The Deez

***The Deez***, originally the ***Exxon Valdez***, is the heavily rusted ruin of an old supertanker.

*The Deez* is the mobile base of the Smokers who are ruled over by their spiritual and military leader, the Deacon.

## Film

### History

Before the flooding of the world, the *Deez* was captained by a man who would later become revered as "Saint Joe" by the Smokers who resided in the husk of the tanker. The Smoker's quasi-religious leader, the Deacon, kept a portrait of Saint Joe in his chamber in the old bridge tower, and routinely called on Saint Joe to grant him luck and victory.

*to be completed*

### Description

*The Deez* is heavily rusted and eroded. There are shipping containers located on the deck. The waterline of the hull is encrusted with centuries of barnacles and marine growth, but ramps provide access for watercraft to the interior. Parts of the hull have been cannibalised for making munitions, leaving a patchwork of holes. Since *the Deez* can no longer move on it's own power, mobility is achieved by large number of smokers rowing below deck with huge oars.

*The Deez* still retains a store of 'go-juice' (crude oil) aboard and the ability to refine it, although by the time the film is set, this supply is almost depleted. Housed inside is a a fleet of motorised craft, fuelled by the 'go-juice'. This includes dozens of jet skis, a motorised battering ram, a hellfire gunboat, and a refueler barge. There is even a plane which parks on the deck. The smokers retain and utilise this armada not only for raiding atolls for supplies, but also out of spiritual reverence for engines and all things motorised.

The interior is of course smoky and murky, strewn with junk, and includes a crude living quarters, a brig, workshops, and a functional metal foundry where ammunition is made. Supply rooms hold all manner of cargo, but mainly large quantities of cigarettes and alcohol (both of which are the smokers' favourite 'black death' brand) and mountains of canned smeat, a staple diet of the smokers.

In what was once the bridge tower of the tanker is contained the 'Stateroom' of the Deacon, where he mostly resides and holds council with his inner circle, such as his lieutenant the Nord, his physician and ledger keeper. The interior of the stateroom is adorned with all manner of old world paraphernalia, such as a silver disco ball, a sea-horse sculpture made from metal, and a floormat with a United States flag. The Deacon also keeps all of his favourite and most prized possessions here, such as golf clubs and a large painting of a golf course hung on the wall. The Deacon watches heavily degraded recordings of golf matches on ancient VHS cassettes through a vintage CRT television set (so evidently the Smokers have some limited electricity-producing capability). There is also a portrait of the patron of the smokers, the former captain Saint Joe, which takes a prominent position in the chamber.

A balcony can be accessed outside the stateroom, overlooking the deck from the tower, and from which the Deacon would give speeches and sermons to the gathered crowds of Smokers below. This is aided by a PA system.

### Film gallery

The Deez moving by oarsThe oars of the DeezThe Deacon's State Room (the old bridge)The Deacon praising 'Saint Joe'Smokers gather on the deck of *The Deez* to hear a sermon by The DeaconThe Deacon addresses the troopsDeez interiorEnola in the brig (prison)The DeaconmobileFoundryTypical smoker cargo; cans of smeat, alcohol and 'black death' cigarettesGifts of cigarettesThe crude oil depth gauge guyCrude Oil RoomCrude oil depth gauge guyThe Deez explodesThe Mariner abseils down to the deck from the bridge towerThe Mariner after bringing the smoker plane downThe *Exxon Valdez* signage on the stern as it sinks
### Video game gallery

The Mariner and the Deacon do battle in the 2022 mock-arcade game

## Trivia

* Ironically, there is a large "No Smoking" sign across the bridge tower, as is the case with many oil tankers.
* Given that the Smoker Plane rests on the deck of the *Deez*, the *Deez* could be reasonably referred to as a seaplane tender.
* Given the Deacon's comment that the Mariner is like "a turd that won't flush", it is possible that the *Deez* still had functional plumbing onboard.
* It is not known how many smokers resided aboard *The Deez*, since it is never stated in the film or the novelisation. However, production notes state that the population of *The Deez* was 5,000.

## Inspiration

When *The Deez* sinks, the wording on the back reveals it to be the *Exxon Valdez*. This was a super-tanker involved in a real-world massive oil spill off the coast of Alaska in the late 1980s. At the time it was registered to Valdez, Alaska. The captain, Joe Hazelwood, was accused of being drunk which caused the spill.

The tanker was retrieved, repaired and went through a number of owners and names (it was actually named the *Sea River Mediterranean* and operating in Europe during the time of filming Waterworld). The tanker which had been the *Exxon Valdez*, finally named the *Oriental Nicety* and operating in Asia, was deliberately beached off the coast of Alang, India in 2012, to be broken up for scrap.

It was a last minute decision by the film crew of Waterworld to name *The Deez* the *Exxon Valdez*. It was chosen for the environmental connotations, and how fitting this would be to the Smokers, but there were also concerns about if this could be controversial. The tanker in the film is actually an original design, not based on the real tanker.

## Production

In Peter Rader's original film scripts, the pirate's main base of operations was not a tanker but merely a large flotilla of ships lashed together. The original script was much more brutal than the finished product, and accordingly the pirate base was filled with the corpses of their victims, and torture devices. During the numerous rewrites of the script, the Smokers evolved and their base naturally transformed into the ruin of an oil tanker.

In his final script Rader envisioned *The Deez* as a grimy, soot-covered husk where an entire city had been built out of old shipping containers. The deck is a constant 'soccer riot' where the smokers play 500-a-side rugby, trampling each other underfoot.

Filming the Deez took place over a number of different locations:

* When the Mariner approaches on a jet ski, this was a set built out to sea off the coast of Hawaii.
* The interior shots were filmed at a warehouse at Universal Studios.
* The deck of of the Deez was a purpose-built wooden set the size of a football field at Universal Studios, City of Commerce, California. Ocean was then digitally composited around the set in post production.
* For the wide shots, and also for the sinking of the *Deez*, a 112ft long steel framed miniature set built at Mohave airport. It was built by Stetson Visual Services and filming was done in the desert due to the pyrotechnics and fires to be done on this set.

## Production Galleries

### Concept artwork

Concept artwork by Steve BurgConcept artwork of the Smoker Plane approaching *The Deez*InteriorSmoker Depth Gauge concept artworkDeaconmobile concept artworkDeaconmobile
### Behind the scenes gallery

The miniature *Deez* set at Mohave Airport, 1995The Smoker Plane on *The Deez* setKevin Costner climbing the wallKevin Costner climbing the wallFilming the sinking
## The Deez Junior

* *Main article: The Deez Junior*

The 114-foot *Deez* set piece was abandoned in the Mohave airport boneyard after it's manufacturer, Stetson, closed shortly after the filming of *Waterworld* in 1995. In 2014, the set piece was acquired for use by the Wasteland Weekend convention, a post-apocalyptic enthusiast convention with a mostly *Mad Max*-style theme. The set could not be moved as a whole piece, and with the central section largely degraded, it was separated into a front (bow) and rear (stern) section. Collectively, this set became known as "The Deez Junior", and became central to a *Waterworld*-themed part of the convention for the next five years.

## References

1. ↑ *The Making of Waterworld*
2. ↑ Maelstrom: The Odyssey of Waterworld
3. ↑ Peter Rader's first and second revised script
4. ↑ Waterworld (novel)
5. ↑ *The Making of Waterworld*
6. ↑ *Maelstrom: The Odyssey of Waterworld*

## Sources

* Behind the scenes images courtesy of The Atoll Instagram page and via *The Making of Waterworld*