This article originally appeared on eightieskids.com

Waterworld’s writer freely admits ripping off Mad Max

As a film set in a post-apocalyptic future in which a gruff loner does battle with hordes of feral maniacs in motorized vehicles, Waterworld is a pretty bald-faced imitation of George Miller’s Mad Max series – and writer Peter Rader has never denied this. Rader, who penned the first draft of Waterworld’s screenplay back in 1986, admits setting out to create “a Mad Max rip-off.”

The filmmakers hired the same cinematographer from the Mad Max movies

When actor-producer Kevin Costner and director Kevin Reynolds boarded Waterworld, the film’s debt to the Mad Max series clearly wasn’t lost on them. They hired director of photography Dean Semler, who served that same role on Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. In addition, Semler had also been the cinematographer on Costner’s Oscar-winning epic Dances with Wolves.

One set sank and others floated away

Production on Waterworld was hugely troubled by what have become known in insurance terms as ‘acts of God’. They shot in the Pacific Ocean near Hawaii, in a specially-built artificial enclosure. Situated far off-land, the enclosure was still vulnerable to the elements. Treacherous weather caused one expensive set to sink completely, whilst high winds caused others to float away from their original location.

Kevin Costner nearly died filming the scene where he’s tied to the trimaran

Kevin Costner was keen to do a lot of his own stunts on Waterworld, which proved dicey. One scene required Costner’s unnamed Mariner to be tied to the mast of his trimaran boat. A sudden localized storm whipped up whilst Costner was bound, briefly putting him at genuine risk from both the ocean below, and the helicopter shooting him a mere 20 feet overhead.

Costner did the bungee and zipline stunts himself

The stunts Kevin Costner performs himself in Waterworld include the lengthy zip line from high above ground, with explosions going off behind. Costner also performed (on his very last day of filming) the bungee jump from the final showdown. He didn’t actually leap from a floating hot air balloon, but from a platform in a studio parking lot in front of a giant bluescreen.

Screenwriter Joss Whedon called his time on the film “seven weeks of hell”

Credit: Kevin Winter via Getty Images

Officially, Waterworld was written by Peter Rader and David Twohy, but Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Avengers) made uncredited rewrites during production. As he was instructed specifically to incorporate Kevin Costner’s ideas with no room for his own, Whedon later called the experience “seven weeks of hell” (although by all accounts, Whedon himself knows a lot about making other people’s lives miserable).

Director Kevin Reynolds walked away before the movie was completed, leaving Costner to take over

Credit: Universal

Kevin Reynolds is given full credit as the director of Waterworld, but he actually quit the movie during post-production over tensions with Kevin Costner, who then took over as director to oversee the cut that reached theaters. An embittered Reynolds was quoted as saying, “Kevin Costner should only star in movies he directs. That way, he can work with his favorite actor and favorite director.”

Kevin Costner rejected the original musical score for being ‘too ethnic’

Credit: Getty Images

Composer Mark Isham was the first person hired to score Waterworld, but Costner rejected Isham’s compositions as “too ethnic and bleak.” Costner wanted more traditionally stirring music befitting the upbeat blockbuster adventure he was hoping to make. To this end, Isham was dismissed from the film, and James Newton Howard (Pretty Woman, The Fugitive) was hired to replace him.

The film ended Costner’s career as a blockbuster leading man

Between 1988 and 1992, Kevin Costner headlined Bull Durham, Field of Dreams, Dances with Wolves, JFK, Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves and The Bodyguard. These were all huge hits, and hopes were initially high that Waterworld would out-perform them all. However, three Costner films released prior to Waterworld (A Perfect World, Wyatt Earp, The War) underperformed, and when Waterworld flopped, his blockbuster days were over.

