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The Mariner takes Helen down to the sea bed in a makeshift 'diving bell'. He tells Helen there is only enough air for one person. The depth they dive to is shown as quite comfortably exceeding 200m. (To save this turning into a science essay I'll include this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyle's_law). Regardless of suspension of disbelief, there is no way that a bell of that size would carry enough air for even one person at that depth for that long. See more...

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The land they end up finding at the end of the movie was in fact to be the tip of Mount Everest. I know this because I once saw a copy of the movie where they discovered the plaque left behind by the first climbers of the mountain and it said it was Mount Everest. This was the movie's broadcast premiere on ABC in 1998, and up until recently, the plaque was never shown on-screen again. See more...

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Waterworld (1995) - 30 corrections

Directed by Kevin Reynolds, starring Dennis Hopper, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Kevin Costner (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Drama, Sci-fi, Thriller

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click "edit" under an entry, then choose "correct entry". You can also submit corrections for corrections, if you think a mistake has been unfairly removed.

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The Mariner takes Helen down to the sea bed in a makeshift 'diving bell'. He tells Helen there is only enough air for one person. The depth they dive to is shown as quite comfortably exceeding 200m. (To save this turning into a science essay I'll include this link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boyle's_law). Regardless of suspension of disbelief, there is no way that a bell of that size would carry enough air for even one person at that depth for that long. There's also the matter of decompression stops when they return to the surface. The Mariner wouldn't need them but Helen certainly would. It could be argued that the deco stops occurred off-screen and the audience doesn't see every second of their trip. Fair enough however The Mariner has no time piece to measure how long they've been on the stops and no depth gauge. That would also assume he is not only aware of decompression as a concept, but is familiar with a specific set of decompression tables and schedules, to the point of having them memorised on the off chance he ever takes a human diving. Highly implausible. [Who says the mariner doesn't need decompression stops? He has gills and webbed toes, but even a fish can't move from the ocean floor to the surface without literally exploding. The "knowledge" of decompression must be instinctual for him, as is whether to breath through lungs or gills. He knows to stop for Helen because he must stop for himself as well. The first half of this mistake is valid but the second half is not. Perhaps a resubmission might be in order. This is why it's wiser not to list several issues in a single entry.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
The Exxon Valdez is designed to carry crude oil. Crude has to be refined into higher octane products to be used in jet skis, automobiles, etc. The refining process is difficult and requires large amounts of power. It would be impossible to do on the tanker itself. And it is extremely unlikely that the smokers would have come across high octane products on another ship. They tend to be refined near to their consumers and not shipped around. [Stating that it would be impossible is supposition, it would be possible to have a small refinery on the tanker - producing just enough fuel to keep the smokers running. The main components in a refinery are a furnace to heat the crude and a distilling tank to separate the petroleum products.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
How far ahead in the future are we anyway? Hundreds or maybe thousands of years? Do you know how long tankers like that can stay at sea? Twenty or thirty years at the most. That's a rather short time for everyone to forget about dry land. [It is never revealed how far into the future the movie takes place. The statement about how long the tanker can stay at sea is complete speculation; since there is no (known) land it has no place to be but at sea. The bottom of the Valdez is encrusted with barnacles, the outer hull is covered in rust and engines have been replaced with people rowing. It looks like it may have been at sea for centuries.]
Edit Corrected by BocaDavie
Where do the smokers get their cigarettes from? Cigarettes do not have an indefinite shelf life. The tobacco will dry out after just a few months and after a few years they would crumble away. Given that the smokers certainly don't have the capacity to grow tobacco or manufacture cigarettes, and the cigarettes they are smoking could not have survived since the global disaster that caused the sea to rise, there shouldn't be any around. [Cigarettes are usually packed in packages wrapped in sealed plastic, and if stored carefully, they will last quite a long time. They certainly would dry out and not be exactly pleasant to smoke, but beggars can't be choosers in thier case. They'd likely smoke anything.]
Edit
When the smokers attack the metal city, Enola and Helen go up to Gregor's windmill to try and escape with him. Though the battle is raging outside, you can see a calm, Smoker-free lagoon with no signs of an attack happening through any of the windows in the windmill. [The portion of the lagoon seen through the window is relatively calm, however right after Gregor throws the rope and it gets stuck, you can see a smoker on a jet ski enter the view right before the shot changes.]
Edit Corrected by Jason Sieberg
If it has been so long since the water levels rose that no one remembers a time when dry land was above water, how did the little girl come to have such an accurate map to it tattooed on her back? [Probably because she came from dry land. Her family tattooed her back and sent her out to sea in a basket because they knew they were dying and that there were people out on the sea who would want to find the land. This is mentioned at several points later in the film; Helen mentioning "the basket we found Enola in," and Enola saying "I'm home" at the end.]
Edit Corrected by Jason Sieberg
If there were enough ice on the planet that, when melted, would raise the ocean levels to the extent shown in the movie, then the saltwater would be diluted enough to be drinkable, negating the plot point about "hydro" being such a valuable commodity. [The salt must have come from somewhere else. It is a naturally occurring mineral, after all.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
