Watchmen (2009)

Billy Crudup: Dr. Manhattan, Jon Osterman

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Quotes 

• Dr. Manhattan : She was pregnant. And you gunned her down.

  Edward Blake : That's right. And you know what, you watched me. You could've turned the gun into steam, the bullets into mercury, the bottle into goddamned snowflakes but you didn't, did you? You really don't give a damn about human beings. You're driftin' out of touch, Doc. God help us all.

• Jon Osterman : Will you smile? If I admit I was wrong?

  Laurie Juspeczyk : About what?

  Jon Osterman : Miracles. Events with astronomical odds of occurring, like oxygen turning into gold. I've longed to witness such an event, and yet I neglect that in human coupling, millions upon millions of cells compete to create life, for generation after generation until, finally, your mother loves a man, Edward Blake, the Comedian, a man she has every reason to hate, and out of that contradiction, against unfathomable odds, it's you - only you - that emerged. To distill so specific a form, from all that chaos. It's like turning air into gold. A miracle. And so... I was wrong. Now dry your eyes, and let's go home.

• Adrian Veidt : [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 Veidt : Will they? By exposing me, you would sacrifice the peace so many died for today.

  Dan Dreiberg : Peace based on a lie.

  Adrian Veidt : But peace! Nonetheless.

  Jon Osterman : ...He's right. Exposing Adrian would only doom the world to Nuclear destruction again.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : No... we can't do this.

  Jon Osterman : 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...

  [the others look as Rorscach leaves, then Jon and Adrian make eye contact] 

  Dan Dreiberg : Don't even think about it.

  [Goes after Rorscach] 

  Dan Dreiberg : Rorscach! 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 Veidt : I've made myself feel every death... see every innocent face I've murdered to save humanity.

  [Turns to Jon] 

  Adrian Veidt : You understand, don't you?

  Jon Osterman : Without condoning... or condemning. I understand.

  Rorschach : [Outside, in the snow, Rorscach comes across a copy of Jon standing in the snow]  Out of my way. People have to be told.

  Jon Osterman : You know I can't let you do that.

  Rorschach : Suddenly you discover humanity. Convenient.

  [Takes off his mask] 

  Rorschach : If you'd cared from the start, none of this would've happened.

  Jon Osterman : I can change almost anything... but I can't change human nature.

  Rorschach : Of course, you must protect Veidt's new Utopia. One more body amongst foundations makes little difference. Well, what are you waiting for? Do it...

  [Jon hesitates] 

  Rorschach : DO IT!

  [Jon makes Rorscach explode into a pile of blood] 

  Dan Dreiberg : NOOOOOOOO!

• Jon Osterman : In my opinion, the existence of life is a highly overrated phenomenon.

• Laurie Juspeczyk : The most powerful thing in the universe... still just a puppet.

  Jon Osterman : We are all puppets, Laurie. I'm just the puppet who can see the strings.

• Jon Osterman : Reassembling myself was the first trick I learned. It didn't kill Osterman... did you really think it would kill me? I have walked across the surface of the Sun. I have witnessed events so tiny and so fast they can hardly be said to have occurred at all. But you, Adrian, you're just a man. The world's smartest man poses no more threat to me than does its smartest termite.

• Laurie Juspeczyk : Everyone will die!

  Jon Osterman : And the universe will not even notice.

• Jon Osterman : I am looking at the stars. They are so far away, and their light takes so long to reach us. All we ever see of stars is their old photographs.

• Dr. Manhattan : I feel fear, for the last time.

• Dr. Manhattan : [remembering Janey while on Mars]  Janey accuses me of chasing jailbait. She bursts into angry tears, asking if it's because she's getting older. It's true. She's aging more noticeably every day - while I am standing still. I prefer the stillness here. I am tired of Earth. These people. I am tired of being caught in the tangle of their lives.

• Dr. Manhattan : They claim their labors are to build a heaven, yet their heaven is populated by horrors. Perhaps the world is not made. Perhaps nothing is made. A clock without a craftsman. It's too late. Always has been, always will be. Too late.

• Janet Black : Doctor Manhattan as you know the Doomsday Clock is a symbolic clock face analogizing humankind's proximity to extinction, midnight representing the threat of nuclear war. As of now it stands at four minutes to midnight. Would you agree that we are that close to annihilation?

  Jon Osterman : My father was a watch maker. He abandoned it when Einstein discovered time is relative. I would only agree that a symbolic clock is as nourishing to the intellect as a photograph of oxygen to a drowning man.

