Smokers

Pirates are known commonly as "Smokers" because of the smoke from oil-powered machines, such as personal water craft and airplanes, which they make use of. They also apply great cultural significance to the smoking of cigarettes, even to the point of giving their children cigarettes.

The Smokers obtain many of their wares as marauders and by raiding the settlements of the surface. Many Smokers appear to be quite sadistic and revel in murder and carnage; often their reputation precedes them.

The base of the Smokers is the rusted old carcass of an oil tanker, referred to as the Deez, which is revealed to be the Exxon Valdez in a brief shot. Although the tanker no longer has any functional engines, the Smokers still have a large supply of crude oil aboard the tanker, and apparently a small oil refinery, as they are able to refine the crude oil into gasoline and diesel fuel to power the jet skis, planes, and other machines they make use of. The Deacon also mentions refining but states that they are running out of "the black stuff" and the "go-juice" rapidly, and that they only have "two lunars" (or months) left of it. The Smokers have also hoarded large quantities of firearms, heavy artillery, ammunition, spam, paper, tobacco, cigarettes, whiskey, and "Black Death" Vodka aboard the tanker. The Smokers move the tanker by use of dozens of oars that stick out of the barnacle-encrusted hull.

The captain of the tanker and also the leader of the Smokers is looked up to as a messianic figure, as he has promised to lead the Smokers to the mythical Dryland, and in line with this quasi-religious nature, he is referred to as "Deacon". The Deacon, or "Deac", has an intense hatred for anything of the old world, especially sails, instead preferring the mechanical machines, and believes that his aim to raid atolls is a "crusade". He teaches his men a philosophy of "take and ye shall receive." The Smokers also worship a former historical captain of the tanker, "Saint Joe" (original Exxon Valdez Cpt Joseph Hazelwood).

The Deacon's inner circle is well organized and includes a man with medical knowledge, and a man who follows the Deacon around with a ledger and a top hat who records for posterity everything that happens and who also informs the Deacon of various statistics he needs to know. The Deacon's lieutenant or second-in-command is a large and imposing man of Scandinavian descent, referred to as "the Nord", who is reminiscent of a viking. The Nord likes to be in the thick of the action and delights in murder, leading the raids on atolls and also posing as a spy for reconnaissance. Smokers refer to each other as "cousins".

The primary goal of the Smokers in the film is to find an orphan girl named Enola (Tina Majorino), who as myth states came from the legendary Dryland, and has directions to it on a tattoo placed on her back. What the Deacon plans to do with Dryland is unclear though. In the extended cut, the Deacon claims he wishes to create a "church of eternal growth" for the Smokers.

(From Wikipedia)