WATERWORLD

WATERWORLD is set on a post-apocalyptic earth where the polar ice caps have melted, cities are left underwater and junk yard atolls and blood-thirsty nomads float atop. Kevin Costner portrays the mariner who is taken captive and discovered to be a “mutant.” He has webbed toes and gills behind his ears. He is soon rescued by a lovely woman named Helen, who demands from him passage out of the junk yard village with a girl in her care named Enola who appears to have knowledge of another world and paints figures of strange creatures (horses) and trees. Tattooed on her back is an ancient map, rumored to bear direction to dryland, a mythical island with lots of trees and freshwater. It just so happens that many inhabitants of Waterworld would kill to find this map to paradise. These killers are called smokers, a vigilante gang of polluting pirates. The mariner battles the smokers, rescues Enola, falls in love with Helen, and eventually finds dryland.

Although science fiction, the film has overtones of an environmentalist satire. The villains are chain-smoking capitalists who search for dryland in search of “progress.” Their blasphemous and violent worldview may be entertaining, but offending to some discerning viewers.