Images via Universal Pictures/Netflix

Waterworld is a movie I’ve been wanting to discuss on the site for a while, not so much because there’s so much to analyze and dissect about it, but mostly because of how bonkers it was to make. There are so many stories about it on Cracked.com and Ranker.com that exposes the craziness and just makes you wonder what the hell was going on with it.

For starters I just want to go over the premise of the movie. It’s pretty much Mad Max on water. Writer, Peter Rader says that Mad Max was a direct inspiration for the film, however in a story from Starlog Magazine, Rader straight up says that he was offered money by Brad Krevoy, the producer of great ’90s films such as Dumb and Dumber, Bio-Dome, and Beverly Hills Ninja to write and direct a “Mad Max rip-off.” You would think most writers would try to cover up the fact that they’re ripping off another property or at the very least do what Tarantino does and call it an homage, however I have heard that Taratino will admit he’s ripping off somebody else. Supposedly Waterworld was also inspired/a rip off of Freakwave, a “Mad Max goes surfing” comic strip that was published in Vanguard Illustrated by Pacific Comics in the early ’80s.

Another thing that made Waterworld so crazy to make was the production costs. When Universal originally green-lit Waterworld, they did so with a budget of $100 million. However as production went on that $100 million budget eventually grew to $135 million before reaching about $175 million (about $289 million when adjusted for inflation) by the time production was finished. I know $175 million doesn’t seem like a lot for movies today, in fact it’s almost expected for most major film studios to put in at least $100 million into a blockbuster project with more and more movies being given budgets of at least $200 million, but back in in the early ’90s, that was a lot of money to put into a movie.

The premise alone should have been enough to know that Waterworld would not be cheap to make. A post-apocalyptic film that takes places in a world completely flooded by water? Just think of all the logistics that would have been needed: boats, helicopters, jet skis, and anything else that would be needed to pull it off. Sure, Universal could have done things to keep costs down like filming in a water tank or filming on a beach and make sure to only keep the cameras pointed towards the water and away from land. However, Waterworld was meant to be a blockbuster for Universal which meant they would spare no expense since they were hoping it would make its budget back and then some. Add in the fact that Waterworld was made when CGI was still in its infancy so most special effects were still done practically and you’re pretty much just flushing money down the toilet at this point.

One of the biggest expenses of the film had to be the Atoll set. Supposedly, the Atoll set alone cost $22 million to build, a pretty low number considering that the Atoll set was about a quarter-mile long, weighed over 1000-tons and used up all the available steel in Hawaii. As if the Atoll itself wasn’t expensive enough, it was built in a giant water enclosure located off the coast of Hawaii. I know it might sound redundant to build a giant water tank out in open ocean, but if you’ve ever been on the Universal Studios Tram Ride you’ll know that studios like being in control of things, they don’t like uncontrolled variables. This is why most shows and movies are filmed on soundstages rather than on location. In fact, Steven Spielberg actually warned both Kevin Costner, and director, Kevin Reynolds the dangers and difficulty of filming in open water given his experience filming the Jaws movies.

To add further costs to the Atoll set’s already 8-figure price tag, neither the Atoll set, nor the water enclosure it was built on had on site bathrooms which required cast and crew members to be ferried back and forth to the island regularly for bathroom breaks. On top of this, the Atoll set would eventually be sunk and ruined during a hurricane which added more expenses and delays to an already bloated budget.

Then there were all the fight scenes:

Like the Atoll Battle.

And the ambush scene.

You can be certain these weren’t cheap to do.

And the climatic battle on the oil tanker. This one might actually be the cheapest and easiest fight scene to do since it’s not on the water and they could have easily just done it all on a soundstage.

Another huge expense for Waterworld was some of the CGI used in the movie. I know I just explained how most of the effects done in Waterworld were done practically so you’re probably wondering what they CGI’d.

During post-production Costner demanded reshoots and CG fixes to cover up his receding hairline as well as to redesign his gills because supposedly they looked too much like vaginas when viewed underwater. Once again this was done when CGI was still in its infancy and very expensive to use, so what would be a quick and cheap thing that your cousin who knows how to use Photoshop could do now surely would have cost a shit ton back then.

Other expenses for the film included the makeup department spray tanning the cast regularly to maintain that post-apocalyptic complexion and emergency services to save cast and crew from dying while working at sea—either from falling into the water and drowning or drifting out to sea and dying from exposure.

