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** [[WordOfGod Additional background material]] states that the nuclear war happened between movies 2 and 3, which is indicated by the seas having partly dried up in the third movie. The increase in societal delay seen between the first and second movies was a result of Australia lacking of ingenious energy reserves and therefore being affected in advance of other parts of the world. Despite this the rate of decay was still linear and not yet complete which is why the oil rig community was trying to escape to the coast where some semblance of civilization still existed. This is an extension of the first movie where the interior of Australia has been declared a "prohibited" aka lawless zone. Pappagallo had brought his followers into the zone to form a community around the oil well and simply became overwhelmed by the lawless element living in the outlands.
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* FootFocus: When Night Rider hit the brakes, it shows that he's [[DoesNotLikeShoes barefoot]].
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** Master also speaks like this, but it's heavily implied to be a subversion -- he's highly intelligent, but talks down to everyone.
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** FridgeBrilliance: [[spoiler: It's SchmuckBait. They're running pig shit as fuel. Why would anyone seriously think they had gas to spare for a chainsaw?]]
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** The buses.
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The second film, ''Mad Max 2'', was released in 1981 and is almost unanimously regarded as better than the first -- it was a surprise hit in America, where, out of fears that no one would see it if they hadn't seen the original, it was retitled ''The Road Warrior''. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic Outback, a few years after the original film, wherein Mad Max is now [[WalkingTheEarth wandering]] the wastelands in his CoolCar until he runs into a small ragtag group of survivors who are being threatened by a vicious gang of bandits. After at first resisting their pleas for him to help them, he ends up assisting them in their plan for escape to the north, exorcising some of his own personal demons.
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The second film, ''Mad Max 2'', was released in 1981 and is almost unanimously regarded as better than the first -- - it was a surprise hit in America, where, out of fears that no one would see it if they hadn't seen the original, original (and hardly anybody in America ''had'' seen the original), it was retitled ''The Road Warrior''. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic Outback, a few years after the original film, wherein Mad Max is now [[WalkingTheEarth wandering]] the wastelands in his CoolCar until he runs into a small ragtag group of survivors who are being threatened by a vicious gang of bandits. After at first resisting their pleas for him to help them, he ends up assisting them in their plan for escape to the north, exorcising some of his own personal demons.
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** The second film is arguably the worse in this respect, as he learns at the end that he was part of a diversion that the others who went with him had to have known about, while in the third he deliberately separates from the others to clear the path for their escape (including the man who got him into this mess to begin with).
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*** They also are strongly implied to rape a man they catch at the same time as a woman they rape.
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* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Averted. The Gyro Captain uses snakes, but he's a pretty good guy.
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* SacredScripture: Not a paper book, but the tribe of children from ''Beyond Thunderdome'' paid comparable homage to a collection of photos they could examine with an old toy slide-viewer. When someone showed them how to work an old phonograph record, they repeated its words as if they, too, were sacred.
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** Humungus' scoped pistol is a very similar weapon to the standard sidearm used by the MFP (albeit a different model)[[hottip:*: for the record, MFP's issue weapon is a Smith and Wesson Model 28, the utility version of the Model 27, the first .357 Magnum revolver. Humungus uses a [[DirtyHarry .44 Magnum Model 29.]] ]], and other members of his pack use modified MFP patrol vehicles.
to:
** Humungus' scoped pistol is a very similar weapon to the standard sidearm used by the MFP (albeit a different model)[[hottip:*: for the record, MFP's issue weapon is a Smith and Wesson Model 28, the utility version of the Model 27, the first .357 Magnum revolver. Humungus uses a [[DirtyHarry .44 Magnum Model 29.]] ]], and other members of his pack use modified MFP patrol vehicles.
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* HotAmazon: The Warrior Woman
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* VasquezAlwaysDies: [[spoiler: [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] -- the ActionGirl who takes on the task of guarding the oil tanker from above gets killed, while the more feminine, LoveInterest [[TheMedic Medic Chick]] rides in the bus, which is not so much of a target.]]
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A fourth film -- a prequel, set in the time when society was just starting to collapse, called ''Mad Max: Fury Road'' -- has been in DevelopmentHell for years. It was scheduled to begin filming by the end of 2010, but was delayed due to higher-than-normal amounts of rainfall, resulting in the area around [[AustralianStatesAndTerritories Broken Hill]] being too green. A 3D anime adaptation is also under development and may be released in addition to the live action film.
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A fourth film -- a prequel, set in the time when society was just starting to collapse, called ''Mad Max: Fury Road'' -- has been in DevelopmentHell for years. It was scheduled to begin filming by the end of 2010, but was delayed due to higher-than-normal amounts of rainfall, resulting in the area around [[AustralianStatesAndTerritories [[UsefulNotes/AustralianStatesAndTerritories Broken Hill]] being too green. A 3D anime adaptation is also under development and may be released in addition to the live action film.
