Tales of box office bombs are always fascinating, but there may be none more fascinating than Kevin Costner’s gigantic sci-fi blockbuster of a failure. Before The Last of Us sent its survivors across a ruined America and Mad Max: Fury Road unleashed absolute chaos across the desert, Costner attempted something even more ridiculous: Mad Max on water. Today, you could pull it off. Back then? Not so much. But 30 years later, the film needs another look and audiences are checking it out.
Waterworld is officially charting on Netflix, giving audiences another opportunity to revisit Costner’s gigantic 1995 sci-fi adventure. Our hero in this gigantic bomb is Costner’s Mariner, a mysterious drifter navigating a world we wouldn’t thank you for. Set in the future when Earth is completely covered in water and the human race is struggling to survive, mankind’s one remaining hope for a better future is the Mariner, who gets caught up in a battle between the evil Deacon and a child’s secret key to a wondrous place called “Dryland.” The Mariner becomes reluctantly responsible for protecting Helen and a young girl named Enola after discovering that Enola may possess the secret to locating Dryland. Unfortunately, that also puts them in the sights of the Smokers and their completely unhinged leader, the Deacon.
Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
Who Stars in ‘Waterworld’?
Waterworld stars Costner (Dances with Wolves) as the Mariner, Dennis Hopper (Speed) as the Deacon, Jeanne Tripplehorn (Basic Instinct) as Helen, Tina Majorino (Napoleon Dynamite) as Enola, Michael Jeter (The Green Mile) as Old Gregor, Gerard Murphy (Batman Begins) as Nord, R.D. Call (Into the Wild) as the Enforcer, Kim Coates (Sons of Anarchy) as the Drifter, Jack Black (School of Rock) as the Pilot, and Zakes Mokae (The Serpent and the Rainbow) as Priam, while the movie is directed by Kevin Reynolds.
When it was released, Waterworld became famous for all the wrong reasons. If you can believe it, building gigantic, working sets out on the open water proved to be — shocker — extremely difficult. Weather repeatedly complicated production and costs spiraled until the movie’s budget reportedly reached approximately $175 million — an astonishing figure for 1995. The movie ended up grossing $264 million globally, but it was branded a colossal bomb, despite home video and other revenue eventually softening the blow. In later years, Waterworld gradually developed a considerably warmer reputation among fans of pulpy post-apocalyptic cinema.
Its most enduring legacy might actually be at Universal Studios. The Waterworld stunt show has survived for decades and expanded to multiple Universal theme parks, long after most supposed “flops” would have disappeared entirely from pop culture. Now that’s what we call a real legacy.
