We are no one. We are everyone and we are invisible. We convinced
ourselves that they were gone, but they were just hibernating. They came for
everybody, all police
I guess we have ourselves for reckoning.
What are you two talking about? oh nothing, just the end of the world.
Hey guys, Pete here. Today I'm gonna go back and breakdown Watchmen HBO's first
trailer. There's been a slow drip of information coming out about Damon
Lindelof's take on the iconic Watchmen series to this point, but I am expecting
that we're gonna get a lot more during the upcoming comic-con in San Diego this
weekend. so this trailer is a couple months old but for the sake of
completeness I wanted to break it down scene by scene because that's the thing
I like to do. Before we begin this will contain spoilers for the original
Watchmen comic series/book. I made a video explaining why I think you
should read it before you dive into the show if you haven't done that already
and I strongly recommend this. I'll put a link up top to that. it probably takes
less than eight hours to get through and I think it's completely worth it.
Watchmen on HBO probably won't premiere until October so you do have time and
there's no real way to break down this trailer without spoiling the ending of
the original Watchmen story - so this is the final warning. Now, let's break down
the trailer scene-by-scene. The trailer opens with a close-up shot
of a man wearing a homemade mask that looks similar to the one the character
Rorschach wears in the original comic. I used the word homemade because the
original mask was made with a futuristic fabric where the black and white moved
around under the surface but never mixed together. it's clear that the masks in
the trailer aren't made of that and therefore are likely a tribute to
Rorschach who died at the end of the comic. Before his death he mailed his
journal to a right-wing newspaper and this opening sequence appears to
indicate that it was eventually published. As the shot pans out we see
that there is a whole gang of people wearing Rorschach masks and we hear the
first voice over, "we are no one, we are everyone, and we are invisible." Behind the
gang which looks to be all men we see a crucifixion that has the words of Psalm
65 above it "Praise waiteth for thee Oh God in Zion" we see that they're occupying an
old church and this verse definitely adds some cult-like vibes. the
crucifixion is tilted which could be a nod to a clock just past midnight.
the next scene is of a pocketwatch the character is holding it gives it a flick
with his finger and we see that the time is nine minutes to midnight after the
flick we hear a mantra like repetition of the words - "Tick Tock, Tick Tock" and those
carry on throughout most of the trailer. The original Watchmen book used repeated
images of clocks counting down to midnight so this seems like a nod to
that but in his letter to fans about the project Lindelof said that the end of
the world was off the table. I'll talk a little more about that in the discussion
after we get through all the scenes. In the next shot we see a new character
Chief Judge Crawford addressing a roomful of masked police officers he says, "We
convinced ourselves that they were gone, but they were just hibernating." the chief
himself isn't wearing a mask but it appears that all the other officers are
when we scan the room. my guess is that his words refer to the Rorschachs over
at the church who we see again in the next scene. we watch them rolling out of
a van and moving together as a group they're armed and we see one of them
pump a shotgun as they go. the sequence is short and there aren't a lot of
visual clues as to where they are or who they're approaching chief Crawford's
voiceover continues saying, "they came for everybody, all police" as he's speaking we
cut from the Rorschach's to a cemetery where a police funeral is taking place
it looks like most of the funeral goers are police officers and they are all
wearing their masks we catch a quick glimpse of the American flag on the
casket we see that the stars are arranged in a circle and that coupled
with the shot of the Washington Monument with the Skywalk built around the top of
it serve as a reminder that even though the watchman universe resembles our
world that it is indeed an alternate reality this brings to mind the
cigarettes or the fast-food being different in the graphic novel small
hints that the world looks the same but is actually different from there we cut
to the character Cal Abraham asking his wife Angela, "Are we safe?" and we see them
embrace this looks like a possible flashback to a time before the fighting
between the Rorschach's and the police picked up they look happy and it cuts to
a night shot of Angela looking intense in her car which is obviously a contrast
to the couple being together then we see her full costume in a locker which looks
like a callback to the comics when Rorschach discovers the Comedian's
costume or like the Night Owl locker in his workshop it's not clear
where she keeps her costume but we see Angela don in the next scene and when
you notice that it includes her badge and that she wears a pair of beads
around her waist from there we get a full shot of her mask at a crime scene
and a new voiceover cuts in this sounds like the actor who plays the new
character Looking Glass and says, "I guess we have ourselves a reckoning." this comes
along with our first shot of Looking Glass with his mask that looks like a
wearable mirror more or less he appears to work for the police alongside Angela
and we'll get a better look at him in a minute there's a quick shot of a truck
driving away from a residence not much we can gather from this but it looks
like there are police stationed at the end of the drive as a protective measure
we get another glimpse of a new character named Special Agent Blake in
the next scene she appears to be looking at a laptop with a heavy-duty case Blake
is the last name of the Comedian from the original story that leaves us to
guess that there's probably a family connection the timing is weird though
since the story takes place 30 years after the original story it's not
exactly clear how these two could be related Comedian was a member of the
Minutemen in 1939 he died in 1985 and he would be pushing like a hundred if he
was still alive right now the actress who plays Special Agent Blake is in her
late 60's so your guess is as good as mine after that there's a shot of a
carnival with a bunch of people laying around on the ground like they dropped
exactly where they were standing I say laying around because they
certainly could be dead but there aren't any signs of violence no blood no smoke