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** All the games in the {{Fallout}} series include a version of Max's iconic single-sleeved leather armor as an homage to the movie.
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** All the games in the {{Fallout}} VideoGame/{{Fallout}} series include a version of Max's iconic single-sleeved leather armor as an homage to the movie.
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* IDidWhatIHadToDo: Everything Auntie Entity does, whether it be slave labor or ordering a manhunt on Max is done for the sake of preserving her power and authority and the security of her city.
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included Fallout game reference re: max\'s armor
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** All the games in the {{Fallout}} series include a version of Max's iconic single-sleeved leather armor as an homage to the movie.
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* AntiHero
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* AntiHeroAntiHero: Max begins on the more brutal end of the scale, but slides toward the idealistic side in subsequent films.
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* AntiVillain: Aunty Entity. Power-hungry bitch, yes, but she's genuinely trying to restore a little civilization, and is forced to be ruthless to maintain order in a CrapsackWorld.
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* ImprobableWeaponUser: The Gyro Captain likes snakes- both as a booby-trap device and as a thrown weapon
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A series of films that constitute the most famous things to come out of UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} since kangaroos and sexy women with accents. Starring MelGibson in his Australian accent as the title character 'Mad' Max Rockatansky.
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A series of films that constitute the most famous things to come out of UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} since kangaroos and sexy women with accents. Starring MelGibson Creator/MelGibson in his Australian accent as the title character 'Mad' Max Rockatansky.
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* StarMakingRole: For MelGibson.
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* StarMakingRole: For MelGibson.Creator/MelGibson.
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** Given the lack of funding that the MFP appears to have (Fifi has to cajole an investor to give him money for a new car for the force), [[FridgeBrilliance it's possible that Max's pistol wasn't even loaded]].
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* ChainOfPeople: The children trying to rescue one of their own from quicksand in ''Beyond Thunderdome.'' [[spoiler: It doesn't work.]]
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** "Break a deal, face the wheel."
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** "Break "Bust a deal, face the wheel."
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* TwoPartTrilogy: The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome are almost completely different from the first Mad Max film, to the point where the sequels are rarely ever labelled Mad Max 2 or 3, and if collectors edition of the trilogy are made, only the last two movies are included.
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* NotableOriginalMusic: "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" from ''Beyond Thunderdome'', preformed by Tina Turner.
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* NotableOriginalMusic: "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" from ''Beyond Thunderdome'', preformed by Tina Turner.Turner, made #2 in the U.S.
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* NotableOriginalMusic: "We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome)" from ''Beyond Thunderdome'', preformed by Tina Turner.
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[[quoteright:350:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roadwarrior_l.jpg]]
->''In the roar of an engine, he lost everything. And became a shell of a man, a burnt-out, desolate man, a man haunted by the demons of his past, a man who wandered out into the wasteland. And it was here, in this blighted place, that he learned to live again...''
-->-- '''The Narrator''', '''''Mad Max 2''''', OpeningMonologue
A series of films that constitute the most famous things to come out of UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} since kangaroos and sexy women with accents. Starring MelGibson in his Australian accent as the title character 'Mad' Max Rockatansky.
The first film, ''Mad Max'', was made with practically no money and released in 1979. Although it was surprisingly successful in Australia it was barely noticed in America - in fact, in the original American release all the characters' voices were dubbed with American accents because distributors [[ViewersAreMorons thought the audience wouldn't understand what they were saying]]. In the first film, Max Rockatansky is a cop with the Main Force Patrol in a town that is barely clinging to civilisation, with a wife and young son -- until he loses everything, and then goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge in the film's climax.
The second film, ''Mad Max 2'', was released in 1981 and is almost unanimously regarded as better than the first -- it was a surprise hit in America, where, out of fears that no one would see it if they hadn't seen the original, it was retitled ''The Road Warrior''. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic Outback, a few years after the original film, wherein Mad Max is now [[WalkingTheEarth wandering]] the wastelands in his CoolCar until he runs into a small ragtag group of survivors who are being threatened by a vicious gang of bandits. After at first resisting their pleas for him to help them, he ends up assisting them in their plan for escape to the north, exorcising some of his own personal demons.
The third film, ''Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome'', is a DolledUpInstallment: the original idea was of a man in a post-apocalyptic world who came across a group of wild children who were survivors of a plane crash, and series creator George Miller proposed "how about that man is Mad Max?" Unlike the first two films, ''Beyond Thunderdome'' was an American co-production rather than a fully Australian film.
A fourth film -- a prequel, set in the time when society was just starting to collapse, called ''Mad Max: Fury Road'' -- has been in DevelopmentHell for years. It was scheduled to begin filming by the end of 2010, but was delayed due to higher-than-normal amounts of rainfall, resulting in the area around [[AustralianStatesAndTerritories Broken Hill]] being too green. A 3D anime adaptation is also under development and may be released in addition to the live action film.