The film was originally pitched as a $5 million B-movie

When Peter Rader first wrote Waterworld, he also intended to direct it, and approached the legendary independent producer Roger Corman (responsible for more than 400 films, mostly low-budget) to make this happen. However, Corman rejected Waterworld as it was calculated there was no way the film could be made for less than $5 million. This, however, is a fraction of what the film ultimately cost…

It was the most expensive film ever made at the time

When it originally hit cinemas, Waterworld was the single most expensive film in Hollywood history. Initially greenlit at $65 million, production woes saw the budget balloon to somewhere between $172 and $175 million. This was an unprecedented sum at the time, although two years later the record would be broken by the $200 million Titanic (whose $2.257 billion grosses made it a far better investment).

Steven Spielberg warned the Waterworld team not to make a movie at sea

Credit: Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images

Before shooting Waterworld, Kevin Reynolds met with Steven Spielberg for advice, knowing the legendary filmmaker experienced difficulties shooting Jaws at sea. Reynolds recalls, “I asked Spielberg, ‘Do I want to shoot on the water?’ He said ‘You might. I’ll never do it again.'” Spielberg advised shooting in a water tank instead, but Reynolds didn’t listen, and the result was a nightmarishly difficult shoot.

Dennis Hopper’s villain was turned down by Samuel L Jackson, Gene Hackman and more

Waterworld’s cartoonish, eyepatch-clad villain The Deacon was played by the late, great Dennis Hopper (then hot as a blockbuster bad guy after Speed), but many other actors were approached first. Samuel L. Jackson, Gene Hackman, James Caan, Laurence Fishburne and Gary Busey were all reportedly offered the role first, but all of them turned it down.

Jack Black makes one of his first on-screen appearances in the film

Before breaking through with High Fidelity and School of Rock, Jack Black (then 25) made one of his first film appearances in Waterworld as the Smoker Pilot. Speaking about the film in 2015, Black (jokingly) remarked, “We crushed it, bro. I’m still trying to shake it. That’s what it’s going to say on my tombstone: Jack ‘Post-Apocalyptic Seaplane Pilot’ Black.”

Jeanne Tripplehorn personally chose her nude body double

In a scene that we’d be less likely to see in a PG-13 movie today, Jeanne Tripplehorn’s Helen is briefly shown naked from behind. Tripplehorn decided against appearing naked herself, but personally chose her body double. The actress has talked about the bizarre experience of meeting three candidates to see whose rear end was the best match for her own.

Anna Paquin was the first choice to play Enola

Waterworld features one key child role in Enola, the girl with the coveted map to Dryland tattooed on her back. The first choice for the role was Anna Paquin, who had not long since become one of the youngest ever Oscar winners for 1993’s The Piano (aged 11 at the time). However, Paquin was taking a break from acting at the time and declined.

Costner nicknamed Tina Majorino ‘Jellyfish Candy’ because she was stung so many times

Tina Majorino was ultimately cast as Enola, and she endured her share of problems throughout production. The young actress had incredibly bad luck with jellyfish, being stung a reported seven times throughout the shoot, leading to her being nicknamed ‘Jellyfish Candy’ by Kevin Costner. Waterworld was Majorino’s fourth film, and she’s still acting today: her credits include TV’s True Blood, alongside almost-Enola actress Anna Paquin.

Costner was rumored to have demanded CGI to hide his baldness

During Waterworld’s production, one report claimed that, with the wind-whipped actor’s thinning hairxposed throughout the film, Kevin Costner demanded CGI artists digitally augment his scalp. Costner denied this, declaring “it’s just bulls***, and [the press] are bulls*** for printing it.” Considering that SFX artists on 2017’s Justice League couldn’t convincingly hide Henry Cavill’s moustache, it’s unlikely CGI could fix a receding hairline in 1995.

The film is not an accurate representation of how the melting of the ice caps would change the world

Waterworld was promoted as a warning for where we could be headed should the polar ice caps melt. However, it’s highly inaccurate. As cataclysmic as a total melt would be in reality, much of the world would still be left above water. The screenwriters were aware of this, but it was agreed that a fully flooded Earth would make for a more dramatic setting.

