Waterworld (1995)
Directed by Kevin Reynolds
In a futuristic world where the polar ice caps have melted and made Earth a liquid planet, a beautiful barmaid rescues a mutant seafarer from a floating island prison. They escape, along with her young charge, Enola, and sail off aboard his ship. But the trio soon becomes the target of a menacing pirate who covets the map to 'Dryland'—which is tattooed on Enola's back.
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5 films that influenced Waterworld
What critics say influenced Waterworld
Cut to Mariner ( Kevin Costner ), aboard his trimaran, a sailing vessel that looks made out of spare parts from "Mad Max."
Whether it's the rusting scrap-metal sets or the gas-guzzling bad guys, the movie takes its cues from George Miller's "Mad Max" movies.
With chests fully puffed after their global success with 1991’s electric “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” star Costner and director Kevin Reynolds decided to test the adventure waters again with this admittedly blatant lift from the “Mad Max” series.
If it wasn’t for the obvious rips from the entire Mad Max canon, combined with star Kevin Costner’s immense ego, this would be nothing more than a failed featured attraction at some cut rate Florida aquatic theme park.
Think more time on the archipelago, more time on Mariner's ill-fated shopping trip, and more of Mariner and Helen's curiously hot banter, with Tripplehorn, three years removed from Basic Instinct, showing herself in hindsight to be one of the '90s' key fatales--and certainly better matched with Costner than the similarly-undercharged Mastrantonio.
With his Merry Men the filthy rabble taught to Swiss Family Robinson up in the film's stupidest scene (and that's saying something) to build a thriving socialist community designed to usurp capitalistic Nottingham, Costner's Robin would be right at home in the doomed commune at the end of Easy Rider.
In the "careful what you wish for" sweepstakes, here's Kevin Costner, fresh off an Oscar victory for his naïve idyll Dances with Wolves, spending his hard-won Hollywood currency indulging best buddy Kevin Reynolds in a trilogy of pictures (Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Rapa Nui, Waterworld) he produced for the express purpose of giving Reynolds more than enough rope.
As director Kevin Reynolds displayed in "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves," he knows how to direct action sequences, and "Waterworld" is filled with some fabulous physical moments.
With chests fully puffed after their global success with 1991’s electric “Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves,” star Costner and director Kevin Reynolds decided to test the adventure waters again with this admittedly blatant lift from the “Mad Max” series.
Directed by Kevin Reynolds, who collaborated with Costner on several earlier projects (notably Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves), the film may have taken 166 days to shoot and come in at a preposterous cost of nearly $200 million, but it's no Heaven's Gate.
With a few flops behind him, including "Wyatt Earp," "The War" and "A Perfect World," Costner must have been eager to avoid another lemon, no doubt the reason he fired his friend and "Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves" director Kevin Reynolds from "Waterworld" over what I imagine must have been creative differences.
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He goes to trade at a big floating "atoll," which is like a seagoing version of the post-apocalyptic city in "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome."