Waterworld
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 lead to massive
budget overrun, 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.[
1] 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.
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. Their leader is the Deacon, who is the "captain" of a derelict
oil tanker, the
Exxon Valdez (nicknamed "the 'Deez"). 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. 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; to create a diversion, they turn the
Quadmount 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. The Deacon, looking now for both revenge and dryland, 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. They find and capture Enola. When Helen and the Mariner float back to the surface, he orders them to talk about what they know regarding the tattoo and dryland. 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.
 |
Universal logo in Waterworld |
*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. Also in the dwelling are tattoo implements, dyes, and designs that match Enola's tattoo. 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 (
Joseph Hazelwood) is referred to as "Old St. Joe" by the Deacon. 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, given the length of time suggested between the melting of the icecaps and the beginning of the story. Additionally, though the store of oil is shown, no
refinery is shown.
*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--Universal and Kevin Costner took the film from director Kevin Reynolds' hands during post-production and edited it down to the theatrical length of 133 minutes. This version added approximately 40 minutes of deleted scenes, including the Mount Everest ending, and thereby returning at least some of Reynolds' intended vision. 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 "
indecent exposure" (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.
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.
*The film is mentioned (and heralded) by
Jim Carrey's character in
The Cable Guy, with him repeating the line "Dry land is not a myth; I've seen it," followed by his questioning as to why moviegoers and critics found it awful, as he had seen it himself eight times.
*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 survivors 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.
*
Kevin Costner – Mariner/Trader
*
Jeanne Tripplehorn – Helen
*
Tina Majorino – Enola
*
Dennis Hopper – Deacon
*
Robert LaSardo – Smitty
*
Michael Jeter – Old Gregor
*
Jack Black – Floatplane pilot
*
Desert planet*
List of films recut by studio*
PortuGreek*
*
on-line petition
