snapping after the little girl thing.
True, but WHEN exactly does this occur? After the Keene Act was passed and he goes solo or sometime earlier, while he was till working together with the others?
I thought he was broken when those schoolkids were teasing him.
Its been too long since I’ve read the comic, but I just check Wikipedia, and apparently the kidnapped girl incident occured in 1975 and the Keene Act was passed in 77. So, at least some of the time he teamed up with Night Owl he would’ve been a bit extreme.
However if it was the school boys and he’s basically always been that way, then obviously Daniel showed alot of tolerance and understanding to work with someone like him.