Watchmen Ending Changed, Test Screening Spoilers

By Josh Tyler: 2008-10-20 01:13:01

Last week there was a not-so-secret test screening of Watchmen in Portland, and if you’ve been wondering why the internet hasn’t been flooded with scooper reports from plants snuck in by AICN, then wonder no longer. Everyone in attendance was invited long before news of the screening leaked, and all of the movie nerds trying to sneak their correspondence into it were stonewalled.

That hasn’t stopped some of those who were in attendance to veer around their confidentiality agreements and attempt to post their reactions. The folks at ComicBookMovie spent the weekend refreshing Watchmen’s IMDB page as moviegoers attempted to post their reactions, only to have them swiftly deleted by IMDB’s administrators, who are apparently in the pay of Warner Bros. The CBM guys were however, able to copy/paste a few of their comments before they vanished, and what they reveal about Watchmen is nothing short of a monster spoiler

Read no further if you don’t want the end of the movie spoiled for you. You’ve been warned.

Hey, I said stop reading!

According to reports from IMDB users, the ending of the film is entirely different from the finale of the comic. In the original story, the big reveal at the end happens when Ozymandias fakes an alien attack on New York, by dropping what amounts to a giant octopus in the middle of the city and nuking everyone in site. In Zack Snyder’s movie, that’s not what happens. Instead, Ozymandias convinces Dr. Manhattan to go nuclear on the world’s major cities, in an effort to unite the world against him.

As a fan of the book, I have to say that sounds kind of awful. I mean really awful. It undermines just about everything that made the original book so wonderfully poignant and thought provoking. But most of the IMDB scoopers, even the ones who were a fan of the comic, seem to agree it works. In fact, the comments posted by CBM are filled with nothing but praise for the film. There is speculation however, that the ending may be a fake, invented to keep the real finale a secret from test screeners. That wouldn’t make much sense though, since the movie is adapted from a book, and we all sort of know the alternative to this ending already, don’t we? Besides, if Snyder was using the ending in the book, then it’s something that would have been foreshadowed throughout the film, as it was in the book. Of course that foreshadowing is intertwined with the Black Freighter, which we already know isn’t in the film. That this new ending is a fake seems unlikely, from where I’m sitting in my comfy chair in Texas. It sounds like the alien squid is out, and Dr. Manhattan going nuclear is in.

Click over to ComicBookMovie, to read all of their test screening reactions salvaged from the IMDB deletion bin.

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David
October 22, 2008 at 00:01

This could explain what went wrong in Iraq - why no weapons of mass destruction were found. No one was looking for squids.

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phil
October 21, 2008 at 02:50

Well then what would be the point of when the comedien pays moloch a visit? Comedien finds out about Veidts little plan on one of the little US governmnet sponsored missions he was on and thats why Veidt killed him. I would hate to see Dr MAnhattan become some kind of duex machina where he is just convinced to go kaboom...it is obvious throught the entire book that he does not care anything for humans but only to see Juspaczk happy...and when she ends up with drieberg he smiles and disappears (probably to mars)

I just see a lot of holes if it ends like this.

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Frank
October 20, 2008 at 03:35

I hate to break it to all the Alan Moore peeps out there but the giant squid descending on Manhattan would be kind of anti-climactic for a movie. I know it's largely the point of the book - that it was so horrible you were only supposed to feel slapped in the face with it but I think Zack Snyder is making a smart move here if is taking his liberties. Not like Moore cares either way.

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Watchmen Ending Changed, Test Screening Spoilers

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