----
!!Examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: ''Mad Max 2'' and ''Beyond Thunderdome''; The original is JustBeforeTheEnd
* AllBikersAreHellsAngels
* AllHailTheGreatGodMickey: Kids treat records and radios as magical in Mad Max 3.
* AndManGrewProud
* AntiHero
* TheApunkalypse: Pretty much [[TropeCodifier codifies the trope]], especially in ''Mad Max 2'' & ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: In ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* AwesomeAussie: Max.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Max Rockatansky.
* BadassDriver: Max.
* BloodSport: Thunderdome
* BrainsAndBrawn- [[BigGuyLittleGuy Master Blaster]]
* CaptainErsatz: Bruce Spence's character in the third film is an odd borderline example, in that, despite their massive similarities, he is evidently ''not'' intended to be the same Gyro Captain who appeared in ''Mad Max 2.''
* CarFu
* ChainmailBikini: Aunty Entity sports the slightly more sensible chainmail one-piece, which is probably a sensible investment given her position.
* ChainsawGood: Subverted during the Thunderdome scene. Max manages to grab a chainsaw from the WallOfWeapons and proceeds to use it against Blaster. Unfortunately, [[RealityEnsues it runs out of fuel pretty quickly]].
* ChekhovsGun:
** Pappagallo inspecting the egg timer.
** The dog whistle
** Johnny's lighter.
* TheChewToy: Ironbar
* TheCommandments:
** In ''Beyond Thunderdome''. "Two men enter, one man leaves."
** "Break a deal, face the wheel."
* CoolCar: Max's Pursuit Special, "last of the V8 Interceptors."
* CoolPet: Dog, proving that blue heelers are fierce (the dingo blood probably doesn't hurt).
* CozyCatastrophe - According to the second film's OpeningMonologue, WorldWarIII began shortly after the first film, only semi-nuclear, destroying only what was left of modern industrial infrastructure, and people using up resources that they can't replace - mostly by fighting over the resources. The third is solidly AfterTheEnd, 19 years in fact.
* CrapsackWorld: All three films, in increasing severity.
* DepravedBisexual:
** The bikers in the first movie have distinctly homoerotic overtones, but still find time to rape women.
** Some of the gang in the second, if not completely homosexual.
* DuelToTheDeath: Thunderdome
* DesertPunk
* DespairEventHorizon:
** Max himself after the deaths of his wife and son. It takes him up until towards the end of ''Mad Max 2'' to regain some of his humanity.
** It's heavily implied that, similar to Max, Humungus was a victim of this and chose to be bad; witness his "We have all lost someone we love" speech and the picture of himself and his wife (or, possibly his parents) that he keeps with his gun. Humungus was originally going to be Goose from the first film, having gone over to the dark side.
* DevelopmentHell: ''Fury Road'' has been planned for years. It was last scheduled to be filmed in late 2010, but was called off due to heavy rainfall.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The first film was meant to show the dangers of reckless driving.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The original movie. Max got his revenge, but is now en empty shell of a man who cares about nothing.]]
* TheDragon: Wez. Arguably the most evil and most dangerous character Max confronts.
* EatTheDog: The Gyro Captain in the second film raises snakes as a food source as well as guards for his vehicle.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption / PyrrhicVictory: At the end of each movie, Max has won the fight but lost ''everything'' he had. To really salt the wounds, in the second and third movie Max is left in the dirt while the people he's assisted go on to better lives. Whatever pleasure Max takes from helping others is left up to the viewer.
* FallenHero
* {{Fingore}}: Don't try catching bladed boomerangs with your bare hands. The results aren't pretty.
* FollowTheLeader: Responsible for a slew of low-grade post-apocalypse sci-fi movies during TheEighties.
* ForcedPrizeFight: ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Beyond Thunderdome''. One of the girls who left the oasis is ''pregnant'', indicating that those kids are behaving like, well, sexually active teenagers.
* GenrePopularizer: For the ScavengerWorld genre.
* GenreShift: The first movie portrays Australia as a crime-ridden, crapsack world, and Max is a CowboyCop. The second film is post-apocalyptic, and Max is more like a traveling ronin or gunslinger.
* GilliganCut: Max sees one of the children scampering after them in the desert and states, "He holds his own." Cut to Max carrying him on his back in the blazing sun.
* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave: Tina Turner (age 46 at the time) as Auntie Entity. Not many women in their 40's would dare to wear a one-piece chainmail ensemble.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Max becomes a hard and bitter man by the end of the first film due to his battles with criminals. He quits the force because he's scared this will happen.
-->''Any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic, except that I've got this bronze badge that says that [[DesignatedHero I'm one of the good guys]].''
