WATERWORLD Is WAY Better Than You Remember

Added: 2026-05-06

[00:00:00]In the history of box office bombs, few films have as big of an infamous reputation as that of 1995's Waterorld.

[00:00:09]Even while it was still in production, star and producer Kevin Cosner's movie was labeled as a disaster. And in the years since, Waterworld has been synonymous with big budget failure.

[00:00:19]Except that's not true. Yes, Water World's production was a mess. and when combined with its massive spectacle led to the film being the most expensive movie ever made at the time of its release, which attracted plenty of criticism. Yes, the film that was released into theaters disappointed Universal Pictures in its box office performance and didn't connect with audiences in the ways that its creators were hoping. But what if I told you that Waterworld actually made a profit?

[00:00:47]Actually created its own fandom over the years and actually has an alternate cut that's pretty great. This is the story of Waterworld, the infamous box office bomb that's better than anyone thinks.

[00:01:10]While Waterorld Story ends with the dubious honor of being the most expensive movie ever made at the time of its release and the byproduct of its stars ego run rampant, the beginning of our tale couldn't be any more different.

[00:01:24]And it all starts with one man famous for spending as little money as possible on the wildest ideas imaginable. Roger Corman. During a career that spanned more than 70 years and ran through multiple studios, some of which he founded, Roger Corman directed 55 films and produced close to 400 more. And while the quality, popularity, and necessity of those movies range from A Bucket of Blood to The Pit and the Pendulum to Death Race 2000 to Slumber Party Massacre 3 and everything in between, Corman's guiding philosophy was to get his movies made as cheaply and as quickly as possible. So, by the time that screenwriter Peter Rder, fresh out of college and hoping to break in a film, met with Corman in 1986 in the hopes of making a movie, the seed for Waterorld was planted with a very simple and then very popular idea. Ripoff Mad Max. Ooh, Mad Max talk. Yes. Okay, so by the mid 80s, the Mad Max trilogy had already come and gone with writer and director George Miller and star Mel Gibson pumping out Mad Max, The Road Warrior, and Beyond Thunderdome in just 6 years, with the franchise and its creator undergoing a huge evolution from nobudget law-breaking indie opportation to mainstream appealing big budget adventure. But Mad Max showed how with just a little money and the right desolate setting, a future set dystopian adventure was possible for anyone. Q movies like 1990 Bronx Warriors, Warlord of the 21st Century, or 2019: After the Fall of New York, which threw in a dash of Escape from New York for good measure. Raider and screenwriter Brad Cavoy's idea to differentiate their project as much as possible from Mad Max and its many other ripoffs was to take the same type of post-apocalyptic story and move it onto the water. The only problem was that that setting alone immediately made their film way more expensive than the $5 million budget that Corman would have set for the movie. See, filming on the water is notoriously expensive and infamous for being a ton of trouble. The making of Jaws was such a nightmare that Steven Spielberg vowed to never make a movie set on the ocean again. The Abyss saw James Cameron torture his crew for an underwater epic. Essentially, the rule is that any movie shot on the water will be infinitely harder than you expect.

[00:03:43]We'll get more into how that would make the actual production of the movie a nightmare later on, but Raider's initial script had most of the elements that would be part of the finished film years later, not accounting for budget, location, or practicality. And yeah, it's totally a MadMax ripoff. Our central character, the mariner, is a lone survivor that wanders this wet, wet wasteland with no interest in others.

[00:04:06]only the survival of himself and his companion. In this case, a tomato plant he waters with his own filtered pee. The earth is stripped of resources. In this case, because of there being no land, which I guess is important for life, and eventually the mariner is forcibly brought into the fight for survival and a brighter future by good people battling a charismatic cult leader and in the process becomes a better person.

[00:04:30]But there's some real weird stuff in here, too, that didn't make it to the screen later. There were some very surreal elements, said Raider. One of the things that made the mariner, originally called Noah, unique in my script, was that he originally had a white horse on his boat, which was a river barge at that point. It was surreal. He wouldn't show anyone the horse. He would always hide it. The next phase of the film's life began when Raider directed his first feature film, Grandmother's House, and off of the back of that movie sent out the Waterworld script on spec, meaning that it wasn't commissioned by any studio, but was instead shopped around to any potential buyers in any studio. This led to producers Andy Leaked and Jeff Mueller picking up the script and planning on shooting it for a modest budget by using an enclosed water tank in Malta.

