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Empty shotgun
- In the beginning, Max pulls out his shotgun when it looks like Wes is about to attack him. Max knew fully well that his shotgun was empty. He surely must have also known that it wouldn't have worked as a Weapon for Intimidation on a guy like Wes the same way it worked for the Gyro pilot. So why did he bother?
- No one willingly tangles with a shotgun, so Wez didn't need much of an excuse to leave Max alone. If anything, Wez probably figured he could round up a few more members of the gang and come back for another round, since Max seemed to be a new arrival to the neighborhood.
- You got to consider that this was probably the first time that Wes and Max met each other. Max doesn't really know how Ax-Crazy Wes can be so he threatens him with an empty gun. It also works because Wes only really goes over the top when his blonde friend is killed by a boomerang. In this intimidation scene, the friend is still alive and riding along with Wes.
Ramming
- In the climax of the final chase scene, why would Lord Humungus speed his car in order to place himself on a direct collision course vs. Max's truck? It's clearly suicidal to crash into the truck. Would it qualify as some sort of Heroic Sacrifice to let Humungus' minions catch up on the truck and capture the alleged oil for themselves?
- You have to be really paying attention to the battle to understand how it happens. Max's truck got sent off the road and you can see a wide angle shot of Max getting back on the road turning around and going in the opposite direction. Lord Humungus was stopped by a molotov from the gyrocopter pilot and was just getting back to the chase. He goes over a hill and is now in a crash course with Max who is trying to get the remaining gang off him with both going at full speed when they crash.
- He's just used a nitrous oxide boost as well, meaning that at the speed he's going, he'll probably lose control if he tries to swerve.
- One possible interpretation is that Humungus was playing chicken? He might think that Max will not rationally ram right into him as that will also take out the rig (as it did). Humungus might have hoped that once the rig is forced offroad, it will slow down and be easier pickings. However, Humungus did not reckon on the accidental fact of Wez's survival and of his attack on the Feral Kid. That attack distracted Max enough trying to rescue the Kid that none of them noticed Humongus's vehicle bearing down on them until it was way too late. Worked out well enough in the end though.
Only Bikers Will Survive
- Now that society has collapsed and/or been destroyed, why is it that sadomasochistic bikers clad in leather are the main if only survivors of the implied apocalypse? What happened to all the librarians, schoolteachers, farmers, outdoorsmen and other types? Surely the latter would have more resources, training and knowledge to survive in rural areas.
- It's not that they're the only survivors. It's that they're the only survivors still in THIS area. It's the entire plot of the movie that nobody in the movie actually wants to STAY here, literally everybody is trying to get away to a more livable area. Farmers and outdoorsmen would have been the first recognize that the area was going to be unlivable and gotten out of dodge fast, and to be blunt if you think the average librarians and schoolteachers would survive... you're not watching the same movie we are, they're not exactly known for their fighting or survival abilities. Both the bikers and Papagallo group are trying to leave, the entire plot happens because there's only enough fuel for ONE group to (hopefully) make it to a more survivable area. It's implied that the Papagallo group was working the refinery to build up enough fuel to ensure they made it to (probably) a coastal area that hadn't been irradiated, and the bikers were just too stupid to do anything other than Rape, Pillage, and Burn until everybody else had already fled or was dead, and the bikers just didn't have enough supplies to get to a livable area without the fuel.