In the end Waterworld’s budget was so big that at the time it was made it actually earned a place in the record books as the most expensive movie ever filmed. Despite Universal’s high-expectations for it and praises for it futuristic setting and premise, Waterworld failed to recoup its massive budget at the box office leading it to become the punchline in many jokes in Hollywood on how to waste money in spectacular fashions.

One of which I best remember is this clip from the Simpsons where Milhouse attempts to play a Waterworld arcade game that costs 10 bucks and consist of you making the Mariner take a single step before the game ends.

And this one from the episode “Radioactive Man” that I never got until I did this write up. At first I thought it was just a throw away joke, but once I remembered that the plot of the episode revolves around attempts at filming a Radioactive Man movie in Springfield only for the producers to give up and return to Hollywood after running into numerous problems as well as going bankrupt due to being constantly taxed and price gouged by Springfield’s corrupt local government and services it actually makes it a very clever reference.

Aside from the massive costs, another bonkers fact about Waterworld is how people kept getting injured. While doing the research for to do this write up I came across stories of how numerous jellyfish stings occurred on set and how Costner himself was almost killed when he got caught in a squall while tied to the mast of his trimaran. However, the most serious injury that occurred during production had to be when Costner’s stunt double, Norman Howell, who suffered a near-fatal embolism while filming a deep-sea dive which required him to be flown to a hospital in Honolulu recover in a decompression chamber.

The plot to Waterworld is this.

Sometime in the future the polar ice caps have completely melted causing sea levels to rise and flood the planet’s surface. The remnants of humanity are forced to survive by living aboard dilapidated boats and ramshackle floating fortresses called Atolls. Due to having spent so many generations living on water, people have forgotten about living on land, with most believing it to just be a myth.

The Mariner, a lone drifter who lives alone aboard a trimaran arrives at an atoll looking to trade. Initially, the drifter is turned away but those in charge of the atoll let him in when the Mariner reveals among the goods and commodities he is offering is a small amount of dirt, a highly valuable commodity in Waterworld.

When the atoll’s residents discover the Mariner is a mutant with gills and webbed feet, they try to restrain him. The Mariner kills one of the atoll’s security personnel trying to get away but he is captured and sentenced to die by being buried alive and recycled into dirt in the atoll’s recycling pit, a liquid compost pit which the atoll’s residents use to grow crops.

When the Mariner’s execution is set to take place, the atoll is attacked by Smokers, pirates led by a man known as the Deacon and named for their affinity for cigarettes and use of fire arms and gas-powered vehicles such as speed boats, jet skis, and airplanes.

The Smokers are searching for Enola, a little girl living in the atoll who has an undecipherable tattoo on her back which some have speculated to a map leading to Dryland, a mythological place somewhere out in the sea.

During the attack, Helen the atoll’s shopkeeper and Enola’s guardian attempt to flee aboard a hot air balloon built by Gregor, the atoll’s resident scientist and inventor. However the balloon is prematurely released and Gregor floats away with it when he tries to secure it. Seeing few options for survival, Helen makes a deal to release the Mariner in exchange for taking her and Enola away from the atoll and to Dryland. Helen frees the Mariner and during their escape they manage to destroy the Deacon’s boat in a fiery explosion that costs the Deacon one of his eyes.

Initially the Mariner is hostile towards Helen and Enola due to him being annoyed by Enola behavior and desire to draw on his boat with the Mariner’s personal supply of crayons and Helen causing damage to his boat during a Smoker attack, but over time the Mariner starts to warm up to Helen and Enola.

After the Mariner’s boat is damaged during a Smoker ambush, Helen demands that the Mariner take them to Dryland so they can survive. Using a dive bell, the Mariner takes Helen into the depths of the oceans and shows Helen the flooded ruins of the past world and shows Helen the truth, that the artifacts he has including dirt are just things he’s finds on the ocean floor, things he’s able to get because of his unique physiology.

While Helen and the Mariner are below the surface the Smokers find the Mariner’s boat and take it over, capturing Enola, Helen, and the Mariner. The Deacon orders the Mariner and Helen to be executed but the Mariner saves them by taking Helen underwater, using his gills to provide air for both of them. Thinking that Helen and the Mariner are no longer a problem, the Deacon orders the Mariner’s boat to be burned while he and the other Smokers take Enola back to their hideout, the Deez.