* HeroicSacrifice. Ending of the second and third films.
* HollywoodHealing: Averted: Max's arm and leg in ''Mad Max 2'', and his eye in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' George Miller, the director, was a practicing emergency medicine doctor.
* HollywoodPoliceDrivingAcademy: all members of the Main Force Patrol in the first movie appear to have graduated from the Australian branch.
* HotAmazon: The Warrior Woman
* HulkSpeak: Master, who must speak this way around Blaster so he'll understand what's going on.
* HumiliationConga: Implied that Master did this on a regular basis with Auntie Entity.
-->'''The Master:''' Who run Bartertown?
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Dammit, I told you, no more embargos.
-->'''The Master:''' More, Blaster. ''(power shut off)'' Who run Bartertown? Who... run... Bartertown?
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' ...You know who.
-->'''The Master:''' Say.
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster.
-->'''The Master:''' Say loud! ''(Master turns on the town loudspeakers)''
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster.
-->'''The Master:''' Master Blaster... what?
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster runs Bartertown.
-->'''The Master:''' Louder!
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster runs Bartertown!
-->'''The Master:''' Lift embargo.
* HypocriticalHumor: The Gyro Captain upon learning that Max has been bluffing him with an unloaded shotgun: "Empty, all this time! That's dishonest! ''Low.''"
* InAWorld: The original trailers played this trope straight
* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: Yes, 'Mad' Max is wearing black leather in the scorching hot Austrailian Outback. This is apparently supposed to help in crashes, but Max never rides a motorcycle.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Oddly only seen in villains.
** In the first movie [[TheDragon Bubba Zanetti]] kneecaps Max with a single well-aimed pistol shot at long range.
** The mook shooting down the Gyrocopter with arrows in ''Mad Max 2'' would be nigh-impossible to pull off in real life, too.
* IncessantMusicMadness: In ''Beyond Thunderdome'', some of the kids have run off. The other kids are showing Max which direction they went, and are chanting a lament in the background. Eventually, Max yells, "Stop the noise, STOP THE NOISE!"
* IndyPloy:
-->'''Max:''' So what's the plan?
-->'''Pig Killer:''' ''(laughing)'' Plan? There ain't no ''plan''!
* IneffectualLoner: Despite his best efforts to keep to himself, Max always winds up allying with/helping out/getting saved by the victimized good guys.
* InfantImmortality: Averted twice - Once in the original, then again in ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* LandDownUnder
* LargeHam: Tina Turner as Auntie Entity in ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* {{Leatherman}}:
** Wez, ''Mad Max 2'''s [[TheDragon Dragon]]
** Fifi MacAfee, Max's police chief in the first film.
* LifeOrLimbDecision:At the end of the original as part of Max's revenge
* LighterAndSofter: Before you say ''Beyond Thunderdome'', ''Mad Max 2'' is this to the terminally grim ''Mad Max''.
* LoudOfWar: Max uses a dog whistle to defeat Blaster in the Thunderdome arena.
* LockedIntoStrangeness: Over the course of the last two films, Max's sideburns become increasingly faded, presumably from the horrors he has witnessed or the great stress he is always under to survive. What with the apocalypse and all...
* LovelyAssistant: In ''Beyond Thunderdome''. She even [[WheelOfFortune spins a wheel]].
* MalevolentMaskedMen: Lord Humungus and many of his gang who wear police helmets and other assorted masks.
* MessianicArchetype: Mad Max is seen by the children in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' as the SecondComing of Captain Walker, complete with a Max-as-Walker picture of him spread out in [[CrucifiedHeroShot crucified form]] carrying the children away upon himself.
* MotivationOnAStick: In ''Beyond Thunderdome'', the hero is sent into "exile" hooded and tied up on a donkey with a small jar of water hanging in front of its head.
* NewOldWest: All of the films have structures similar to Westerns, with motorcycle gangs and post-apocalyptic marauders taking the place of Western banditos.
* NostalgicNarrator: In ''Mad Max 2'', the narrator is revealed to be [[spoiler:the Feral Kid]].
* NotSoDifferent.
-->'''Aunty Entity:''' Well... ain't we a pair? Raggedy man.
* OhCrap: Several, but a split-second shot of Nightrider's bugged-out eyes as his car careens into an obstruction is an unusually disturbing example.
** The Toecutter has time to rip off his goggles to reveal a similar look before being hit by a truck.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted, and '''how'''! Max get shot in the leg in first film, rendering him into limping for rest of the series.
* PeekabooCorpse: Subverted in the second film, as Max doesn't even blink when the crashed semi's long-dead driver falls out of the cab.
* PostApunkalypticArmor: Pretty much defines the trope, especially ''Mad Max 2'' & ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* PostPeakOil: It is the cause of the collapse of society by the time of the 2nd and 3rd films.
