Putting the science into 'Watchmen'

By Vaneta Rogers

updated 1:47 p.m. ET March 5, 2009

When the filmmakers behind "Watchmen" wanted to understand the scientific principles behind the acclaimed graphic novel, they turned to a physics professor in Minnesota.

"They wanted to get enough of the science right that they could create an artificial reality that still felt real to the audience," said James Kakalios, a physics professor from the University of Minnesota who served as science consultant on the "Watchmen" film.

Kakalios is known among his colleagues for research in experimental condensed matter physics, but to his students, he's the professor who teaches about the comic books he loves. By relating scientific principles to the various superheroes who utilize them, Kakalios not only developed a comic-based science class for the freshmen he teaches, but used his research to write the book The Physics of Superheroes.

"A lot of comic book stories, especially going back to the Silver Age, tried to be what used to be called 'hard' science fiction. They were trying to have one impossible aspect, but have everything else be as realistic as possible," the professor explained. "So they tried to put these little bits and nuggets of science into the story whenever possible."

Kakalios points out that, for example, the DC Comics speedster the Flash is constantly doing things with his "superspeed," a concept that requires a suspension of disbelief. But if the character has to knock someone down without touching him, he'll run very fast and create a shock front, which is a real scientific concept.

"By going through this while teaching my students, I was able to actually construct an entire physics book written for a general readership where all the examples came from, for the most part, correct applications of physics found in superhero comic books," Kakalios said.

So when the creators behind the Watchmen movie asked the National Academy of Sciences for a consultant to help them translate the acclaimed graphic novel to film, they looked no further than Kakalios and his superhero expertise.

"The National Academy called me and said, have you ever heard of this thing called 'Watchmen?' Because they'd never heard of it. After I was done vibrating like a gong I said, 'Uh, Watchmen? Yeah, I've heard of it,'" he said with a laugh.

Much of his consulting involved the science behind Dr. Manhattan, the 'Watchmen' character whose powers are based on quantum physics. But the professor began working with filmmakers all the way back in the pre-production stage, lending his expertise to everything from the movie's set designs to the psychology of the characters.

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"Alex McDowell in particular, the production designer, and the other art designers would say things like, 'What would a physics lab look like in 1959?' or 'What would it look like in 1985?' and 'Early in the story we see Dr. Manhattan working on some apparatus. What is he doing here?'" he said. "They flew me up to the set, they showed me things, we talked about how certain things would work.

"And then they were also interested in the psychology of scientists and how we would interact with other people," Kakalios said. "One of the things that, sadly, is accurate in the story is that when we see, sometimes, students get depressed or start having trouble with the stresses of their life, they hone in on their research, and they focus on that to the exclusion of practically everything else. It's the one thing that they feel they have some control over. And so, you see this also with Dr. Manhattan's attitudes and behaviors. He kind of just retreats into his research more and more."

In the graphic novel, Dr. Manhattan gets his powers from having his atoms torn apart in an "intrinsic field subtractor," but he's able to put himself back together, transforming into a being powered by quantum mechanics. He can exist in more than one time and place, and he can teleport himself as far away as Mars.

"Even though the movie and the graphic novel don't get into the minutia of how his powers work, [the filmmakers] were interested in how do they work?" Kakalios said. "Obviously, it's not possible, but if you made one suspension of disbelief — if you had one miracle exemption from the laws of nature — what would this be like?"

Kakalios talked with everyone from the actors to stunt people to special effects designers about what Dr. Manhattan's powers might look and feel like in real science. He theorized about things like what would make the character have blue skin, how he might be able to teleport, and what would give him the ability to be in multiple locations.

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