[00:05:18]Actually, the exact same one would go on to be used in a previous subject of one of my videos, Cutthroat Island, which would similarly balloon in cost and bomb at the box office. But the plan was for a budget of around $30 million. Not massive, but instead just right for a mid-budget hit in the early '90s with Largo Entertainment and director Neil Wap, who had previously made the adventure film Pathfinder, attached.

[00:05:43]However, Waterworld's time at Largo was brief because in 1992, Universal Pictures became interested in making the film instead. According to leaked, we got a call from one executive who said that if we did not play along with CAA and Universal, neither company would ever do business with us again. And so, out was Largo and in was Universal. And most importantly, its star, one Kevin Cosner. Okay, so this is the moment that 9 years of my channel have finally been leading toward. I get to talk about the strange and utterly unique mega star Hollywood career of Kevin Cosner. Okay, Matt, don't screw this up. Don't just talk about Open Range. To me, Kevin Cosner feels like both the epitome of a Hollywood megastar and a total outlier.

[00:06:29]Really, he essentially went from nobody to star actor in an instant, going from being the dead friend who had all his scenes cut in The Big Chill to the lead of The Untouchables and No Way Out, both in 1987. Follow that up with back-to-back baseball centered hits in Bulldurham and Field of Dreams, and Cosner was a huge star by the end of the 80s. And then Cosner almost immediately jumped in directing a massive feature without any previous experience with Dances with Wolves, which Cosner struggled to get financed due to the novel it was based on not having much of a reputation and the western not just being unpopular but seen as almost radioactive following the massive bomb of previous video subject Evans Gate.

[00:07:11]The combination of Cosner's rapidly expanding ego, the massive production, and the seemingly doomed nature of the project led to trade papers and critics dubbing the in-production film Kevin's Gate after Chimino's disaster. The only problem was Dances with Wolves was a massive hit, making more than $400 million against its $22 million budget and winning seven of its 12 Academy Award nominations. The Kevin'sGate label didn't stick, so they put it back in the drawer for another opportunity. Cosner had built up his star incredibly fast, bet on himself, and majorly won against all odds. As for the actual quality of his acting, well, I think Cosner is kind of hard to define. I wouldn't say he's an amazing actor. He definitely shows his limitations when putting on a really shaky accent that he can't maintain in Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, JFK, or here in Waterworld, where he sort of has a main accent for a couple lines every 20 minutes.

[00:08:08]>> A couple hours ago, I was potential dirt to you.

[00:08:11]>> But he has that indefinable star feeling that made him an attraction, at least for a little while. Oh, and I love Open Range. Incredible movie. Okay, so why that's all important is that Coer's movies were mega hits year after year.

[00:08:24]and they continued to push his power behind the camera. So when it came time for him to be interested in Waterorld and to take it all over, everything about the production changed. Suddenly the movie was under Universal, leaked and Mueller were out and Peter Rider was replaced by screenwriter David Tohi, who had recently written The Fugitive and one of the many unused versions of Alien 3. At that point, I had done six or seven drafts, said Raider, and they decided they wanted to bring in a new voice because I was so burnt out on the whole thing. I was bummed out and disappointed, but that's just the nature of the beast. Tohi rewrote the film into a more serious version, which was then given an uncredited rewrite by Jos Sweden while the film was being shot.

[00:09:08]And all the while, the budget kept going up, up, up. Now it was $60 million with $14 million alone being paid to Cosner who had brought on director Kevin Reynolds who had helped on Dances with Wolves and also directed Cosner and Robin Hood Prince of Thieves. The funny thing is that the two Kevins had already buted heads on Robin Hood. In fact, they fought so much that Reynolds walked out on the film during editing, angry with Cosner's ego and skipping the premiere.

