Waterworld was a 1995 film that was co-produced by Kevin Costner and directed by Kevin Reynolds. It is a science fiction film in the post-apocalyptic genre. It has frequently been called "Mad Max on Jet skis".

Problems encountered during filming massively escalated the film's budget, and it held the unfortunate distinction of being the most expensive film ever made (at the time), causing some critics to dub the movie "Fishtar" and "Kevin's Gate" (references to the notorious flops Ishtar and Heaven's Gate). With a budget of $175 million, the film only grossed $88 million at the U.S. box office, and was initially considered to be one of the biggest flops ever made. However, the film was more successful overseas. Expressed in 2005 dollars, (USD), the budget for the movie was $229 million, and grossed $115.3 million at the U.S. box office and $229.9 million at the foreign box office.^* Film studios typically receive only 55% of gross revenues and these figures do not include promotional costs, or rental or broadcast revenues. It is not known if Universal ultimately recouped all its costs.

Synopsis

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Some time in the unknown future, the polar ice caps have melted due to global warming, and the Earth is almost entirely covered with water. The surviving humans have forgotten the past and believe in a modified creation belief in which God created the world as a planet covered with water, but that there is also 'dryland' somewhere on Earth.

The surviving people can be classified into four groups:

• Drifters, who ply the water in boats, collecting things and trading with one another;
• Atoll Dwellers, who live in large floating constructs called atolls (in the movie, pronounced 'A-toll'). These atolls are not to be confused with the natural coral formations of the same name.
• Smokers are pirates who inhabit abandoned oil tankers. They are called such because of the smoke they make by using oil-powered equipment, such as Jet skis, and because they all smoke and consider cigarettes one of the most valuable treasures to be stolen. Smokers also dismiss the concept of evolution when confronted by the main character because of his fish-like physicality.
• Slavers are mentioned in the movie but not shown. Their name and the fear that they inspire suggests that they kidnap and enslave people.

The antihero is a drifter (Kevin Costner) who comes in to an atoll to trade for resin. For most of the film, he has no name, though some refer to him as "the Mariner." He is a mutant of some sort, with webbed feet (which sometimes actually occur in people) and gills (which do not). The atollers, who wanted him to breed with them to help avoid inbreeding, are horrified to discover that he is a mutant. Fearing him, they condemn him to be "recycled." At that moment, however, the smokers arrive in a raid, and they also bring in an M50 Quadmount to shoot down the atoll. Having been tipped off by one of their spies, they are in search of a young girl living there named Enola, who appears to have the map to dryland tattooed on her back. How she got there and who marked the tattoo is never explained—although at the end some educated guesses can be made. Near the end of the movie, in the dwelling of Enola's parents tattoo implements, dyes, and designs that match her tattoo are found. Her caretaker, Helen, is a woman in her twenties or thirties, and they plan to escape with Gregor, the atoll's resident astrologer, for dry land (if they can find it) because, like the Mariner, they don't fit in properly.

Unfortunately, Gregor's escape balloon is released too early (with him on it), leaving Helen and Enola stranded on the atoll as the smokers overrun it. They release the Mariner and escape with him on his large trimaran by taking the Quadmount and turning it on the Deacon's boat, causing the Deacon to lose an eye. The Mariner is greatly displeased with their company, despite their rescuing him from certain death and even Helen's offer to have sex with him in exchange for protection.

Chasing them is the Deacon, who is the "captain" of one of the derelict oil tankers, the Exxon Valdez, nicknamed the 'deez. Deacon also wants to get to dryland, and has a number of skirmishes with the Mariner in his attempts to get Enola back.

Helen, meanwhile, wants to know where all the dryland went. The Mariner, who can breathe underwater (due to his gills), puts her in a diving bell made out of plastic and swims down to a sunken city (actually the city of Denver) on the ocean floor to show her. While they are diving, the Deacon and his men board his boat. When they float back to the surface, he orders them to talk about what they know regarding the tattoo and dryland. They find and capture Enola. Since they both refuse to talk, the Deacon has his crew burn the Mariner's boat and shoot at the pair, forcing them to dive deep to live. Since Helen cannot breathe water, the Mariner offers to "breathe for the both of us" which results in a prolonged kiss of life underwater, while bullets shoot down around them.

The Mariner chases down the Exxon Valdez and boards it. The Deacon is having a great celebration, in which he tosses out gifts (such as tins of "SMEAT") to the other people on the boat, proclaiming they have found the map to dryland. After they have all gone below to start rowing the ship - much like a Viking longship - the Mariner walks out onto the deck and threatens to throw a road "flare" down into the oil tanks unless the Deacon gives back Enola. The Deacon refuses, saying that the Mariner would be crazy to blow up the ship. The Mariner drops the flare.

The ship explodes, and the Mariner manages to escape in time with Enola. They float at sea for a while, and then engage in one last battle with the Deacon (who survived the blast), before being rescued by Gregor. He and a few others have gone off to start anew. He finally figures out the map, and steers his balloon off in the direction of what does in fact turn out to be dryland (Mount Everest, which, being the highest point on Earth, would logically be the last place to be swallowed by rising water levels). Gregor, Enola, Helen and the others start civilization anew on the island. The Mariner builds a new boat and sails off, back to his old life - but before he leaves, Helen gives him a proper name "from an ancient myth": Ulysses.