‘Dryland’ was originally meant to be the top of Mount Everest

Waterworld centers on the struggle to locate the legendary Dryland, the last above-water ground still remaining on the flooded Earth. A deleted shot from the ending shows the survivors passing a plaque which identifies the spot as Mount Everest, the highest point above sea level on the planet’s surface. Original director Kevin Reynolds was infuriated that this detail was omitted from the theatrical cut.

The Mariner originally had a name

Even before Kevin Costner (famed for Dances with Wolves) was attached, Waterworld was thought to work like a Western at sea. This, no doubt, is part of why the central character is known only as The Mariner – a nod of sorts to Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name – though in Peter Rader’s first draft of the screenplay the Mariner was named Morgan.

In one draft of the screenplay, the Mariner had a pet horse

Peter Rader’s original draft included something else that tied Waterworld in a bit closer to the Western genre: a horse, who lived on the boat with Morgan as his companion. However, as the script was developed it was eventually agreed that having a horse at sea was just too absurd and impractical an idea.

The Smokers’ ship was based on the Exxon Valdez, a real oil tanker that caused a notorious ecological disaster

Waterworld’s villains the Smokers live on the Exxon Valdez. This was in fact a very real oil tanker, infamous for a catastrophic oil spill in March 1989 which director Kevin Reynolds calls “one of the most egregious accidents that humans had perpetrated on a pristine environment at the time.” It was the worst such accident on record until the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010.

Costner’s stunt double at one point got lost at sea jet-skiing between the set and the mainland

Credit: Jason Merritt/Getty Images

One of Kevin Costner’s stunt doubles on Waterworld was professional big wave surfer Laird Hamilton, a Hawaii resident who came to set on his own by jet ski. One morning, Hamilton failed to show up, and frantic search ensued. Happily, Hamilton was okay: Kevin Reynolds recalls he was “floating way out in the channel about to be swept out to sea.”

Another stunt double almost died shooting a deep sea diving scene

The Waterworld team had another close brush with death when another of Costner’s stunt doubles, Norman Howell, doubled for the actor on his deep sea diving sequences. Terrifyingly, Howell suffered a near-fatal embolism whilst shooting one such scene, and had to be rushed to hospital. Happily, Howell recovered in a decompression chamber, and remarkably was back at work within a few days.

The budget was so high partly because local firms jacked up their prices when the film came to town

Another thing that bumped up Waterworld’s budget was the fact that they were shooting a somewhat remote region of Hawaii. Lots of comparatively minor expenses wound up costing the filmmakers dearly, because local contractors saw the chance to cash in and bumped up their prices. Location manager Ginger Peterson recalls, “Companies knew they were the only games in town and took advantage.”

Kevin Costner stayed in a $4,500-a-night villa while most of the cast and crew had basic accommodation

Another key expense on Waterworld was leading man Kevin Costner. On top of a reported $13 million salary, the actor and producer was also reportedly put up in a luxurious ocean view villa at a cost of $4,500 a night (remember, production ran for 157 days). Meanwhile, most of Waterworld’s cast and crew were given very basic digs which allegedly didn’t even have air conditioning.

There are three available versions of the film

The theatrically released cut of Waterworld clocks in at 135 minutes. Later on, around 40 minutes of excised footage was re-integrated into a TV version of the movie broadcast by US network ABC. Finally, a three-hour-plus fan edit dubbed the ‘Ulysses cut’ reinserts further deleted footage. All three versions are featured on the Blu-ray release of Waterworld released by Arrow Video in 2019.

Costner and Reynolds had already fallen out making Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves

Credit: Morgan Creek Productions/Warner Bros

The fallout of Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds on Waterworld was a case of history repeating itself, as much the same thing had happened when they worked together on 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Things had been so bad that initially both the Kevins balked at the idea of working together again, but the producers persuaded them to put their personal differences aside.

In the cut original ending, The Mariner leaves Dryland to look for other mutants

One question left unexplored in Waterworld is that of the Mariner’s origins, as a mutated man with gills that allow him to breathe underwater. Originally, Waterworld was to end with the Mariner declaring that he was returning to the water in search of other mutants like him. This is director Kevin Reynolds’ preferred ending, and it was restored in the fan-edited Ulysses cut.