[00:09:35]It wouldn't be the last time. The journey to making Water World was already tumultuous, but it was when production began that the real problems really started. Okay, hold on. Wait, wait, wait. What's Water World actually about? The year is 2500. Ooh, nice and round. And centuries earlier, the polar ice caps completely melted, submerging every continent in water and forcing the remaining humans to survive on boats, ancient tankers, and scraps of metal they formed into floating communities they call atolls. But humanity has unsurprisingly fallen apart and is near the end. And this is where we meet Cosner's central character, a survivor known only as the mariner, who is a mutated man with gills to breathe underwater known as an ichthosen. Just like that Abe abe sapion who encounters Helen played by Gene Triplehorn the survivor who has adopted a young girl Inola played by Tina Magajino whose back has a mysterious map tattoo that might show the way to dry land but they're soon targeted by the maniacally scenery chewing Dennis Hopper as Deacon and the forces of the smokers. Michael Jeter is also here in a supporting role and I just want to say that I love Michael Jeter and as a film Water World is pure spectacle. Obviously everything here is done on a massive scale with huge battles playing out across the ocean at tankers as fiery explosions rip across many many stuntmen flipping around. It's giving big stunt show energy which only became more appropriate after the film's premiere. It's also trying to really establish its own rules and logic for this world. As given that the entire planet was flooded centuries ago, people have created different types of legends, currency, and survival tactics over time. Yes, that means drinking your own pee, thankfully after it's been filtered. And while that makes some degree of sense, I still don't know why they chose to make this the first thing you see. Now, 30 years later, and what really stands out about Water World are two things. First, Cosner's character of the mariner is a truly unlikable guy for the majority of the movie. He's willing to even kill a kid for the sake of saving his own rations and is just a straightup until he finally softens in the third act. It's probably too much for too long to actually root for him, but it's very different from how most anti-heroes and big budget films are usually just jerks with hearts of gold to make them easier to like.

[00:12:01]Second, the sheer amount of practical sets, effects, and stunts is wild. CGI is used very sparingly here and looks pretty bad, but the breadth of open ocean and huge scale scenes with very little movie magic to cheat looks more and more insane in the years that followed. And that's because Water World really did film out on the ocean using a seawater enclosure off the coast of Hawaii that did provide some control over the water for the crew, but clearly not enough. The set wasn't a three- ring circus. It was a 12 ring circus, said Reynolds. The scale was enormous, especially the giant floating set, the atole. We had hundreds of extras, dozens and dozens of guys on jet skis and helicopters with cameras on them. The legendary complications of filming a movie out on the water had come to haunt Water World with so many different problems happening one after another, including the entire set used for the atoll sinking due to a storm and having to be rebuilt. But it's the small things that actually added up and made Water World into the huge disaster that it was during production. bad weather, safety issues, constantly changing shots because of the motion of the ocean where nothing was ever quite set or quite right and makeup had to be done over and over again with the makeup department being on their own boat and having to drive in for each shot made everything so much harder and take so much longer to film than anyone expected. When the ground that you're filming on is constantly moving water, you don't really have any stability to making your movie. Plus, on top of all of this, Cosner's stunt double got the bends during one of the shots, which caused Universal to expend way more money on safety that they had not taken into their budget at all prior to the beginning of this shoot. And so, Water World's scheduled production of 96 days ended up taking 166, and its initially set budget of $100 million from Universal kept growing and growing. By the time production was finished, the final budget for Waterworld was $175 million, setting a new record for most expensive movie ever made. This has of course been topped many, many times since to the point of not even being in the top 50 most expensive films. But at the time, it was such a leap forward in cost and for something that was becoming a widely reported on spectacle that could become a disaster that industry reports had their knives out before it even hit theaters. And so once again, the label Kevin's Gate was pulled out and slapped on Waterworld. This time now able to apply to both star and director, as well as the pretty funny insult of Fishtar. Taking inspiration from another famous bomb, Ela May's Ishtar. I will not be making an Ishtar video.

[00:14:47]>> These men are pawns.

[00:14:48]>> The press wanted it to bomb, said Reynolds. The head of Universal, Bill Washington, thought the bad publicity cost us at least $50 million in the box office. The reviews were painful. People didn't like it. I remember publicists saying that people walked out of a press screening. And then one guy said, "Well, it didn't suck." That was the attitude.

