ABOUT
→ On the Character → Quotes → Images → VideosON THE CHARACTER:
Most information is based on the movie character, not on the book character. For sources see below!
 Adrian Veidt |
 Ozymandias |
 Bubastis |
 Logos of Veidt Enterprises |
Name: Adrian Veidt
Alias: Ozymandias
Born: 1950¹
Age: 35
Father: Friedrich Werner Veidt (deceased)²
Mother: Ingrid Renata Veidt (deceased)²
Descent: German
Home: Veidt Enterprises Tower, New York City
Occupation: Captain of industry (Veidt Enterprises)
Marital Status: Single
Net worth: $5.4 billion³
Height: 188cm / 6' 2"4
BIOGRAPHY:
Adrian was born in 1950¹ (1939 according to the comic book) as an only child to rich, german immigrants. About the same time his parents reached the USA. In his youth people started to find out, that he was incredibly intelligent, what caused him to deliberately get low marks in school and hide his supernatural intellect to arouse no further suspicion. At seventeen, his parents dead by now, he gave the fortune he had inherited away to charity. He may have wanted to proof to himself and others what he would be able to archive by himself. It's open to speculation then if the fortune of his family originated from the times of the German Nazi Regime. Actor Matthew Goode had this idea of his characters, that Adrian didn't want to profit from money, that came from such abhorrent background.
He set off to a trip following the route of Alexander the Great, whom he greatly admired, through Near and Middle East and later into Asia where he learned martial arts. His route home brought him to Alexandria, in Egypt, where he - being high on hashish - had a vision, that convinced him that the knowledge and wisdom of the pharaos would live on through him. Than he also decided to start to fight against world's evils.
Returning to the USA he became Ozymandias. In the book this was in 1958. Converting this to the dates of the movie it should have been in 1969 when he was 19 years old. Ozymandias is the greek name for Ramesses the Great a.k.a. Ramesses II, who Adrian admired highly, too.
As a vigilante he concentrated on organized crime, particularly on drug smuggling operations.
In 1970 he made an attempt on uniting the active vigiliantes to a strategically operating group. His defeat in this came by the hands of the Comedian, who pointed the futility of such operations out whereas there's the threat of nuclear war lurking around the corner.
Seeing how the public opinion was turning against the masked vigilantes Adrian revealed his true identity in 1975, two years before the Keene Act of 1977 rendered it illegale to wear a mask and fight crime.
Hereon Adrian concentrated on a new plan, trying to save the world and humanity from self-destruction. He built a multi-billion Dollar enterprise out of mere nothing, selling nearly everything from parfume to sportshoes, from diet-books to toys. Veidt Enterprises furthermore include among others a music network (tv station), an airline and logistic and delivering services.
In the 1980's he started his work with Dr. Manhattan to built a reactor, that was capable of replicating the power of Dr. Manhattan. In interviews Adrian stated that the reactor is meant to create free energy for everyone as he believes that the Cold War with the Russians is based not on ideological differences but on the fear of not having enough resources. Adrian explained that by making resources infinite he hopes to make war obsolete.
At the end of the movie however one will find out that the purpose of the reactor was a completely different: by replicating the power of Dr. Manhattan Adrian destroys the city-centers of some of the biggest cities in the world like New York, HongKong, London, Paris, Moscow and Los Angeles. He makes the world believe that it was Dr. Manhattan who killed the 15million people dying in these attacks what leads the USA and Russia to lay aside their former differences and unite to be able to fight against Dr. Manhattan. As Adrian states it: He killed millions to save billions.
CHARACTER:
As actor Matthew Goode put it, Adrian is completely "about hiding, and what's true and what isn't". That is why it is so hard to figure him out. He possesses the power of completely hiding what is truly going on in his head.
At the beginning of the movie we see this business man dressed in fine, purple suits, living in that architectural very modern tower in the center of New York City, giving interviews, discussing business strategies, talking about world peace and antiquity's teachings, showing his wealth in all his appearances. We learn that he is supposed to be the smartest man in the world, that he is earning millions by selling action figures of himself and his vigilante comrades and that he is building a reactor in Antartica with which he wants to create free power for all the world. Adrian's public persona is frequently donating to charity, he's a vegetarian, a pacifist.