With their boat destroyed and with no supplies, Helen resigns herself to their fate, the Mariner seeing some of Enola’s drawings and comparing them to an old National Graphic magazines he has is finally convinced that Dryland is real and that Enola is the key to finding it.

Having seen the smoke from the Mariner’s boat, Gregor rescues Helen and the Mariner with his balloon and reunites them with survivors from the atoll attack. Using a brochure from a Chinese airline that was among the Mariner’s personal stash of artifacts, Gregor is able to decipher the characters in Enola’s tattoo as longitude and latitude coordinates, which he combines with the Mariner’s knowledge of the submerged cities to start plotting a course to Dryland.

Meanwhile the Mariner arms himself and sets off to rescue Enola, tracking the Smokers to the Deez, the rusted ruins of the Exxon Valdez oil tanker.

Dropping a flare into the tanker’s oil reservoir, the Mariner causes explosions and fires to erupt aboard the Deez as he fights his way towards Enola. The Deacon attempts to escape with Enola aboard an airplane but the Mariner latches a grappling hook onto the plane causing it to crash. The Mariner and Enola are then rescued by Gregor, Helen, and the atoll’s Enforcer using Gregor’s balloon.

The Deacon who has survived the plane crash attempts to grab Enola again however he is knocked into the water and killed when he and 2 other surviving Smokers on jet skis crash into each other.

Gregor having finally deciphered Enola’s tattoo sets a course for Dryland. Dryland is revealed to be the top of Mount Everest, and is filled with lush vegetation, wildlife and fresh water.

While exploring Dryland the group discover a hut with the bodies of Enola’s parents inside.

Realizing that he does not belong on Dryland and that his place is on the water the Mariner builds himself a new boat and bids farewell to Helen and Enola as he sets sail back into Waterworld.

Kevin Costner played the film’s protagonist, the nameless Mariner. In typical post-apocalyptical fashion the Mariner is portrayed as a brooding no-nonsense loner, who opens up once he is given the family he never had. In early drafts of the script, the Mariner was supposed to have a full-grown pet horse living aboard his boat with him, but that idea was ditched when they realized it created too many unanswerable questions.

In typical post-apocalyptic movie fashion, the audience is supposed to view the Mariner as this badass character. However I feel the movie doesn’t do a goodjob at establishing the Mariner’s badassness until this part, where the Mariner tired of Helen’s whining about food lures a giant mutant crocodile/shark thing close to the surface and just casually jumps into the water to let it swallow him so he can kill it from the inside. I feel attempts at making the Mariner look badass just make him look like an asshole.

In the early ’90s Costner had established himself as an A-list actor with his roles in Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, JFK, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, and The Bodyguard. However, Waterworld was the beginning of a significant decline in his career as it led to a string of box-office disappointments such as The Postman, Thirteen Days, and 3000 Miles to Graceland, just to name a few lowpoints in his career.

One thing that bugged me with Costner’s character is how he is a mutant? They never explained where he came from. Was his species the result of genetic experiments to create a race of humans who could live in water world? Did he eat some fish he caught over Chernobyl? Are we to believe he’s the result of natural evolution? That humanity adapted to live on Waterworld on its own? If that’s the case that would have taken millions of years. Maybe the Mariner is a product of creative storytelling and we’re just supposed to accept that he’s man with gills and webbed feet?

Tina Majorino played Enola, the little girl with a tattoo on her back which is key to finding Dryland. Some of Majorino’s other roles include Toni Whitney in the film Andre and Sophie Wilder in the short-lived ’90s sitcom Camp Wilder, however Majorino is probably best known for her role as Deb in the cult-classic Napoleon Dynamite.

There’s really not much to say about Enola. Aside from being a walking McGuffin I guess you could consider her to impetus that changes the Mariner from being a hard ass loner into a more caring human being. The level of change bugs me though. I mean the Mariner spends most of his time annoyed with Enola’s antics and then suddenly he just becomes super friendly with her. I feel maybe they should have made the Mariner realize dryland was real while Enola was still on his plane and that is what makes him open up to her, rather than saving the realization until after she gets kidnapped by Smokers.

Jeanne Tripplehorn played Helen, Enola’s guardian and the atoll’s former shopkeeper. I’m not all that familiar with Tripplehorn. Although the name Tripplehorn invokes memories of the movie Date Night where Steve Carell and Tina Fey play a boring middle-aged married couple who impersonate a couple named the Tripplehorns in order to steal their table at a super fancy restaurant. Looking at Tripplehorn’s filmography I’ve actually never really seen anything else she’s been in.

