What age is Waterworld appropriate for?

Rated PG-13 in the US. 13, alone or with a parent; 12 in France. The whole movie, watched in full: what's in it, and how to talk about it with your child.

Why is Waterworld not recommended under 13?

What's in it: the official rating, first; a child threatened and kidnapped; gunfights, harpoons and a tanker on fire; pirate swearing and cigarettes. The detail, fact by fact, is in the zinema guide, which reads the work itself (images, sound, dialogue).

zinema · movies · what age

Waterworld: what age is it for? 13, alone or with a parent

From 13, alone or with a parent.

Movie · 1995 · 2 h 16 · adventure, action, science fiction

YRS

The trailer

Alone, or with you

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not yetwith an adult, or to talk about afteralonethe sweet spot

The official US rating is PG-13, and we never go below it. Alone from 13, and not before, even with an adult.

The sweet spot: around 13-14, when you like invented worlds, and can watch a brutal hero learn to protect a child. Why a sweet spot?

Official US rating: PG-13. In France, zinema would say 12.

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What it's about

In a futuristic world where the polar ice caps have melted and made Earth a liquid planet, a beautiful barmaid rescues a mutant seafarer from a floating island prison. They escape, along with her young charge, Enola, and sail off aboard his ship. But the trio soon becomes the target of a menacing pirate who covets the map to 'Dryland', which is tattooed on Enola's back.

Why 13

The official rating, firstRated PG-13 in the US (parents strongly cautioned, some material may be inappropriate for children under 13). zinema never goes below the country's rating: it explains it.
rule
A child threatened and kidnappedThe mariner threatens to throw the little girl overboard to be rid of her, then the girl is kidnapped by pirates who want the map tattooed on her back; a woman is offered in exchange for water, a man is hanged before being saved.
Gunfights, harpoons and a tanker on fireA minute of gunfire, jet skis storming an atoll, a harpoon in the hero's belly, a pirate chief who loses an eye, a tanker exploding with its occupants. Blood stays rare and brief.
Pirate swearing and cigarettesAbout fifteen swear words in English, six in French; the pirates smoke like a religion, drink, a man drinks his own filtered urine at the start.

What the movie brings

A world invented from top to bottom, floating atolls and a city on a tanker, that fires the imagination.
A hard hero who learns to protect a child he wanted to abandon.
A fable about a drowned Earth, where dry land is a myth: children talk about it afterwards.

Watching it together

Before

Say beforehand that the little girl is kidnapped but comes through, and that the hero is brutal before he is good.

After

at 13 and up

The mariner first wants to throw the girl into the water: at what point do you decide to protect someone?

See the facts

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For the same age, on zinema

Drive – The Pretenders 17
Once Upon a Time 12, 11 with a parent
La Bataille de Gaulle : J’écris ton nom 13, 12 with a parent
Matchbox the Movie 13

The latest guides

A zinema reading from September 20, 2026 · the whole movie, watched in full · the age by zinema's rules for the US and France, and a human reading · report an error · how this guide is made