With modern films now being remakes of remakes and original stories getting neglected by major studios, this leaves films and novels to re-invent certain legendary tales. One of these relatively “modern” films is the 1995 film Waterworld. While this film’s core message displays the consequences of tampering with nature and the unknown, it also questions what it is to be human as well as demonstrates how society has progressed from shunning down diversity, to now appreciating the unique traits all beings carry.

The mid-90s film Waterworld tells the tale of a dystopian future where the Earth’s polar ice caps have completely melted, then leading to high sea levels covering every continent and leaving little to no dry land. This catastrophe then results in a form of “Darwinism” to occur where only the fittest and most innovative humans survive by building ships/boats and creating mechanisms enabling them to continue to live in essentially an aquatic desert. The main protagonist is known as “The Mariner” portrayed by Kevin Costner and excluding the evident “stereotypical virile hero archetype” he plays, the character does have depth and is in many ways an example of adaptation and assimilation in a society that is not diverse and not accepting of the unfamiliar.

Similar to previous readings involving aquatic-hybrid life and the seas, The Mariner is also misunderstood and misjudged by humans that treat him as a threat rather than as an ally with the sole motive for this unfair treatment being the fact that The Mariner has a genetic mutation. This very mutation being a pair of gills that allows him to respire underwater for long periods of time. Despite this legitimately being an advantage in a world completely submerged by the seas, as humanity tends to repeat not only in fiction but in reality as well, communities reject him and his abilities causing him to travel independently suffering countless moments of ridicule and criticism. The Mariner in instances like these can very well be a modern take on merfolk due to the hybrid attributes (e.g. fin-like phalanges and gills behind ears) he has which are subtle but impactful, but also because he is shunned from both human and and sea-life communities; not truly fitting in to either societies. Instead of uniting with a being that is accustomed to the ocean and embracing said being which will only benefit all parties involved, the survivors instead show signs of prejudice towards The Mariner displaying the societies inability to adapt themselves in an environment that is divergent from the earth they have known to live in; an anthropocentric earth.

This anti-progressive or “conservative” mentality that the survivors posses is an entitled opinion of which they have no right to believe in since the world is changing both socially and geologically which then leads one to pose a question, are humans the ones that should distinguish the normal from the abnormal when such diverse organisms exist? It is only when humans begin to understand the beauty of being unique and that adaptation is advantageous to all that we will progress as a society which is showcased in Waterworld. This ego-centrism from the survivors however slowly but surely starts to fade away with them realizing that they (the humans) are the odd ones out and that those who have begun to respect and admire the formidable power of the sea, as well as accept that society is changing just as much as the oceans currents are in perpetual motion, now have a better chance to live peacefully and blissfully, a way of thinking that all should encompass and practice in their lives to be in accordance with nature.