* ProductPlacement
* ThePromisedLand: In ''Mad Max 2'', the villagers are trying to locate their own promised land. The kids in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' believe that Max is Captain Walker, who will rescue them and take them to Tomorrow-morrow Land, which also counts.
* PsychopathicManchild: Blaster.
* RasputinianDeath
* RailingKill: The first shot Max fires during the climax of ''The Road Warrior'' takes out the driver of one car, which takes out another vehicle.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Averted. The Gyro Captain uses snakes, but he's a pretty good guy.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: At the end of the first film.
* RuleOfPool: The vats of pig feces in ''Beyond Thunderdome.''
* SadisticChoice
* SawedOffShotgun: Max's signature weapon.
* ScavengerWorld: TropeCodifier.
* ShoutOut: Max being referred to as "The Man With No Name" in ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* SolidGoldPoop: Bartertown in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' is fueled by methane, a byproduct of fecal decomposition. This choice of fuels was clearly made just for the arguments that could result.
* StarMakingRole: For MelGibson.
* SwordOverHead: Inverted at the end of ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* ThereAreNoRules: Thunderdome, except "Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves."
* TheThunderdome: the TropeNamer.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: In video releases, the packaging revealed that [[spoiler:Max's family are killed]] in the first film, and [[spoiler:the fuel was in the bus, not the tanker]] in the second film.)
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The first movie starts with the words "A Few Years From Now..."
* WastelandElder
* WeaponForIntimidation: Max's shotgun for most of the second movie. He uses it to bluff Wez into retreating at the start of the movie and rigs it up to keep the Gyrocaptain captured. It's only when he searches some of the bodies by the autogyro and finds a single shotgun shell that we discover that the gun has been empty all along.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In ''Mad Max 2'', it was originally going to be revealed near the end of the film that Lord Humungus was in fact Max's old Main Force Patrol partner Jim Goose, who was horribly burned (but not confirmed to be dead) in the first movie. While this didn't make it into the film, some elements of the final product might be leftover hints:
** Humungus' scoped pistol is a very similar weapon to the standard sidearm used by the MFP (albeit a different model)[[hottip:*: for the record, MFP's issue weapon is a Smith and Wesson Model 28, the utility version of the Model 27, the first .357 Magnum revolver. Humungus uses a [[DirtyHarry .44 Magnum Model 29.]] ]], and other members of his pack use modified MFP patrol vehicles.
** He appears to have terrible burn scars underneath his mask, as evidenced by the back of his head, though the rest of his body is completely unblemished.
** His speeches about losing the people you care about and "ending the suffering" seem to hint at a more conflicted and tragic personality.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Once Max quits the force around halfway through the first movie, Fifi, Roop and Charlie are never seen again.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: All MFP officers carry a S&W .357 Model 28 revolver at all times. This could have been very useful to Max when he dropped his shotgun while facing the bike gang.
* WildChild: the "Feral Kid"
* WouldHitAGirl: Max delivers a knockout punch to a teenage girl in ''Beyond Thunderdome''. He hesitates beforehand, but goes ahead and decks her.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: "Methane cometh from pig shit."
* YouNoTakeCandle: The tribe of children had only partial educations from their shellshocked parents before being abandoned. Their limited vocabulary, in spite of their intelligence, is an uncomfortable reminder to Max how much the world is still losing.
----
->''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Come on, what's all this talk about Mad Max? Can't we get beyond Thunderdome?]]''
->''In the roar of an engine, he lost everything. And became a shell of a man, a burnt-out, desolate man, a man haunted by the demons of his past, a man who wandered out into the wasteland. And it was here, in this blighted place, that he learned to live again...''
-->-- '''The Narrator''', '''''Mad Max 2''''', OpeningMonologue
A series of films that constitute the most famous things to come out of UsefulNotes/{{Australia}} since kangaroos and sexy women with accents. Starring MelGibson in his Australian accent as the title character 'Mad' Max Rockatansky.
The first film, ''Mad Max'', was made with practically no money and released in 1979. Although it was surprisingly successful in Australia it was barely noticed in America - in fact, in the original American release all the characters' voices were dubbed with American accents because distributors [[ViewersAreMorons thought the audience wouldn't understand what they were saying]]. In the first film, Max Rockatansky is a cop with the Main Force Patrol in a town that is barely clinging to civilisation, with a wife and young son -- until he loses everything, and then goes on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge in the film's climax.
The second film, ''Mad Max 2'', was released in 1981 and is almost unanimously regarded as better than the first -- it was a surprise hit in America, where, out of fears that no one would see it if they hadn't seen the original, it was retitled ''The Road Warrior''. The film is set in a post-apocalyptic Outback, a few years after the original film, wherein Mad Max is now [[WalkingTheEarth wandering]] the wastelands in his CoolCar until he runs into a small ragtag group of survivors who are being threatened by a vicious gang of bandits. After at first resisting their pleas for him to help them, he ends up assisting them in their plan for escape to the north, exorcising some of his own personal demons.
