Celebrating 30 Years of “WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular!”
30 years ago, on October 21, 1995, the — in my opinion — best theme park stunt show in the world debuted at Universal Studios Hollywood: WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular! To celebrate the milestone anniversary for the attraction, we’re looking back on its history and looking at why its endured for so long. We also had a chance to talk to Greg Dolph, one of the original (and current) performers in the show to share some extra insights on what makes it special.
A Brief History of Universal Studios Hollywood Stunt Shows
Although WaterWorld is the longest running show by far, two other shows preceded it in the Amphitheater its set in.
The A-Team
In 1984 the park opened the first show in what would become the WaterWorld arena, “The A-Team Live Stunt Show.” Based on the popular action TV-series, the show reminds me more of the Indiana Jones Stunt Show in Disney World, where a large portion of it is set-up as a demonstration of stunts, rather than a staged story like WaterWorld. Although curiously, the second half of the show is set-up more like an A-Team episode.
Miami Vice
The A-Team show only lasted 3 years, and in 1987 it was replaced by another TV based stunt show, the “Miami Vice Action Spectacular.” I have vague memories of seeing this one as a kid, and thinking it was cool as hell. Mostly I just remember speed boats, machine guns, explosions, and palm trees. What more could a kid want?
It also had a premise of being a stunt demo, like shooting an episode of Miami Vice, rather than a full story with a plot the way WaterWorld will be.
By 1995, though, with the Miami Vice TV show off the air for 5 years, Universal felt it was time for something more new.
Debut of WaterWorld
Universal had a movie coming out in the summer of 1995, that they (hoped) would be the biggest blockbuster of the year. Starring Kevin Costner, WaterWorld is set in a post-climate change apocalypse, where the polar ice caps had melted and the world is covered in ocean. The combination of star actor and big budget, with a setting ripe for lots of action, and lots of use of water (good for stunts, and good for splashing guests during hot LA summers), made WaterWorld a clear choice for a new Universal Studios Stunt Show.
With the movie coming out just months before the stunt show, the cast and crew for the show didn’t have too much to work on. Greg Dolph, who’s been playing The Deacon in the show since it opened in 1995, didn’t know anything about the film before joining the team.
“They were very quiet about the movie, as it was timed to be released shortly before our show opened,” Greg explained. “Sometime during our rehearsal process, we did locate a bootleg version of an early cut of the movie. It still had time code running on the bottom of it. That gave us a lot of interesting information about the characters and texture and tone of the movie.”
According to a 2023 SyFy article, the team writing the story used Dailies from the movie to craft the story, and repurposed some of the movie sets to craft the giant new set for the attraction.
Outliving The Film
The WaterWorld show is proper story, no longer just framed as a stunt demonstration. It takes place shortly after the film, and the characters of the stunt show — The Mariner, Helen, and the Deacon — are all characters from the movie. A brief narration at the opening gives needed context, so, luckily, no actual knowledge of plot of WaterWorld the movie is required to enjoy the stunt show, because the movie was mostly a flop.
Grossing only $88 million in the US against a total budget and marketing outlay of $235 million, WaterWorld didn’t have much cultural impact. Although it made back most of the money with overseas box office and later home video and TV revenue, it’s safe to say that it wasn’t going to have the saying power of most other properties used in Universal Studios attractions. Jurassic Park or Back to the Future this was not.
And yet, the popularity of the stunt show endured, becoming the primary reference for the property even with the movie forgotten. Greg Dolph shared how the performers have seen the reference point for WaterWorld change over time.
“For many years, we would do a post show for VIP guests. Two of our cast members would go out to the audience after the show. The first question they would ask the audience was, ‘How many of you have seen Water World the motion picture?’ Over the years, the number of hands that would raise to this question quickly dwindled,” Greg explained.
“It became clear pretty early on that the success and longevity of this live action show had little to do with the life of the motion picture. It’s funny to say, but perhaps accurate to some degree – we may have done more to bring attention to the movie then the movie did to bring attention to us. We have a lot of fans coming up to us these days saying, ‘Hey, I finally watched the movie.'”
So what had made it endure for so long?
Why WaterWorld is Spectacular
The Best Stunt Professionals in the Business
For me, one of the special things about any show at theme parks in Southern California is the talent of the stunt performers and actors. At the end of every WaterWorld show, the PA announcer introduces the cast, and shares all the film and TV credits of every performer.
These are real stunt folks, who do this full time. For them, it’s not a temporary gig, and I think that shows in the quality of the stunts. It also gives the performers a chance to do live performance, and according to Dolph that brings out their energy.
“Film and television work absolutely pays more, no doubt about that, and there is a thrill and notoriety in working on TV & Film projects that are released internationally. That’s the Hollywood dream. Having said that, there is NOTHING LIKE LIVE THEATRE, ” Dolph told us.
“The presence of 3000 people watching you do your work, fills you with an unmatched adrenaline rush! Their response is authentic and spontaneous, and you know immediately if you have succeeded or failed to entertain them. There is tremendous joy earned in working on stage with some of the most talented people in Hollywood.”
That comes out not just in the quality of the stunts, from stage fights to high falls to jetski jumps, but also in the scale of the cast. The show features a rotating cast of 64 professional stunt performer. There’s also a fantastic list of all the major stunts on TheStudioTour that’s well worth checking out!