Notes

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• The main premise of the movie, that the polar ice caps melted and covered nearly all of the Earth's surface area with water, is impossible. It is generally accepted that if all water on the planet were in a liquid state, sea level would not rise by more than 61 metres (about 200 feet), drowning coastal areas, but sparing most of the world's landmass.
• The underwater city the Mariner shows Helen is actually Denver, Colorado — which, at an elevation of one mile, would not be jeopardized by melted polar ice caps (see the previous note). You can see a sunken submarine and a ski-hill lift in the underwater city.
• The film begins with a variation on the Universal Studios globe logo, which then shows the continents on the globe logo slowly being covered by water.
• The concept of a map showing the location of dry land would have been nonsensical, given the literal lack of landmarks. Instead, the tattoo references "dry land" via coordinates in latitude and longitude, written in some variant of Chinese (as Gregor was able to interpret it with a China Airlines route map, and plotted his route using a sextant).
• An unfortunate editing decision left out one important fact: when the Mariner, Helen, and Enola arrive on Mount Everest, they find a shack with the skeletons of a man and a woman. In the extended version, these people are revealed to be Enola's parents; thus explaining why she had the tattoo of the location. Unfortunately, while explaining that, it left open why people on "dryland" would need to make such a map, and how Enola survived and got to Helen without anyone knowing about her link to Dryland in the first place. It is suggested in the edited theatrical version by the Atoll Enforcer that Enola's parents knew they were dying. It is left to assumption that they tattooed the map on Enola so she could find her way back if she survived the basket-float.
• The tanker is revealed to be the Exxon Valdez, famous for the largest oil spill in Alaskan history (see Exxon Valdez oil spill, March 24, 1989). In fact, the Captain is referred to as "Old St. Joe" by the Deacon (Joseph Hazelwood). In real history, the Valdez was renamed the Sea River Mediterranean, and was still in service (in the Atlantic) at the time of the movie's release.
• Everyone on the tanker smokes, and cigarettes are considered a very valuable commodity. The presence of cigarettes in this setting is, however, extremely implausible, as most cigarettes have a shelf life of no longer than a few months, which would not be enough time for Earth's surviving population to forget that dry land ever existed. It is also implausible that there are still so many functioning machines.
• The movie received rather mixed reviews, but audiences were shocked by the film's lavish $175 million budget. The movie was intended to have a cost of approximately $100 million, but a series of transportations problems (since the movie was shot in the ocean off Kahoolawe), bad weather, sea-sickness from some of the cast, as well as a mysterious accident (in which one of the atolls came loose, killed a marine and crushed a number of boats) caused the budget to soar. Also adding to the multi-million-dollar budget was Kevin Costner's expensive seaside bungalow at an exclusive Hawaiian resort. All this made it the most expensive movie as of that time. It earned $88 million in the US, but managed to recover its budget abroad.
• In March 1998, Waterworld was shown on U.S. network television for the first time. The ABC network held a special two-night event of Waterworld, which included an extended version of the film. This version added approximately 40 minutes of deleted scenes, including the Mount Everest ending (considerably extending the theatrical running time of 2 hr 13 min). As noted above, the original editing process had a negative impact on the narrative, and some view this extended version as a noticeable improvement on the original theatrical cut (e.g., adding to the story dramatically; adding depth to the characters; explaining previously unclear details). Some, but not all, scenes were edited due to swearing, violence, gore, nudity, and the scene where the Mariner is urinating into a cup.
• More recent screenings of Waterworld on network television have used versions with some (but not all) of the deleted scenes restored (e.g., the Mount Everest ending is omitted).
• The large gun from the Atoll scene is called a Quadmount. It is as shown in the movie, but would have used more shells than were shown.
• The character Enola is named after the Enola Gay, the American B-29 Superfortress bomber airplane that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima in August 1945.
• Waterworld video games were made for the SEGA Genesis, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and Nintendo Virtual Boy video game systems. The one made for SEGA Genesis was released in Europe. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System version was released only in Europe. The one for the Nintendo Virtual Boy was released worldwide, but the game and system are rare. There were also Waterworld computer games produced for MS-DOS and Windows.

Cutscenes from extended edition

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• A Hydro Addict is trying to trade his hair for fresh Hydro. There are other people banging on the gates trying to get into the Atoll.
• After the Mariner's capture at the Atoll, the inhabitants of the Atoll examine his belongings. Among them they find a Thighmaster, which they believe is an assassin's weapon used to strangle people, and a flute, which they think is used to distract an opponent. This is also where the Atoll decides to dump the Mariner into the Recycling Pit.
• A scene that explains where exactly the Mariner got the jetski he uses to reach the Deacon's ship to rescue the little girl. The survivor's of the Atoll massacre are ambushed by 2 of the Deacon's men on jetskis, the Mariner kills both men and takes their weapons and one jetski.
• A scene that shows how Gregor managed to find Helen and the Mariner after their boat was burned down.
• At least 10 minutes worth of new scenes that further detail life aboard the Deacon's ship. Including how they obtain their cigarettes and other equipment.
• A scene that reveals that the two skeletons found in the shack near the end of the movie are indeed the girl's parents instead of just letting the audience guess it.
• Scenes that show the Mariner building the new boat he uses to leave the island at the end of the movie.
• The Mariner is also given a name by Helen.
• We see Helen and Enola standing atop the cliff watching the Mariner depart before the films end credits. As they are standing there they uncover a plaque which tells us that they are at the peak of Mt. Everest.

Cast

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• Kevin Costner – Mariner/Trader
• Jeanne Tripplehorn – Helen
• Tina Majorino – Enola
• Dennis Hopper – Deacon
• Robert LaSardo – Smitty
• Michael Jeter – Old Gregor
• Jack Black – Floatplane pilot

See also

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• Desert planet

External links

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• on-line petition

1995 films | Post-apocalyptic science fiction films | Cult science fiction films | Cult films | Dystopian films | Seafaring films | Worst Picture Razzie Nominee

Waterworld | Waterworld | Waterworld | Waterworld | Vandens pasaulis | Waterworld | ウォーターワールド | Водный мир (фильм) | Waterworld