“Watchmen” (2009) is a unique superhero film in the sense that there is no specific protagonist or antagonist. The Minutemen and Watchmen, two groups of superheroes, altered or influenced the history of America as well as the world. Zack Snyder, the director of the film, smartly revealed what has changed over the years through a 5:30-minute intro using some real-life events with added fictional aspects. In this article, we are going to explore the connections between the fictional narrative and real events.
August 6, 1945. America dropped an atomic bomb named ‘Little Boy’ on Hiroshima, Japan during World War II. A USAAF B-29 bomber named ‘Enola Gay’ carried and dropped the bomb. Here in the movie, a plane named ‘Miss Jupiter’ replaced ‘Enola Gay’ in that event. There’s a photo of Sally Jupiter painted on the body of the plane just like ‘Bockscar’ had the photo of the pumpkin bomb ‘Fat Man’ drawn on it.
V-J Day Kiss
One of Alfred Eisenstaedt’s iconic photographs is “The V-J Kiss.” A U.S. Navy sailor kissing a random stranger (a nurse) at Times Square to celebrate V-J Day. In the movie, we find the lesbian vigilante Silhouette is the one who is kissing the nurse.
Assassination of John F. Kenedy
John F. Kennedy, the 35th president of the United States, was assassinated while leaving a car with his wife. The murder is a mystery to this day. But here in the intro, we get to see that the Comedian is the mysterious guy who shot the President.
Buddhist Monk Immolation, Vietnam
While Silk Spectre and her husband are having a fight about something that we don’t know, the camera pans towards the television where we see a man burning on the street and hundreds of people standing around. Text on the screen says “VIETNAM WAR ESCALATES.” The burning man was Thich Quang Duc, a Buddhist monk who immolated himself while protesting in South Vietnam back in 1963. Malcolm Browne took a bunch of photos of that moment, and those photos shook the whole world. I don’t know if the footage shown on the TV is real or recreated. Either way, it works perfectly to narrate the timeline.
Fidel Castro and Leonid
In a scene of the intro, we see Fidel Castro and Leonid Brezhnev standing in front of Lenin’s Mausoleum in Kremlin, Russia. Both of them follow a military parade plane flying over their heads. As the camera moves upward, we see ground vehicles carrying missiles. That particular scene shows that Russia has its own nuclear weapons and they are ready for war.
Flower Power
During the ‘Vietnam Anti-War Movement’ in 1967, Jan Rose Kasmir, a young American girl stood in front of a Pentagon guard’s gunpoint holding a flower as a symbol of peace. French-American photographer Elliott Erwitt captured that magical moment. Zack Snyder showed his own version of Flower power in the intro where the young girl has a flower painted on her cheek and unlike the real event, she alongside other protestors gets killed by the open fire.
Andy Warhol’s Exhibition
In the alternate reality, Andy Warhol is standing in front of his pop-art series in an exhibition where we see he chose Nite Owl 2 as the subject of his artwork instead of Marilyn Monroe. The silkscreen pop art of Nite Owl has replaced “Shot-Marilyn.” With a closer look, you’ll find other artworks of him on Rorschach and Ozymandias in the background. This means, in that particular reality, members of the Watchmen are the biggest celebrities and since Andy’s artworks are mainly celebrity-focused, vigilantes took the places of celebrities like Marilyn or Muhammad Ali.
Neil Armstrong on the moon
Landing on the moon was crucial to the America-Soviet Union Cold War. It was like a competition; whoever lands first wins the game. And we all know America won the race. Neil Armstrong was the first human to step on the moon. In the movie, Neil lands on the moon with the help of Dr. Manhattan, as we see him in the reflection of the astronaut’s suit, holding the camera, probably recording video.
A fun part of this scene is Neil Armstrong saying “Good luck Mr. Gorsky” as a nod to the urban legend. For those who don’t know the context, let me explain briefly. There’s a rumor that when Neil Armstrong was a kid, he overheard an argument between Mr. and Mrs. Gorsky, where Mrs. Gorsky refused to give Mr. Gorsky oral sex, saying, “You want oral sex? I’ll give you oral sex when the kid next door (Neil) steps on the moon.”
Well, good for Mr. Gorsky because boy from his next door made it to the moon.
Nixon Elected!
In the intro, Richard Nixon got elected as president for the third time in a row, and people are really pissed about it. They are causing a riot. Whereas in reality, Nixon had to resign from the presidency during his second term after his involvement in the Watergate scandal was leaked in 1972.