The Mariner’s water was originally going to be purified by a device containing a kidney-like organ

Waterworld immediately announces itself as a somewhat unconventional blockbuster when the opening scene sees the Mariner pour his own urine into a mechanical water purification device, and drink the water which comes out. As repulsive as this might be, it’s less disgusting than the original script, in which the Mariner originally had an organic device that closely resembled a human kidney.

The filmmakers had to beg the studio for more money to create the sea monster

Although Waterworld takes place pretty much entirely at sea, we don’t see much sea life, so the filmmakers decided during production that they needed to add a CGI sea monster scene. Costner and co had to request more money from studio Universal for this scene’s SFX, which was quite an ask considering Waterworld had already cost far more than originally expected.

The set was so hazardous that medics treated 40 to 50 members of the cast and crew every day

Shooting at sea day-in day-out took its toll physically on the Waterworld cast and crew. The on-set medics were kept busy, with a reported 40 to 50 people coming through their doors on a daily basis. Seasickness was commonplace, from the extras all the way up to director Kevin Reynolds and actress Jeanne Tripplehorn, who recalls, “I threw up, but not in front of anybody.”

A 112-foot model of the ship was built at an airport scrapyard

The Smokers’ base ship, the Exxon Valdez, was constructed at full scale, 112 feet in length, in an airport scrapyard at some expense. The Atoll set, built from 1,000 tonnes of steel, wound up costing the production $5 million. Even the Mariner’s trimaran – ostensibly a more modest vehicle – had a hefty price tag attached. Two trimarans were constructed at a cost of around $500,000 each.

Costner banned tabloid newspapers and magazines from the set

Throughout production, Waterworld was figuratively drowning in bad press, with reports of the ever-increasing budget and the massive behind-the-scenes difficulties. Tabloid interest was only intensified by rumours of Kevin Costner’s impending divorce. Costner was not amused, and when he saw cast and crew reading newspapers and magazines containing such reports, he banned these publications from the set.

The film’s original writer envisaged it as a vehicle for Harrison Ford

Waterworld will always be synonymous with Kevin Costner. However, writer Peter Rader told Yahoo! Movies in 2020 that when he first penned the script, “I have to confess I was thinking of Harrison Ford.” Whether or not Ford was ever in contention for the Mariner is unknown; unusually, there don’t seem to be reports of any other actors being linked to the film before Costner.

Kevin Costner was on set almost every day of the shoot

Kevin Costner’s heavily hands-on approach as producer on Waterworld is said to have promoted tension on the already troubled set. However, one thing Costner certainly can’t be accused of is failing to pull his weight work-wise, as he was there pretty much every day of the shoot. Costner says he was on set for 157 days, working six-day weeks at a time.

The film only made a profit thanks to its popularity overseas

With production and marketing costs, Waterworld had to earn at least $500 million to be in profit – but negative word of mouth saw it under-perform domestically, making only $88 million, hence it was labelled a flop. However, it fared better overseas, bringing home $176 million from the global box office. This plus home video and TV sales meant Waterworld did eventually turn a profit.

It was adapted into a novel, a video game and three theme park attractions

Credit: Mohamedudhuman05 via Wikimedia Commons

As everyone was banking on Waterworld being a massive blockbuster, the marketing push was huge. Tie-in merchandise included a video game, an official novelisation and a live stunt show, Waterworld: A Live Sea War Spectacular, at Universal’s resort in Hollywood. Although the movie wasn’t considered a hit, the show proved popular enough to also be launched at Universal’s resorts in Japan, Singapore and China.

It spawned a comic book series

There was never any real possibility of Waterworld getting a sequel, but the story did continue in 1997’s Waterworld: Children of Leviathan, a four-issue comic book series following on from the events of the movie. The Acclaim Comics limited series again centres on the Mariner, but gives him a new look as Kevin Costner would not give permission for his likeness to be used.