[00:15:09]People walked out expecting to be disappointed and weren't. After production wrapped, the battle between Kevin's Cosner and Reynolds quickly escalated. Fights on set over Cosner's control over the movie led to Reynolds walking off one day and leaving Cosner in charge, shouting at the actor. Now Kevin gets to work with his favorite actor and director. And eventually Cosner took over control of editing, locking Reynolds out of the production.

[00:15:35]And as negative press coverage of the film continued, Universal began to worry about its performance, having Cosner cut the film down from its initial nearly 3-hour length to 2 hours and 15 minutes in order to put more showings per day into theaters. Water World was going to be a disaster, no matter how it actually performed. Okay, so let's get down to it. Is Waterorld actually the bomb that people say it is today? Well, at first glance, you might think so, but that's not actually true. Immediately, Waterorld was a disappointment at the domestic box office, making $88 million for 10th place that year behind movies like Batman Forever, Apollo 13, and Toy Story. But internationally, Water World did really well, making $175 million outside the US for a total of $264 million. When taking the cost of marketing and the split of ticket costs between studio and movie theaters, Waterorld lost millions for Universal.

[00:16:34]But in the days of home video rental being a true difference maker in film, Waterorld would go on to not only make back its cost, but be a steady profit maker over the following years. Sure, that's not as flashy or as fun as either being a mega hit or a mega bomb, but it goes to show that public perception pushed by entertainment news looking for attention and the reality of movie making are often two very different things. Still, the immediate impact of the film hurt Universal. And in the aftermath, Universal President Sid Shinberg, while admitting the mistakes made by Cosner and Reynolds, said, "I'm the president. I'm the chief operating officer. Let him blame me." and they did. Shineberg was released from Universal the same month that Waterworld premiered as the Seag Company took over Universal when they bought MCA.

[00:17:25]Waterworld is definitely the first major stumbling block in Cosner's career. It doesn't help that Cosner was so heavily involved in the issues surrounding the film and afterward Cosner obviously tried to redo the movie with the Postman in 1997. Essentially, Waterorld on the ground and Cosner once again the savior of humanity. But the Postman did way worse, making $30 million against an $80 million budget. Cosner's career was never as strong as that first decade, where it seemed as if he could will any project into success. And while there were plenty of ups and downs, Cosner eventually went on to truly make a film worthy of being called Kevin's Gate with Horizon, an American saga chapter 1 in 2024, which was shot backto back with Chapter 2 as part of an intended four-part series, only for chapter 1 to do so poorly that the completed chapter 2 was pulled from its release date and has continued to sit on the shelf. Not great when Cosner himself mortgaged his $50 million property to fund the films.

[00:18:28]As for Reynolds, he go on to make a few other decent hits like The Count of Monte Cristo while remaining Cosner's sworn enemy for decades until the two decided to work together again on the History Channel miniseries Hatfields and McCoys, which would lead to Cosner and the Yellowstone series and then Horizon.

[00:18:44]Okay, so this is where I got to talk about the Ulyses cut for a minute. Like I said earlier, Water World was initially almost 3 hours long before they trimmed almost 40 minutes out of it. And the result is that the theatrical cut is kind of nonsensical.

[00:18:59]The mariner suddenly shifts from total douche to seeing Anola as a friend he'd die for. Anola's mysterious tattoo that eventually leads them to dry land has no real explanation. And at the end, when the heroes have found land, the mariner just leaves because he doesn't like it.

[00:19:15]The thing is, all those flaws are fixed in an extended cut that came to be known as the Ulisses cut, which was first assembled by fans using footage from an extended TV version and combining it with the theatrical. Eventually, an official version was released by Arrow Home Video in 2019, and I'm here to tell you that it's awesome. While the movie is much longer, there are really crucial scenes added back in that explain everything and give its characters more well-rounded dynamics. Plus, the end is 100% more satisfying as the mariner leaves land determined to spread the message of its salvation and having never been given a name is lovingly named Ulisses by Helen >> to his family and he never left them again.

[00:20:05]His name was Ulisses who discovers along with Anola that the dry land was once Mount Everest. I cannot for the life of me understand why so much of this was cut, but if you're on the fence about Waterworld, check out this version because it's a really good wet wet movie. I mean, this is a slick flick.

[00:20:24]>> 38 39 40 quarters. This better be good.

[00:20:34]>> Came over. Please deposit 40 quarters.

