Waterworld
2-Disc Extended Edition
Waterworld is the action adventure film starring Kevin Costner and Dennis Hopper where dry land is the myth and the open sea is everyone’s daily environment.
Film making 20/25
Cinematography 20/25
Audio 21/25
Bonus Features 18/25
Total 79/100
Starting with the 1995 Universal Studios logo with the curved word Universal rolling across the world and then slowly disappearing you are given all the description Waterworld needs. The future is shown in the polar ice caps melting and water covering the globe, you are also given the explanation but it is not really needed.
Think of the way man could survive this type of worldwide catastrophe, never mind watch the movie and see, the strong will survive and the weak will either be pawns of them or worse. In the opening minutes you are shown that water is a precious commodity not to be wasted by merely rinsing out your mouth, a plant could use that little bit to survive.
Water and food is both precious but what has become an even bigger commercial trade product is dirt and people will do a lot for it. With the land being covered in water people are struggling to survive but what makes matters worse is dry land is actually so far in the past it’s now considered a myth.
Kevin Costner stars with Dennis Hopper and Jeanne Tripplehorn in this story about people doing what they can to survival. While the theme is one pretty farfetched with the current state of our environment it leads a great warning to our interest in ecological issues.
Kevin Costner plays the Mariner who roams the seas just looking to trade for what he needs and looking out for himself. After finding out about a nearby atoll where other survivors have settled into a somewhat productive lifestyle from a fellow trader who steals from him he is found to be a mutant.
Some people have adapted very well to the changing global environment and developed features from sea animals such as gills and webbing on their feet to help them adapt. The Mariner’s gills and webbed feet are seen by the people at the atoll and he is condemned to death to be used to make dirt.
A roaming band of pirates and looters called Smokers led by the Deacon played by Dennis Hopper attack the atoll before sentence against the Mariner can be carried out. The Smokers are based on an ancient oil tanker that is running low on oil reserves that they refine into a crude gasoline and the Deacon is searching the myth of dryland.
Legend and rumor has it that a little girl named Enola played by Tina Majorino has a map on her back leading to dry land. The Smokers attack the atoll and the Mariner escapes with the child Enola and her adoptive mother Helen played by Jeanne Tripplehorn.
The Smokers continue to pursue the Mariner and the child for the map that is on her back until they finally capture her. They leave the Mariner and Helen on the floating wreckage of the once well built trimaran the Mariner lived on.
Of course the Mariner and Helen are rescued by a fellow atoll dweller that was a friend of Helen and they find others from the atoll who survived. The Mariner leaves them because he has always looked out for himself and they after all did try to kill him just because of his differences.
When the Mariner realizes that Enola has been drawing things see has seen in her short lifetime he sees that she could be from that mythical place dryland. He rescues the girl from the Deacon with the help of Helen and a couple of others from the atoll.
Using the map from the girls back they find the mythical dryland and in the end we see the few survivors that make it to the lush mountain top enjoying their first taste of real ground. Water is plentiful and horses gallop across the landscape, Enola drew them on the Mariners boat, as the Mariner readies to leave.