In the 2009 film Watchmen, which is set in an alternate timeline in 1985 at the height of the Cold War, Adrian Veidt - former leader of the group called the Watchmen - goes by the alter-ego Ozymandias. He is a classic anti-villain that possesses superstrength and is considered the smartest man in the world.
Obsessed with Alexander the Great and Rameses II from a young age, Veidt renamed himself Ozymandias, the Greek name for Rameses II, and embarked on his superhero career. Fashioning himself a modern pharaoh in every detail, Ozymandias is peak Egyptomania. On one hand, classical Greek fascination with Egypt is among the first recorded instances of Egyptomania in history. Secondly, the name Ozymandias itself is a clever callback to late English Romantic Egyptomania as it is the title of the famous Percy Bysshe Shelley poem. Additionally, like Rameses II, Veidt is obsessed with his image, preserving it through monumentality as his name appears on nearly every billboard, side of a truck, or floating blimp in the film.
His superhero uniform is heavily influenced by traditional representations of Egyptian outfits; around his neck is a gold armor designed to evoke that of the pectoral wesekh-collar. Gold bands encircle both arms and, around his waist, he wears a golden belt centered with a Wadjet eye. The black and gold color scheme evokes imagery of the Tutankhamun guard statues found outside of his tomb.
When we first meet Veidt, we find his office full of ancient Egyptian iconography. On his desk, books - including volumes titled “Egypt” and “Rameses II” - are held up by a pair of book stoppers shaped like block statues, a motif that first appeared during the First Intermediate Period and became particularly popular during the 19th and 20th Dynasties, which is consistent with Veidt’s obsession with Rameses II. On a table in the corner to the left of the desk, there is a statue of a cat, likely Bastet. A recessed series of shelves hold a few shabtis, a pair of busts (one of which is a miniature of Nefertiti), and what is likely meant to be the real Narmer Palette. On a corner shelf in front of the desk is a seated statue of Rameses II that bears a striking resemblance to the colossal, seated statue currently at the Museo Egizio in Turin. The entranceway to his office appears to be a limestone temple doorway flanked on one side by a pair of colossal falcon-headed figures, presumably of Horus, and on the other by inscribed columns.
In a later scene, a delivery man - who works for a company called Pyramid Transnational, which is discovered later to be a Veidt subsidiary company - steps out of the elevator (the interior of which is decorated with lotus flower motifs, with its door featuring a large Wadjet eye) and attempts to shoot Veidt in a staged assassination.
The next scene shows a flyby shot of Veidt’s secret Antarctica lab, which he dubs “the new Karnak.” It shares many noticeable motifs including an avenue of sphinxes and large pylons leading into a temple-like structure. An obelisk stands in front. Veidt is found toasting scientists who had been working for him on a sinister plan, honoring the pharaohs of old while applauding the servants who must now share in their secrets. The next shot shows him walking over their dead, poisoned bodies, a callback to the popular Egyptomania theme of pyramid and tomb builders being buried alive when the structures are sealed.

Two other Watchmen, Night Owl and Rorschach, go to confront Veidt. He is seen watching a wall of small screens in a chair based upon Tutankhamun’s throne chair, an end table adorned with Egyptian motifs on one side and a great lynx cat he’s named Bubastis on the other. Inside this lab, there are more Egyptian columns, sphinxes, and colossal statuary.

The Egyptian iconography in the film is not meant to take front and center and, as such, is very effective in simply contextualizing Veidt’s character as a narcissistic egomaniac who fashions himself a pharaoh. Although references to Nefertiti and Tutankhamun are likely due, in part, to their own peerless cult statuses, the great attention to detail in surrounding Veidt with late 18th and early 19th Dynasty art and architecture suggests a solid understanding of the character’s self-identification as Rameses II and is a credit to the film’s set design.

Author: Waleed Hawatk