The third film, ''Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome'', is a DolledUpInstallment: the original idea was of a man in a post-apocalyptic world who came across a group of wild children who were survivors of a plane crash, and series creator George Miller proposed "how about that man is Mad Max?" Unlike the first two films, ''Beyond Thunderdome'' was an American co-production rather than a fully Australian film.
A fourth film -- a prequel, set in the time when society was just starting to collapse, called ''Mad Max: Fury Road'' -- has been in DevelopmentHell for years. It was scheduled to begin filming by the end of 2010, but was delayed due to higher-than-normal amounts of rainfall, resulting in the area around [[AustralianStatesAndTerritories Broken Hill]] being too green. A 3D anime adaptation is also under development and may be released in addition to the live action film.
----
!!Examples of:
* AfterTheEnd: ''Mad Max 2'' and ''Beyond Thunderdome''; The original is JustBeforeTheEnd
* AllBikersAreHellsAngels
* AllHailTheGreatGodMickey: Kids treat records and radios as magical in Mad Max 3.
* AndManGrewProud
* AntiHero
* TheApunkalypse: Pretty much [[TropeCodifier codifies the trope]], especially in ''Mad Max 2'' & ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* AttackAttackRetreatRetreat: In ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* AwesomeAussie: Max.
* AwesomeMcCoolName: Max Rockatansky.
* BadassDriver: Max.
* BloodSport: Thunderdome
* BrainsAndBrawn- [[BigGuyLittleGuy Master Blaster]]
* CaptainErsatz: Bruce Spence's character in the third film is an odd borderline example, in that, despite their massive similarities, he is evidently ''not'' intended to be the same Gyro Captain who appeared in ''Mad Max 2.''
* CarFu
* ChainmailBikini: Aunty Entity sports the slightly more sensible chainmail one-piece, which is probably a sensible investment given her position.
* ChainsawGood: Subverted during the Thunderdome scene. Max manages to grab a chainsaw from the WallOfWeapons and proceeds to use it against Blaster. Unfortunately, [[RealityEnsues it runs out of fuel pretty quickly]].
* ChekhovsGun:
** Pappagallo inspecting the egg timer.
** The dog whistle
** Johnny's lighter.
* TheChewToy: Ironbar
* TheCommandments:
** In ''Beyond Thunderdome''. "Two men enter, one man leaves."
** "Break a deal, face the wheel."
* CoolCar: Max's Pursuit Special, "last of the V8 Interceptors."
* CoolPet: Dog, proving that blue heelers are fierce (the dingo blood probably doesn't hurt).
* CozyCatastrophe - According to the second film's OpeningMonologue, WorldWarIII began shortly after the first film, only semi-nuclear, destroying only what was left of modern industrial infrastructure, and people using up resources that they can't replace - mostly by fighting over the resources. The third is solidly AfterTheEnd, 19 years in fact.
* CrapsackWorld: All three films, in increasing severity.
* DepravedBisexual:
** The bikers in the first movie have distinctly homoerotic overtones, but still find time to rape women.
** Some of the gang in the second, if not completely homosexual.
* DuelToTheDeath: Thunderdome
* DesertPunk
* DespairEventHorizon:
** Max himself after the deaths of his wife and son. It takes him up until towards the end of ''Mad Max 2'' to regain some of his humanity.
** It's heavily implied that, similar to Max, Humungus was a victim of this and chose to be bad; witness his "We have all lost someone we love" speech and the picture of himself and his wife (or, possibly his parents) that he keeps with his gun. Humungus was originally going to be Goose from the first film, having gone over to the dark side.
* DevelopmentHell: ''Fury Road'' has been planned for years. It was last scheduled to be filmed in late 2010, but was called off due to heavy rainfall.
* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: The first film was meant to show the dangers of reckless driving.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler: The original movie. Max got his revenge, but is now en empty shell of a man who cares about nothing.]]
* TheDragon: Wez. Arguably the most evil and most dangerous character Max confronts.
* EatTheDog: The Gyro Captain in the second film raises snakes as a food source as well as guards for his vehicle.
* FailureIsTheOnlyOption / PyrrhicVictory: At the end of each movie, Max has won the fight but lost ''everything'' he had. To really salt the wounds, in the second and third movie Max is left in the dirt while the people he's assisted go on to better lives. Whatever pleasure Max takes from helping others is left up to the viewer.
* FallenHero
* {{Fingore}}: Don't try catching bladed boomerangs with your bare hands. The results aren't pretty.
* FollowTheLeader: Responsible for a slew of low-grade post-apocalypse sci-fi movies during TheEighties.
