Waterworld

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Waterworld was a 1995 film that was co-produced by Kevin Costner and directed by Kevin Reynolds. It held the unfortunate distinction of being the biggest failure of a film, in terms of box office returns, that had yet been produced at that time, causing some critics to dub the movie "Fishtar" and "Kevin's Gate" (references to the films Ishtar and Heaven's Gate, which both encountered similar financial problems). Contrary to popular belief, once the worldwide gross is factored in, the movie actually made a profit.

Waterworld is a science fiction film with a post-apocalyptic steampunk feel to it. It has frequently been called "Mad Max on water."

Synopsis

Some time in the future (it is never made clear when), 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 myth in which God created the world as a ball covered with water, but that there is also 'dryland' somewhere on Earth.

The surviving people can be classified into three groups:

• Traders, who ply the water in boats, collecting things from the ocean floor to trade to each other;
• 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, or pirates, called as such because of the smoke they make by using oil-power machines, such as jetskis, that run off the oil left in abandoned oil tankers.

The antihero is a nameless trader (Kevin Costner) who comes into an atoll to trade. He is a mutant of some sort, with webbed feet (which sometimes actually occurs in people) and gills (which do not). The atollers, who don't know what to make of him, try to kill him to have him "recycled." At that moment, however, the smokers arrive in a raid on the atoll. They are in search of a young girl living there named Enola, who has what appears to be the path 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 is a woman in her twenties or thirties, and they plan to escape with Gregor, the atoll's resident astrologer, for dryland (if they can find it) because, like the trader, they don't fit in properly.

Unfortunately, Gregor's escape balloon is released too early (with him on it), leaving the woman (Helen) and Enola stranded. They escape with the trader, who is greatly displeased with their company.

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

Helen, meanwhile, wants to know where all the dryland went. The trader, who can breathe underwater, puts her in a diving bell made out of plastic, and swims down to a sunken city on the ocean floor to show her. While they are diving, the Deacon captures Enola. When they 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 machine-gunner destroy the trader's boat as they dive underwater to escape. Since Helen cannot breathe water, the trader offers to "breathe for the both of us" which results in a prolonged kiss of life underwater, while bullets shoot down around them.

The trader 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 left, the trader 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 trader would be crazy to blow up the ship. Predictably, the trader drops the flare.

The ship explodes, and the trader 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. Gregor, Enola, Helen and the others start civilization anew on the island. The trader builds a new boat and sails off, back to his old life.

Notes

• The film begins with a variation on the Universal Studios globe logo, showing the continents slowly covered by water.
• The concept of a map showing the location of dry land is nonsensical given the literal lack of landmarks. It appears to be a star map, which makes a certain amount of sense except for the fact that Gregor also uses it during daylight.
• The kiss-of-life-underwater scene is probably impossible. While romantic, it is speculated that it would be impossible to pass oxygen in this manner, as gills deliver oxygen directly to the bloodstream, fish having no lungs. Since the trader does have both lungs and gills, it is possible that they are 'wired' in such a manner that the gills do actually pump oxygen directly into the lungs.
• It is probable that the movie is not internally consistent, or consistent with known science, so these kinds of speculations may well be futile.

Cast

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