It was nominated for four Golden Raspberry Awards, but the only ‘winner’ was Dennis Hopper

Unsurprisingly given the tsunami of bad press that greeted Waterworld, the film was prominent at the 1996 Golden Raspberry Awards, nominated for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Actor for Costner and Worst Supporting Actor for Dennis Hopper. Ultimately, only Hopper ‘won’ the Razzie, as (perhaps fortunately) Waterworld was up against an even more notorious 1995 flop, Showgirls, which claimed the bulk of the awards.

The film was nominated for an Academy Award

Perhaps surprisingly, Waterworld’s technical achievement was still admired just enough to be nominated for a single Academy Award at the 1996 Oscars: Best Sound. Alas, sound engineers Steve Maslow, Gregg Landaker and Keith A. Wester lost out to Rick Dior, Steve Pederson, Scott Millan and David MacMillan, the sound team behind Apollo 13.

It was the fourth official collaboration between Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds

Waterworld was the third time Kevin Reynolds had directed Kevin Costner, after 1985’s Fandango and 1991’s Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. Outside this, Reynolds did uncredited work on Costner’s directorial debut Dances with Wolves, whilst Costner co-produced (but did not act in) Reynolds’ 1994 film Rapa-Nui. After Waterworld soured their friendship for many years, they didn’t reunite professionally until the 2012 TV mini-series Hatfields & McCoys.

Bad press hurt the film at the box office

When reports leaked that Waterworld was over-budget even before production started, the press smelled blood. In an effort to stave off more negative stories, journalists were banned from set. This, however, did not go down well with the press, and resulted in a continuous stream of damaging articles. Producer Charles Gordon later estimated all the bad press cost the film at least $50 million at the box office.

The Atoll used all the steel in the Hawaiian islands

When production designers were constructing the Atoll set, they ended up using the entire stock of available steel in the Hawaiian islands. Additional steel had to be flown in from California, an extremely costly enterprise that ended up inflating the movie’s final bill by several million dollars.

Kevin Costner put on a premiere at a US naval base in Japan

Kevin Costner flew in his private jet to attend the movie’s Tokyo premiere, but his team failed to acquire landing permission from the Japanese government. Costner was forced to ask the US Navy if he could store his plane at their Atsugi base, which they agreed to on the condition that the actor put on and attend a premiere for the officers stationed there.

Charles Gordon locked Kevin Costner and Kevin Reynolds in a room

Credit: Ben Gabbe / Stringer via Getty

When Kevin Costner was considering signing on to star in the film, he insisted that Kevin Reynolds be brought on as director and Charles Gordon as producer. Reynolds initially refused, due to his previous fallout with Costner, but Gordon was able to resolve their differences by literally locking them in a hotel room until they’d smoothed things out.

The sunken city wasn’t filmed underwater

For the sunken city sequence, filmmakers constructed miniature buildings, which were filmed in smoke to replicate the opacity of water. Kevin Costner and Jeanne Tripplehorn were then filmed in a water tank, with the footage digitally imposed onto the existing shots of the city, and CGI effects were added to complete the illusion.

Kevin Costner had to be doused with water between takes

In an interview with David Letterman just before the movie’s release, Kevin Costner revealed that one of the most unpleasant aspects of filming was the fact that he had to look wet all the time. To achieve this, members of the crew would throw buckets of water over him between takes, which severely strained his patience.

Producers considered shooting the film off the coast of Australia

Before they settled on Hawaii’s Kona coast, Waterworld’s producers considered shooting the movie off the southern coast of Australia. In the end, they settled on Hawaii as shooting was scheduled for the middle of the year, which is Australia’s winter. There were also more areas around the Hawaiian coast free from shipping lanes.

Nobody thought to research the weather around Hawaii

While Hawaii’s Kona coast had a number of advantages when it came to filming at sea, it had one major drawback: terrible weather. If anyone had researched weather Hawaiian weather patterns, they would have discovered that it was subject to frequent, violent storms. In the end, adverse weather ended up sending the movie’s costs soaring.