* ForcedPrizeFight: ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: ''Beyond Thunderdome''. One of the girls who left the oasis is ''pregnant'', indicating that those kids are behaving like, well, sexually active teenagers.
* GenrePopularizer: For the ScavengerWorld genre.
* GenreShift: The first movie portrays Australia as a crime-ridden, crapsack world, and Max is a CowboyCop. The second film is post-apocalyptic, and Max is more like a traveling ronin or gunslinger.
* GilliganCut: Max sees one of the children scampering after them in the desert and states, "He holds his own." Cut to Max carrying him on his back in the blazing sun.
* GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHave: Tina Turner (age 46 at the time) as Auntie Entity. Not many women in their 40's would dare to wear a one-piece chainmail ensemble.
* HeWhoFightsMonsters: Max becomes a hard and bitter man by the end of the first film due to his battles with criminals. He quits the force because he's scared this will happen.
-->''Any longer out on that road and I'm one of them, a terminal psychotic, except that I've got this bronze badge that says that [[DesignatedHero I'm one of the good guys]].''
* HeroicSacrifice. Ending of the second and third films.
* HollywoodHealing: Averted: Max's arm and leg in ''Mad Max 2'', and his eye in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' George Miller, the director, was a practicing emergency medicine doctor.
* HollywoodPoliceDrivingAcademy: all members of the Main Force Patrol in the first movie appear to have graduated from the Australian branch.
* HotAmazon: The Warrior Woman
* HulkSpeak: Master, who must speak this way around Blaster so he'll understand what's going on.
* HumiliationConga: Implied that Master did this on a regular basis with Auntie Entity.
-->'''The Master:''' Who run Bartertown?
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Dammit, I told you, no more embargos.
-->'''The Master:''' More, Blaster. ''(power shut off)'' Who run Bartertown? Who... run... Bartertown?
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' ...You know who.
-->'''The Master:''' Say.
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster.
-->'''The Master:''' Say loud! ''(Master turns on the town loudspeakers)''
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster.
-->'''The Master:''' Master Blaster... what?
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster runs Bartertown.
-->'''The Master:''' Louder!
-->'''Auntie Entity:''' Master Blaster runs Bartertown!
-->'''The Master:''' Lift embargo.
* HypocriticalHumor: The Gyro Captain upon learning that Max has been bluffing him with an unloaded shotgun: "Empty, all this time! That's dishonest! ''Low.''"
* InAWorld: The original trailers played this trope straight
* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: Yes, 'Mad' Max is wearing black leather in the scorching hot Austrailian Outback. This is apparently supposed to help in crashes, but Max never rides a motorcycle.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: Oddly only seen in villains.
** In the first movie [[TheDragon Bubba Zanetti]] kneecaps Max with a single well-aimed pistol shot at long range.
** The mook shooting down the Gyrocopter with arrows in ''Mad Max 2'' would be nigh-impossible to pull off in real life, too.
* IncessantMusicMadness: In ''Beyond Thunderdome'', some of the kids have run off. The other kids are showing Max which direction they went, and are chanting a lament in the background. Eventually, Max yells, "Stop the noise, STOP THE NOISE!"
* IndyPloy:
-->'''Max:''' So what's the plan?
-->'''Pig Killer:''' ''(laughing)'' Plan? There ain't no ''plan''!
* IneffectualLoner: Despite his best efforts to keep to himself, Max always winds up allying with/helping out/getting saved by the victimized good guys.
* InfantImmortality: Averted twice - Once in the original, then again in ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* LandDownUnder
* LargeHam: Tina Turner as Auntie Entity in ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* {{Leatherman}}:
** Wez, ''Mad Max 2'''s [[TheDragon Dragon]]
** Fifi MacAfee, Max's police chief in the first film.
* LifeOrLimbDecision:At the end of the original as part of Max's revenge
* LighterAndSofter: Before you say ''Beyond Thunderdome'', ''Mad Max 2'' is this to the terminally grim ''Mad Max''.
* LoudOfWar: Max uses a dog whistle to defeat Blaster in the Thunderdome arena.
* LockedIntoStrangeness: Over the course of the last two films, Max's sideburns become increasingly faded, presumably from the horrors he has witnessed or the great stress he is always under to survive. What with the apocalypse and all...
* LovelyAssistant: In ''Beyond Thunderdome''. She even [[WheelOfFortune spins a wheel]].
* MalevolentMaskedMen: Lord Humungus and many of his gang who wear police helmets and other assorted masks.
* MessianicArchetype: Mad Max is seen by the children in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' as the SecondComing of Captain Walker, complete with a Max-as-Walker picture of him spread out in [[CrucifiedHeroShot crucified form]] carrying the children away upon himself.
* MotivationOnAStick: In ''Beyond Thunderdome'', the hero is sent into "exile" hooded and tied up on a donkey with a small jar of water hanging in front of its head.
