I've since been corrected on the cities thing -- I didn't catch that on a first viewing, but my brother did. However, since Nixon was apparently willing to give up the entire eastern seaboard in a seemingly inevitable nuclear war, I still find it hard to believe the Soviets wouldn't wonder about the U.S.'s involvement in "Jon's" actions when all they lost were two cities.

As for the ending, it's not so much a matter of what happened (which was, largely, the same chain of events) as the tone, and the words and tiny details chosen. The key part of the end of the Antarctica scene in the comic, for me, is Adrian's self-doubt -- his moment of, "Did I do the right thing?" and Jon's ominous "nothing ends" reply. The way that was changed here -- removing Adrian's doubt, and giving the "nothing ends" line a different placement -- made the lasting utopia seem much less uncertain, and therefore much more assured. That, added to the fact that Dan and Laurie are kissy and happy and don't have to resort to new identities to continue living their lives, gave the movie a much happier spin than the novel did, and that's why I felt it missed the mark.