Costner’s personal life affected his performance

Kevin Costner’s portrayal of the Mariner is notably grim, with audiences struggling to sympathize with the character due to his his demeanor of vague and constant hostility. Kevin Reynolds later speculated that the bitter, protracted divorce which Costner was embroiled in during Waterworld’s production influenced his performance.

Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino almost drowned

Waterworld’s nightmarish production was plagued by near-constant accidents, including one that nearly claimed the lives of Jeanne Tripplehorn and Tina Majorino. On the very first day of filming, the trimaran that the actresses were filming on sank, dragging them along behind it and almost drowning them.

Ginger snaps were used to control seasickness

One of the biggest problems faced by the cast and crew of Waterworld was relentless seasickness, which was often bad enough to induce vomiting and frequently interrupted filming. Someone eventually discovered that ginger snaps were an effective treatment, which resulted in craft services having to source an enormous supply of the biscuits.

There were 36 different drafts of the script

One of the main reasons that Waterworld’s production was so chaotic was the fact that the script was constantly getting rewritten on the fly. Peter Rader wrote seven different drafts before he was replaced, and – mostly due to the meddling of Largo Entertainment and Universal Studios – a further five writers ended up working on the script, resulting in a final count of 36 drafts.

The Atoll set had to be continually towed out to sea

In order to shoot the sequences involving the Atoll, the camera crew needed at least 270 degrees of open water. This meant dragging the entire set two miles out to sea, which – considering the Atoll was around the size of a football stadium and weighed over 1,000 tons – was an extremely costly process that took huge amounts of time.

Kevin Costner had moleskin attached to his feet

Because Kevin Costner was always barefoot when shooting scenes, a thin layer of moleskin (a specially woven cotton-based fabric, not the skin of a mole) was attached to the soles of his feet to stop him from slipping or cutting himself on sharp edges. The actor didn’t have anything to protect him from stubbing his toes, however, which apparently was a frequent occurrence.

The film features a special Universal Studios logo

Before the film begins, the Universal Studios globe logo appears onscreen. All of the continents on the logo then gradually fade away and are replaced with water, which cleverly introduces the movie’s premise. At the same time, the movie’s narration starts, explaining that the world has been covered with water after the ice caps melted.

Kevin Costner personally invested $22 million

By the time Waterworld’s production wrapped, around $175 million had been spent on the movie. Apparently, $22 million of that came from Kevin Costner himself. Although the film wasn’t a resounding success, it did manage to make enough to cover its budget, so Costner wasn’t left out of pocket.

The teaser trailer had barely any footage to work with

Universal wanted a teaser trailer of the film to appear in theaters before showings of 1994’s Street Fighter. James Earl Jones was hired to narrate the trailer, but due to production delays there was barely any footage to work with. In the end, the teaser trailer consisted almost entirely of shots from the battle on the Atoll, which was pretty much the only sequence that had been filmed at that point.

Enola’s name has a hidden meaning

The entire plot of Waterworld revolves around Enola – a young girl with the location of Dryworld tattooed on her back – who the Mariner is forced to protect after the Smokers try and abduct her. Enola is ‘alone’ spelled backwards, a fitting name considering the movie’s ending reveals that she is an orphan.

A destroyed set led to a major plot change

One of the movie’s earlier drafts included a faction of slavers which tries to kidnap the movie’s protagonists. The set that was built for the slaver’s ship ended up getting destroyed by a storm and – rather than spend the time and money rebuilding – the script was simply rewritten to cut the slavers out.

Gary Oldman almost had a major role

Gary Oldman was one of many actors producers approached to play the Deacon. Oldman later revealed in an interview with GQ that he had to pick between Waterworld and The Scarlet Letter, as their schedules clashed. Unsure of which to choose, Oldman left it up to chance by flipping a coin, which resulted in him accepting the role in The Scarlet Letter.