* NewOldWest: All of the films have structures similar to Westerns, with motorcycle gangs and post-apocalyptic marauders taking the place of Western banditos.
* NostalgicNarrator: In ''Mad Max 2'', the narrator is revealed to be [[spoiler:the Feral Kid]].
* NotSoDifferent.
-->'''Aunty Entity:''' Well... ain't we a pair? Raggedy man.
* OhCrap: Several, but a split-second shot of Nightrider's bugged-out eyes as his car careens into an obstruction is an unusually disturbing example.
** The Toecutter has time to rip off his goggles to reveal a similar look before being hit by a truck.
* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted, and '''how'''! Max get shot in the leg in first film, rendering him into limping for rest of the series.
* PeekabooCorpse: Subverted in the second film, as Max doesn't even blink when the crashed semi's long-dead driver falls out of the cab.
* PostApunkalypticArmor: Pretty much defines the trope, especially ''Mad Max 2'' & ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* PostPeakOil: It is the cause of the collapse of society by the time of the 2nd and 3rd films.
* ProductPlacement
* ThePromisedLand: In ''Mad Max 2'', the villagers are trying to locate their own promised land. The kids in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' believe that Max is Captain Walker, who will rescue them and take them to Tomorrow-morrow Land, which also counts.
* PsychopathicManchild: Blaster.
* RasputinianDeath
* RailingKill: The first shot Max fires during the climax of ''The Road Warrior'' takes out the driver of one car, which takes out another vehicle.
* ReptilesAreAbhorrent: Averted. The Gyro Captain uses snakes, but he's a pretty good guy.
* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: At the end of the first film.
* RuleOfPool: The vats of pig feces in ''Beyond Thunderdome.''
* SadisticChoice
* SawedOffShotgun: Max's signature weapon.
* ScavengerWorld: TropeCodifier.
* ShoutOut: Max being referred to as "The Man With No Name" in ''Beyond Thunderdome''
* SolidGoldPoop: Bartertown in ''Beyond Thunderdome'' is fueled by methane, a byproduct of fecal decomposition. This choice of fuels was clearly made just for the arguments that could result.
* StarMakingRole: For MelGibson.
* SwordOverHead: Inverted at the end of ''Beyond Thunderdome''.
* ThereAreNoRules: Thunderdome, except "Two Men Enter, One Man Leaves."
* TheThunderdome: the TropeNamer.
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: In video releases, the packaging revealed that [[spoiler:Max's family are killed]] in the first film, and [[spoiler:the fuel was in the bus, not the tanker]] in the second film.)
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: The first movie starts with the words "A Few Years From Now..."
* WastelandElder
* WeaponForIntimidation: Max's shotgun for most of the second movie. He uses it to bluff Wez into retreating at the start of the movie and rigs it up to keep the Gyrocaptain captured. It's only when he searches some of the bodies by the autogyro and finds a single shotgun shell that we discover that the gun has been empty all along.
* WhatCouldHaveBeen: In ''Mad Max 2'', it was originally going to be revealed near the end of the film that Lord Humungus was in fact Max's old Main Force Patrol partner Jim Goose, who was horribly burned (but not confirmed to be dead) in the first movie. While this didn't make it into the film, some elements of the final product might be leftover hints:
** Humungus' scoped pistol is a very similar weapon to the standard sidearm used by the MFP (albeit a different model)[[hottip:*: for the record, MFP's issue weapon is a Smith and Wesson Model 28, the utility version of the Model 27, the first .357 Magnum revolver. Humungus uses a [[DirtyHarry .44 Magnum Model 29.]] ]], and other members of his pack use modified MFP patrol vehicles.
** He appears to have terrible burn scars underneath his mask, as evidenced by the back of his head, though the rest of his body is completely unblemished.
** His speeches about losing the people you care about and "ending the suffering" seem to hint at a more conflicted and tragic personality.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: Once Max quits the force around halfway through the first movie, Fifi, Roop and Charlie are never seen again.
* WhyDontYouJustShootHim: All MFP officers carry a S&W .357 Model 28 revolver at all times. This could have been very useful to Max when he dropped his shotgun while facing the bike gang.
* WildChild: the "Feral Kid"
* WouldHitAGirl: Max delivers a knockout punch to a teenage girl in ''Beyond Thunderdome''. He hesitates beforehand, but goes ahead and decks her.
* YeOldeButcheredeEnglishe: "Methane cometh from pig shit."
* YouNoTakeCandle: The tribe of children had only partial educations from their shellshocked parents before being abandoned. Their limited vocabulary, in spite of their intelligence, is an uncomfortable reminder to Max how much the world is still losing.
----
->''[[Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000 Come on, what's all this talk about Mad Max? Can't we get beyond Thunderdome?]]''
