Watchmen
Rorschach investigates the murder of a costumed fighter called The Comedian
Detectives identify him as Edward Blake
Rorschach warns a former ally named Dan Dreiberg about a possible mask-killer
Dreiberg’s alter-ego was known as Nite-Owl II
Rorschach warns Adrian Veidt aka Ozymandias who doesn’t necessarily believe the mask-killer theory
Adrian believes it may have been a political murder by the Soviets as Blake was a government agent and the year is 1985
Rorschach goes to warn Dr. Jon Osterman and Laurie Juspeczyk aka Dr. Manhattan and Silk Spectre II. He’s basically ignored
Adrian, Manhattan, and Dan attend Blake’s funeral and remember him in different ways:
Adrian: When the group first came together as The Crimebusters 19 years before, he recalls Blake’s cynicism
Manhattan: Remembers Blake gunning down a pregnant Vietnamese woman through his doing after she scratches his face because he rejects her
Dan: Remembers Blake using brute force to deal with unruly citizens
Laurie’s mother, Sally, recalls how Blake tried to rape her 40 years ago
Rorschach busts into the apartment of Blake’s former enemy Moloch to inquire why he was at Blake’s funeral
Moloch tells him Blake showed up mad late at night one time and was hysterically upset about something
Dr. Manhattan attends a live interview for a talk show where an interviewer accuses him of giving cancer to his deceased best friend, former enemy Moloch, and ex-girlfriend Janey Slater
Manhattan teleports everyone out then teleports himself to Gila Flats Test Base in Arizona and then to Mars
From Arizona he picked up an old photograph of him and Janey and reminisces how they met and fell in love
He recalls 1945 when he was 16 and learned how to put the pieces of a watch together
On May 12th, 1959, he meets Janey. Two months later they make love and in August, Dr. Osterman has an accident
He is trapped inside an intrinsic field test chamber and is completely disintegrated
In November of 59’, Dr. Osterman returns with different physical makeup and blue body
The government dubs him Dr. Manhattan
Manhattan meets 16-year old Laurie at the 66’ inaugural and only meeting of the Crimebusters and begins an affair. Janey leaves him the same year
Manhattan and Blake get reacquainted in March 71’ during the Vietnam War
Adrian unmasks and retires in ‘75
In ‘77, the Keene Act is passed, outlawing vigilantism. Manhattan and Blake are exempt as government operatives, Silk Spectre II and Nite-Owl II are forced to retire, and Rorschach continues
Manhattan forsakes Earth and makes a new home on Mars
An assassination attempt is made on Veidt who easily kills his would-be assassin
An anonymous call is made to the detectives of Rorschach’s whereabouts
Rorschach is caught at Moloch’s apartment after finding him dead
He’s admitted into prison and is assigned a psychologist
He began killing bad men after encountering a man who fed a girl to his dogs
Nite-Owl and Silk Spectre begin a sexual relationship
They take Rorschach out of prison
When they all return to Nite-Owl’s palce, Manhattan is there waiting for Laurie
A gang known as the Knot-Tops are not happy about Rorschach’s release and mistakenly go after the wrong Nite-Owl (original) in retaliation and kill him
Laurie goes with Manhattan to Mars where they discuss her sleeping with Dan even though Manhattan already knew it was coming
He explains that time is predetermined from beginning to end and that his link to Earth was broken when Laurie cheated on him therefore feeling no obligation to save it from Armageddon (Cold War)
He considers human life insignificant compared to the rest of the universe
Manhattan witnesses his future and sees dead bodies as well as him killing someone in snow but it is obscured due to some sort of interference
Laurie comes to the realization that Comedian was her father
Manhattan sees the value of life when he admits how astronomical human conception is and the uniqueness and individuality of humans. He has a change of heart to save Earth
Rorschach and Nite-Owl partner up and squeeze names out of people. Nite-Owl finds out about Hollis Mason (Nite-Owl I) and almost kills a Knot-Top
They pick up clues from a man at a bar that he was ordered by his boss from a company called Pyramid to hire any hitman, target irrelevant, so he didn’t know it was going to be Veidt
They go to warn Veidt at his company Veidt International and discover he’s behind everything
They make plans to confront him in Antarctica
Once there, he reveals his solution to handle the approaching Apocalypse in steps:
1. Removing Manhattan by making him think he gave cancer to people. Janey Slater, Moloch, and Wally Weaver were hired by Veidt’s company Dimensional Developments and were exposed to radiation
2. Adrian murdered Comedian when Comedian found out Veidt planned to trick the world into salvation through fear
3. Comedian discovered artists and geneticists working on a monster which was related to Veidt’s research on genetics and teleportation
4. Blake’s characteristic cynicism was nowhere to be found when he discovered Veidt’s plan to frighten governments into cooperation by convincing them that Earth would be attacked by aliens. This shocked Blake who told nobody except Moloch because he knew it would work
5. Veidt stole psychiatric reports o Jon (Manhattan) which indicated mental withdrawal and then used the cancer allegations to expedite Jon’s self-exile
6. To quell Rorschach’s mask-killer theory, Veidt hired the assassin, placing himself beyond suspicion
7. Veidt will teleport the monster to New York City where it will release a psychic backlash killing half its population. He tells R and N.O he actually did it 35 minutes ago so as to not have any interference
New York explodes as Jon and Laurie arrive soonafter and see the carnage
N.O and R are in disbelief as Veidt also explains that the survivors will be driven mad by a psychic transmission from the monster which will flood their minds with negative imagery
Veidt claims this catastrophe will bring the world together and he’s taken care of all loose ends
Manhattan traces the tachyons that interfered with his clairvoyance and precognition and traces them to Veidt’s location. Laurie goes with him
Manhattan confronts Veidt who attempts to disintegrate Jon the same way as before. It fails
Laurie shoots Veidt who actually catches the bullet
Veidt brings the point home to all of them that that they failed
Manhattan rematerializes himself. Veidt shows him on tv that World War III has been avoided as the entire world feels sympathy for America including Russia
Manhattan, without condemning or condoning, understands
Rorschach refuses to compromise, even in the face of Armageddon
Manhattan reluctantly kills Rorschach after he says the world must know
Veidt weighs the justification of his actions and seeks validation from Jon that he did the right thing in the end. Jon tells him nothing ever ends
Dreiberg and Laurie take up new identities and live together
A journalist finds Rorschach’s journal in a bin