• Jon Osterman : What is this? Another ultimate weapon?

  Adrian Veidt : Yes. You could say that.

  [Veidt turns on TVs with remote] 

• Jon Osterman : Your mind goes to dark places and you wonder why I keep the worst from you.

• Dr. Manhattan : You're my only remaining link to the world.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : I don't want that responsibility anymore.

  [to Adrian as she walks out] 

  Laurie Juspeczyk : He's all yours.

  Adrian Veidt : Don't worry John, she'll be back.

  Dr. Manhattan : No she won't.

• Dr. Manhattan : Adrian, stop this. The tachyons were clever. But even if I can't predict where you are I can still turn the walls to glass. I should thank you. I'd almost forgotten the excitement of *not* knowing. The delights of uncertainty.

• [as they ascend a flight of glass stairs on Mars] 

  Jon Osterman : This is where we hold our conversation. In it, you reveal to me that you and Dreiberg have been sleeping together.

  [suddenly taken aback] 

  Laurie Juspeczyk : You know about me and Dan?

  Jon Osterman : Not yet. But in a few moments, you're going to tell me.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : If you already know the future, then why were you surprised when I left you? Or when that reporter ambushed you? Why even argue about it if you already know how this is going to end?

  Jon Osterman : I have no choice. Everything is preordained... even my responses.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : And you're just going through the motions? The most powerful thing in the universe is still just a puppet...

  Jon Osterman : We are all puppets, Laurie. I'm just the puppet who can see the strings.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : And what if you're wrong?

  Jon Osterman : Why does my perception of time distress you so?

  Laurie Juspeczyk : Because it's inhuman. Because it makes me insane. You always say you wanna comfort me. Well, it isn't working. Look, I don't want to fight. I'm sorry I slept with Dan.

  [suddenly upset] 

  Jon Osterman : You slept with Dan?

  Laurie Juspeczyk : You just said that you already knew about that.

  Jon Osterman : I said - *often* - that you were my only remaining link to humanity. Why would I save a world I no longer have any stake in?

  Laurie Juspeczyk : Then, do it for me... if you really care.

  Jon Osterman : When you left me, I left Earth. Does that not show you that I care? My red world here, now, means more to me than your blue one. Let me show you.

• Jon Osterman : A live human body and a deceased human body have the same number of particles. Structurally there's no difference.

• Jon Osterman : Miracles by their definition are meaningless, only what can happen does happen.

• Jon Osterman : I'm disappointed in you, Adrian! Very disappointed! Re-assembling myself was the first trick I learned as Dr Manhattan!

• Jon Osterman : Why would I save a world I no longer have any stake in?

  Laurie Juspeczyk : Do it for me.

• Dr. Manhattan : In January 1971, President Nixon asks me to intervene in Vietnam, something that his predecessors would *not* ask. A week later the conflict ends. Some of the Viet Cong want to surrender to me personally.

• Adrian Veidt : [Nixon finishes his speech on Veidt's TVs]  Do you see? Two 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 Veidt : Will they? By exposing me, you would sacrifice the peace so many died for today.

  Dan Dreiberg : Peace based on a lie.

  Adrian Veidt : But peace! Nonetheless.

  Jon Osterman : ...He's right. Exposing Adrian would only doom the world to Nuclear destruction again.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : No... we can't do this.

  Jon Osterman : 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...

  [the others look as Rorscach leaves, then Jon and Adrian make eye contact] 

  Dan Dreiberg : Don't even think about it.

  [Goes after Rorscach] 

  Dan Dreiberg : Rorscach! 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 Veidt : I've made myself feel every death... see every innocent face I've murdered to save humanity.

  [Turns to Jon] 

  Adrian Veidt : You understand, don't you?

  Jon Osterman : Without condoning... or condemning. I understand.

• Dr. Manhattan : If the United States and Soviet Union engage in all-out war the resulting blast wave would produce a sudden burst of tachyons... particles which travel backward through what... *you* perceive as time... therefore obscuring my vision of the present.

• Jon Osterman : When you left me, I left Earth.

• Laurie Juspeczyk : John! The TV said you were on Mars.

  Dr. Manhattan : I am on Mars. You and I are about to have a conversation there.

  Laurie Juspeczyk : What are you talking about?

  Dr. Manhattan : You're going to try to convince me to save the world.

• Dr. Manhattan : If the Americans and the Russians engage in all-out Nuclear War, the blast of Tachyons would travel backwards though what you perceive as Time and obscure my view of the Present.