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Waterworld
The Quest for Dry Land
Video game
Interplay Entertainment
1997 |
On an Earth drowned by oceans, the
inhabitants of an artificial atoll seek the fabled continent of
Dry Land.
Story Summary
View the live action video scenes from the game at YouTube
Didja Know?
Waterworld: The Quest for Dry Land was a 1997 PC
strategy video game released by Interplay Entertainment two
years after the release of the movie
Waterworld. It tells a prequel story
to the movie, depicting a search for the fabled Dry Land by
characters associated with the atoll visited by the Mariner at
the beginning of the movie. Four atoll characters from the film
appear here in video scenes specially shot for the game,
portrayed by actors from the film. R.D. Call returns as the
Enforcer, Zakes Mokae as the elder called Priam, Jack Kehler as
the banker, and John Fleck plays Gregor (though Fleck played a
different character in the film, the Smoker doctor; the original
actor to play Gregor, Michael Jeter was not available at the
time the game scenes were shot). The film's main character of
the Mariner does not appear in the game, since the story takes
place before he arrived at the atoll. The live action
video segments of the game were directed by Michael Conti.
The player plays the role of the War Chief of the atoll,
listening to the advice of the non-player characters and making
decisions that advance the story of the game.
The story within the game has two possible outcomes, one where
the atollers find Dry Land and one where they do not. For the
sake of PopApostle's Waterworld chronology, it is
assumed here that the atollers failed to find the fabled land
since we will later see them find it at the end of the movie. However,
notes on both endings will be presented below. Also, viewers
might assume that the "Dry Land discovered" video in the game
could be applied to the moment the Atollers (with the Mariner,
Enola, and Helen) actually arrive at Dry Land at the end of the
Waterworld movie.
In the game, it seems that Helen and Enola have not yet come to
live at the atoll (as they are seen to have done in
Waterworld).
Characters appearing or mentioned in this game
Gregor
War Chief
Priam
Karl
Sludge
David
Lee
Enforcer
Banker/Tallyman
Iain
Ross
Aaron
Al
Isiah
Gregor says that the myths of the creation of Waterworld
state that the world was created in a deluge from a single
drop of hydro in the beginning. But Gregor, as we shall see,
is a scientist and inventor and he has a better idea of what
really happened: an advanced worldwide human civilization
once existed on continents of land, but our own success as a
civilization brought about global warming that caused the
polar ice caps to melt and overwhelm the landmasses long
ago.
As Gregor delivers his monologue to the player, the shot of
the Universal globe as the Earth with the continents being
overwhelmed by the rising oceans, which was first presented
at the beginning of Waterworld, is seen.
As the game opens, the player has been War Chief of the
atoll for one year, defending the atoll from Smokers and
Slavers and constantly trying to acquire needed supplies for
the inhabitants.
One month is referred to as a "lunar".
Priam mentions that a drifter sailed past his scouting raft
that morning. The image of the drifter and his raft appears
to be the same deceitful drifter the Mariner will encounter
in the opening act of
Waterworld (in fact, the glimpse we get here
of the drifter on his boat was stolen from the film!).
"Thirst" is referred to as "hydro-starve".
Atolls make use of desalination machines (as well as rain)
for drinking water.
Cases of Smeat are seen in the Banker's office.
Smeat is a fake brand of canned meat meant to suggest the
real world
Spam brand. Smeat prop cans are often seen in Hollywood
film and television productions.
The skeleton of what appears to be a large shark is seen
dangling from a hoist in the atoll.
A boat that appears to be the Mariner's trimaran is seen
docked inside the atoll a few times in the game. In fact,
the Mariner himself is seen (from behind and unidentified)
during a shot in which a trimaran is entering the gates!
This is all footage borrowed from
Waterworld.
The atoll acquires a device called the Eye of God which is
actually a navigation device of some type that communicates
with an old satellite still in orbit. They are able to use
it to gain information on the possible location of Dry Land.
When the atoll's resident inventor is killed during a Smoker
raid against them, the Atollers capture Gregor from another
atoll to help them make use of the device.
Gasoline is referred to as "go-juice". The Smokers use it to
fuel their motorized seacraft. Atollers often use it to make
Molotov cocktails for defending the atoll. The Banker seems
to use a dash of it as cologne!
The Banker uses the phrase "By Triton" as an epithet. Triton
is the god of the sea in Greek mythology.
The Enforcer says a fleeing drifter told the atoll about the
"Organo people" and warned them to stay away from them. The
Waterworld
script refers to the "bog" (where the dead are recycled) seen in
the atoll as an "organo barge". Are the Organo people a
tribe that seeks to kill rivals in order to recycle them in
their own organo barge?
Priam is referred to as the leader of the atoll here, but
that is not clear in
Waterworld.
The story within the game has two possible outcomes, one
where the atollers find Dry Land and one where they do not.
For the sake of PopApostle's Waterworld chronology,
it is assumed that the atollers failed to find the fabled
land since we will see them later find it at the end of the
movie. In the ending where the Atollers fail to find Dry
Land, it is not clear why the fail to do so. They had
coordinates from the so-called Eye of God satellite to tell
them where to go, so why was it not there? Did they misread
the coordinates? Are the coordinates inaccurate due to a
change in the shape of the Earth?
In the ending where the Atollers do discover Dry
Land, a plaque is seen, having been previously mounted in
the soil, reading, "On this spot in 1953 Hillary and Norgay
first set foot on Mount Everest." This shot is from a scene
that was cut from the movie. Edmund Hillary and
Tenzing Norgay were the first two individuals in Western
recordings to reach the summit of Mount Everest. In the real
world, no such plaque has actually been installed.
Mount Everest, on the border of China and
Nepal, is considered to be the tallest mountain on Earth, at
29,028.9 feet above sea level. There is some controversy
about the 1953 date of who reached the top of Everest first;
the 1953 date accompanying Edmund Hillary's ascent is the
first official Western recording of an ascent to the very
top, but Nepalese natives (Sherpas) are said to have
ascended any number of times prior.
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Memorable Dialog
a single drop of hydro.mp3
the dream of Dry Land and water's end.mp3
only time will tell.mp3
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