There’s really not that much to say about Helen. She’s the Mariner’s love interest and is the mother-figure in his makeshift family unit, other than her undying belief in the existence of Dryland there’s really not that much to her.

I guess I could talk about how in this scene where Helen offers herself to the Mariner in exchange for him saving them, that’s not really Tripplehorn, it’s a body double. I found that out while researching how Waterworld wasted so much money. The story was that the director really wanted a nude scene but Tripplehorn refused to do it. Rather than film it in a way where they wouldn’t need to show any bare ass or just cut the nude scene entirely they instead went out and hired a body double.

Dennis Hopper played the Deacon, the leader of the Smokers and the movie’s main villain. Hopper has had a pretty extensive career over the years having parts in Rebel Without a Cause and Easy Rider. However, I’m pretty sure part of the reason Hopper was cast because he was still riding the success of playing the villain in Speed the year before.

The Deacon and the Smokers are essentially live-action Captain Planet Villains. As I said during my synopsis, the Smokers are named not just because of their fondness for cigarettes but also because of their use of heavily polluting gas-powered vehicles and firearms while the rest of the world is forced to resort to primitive, yet eco-friendly alternatives such as wind and pedal-powered boats and medieval-era weapons like crossbows and catapults. To further vilify the them, the Smokers are also portrayed as being dirtier and more crude than other humans living in Wateworld—almost as if they were “Water-hillbillies,” an attribute that is hinted by the Deacon constantly referring to other Smokers as “cousins.”

As the leader of the Smokers the Deacon is meant to stand out among the other villains by having his villainous attributes more exaggerated. It is because of this that we almost never see the Deacon without a cigarette as well as why we see the Deacon cruising around the Deez in an old Cadillac with a “Nuke the Whales” bumper sticker on it.

One thing I do want to point out about the Deacon is that his desire from Dryland isn’t so much because he’s looking for sanctuary for his people. In true Captain Planet supervillain fashion the Deacon wishes to find Dryland because he wants to corrupt it, he wants to strip mine it for its resources and leave nothing behind. Also the Deacon’s motivation doesn’t seem like cartoon villainy where the bad guys are evil for the sake of being evil, or in the case of Captain Planet villains, he just doesn’t like nature. Instead he feels like it’s his divine purpose to destroy dryland, like some twisted version of Manifest Destiny.

This is hinted when we see that the Deacon and the Smokers have basically canonized Joeseph Hazelwood, the man responsible for causing the Exxon Valdez oil spill as a saint.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbFzswPvoH4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcURZY9RnRQ

And is also reinforced when the deacon addresses the other Smokers.

Another thing I want to point out about the Deacon, if you saw the first clip above in its entirety you surely noticed the part where the Deacon is giving the Smokers old cans of “Smeat” from his private stash.

When I saw that scene I just couldn’t help but notice how similar it was to Mad Max: Fury Road when Immortan Joe opens the floodgates and gives the Citadel’s residents water. I just thought it was a bit funny to see things come full circle as we see Waterworld, a straight off of Mad Max get ripped off by a sequel to Mad Max.

Michael Jeter played Old Gregor, the Atoll’s scientist and Helen’s friend who ends up saving the Mariner and Helen when the Smokers leave them stranded and also is the one to decode Enola’s tattoo and plot a course to Dryland.

Jeter’s career is pretty varied. Aside from having family-friendly roles in movies like Air Bud, Mouse Hunt, Sister Act 2, and a recurring role on as Mister Noodle on “Elmo’s World” on Sesame Street he’s also been in more mature roles such as Tango and Cash and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. I do want to point out that despite the fact that his character was named Old Gregor, Michael Jeter was only like 42 when he made Waterworld, and in fact he actually died at 50.

Gerard Murphy played the Nord, a Smoker spy who had infiltrated the atoll and learned about Enola and her tattoo. The Nord would then go on to become a secondary antagonist in the film, serving as a right-hand man figure for the Deacon and a direct rival for the Mariner.

Since Murphy hails from Northern Ireland I’m not really all that familiar with him since most of his work was in Europe. Looking at his filmography the only things I recognize was a short stint on Doctor Who in the ’80s, and Judge Fagan, Joe Chill’s judge in the 2005 Batman Begins movie.