And then there is hidden behind his self-control a person who is able to persue a plan for about 15 years, systematically erasing all obstacles, building a billion-dollar enterprise just as a by-product to be able to fund his research and his master-plan, quieting the voice of his conscience with the thought that there has to be sacrifice or there will be no peace.
Either of both, his public and his real persona, are very dominant no matter if he is talking to other captains of industrie, reporters or to the once comrades-in-arms which come to him in order to stop him. He is very self-controlled and composed, talking slowing, clearly and articulate. As much as he is in control of his body and mind he is in control of his conscience. Only once in the movie we find him asking if what he did was right, when he turns to Dr. Manhattan. But he doesn't find an answer there. At any other point he is able to quiet his conscience even at that moment when he kills his genetically altered lynx Bubastis to lure Dr. Manhattan into a trap.
What makes Adrian a special one among all those movie villains is that he doesn't have the flaw of talking too much and thereby spilling his master-plan in front of the good guys. Where the villains of many, many movies explain in detail what they are about to do and thereby delivering the solutions for the good guys on how to stop the bad one, this scene is different in Watchmen. When Nite-Owl II and Rorschach face Ozymandias in Karnack, when he tells them about his master-stroke and when Rorschach concludes, that they will not let him do that, Adrian answers: "I'm not a comic book villain. I triggered it 35 minutes ago." making him once again the dominant.
ABILITY:
Adrian is referred to as being the smartest man in the world. Whether this saying originated in his crimefighting or in his business man times we do not find out. He has a superb physique and is in top condition. Though he quit his crimefighting at least two years before the others he didn't lose his supreme fitness due to a hard fitness regimen. Furthermore he is incredibly fast most likely because he uses the whole capacity and speed of his brain. He is even able to predict the movements of enemies or when the trigger of a gun will be pulled. The last rendered him able to catch a bullet out of the air that was shot at him by Silk Spectre II.
GOOD OR EVIL?
There is the saying "The way to hell is paved with good intentions". It is true for Adrian. His initial idea is to save the world and humanity. That is why he started to fight crime. That is why he tried to unite the Watchmen. But as the Comedian convinces him that it is the nature of humanity to head for selfdestruction Adrian concludes that there is only one way to save humanity: by tricking it into peace.
President Nixon is just about to press the button to launch the USA's nukes on Russia, thereby starting World War III and the Overture to the end of the world, when Adrian's attack hits the biggest key-regions on the globe. With millions of people dead the USA and Russia end their Cold War and unite to fight Dr. Manhattan who they then understand as a common enemy.
Adrian concludes that this is his victory, that he saved the earth from hell, while on the other hand he explains that he felt every death. One of the big phrases of the movie is "A world united in peace, there had to be sacrifice", one of the big questions is, if you had the power, either mentally or physically to create world peace would you do it - even though you would have to kill millions of people to archive this goal?
Adrian creates a false peace. A peace that is based on a lie. But it is peace nonetheless and at the brink of descruction he saved the world. So, does the end sanctify the means? And is he good or evil?
OZYMANDIAS:
The first two lines of the poem "Ozymandias" by Percy Bysshe Shelley (1817) are inscribed in Karnack, Adrian's hideout in Antartica.
"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!'
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
SOURCES:
¹ p.37, "The Film Companion" by Peter Aperlo/Titan Books, Jan. 2009. (Year of birth: The Comedian 1918, Nite Owl II 1950, Silk Spectre II 1953, Dr. Manhattan 1930, Rorschach 1942, Ozymandias 1950)
² p.89, "The Film Companion" by Peter Aperlo/Titan Books, Jan. 2009.
³ according to Forbes Fictional 15 he's number 10 of the 15 richest fictional characters. 12/18/2008.
4 Height of Matthew Goode.