The Mariner's gills that allow him to apparently breathe ocean water, are extremely unlikely. Even mammals that live underwater, like whales and dolphins, did not evolve gills. It is not possible for a warm-blooded creature to supply itself with enough oxygen using only small gills. [This is a part of the suspension of disbelief. There's not enough water (solid, liquid, or gas) on the planet for the world to flood up to the peak of Mt. Everest, but that's what the whole movie is built around. In this fictional world the Mariner evolved gills and they work. Perhaps they can't keep him underwater indefinitely, but they at least extend the time he can spend submerged.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
Since Earth is covered by a salty ocean, fresh water is treated as a rare, expensive commodity. This makes no sense, because the human body requires a certain amount of fresh water each day just to survive. If whole populations are sustaining themselves, this means that they have access to fresh drinking water reliably each day. [But it's severely rationed. There's barely enough to go around, which is why it's regarded so highly.]
Edit Corrected by Phixius
If Kevin Costner's character has gills, and can breathe under water, why would he have a device for someone else to breathe underwater? He very states that he is a loner, and does not travel any way but alone. I can see building one after he picks up his extra passengers, but beforehand doesn't make since. [Not understanding a character's motivations or reasons is not a mistake. While he might have not needed there are numerous reasons why he might have kept it and there is no mistake in keeping it just because he might not need it.]
Edit Corrected by Lummie
Featuring the Exxon Valdez in the movie is a nice piece of social commentary. However, when the real Exxon Valdez was repaired and placed back into service after the Prince William Sound disaster in 1989, it was rechristened the Sea River Mediterranean. [The ship was renamed EXXON Mediterranean (type Exxon Mediterranean into a search engine). This alleged mistake is already covered under trivia.]
Edit
It is a known scientific fact that a planet without land will create waves rising from 500 to a thousand feet. This is because there is no land that can break the waves' rise. This would make the surface uninhabitable by any man-made structure or vessel especially with Waterworld's current human technology. Waterworld barely has any waves. [It is not a known scientific fact. It is one scientific theory that is impossible to prove. Computer models can only begin to guess at the effects of no land above water. And in Waterworld there is at least one landmass which they find, and there are probably more as the melting ice-caps are not sufficient to cover the entire surface.]
Edit Corrected by Soylent Purple
It doesn't make sense that the Smokers have so many shells. In the Atoll Assault scene the four-barreled machine gun chassis is dumping out about 50 shells every 4 seconds. [We don't see the world being flooded and the smokers becoming what they are. Who's to say they didn't find an ammunition stash or battleships (which I'm sure would still be floating around) and raided them.]
Edit Corrected by Cybermoose
Since all the Jet Skis in the movie seem to be from the late twentieth/early twenty-first century, and the Exxon Valdez can only hold so much oil, and it has probably been centuries (at least) since the water level rose, there would probably be a very strict oil rationing law in place for there to be any oil left at all. Certainly not enough for the villains to be as profligate with the use of the Jet Skis as they are. [You are assuming lots of things. There are no laws in this movie, it has become everyone for themselves. So who is to say that there is an oil rationing law. Second, maybe there was more than one oil tanker and the Exxon Valdez was the last one and so therefore everyone was DESPERATE to find dry land.]
Edit Corrected by shortdanzr
The villains have many cans of Smeat laying about. Why won't they eat it? [The Deacon and his crew want the people he rules over to believe that he has finally found dryland. Throwing it to them before he makes his speech makes them believe this.]
Edit
If dirt is rare and expensive, look of the amount of dirt on the floor throughout the wooden islands, etc. [Its not a wooden island, it's metal, and the "dirt" isn't dirt, it's rust.]
Edit
In the scene where Mariner dives Helen to show her the sunken cities in this rare bubble, you take a good look at the underwater panorama. However, you will not find a single fish, despite it's suppose to be full of monsters and creatures. [If the polar icecaps melted and flooded the oceans with freshwater to the extent that the whole planet was underwater (that can't happen, but that's by the by) then every saltwater fish in the sea would die; their body chemistry would be totally disrupted as the salt in the sea was drastically diluted.]
Edit
If Kevin Costner can go down to the bottom of the ocean and get dirt he should be able to get things from the sunk cities a lot more valuble than dirt. [The Mariner (Costner) does in fact go to the bottom of the ocean to get more valuble things than just dirt. Crayons, shells, National Geographic, and in the extended version a workable CD player is one of the many items that the Mariner gathers from the ocean floor.]
Edit
The woman and the little girl escape with Kevin Costner off the metal island in a big hurry and can be seen taking no bags or clothes with them. Why then, in a later scene aboard Kevin Costner's boat, does the woman have a completely different dress on from the one she escaped in? [It is quite possible that there was a woman's dress aboard Kevin Costner's boat already and the woman just changed into it. Since the clothes they are wearing are a lot like rags, the individual bits and pieces can be rearranged easily so as to look like a different dress. It is also possible that the woman was wearing 2 (or more) sets of clothes simultaneously while escaping from the metal island and simply took one off.]
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Can anyone explain to me why the Exxon Valdez, an oil tanker that ran aground at one point, is still afloat, yet there is no sign of any military ships (except the sunken submarine). Military ships tend to be more "sink-proof" than civilian ones. [The fact that there are no military ships shown in the film does NOT imply that there are none in Waterworld. Maybe there are, but they simply are not there in the storyline of the film. ]
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