RD Call played the Atoll Enforcer. Looking at Call’s filmography he’s mostly known for being in action movies. Some of the more noteworthy things that stand out include roles in 48 Hrs., Born on the Fourth of July, and Young Guns II.

The Atoll Enforcer role is pretty minimal in Waterworld. In fact, I was actually a bit tempted to just omit him from my write up since he has such a small role in Waterworld. Like his character’s name suggest the Atoll Enforcer is the atoll’s peacekeeper. We see him warn the Mariner about starting trouble as well as see him stop the Atoll residents from turning into an unruly mob. We then see him fight in the Smoker battle before fleeing with other atoll survivors. Later we see Atoll Enforcer later leading the atoll survivors as they begin rebuilding a home for themselves. In keeping with the Mad Max ripoffs I’m assuming the atoll Enforcer is meant to be a copy of the Gyro Captain from Mad Max 2, who in the end of the movie becomes the leader of the settlers living in the oil refinery and as such we are to assume the atoll Enforcer becomes the leader of the new civilization established on Dryland.

Aside from the main cast we also have several noteworthy cameos through out the movie.

Saburo “Sab Shimono” plays one of the atoll Elders. Some of Shimono’s most notable roles include Lord Norinaga in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III, Koga in 3 Ninjas Kick Back, Dr. Roy Tam in The Shadow, and the voice of Uncle Chan in Jackie Chan Adventures.

Jack Black played the Smoker’s Skyboat/Airplane pilot.

Kim Coates of Sons of Anarchy fame played a crazed Drifter who Helen and the Mariner try to trade with.

And Robert LaSorda who is known for playing all kinds of criminal and gangbanger roles played Smitty, a Smoker mechanic who the Mariner runs over with a jetski.

Looking back at Waterworld to do this write-up I can’t help but share some of the scientific inaccuracies I found.

Despite what the opening narration tells you along with this clever use of the Universal Studios logo. If the Polar Ice caps melted completely all that excess water would not cover the world. If anything the polar ice caps melting I believe would only raise sea levels by a little over 200 feet.

Also even if there was actually enough ice to cause the polar ice caps to melt and flood the world, all that excess water would be enough to dilute sea water to the point where it would be potable.

Which means we would have been saved from this awkward intro.

Other scientific inaccuracies involve the Smokers. I’m sure the existence of the Smokers came from the realization that Waterworld was looking too much like an environmental movie and so logically it would make perfect sense to make them cruise around in smoke-bellowing gas-powered vehicles while the rest of the world relied on sails and paddles to get by.

You have to understand even though the Smokers live on an oil tanker that still has oil on it, they don’t have much use for it. Raw crude oil can’t be used as fuel by itself, at least not in the vehicles the Smokers are shown to use, it needs to be refined into gasoline first..

Going back to the Mad Max connection this was a big part of the plot to The Road Warrior where the Humungus and his Marauders lay siege to a tribe of survivors living in an oil refinery. Not only do they have access to an oil well, they also have the means of processing the oil into gasoline, means which they make sure to destroy when they abandon the refinery at the end.

The Smokers may have oil but it’s not shown that they have the means to refine it. If you want to play the movie logic game and pretend that maybe they had refinement machinery on board the Deez, but if you think about it, that idea just doesn’t’ work. When we see the interior of the Deez we already see that most of the Deez is taken up by the foundry where they make bullets and weapons, the compartment where the Smokers go when they need to paddle the ship, not to mention it’s also shown that the interior of the Deez has enough open-space to let the Deacon drive around in a Cadillac as well as give the Smokers enough space to have all kinds of off-screen activities, the idea of the Smokers having a oil refinery aboard their ship just doesn’t work.

In the end Waterworld has had quite a lasting effect on pop culture today, while I mentioned before that it served as the butt of many jokes in Hollywood it also got some prestige to go with it. Among the four Golden Raspberry nominations it received, Waterworld also received a few more prestigious award nominations such as an Academy Award, a BAFTA, and two Saturn Awards. Waterworld also served as the inspiration for live-action stunt shows at Universal Studios Hollywood, Universal Studios Singapore, and Universal Studios Japan—shows which are still being performed as of this posting, almost 30 years later.

Also while Waterworld may have been seen as a financial failure at first, it did eventually become profitable in the end due to home video, merchandising, TV broadcasts, foreign markets, and other post-cinema sales.