Several performers are also mic’d live, allowing them to actually act, giving more to the characters than a pre-recorded show can.
“I’ve had the joy of 30 years of digging with the character, and I continue to dig each and every day, each and every performance,” Dolph told us. “I think the Deacon has great potential to be a profoundly interesting and three-dimensional character. I like to think of the Deacon as a charismatic, and calculating narcissist!”
Of course, the scale also shows up in the special effects of the show.
The Best Special Effects in Theme Parks
The show features 63 pyrotechnic effects in each performance. Bullet hits pop up water, which jetskiers and boaters have to dodge with perfect timing.
The size of the flames and explosions at the end of the show are on a scale bigger than any other theme park show I can think of. And nothing is more surprising to guests who’ve never seen the show, and impressive even to those of us who’ve seen it a bunch, than the amazing Sea Plane crash.
Seriously, is there any better theme park special effect than seeing a completely free-flying, exploding plane crash through a wall? No wires, no tracks, just a perfectly timed throw of a specially designed plane that crashes right in place (and doesn’t happen if there’s too much wind). And for real theme park nerds, you can check out the patent for the sea plane launch.
Evolving Over 30 Years
At 30 years old, the show inevitably has had some tweaks over all these years. Dolph explained some of the evolution for us, but also how much its stayed similar to the original.
“The members of my cast and I were very active during the first 3 to 5 years, creating many of the moments that are currently still being used in the show, (but) much of the show has remained largely intact. There has (only) been slow evolution of the script over that time – with a few new bits and a few nods to some cultural changes.”
The biggest change to the show came in 2014 when a new operator, Action Horizons, took over. The company, founded and run by former stunt professionals, had already been running the version of the show in Universal Studios Singapore, and was brought into to update the Hollywood show during the annual maintenance period.
“They were given creative control over the show and added about three minutes of action based content”, Dolph told us. “Some of the fights were modified, and a few new fights and stunts were added. The sequence timing of the sea plane launch was also moved to take place near the climatic ending of the show. Finally, a new character was added, named Sage. This mic’d character would help facilitate the audience pre-show, provide more focus to the opening assault on the Atoll, and create sympathy for Helen as the Deacon leverages Sage’s life against Helen‘s knowledge of Dryland.”
Aside from a brief pre-show based on the movie “The Fall Guy” (called The Fall Guy: Stuntacular Pre-Show) that ran from April 27 to May 19, 2024, the show has remained mostly the same since that 2014 update.
WaterWorld’s Continuing Legacy
A Lot of Icing
Universal had a history of running stunt shows for relatively long periods, at least in the theme park world. But there’s no way anyone could have imagined WaterWorld would make it to 30 and beyond.
“Miami Vice ran for eight years, Conan ran for 10 years, and the Wild West Stunt show ran in one form or another for many many many years,” Dolph share with us. “I had been working on shows that ran 3 to 4 months. When I was cast in Water World, I remember thinking if I can get 10 years of work out of this show, anything beyond that would be icing on the cake. I have enjoyed A LOT of icing, haha”
The fact it doesn’t seem to be going anywhere speaks to how amazing it is as a theme park stunt show. The other thing that speaks to that is how the show has spread overseas.
WaterWorld Across the World
In 2001, six years after the movie came out, Universal Studios Japan opened in Osaka, with WaterWorld as one of its opening day attractions. 9 years later, in 2010, Universal Studios Singapore opened, again with WaterWorld as an opening day attraction.
Capping those all off, in 2021, over 25 years after the movie came out and the original stunt show was created, another version opened with Universal Studios Beijing. Even more so, the Beijing park includes a whole WaterWorld land, complete with a WaterWorld themed restaurant. On the podcast back in 2021 when the park opened we discussed our surprise.
“I had the tremendous joy of Co-Directing the newest show in Beijing with Peter Nelson, one of the Action Horizons owners,” Dolph told us. “We, and a gifted team of trainers, spent more than six months in Beijing during the height of the pandemic bringing the show to its feet! The cast consisted of half Westerners and half Chinese locals. We had an amazing team of translators, who followed us over every inch of the set as we Directed the show. Action Horizons did a tremendous job putting this cast of talented performers together!”
Maybe part of the reason for taking the show worldwide is the benefit of getting to use experienced performers like Greg to train new performers, but surely part of it is just that Universal realizes they’ve created the peak theme park stunt show. Why bother trying to improve on perfection?
“Water World is a FAMILY, which includes cast and crew and a loving fan base around the world! We are all fortunate to play a role in its enduring success,” Dolph said. So here’s to 30 awesome years of WaterWorld: A Live Sea War Spectacular, and maybe to another 30!
Huge thank you to Greg Dolph for taking the time to answer our questions about WaterWorld. If you want to see his work, well, go watch the WaterWorld show. With over 15,000 shows under his belt, he still performs regularly. And he’s trained many of the other Deacons!
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Also, shoutout to the great 2023 article on SyFy we mentioned earlier, this other great piece from 2019 on Thrillist, and the fantastic WaterWorld page on TheStudioTour.com.
I also love this short behind the scenes look at the attraction from 1995.
Of course, if this makes you want to go see WaterWorld as soon as possible, head to the Universal Studios Hollywood website, or the webpage of your local Universal Studios (as long as it’s not Orlando). And hey, let us know in the comments or social media what you love most about WaterWorld!