[00:20:37]>> What a rip.

[00:20:41]Today, Water World's Lasting Legacy might be a stunt show at Universal Studios parks. Oh my god, I get to talk about theme park history again. I just get to sneak it on in there. I swear this was not the only reason that I made this video. When Waterorld was still in production, Universal and director of attractions at the Hollywood Park, Tom Thorderson, were in search of a new stunt show to replace the outofdate Miami Vice stunt show. And when you look at all the action in the film, it's not surprising that the park latched on to Water World. I mean, come on, this thing is already a couple cases of animal abuse away from being a circus act. The resulting show is filled with water stunts, jet ski work, fiery explosions, high dives, and coolest of all, a plane getting launched over the wall of the atole with no lines or harnesses. It's a kind of non-stop 20 minutes of wild liveaction that takes the most memorable ideas from the film and distills them down into a super concise version that wastes no time or focus. Clearly, the show was a big hit for the Hollywood park because in the years since, the Waterworld stunt show has been replicated in Japan, Singapore, and Beijing. And more than 30 years after it was made, Waterorld is still going strong at all the parks. In fact, it's become such a staple that I'm sure plenty of people have enjoyed the stunt show without even knowing that it's based on a movie. So, I think that while this stunt show has easily become the biggest lasting legacy of the film, it combined with the actual film's waning fame and its box office disappointment being highlighted by the contrast to the ubiquity of the show means that Waterorld equals box office bomb has become shorthand in film history. But really, no one has much time or energy to reclaim a massive studio film that most people think was okay at best.

[00:22:27]Still, there has been some reclamation, and the Ulyses cut on Blu-ray and 4K helps a lot. So, what am I trying to say here? Well, besides the fact that Waterorld isn't the financial disaster that people have made it out to be, and that after watching the Ulyses cut, I can say that I really am a fan of this movie. I think that what's most important is that whether it's a film, a historical event, or a person, infamy quickly becomes shortorthhand, which eventually turns into an easily regurgitated anecdote that is spread like wildfire among a lot of different people, especially now online. And all of this just kind of ignores facts and accuracy because when so many people have said the same thing, it's got to be true, right? Will Water World ever outgrow its infamy or even the lack of interest that it's created in the 30 years since its release? Probably not.

[00:23:23]But with the right reappraisal and enough people giving it a chance, Waterorld may just be a surprise favorite for new generations looking for a little of that classic big budget spectacle of a time gone by.

[00:23:42]Thanks for watching today's video. And yeah, Water World. A Water World video.

[00:23:46]Okay, sure. Yeah, why not? I think that my idea for making this video was finally pushed into my schedule because people kept talking about Water World and all the different box office bomb videos that I've done. People keep saying Waterorld is a bigger bomb. Water World was terrible. Why haven't you mentioned Water World in this video? And it's because Waterorld was not actually a bomb. It was a disappointment at first and then it was fine. And also it's good. Um, in research for this video, I decided to finally watch the Ulisses cut. I bought Water World on 4K and and got that extra disc with it. And man, I was really surprised by just how great it was cuz it was really, really good.

[00:24:27]Even though it's longer than the theatrical cut, the pacing is so much better. You like the characters so much more and it's such a much more interesting story. So, I'm really glad that I was able to watch that because it cemented my positive feelings on this movie. Waterworld will always have that reputation of being a big bomb, but like I said, it's not like that actually. But its reputation and its impact did change the course of a lot of studio history, a lot of different careers, and the movies that followed. But if you're looking for a big budget spectacle and a lot of practical effects and cool stunts, then absolutely check out Waterorld. It's a lot of fun. It's kind of a mess at times, but I think it's really thoroughly enjoyable. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Waterworld. You finally telling me that you were wrong about Water World being a huge bomb, and other actual bombs or maybe perceived bombs that you would like for me to make a video on. As always, a huge thank you to my members and patrons for their continued support. And if you'd like to be a member or patron, it's only $2 a month for early access to every video and exclusive reviews. with April's exclusive review being me talking about the horrible, horrible film that is The Exorcist 2. So, until next time, I hope that you're taking care of yourselves and giving Waterworld a chance.

[00:25:40]Seriously, watch the Ulyses cut.