no impact craters just people on the ground if you zoom in and look closely
there are some flames on a vehicle of some sort and a couple random people
standing up looking around really can't say for sure what's going on here
there's a quick look at a kitchen timer that's going off with a loud ringing
then we get our first look at the costume adventurer Ozymandias aka
Adrian Veidt who is the one original character that we know is returning he's
meditating which we've seen him do in the past the last time we saw him do
this it was after he sent a giant squid to kill millions of people in New York
City he killed millions to save billions in
his point of view and this trailer could be hinting
he has another plan like that in mind we see a foreign soldier looking fellow
striking a match on his shoe he looks like he would be a leader or a officer
in the military of some unknown country and by this time the kitchen timer alarm
and the Rorschach's tick tocks are getting pretty intense we see Angela in a
camper attack an unknown character who isn't wearing a mask
it looks like the beads she wears on her waist are a weapon and they look pretty
effective as she strikes this guy and that leads us into an action-packed
sequence where it's a bunch of stuff going on first we see lights lit up
around what looks like a farmhouse there are cows an old car in the yard and some
blazing lights inside the tree line we see the chief shield his eyes which
means he might be on the scene witnessing this all go down then there's
a cut to Ozymandias riding a horse past a pirate flag that is hanging from a
scythe this feels like a reference to the pirate comic inside the Watchmen comic
called the Black Freighter but that doesn't really explain why Adrian is
riding a horse past it we also see a shot of what I'm guessing is Ozy /
Adrian's castle from a distance and those two shots are probably connected
then we cut back to the farmhouse and see that the Rorschachs have brought
the big guns literally they have what looks like a 50 caliber machine gun
which would be bad news for anyone it's pointed at and they are unloading some
bullets we transition to some unfamiliar new characters looking up at the sky one
of them's holding a baby this directly follows the machine-gun scene but they
don't look like the targets based on the fact that they're not running for cover
after that we see what looks like the Night Owl's airship Archie falling from
the sky engulfed in flames this is interesting on a lot of levels since
there's been no mention of Night Owl or Silk Spectre in the casting we've seen
so far even though both characters could still be alive the ship will apparently
make an appearance even if the characters don't but unfortunately it
looks to be on the losing end of this conflict there's another quick shot of
Adrian Veidt pushing the plunger of a cartoon villain detonator this could be
related to the people we saw on the ground at the carnival or it could be
something else entirely there's a quick shot of police firing a salute at the
funeral that leads into a are looking sequence of Looking Glass
surrounded by projection screens the screen show images of cowboys soldiers
and nuclear mushroom clouds in his mask we can see the reflection of someone
possibly Ozymandias but there's no real way to tell and there's no explanation
for why he's sitting surrounded by these screens next we get a look at another
new character named Pirate Jenny she's wearing a mask cocking a rifle and
heading to the back of a prisoner transport truck she looks to be working
for the police as do all the costume adventurers we see except for the
Rorschachs of course and it cuts back to them as their tick-tock chant
climaxes the background sounds stop and there's a final scene with the chief we
see that he's talking to someone off-screen
a woman's voice asked what they're talking about and he replies, "oh nothing,
just the end of the world," and with the wink and a smile he adds, "tick tock, tick
tock" giving us a connection with the Rorschachs. The Watchmen HBO's season 1
trailer ends there and it gives us a lot to speculate about I mentioned that I
would talk a little more about Damon Lindelof saying that the end of the
world was off the table because i find that interesting one of the things i
liked about the original Watchmen story is that threat of nuclear destruction
that's always looming in the background for those of us who grew up in the 80s
this is a very real threat maybe not so much nowadays for people who are younger
since he mentioned the end of the world is off the table it makes you wonder
what will be the current equivalent to that underlying threat since the
Watchmen universe is an alternate version of our own world it'll be really
interesting to see how they use the events that happened at the end of the
book in shaping the world that all these new characters live in it brings up so
many questions as well if Rorschachs journal got out and is
influencing the group of characters going to battle with the police how is
it that Adrian Veidt is living in a castle pushing plungers of what could be
new doomsday devices? how come all the modern costume adventurers seemed to not
just be working with the police but actually look a lot more like police
officers first and foremost? how long did Richard Nixon remain president after
securing his third term? what's up with Night Owl 2, Silk Spectre 2, and Dr.
Manhattan? are we going to see any of those characters in the HBO series? the
possibilities are endless and in all amounts to some
to get excited about I love Damon Lindelof's last show the Leftovers and
think this has a real chance of being a fantastic take on the time after a
really great story that was the original Watchmen graphic novel I think that
Lindelof has shown that he has a real love and respect for the source material
and I'm really curious to see how he takes things into the future of this
Watchmen universe so let me know what you think how is this universe different
than ours is that Washington Monument actually in Washington because that
doesn't really look like the National Mall to me? will the Rorschach's be the
big bad or are they a stepping stone to get us into the bigger story that HBO is
trying to tell? let me know in the comments let me know what questions you
have what you're excited about and any fears you have about a new story
based in this hallowed ground of the Watchmen universe please like the video
if you enjoyed it please subscribe to my channel I'll be doing plenty of watchman
videos throughout the time leading up to season 1 and definitely all the way
through that's it for today thanks for watching I'll talk to you soon