History Film / MadMax

A video game called ''Mad Max'' developed and published by Mindscape was released in 1990 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. Mindscape also developed a sequel based on ''The Road Warrior'' but lost the rights so specific references to ''Mad Max'' were removed and the title was changed to ''VideoGame/{{Outlander}}''.

Another video game called ''VideoGame/{{Mad Max|2015}}'' by the developers of the ''VideoGame/JustCause'' games was released on September 1, 2015 for [[UsefulNotes/{{MicrosoftWindows}} Windows]], UsefulNotes/XboxOne, and UsefulNotes/PlayStation4, with a [[UsefulNotes/{{Unix}} Linux]] port made on October 20th, 2016.

** ''Film/FuriosaAMadMaxSaga'': Prequel film to ''Fury Road'' starring Creator/AnnaTaylorJoy and Creator/ChrisHemsworth, set for release in 2024.

* ''Furiosa'': Prequel film to ''Fury Road'' starring Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy and Creator/ChrisHemsworth, set for release in 2024.

A video game called ''Mad Max'' developed and published by Mindscape was released in 1990 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. Mindscape also developed a sequel based on ''The Road Warrior'' but the lost rights so specific references to ''Mad Max'' were removed and the title was changed to ''VideoGame/{{Outlander}}''.

A video game called ''Mad Max'' developed and published by Mindscape was released in 1990 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. Mindscape also developed a sequel based on ''Beyond Thunderdome'' but the lost rights so specific references to ''Mad Max'' were removed and the title was changed to ''VideoGame/{{Outlander}}''.

* PlethoraOfMistakes: A ''key'' element of Miller's [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnOrinHibsc direction.]] Central to every action scene throughout the series, and unlike pretty much everything like it in action movies, is that action is ''chaos.'' In a normal action movie, the hero and/or villain will repeatedly pull off some death-defying stunt simply to move the plot along, and when one finally fails, the sequence ends. Throughout the Mad Max films, both Max's opponents and even ''Max himself'' will flub a dangerous situation -- and get hurt, hurt their allies, or just plain ''die'' -- only for the sequence to continue onwards. Max wins repeatedly not because he is a better fighter or driver, but simply because he knows how to screw up and maintain enough focus to ''survive'' the screw-up.

* SupportingProtagonist: Max, from ''The Road Warrior'' on. He's the titular character and the focus of the films, but he's never the hero of the story, instead showing up as a hired hand for the real hero (''a la'' Han Solo in ''[[Film/ANewHope Star Wars: A New Hope]]'').

* SignificantDoubleCasting: Hugh Keays-Byrne, the actor who portrayed the cruel and tyrannical Toecutter in the original film, came back to the series 30 years later to play the similarly characterized Immortan Joe in ''Fury Road''.
** Bruce Spence appears in both ''Road Warrior'' and ''Thunderdome'' as a wily scavenger who screws Max over and gets drawn into being a hero.

* TheSilentBob: Max, to varying degrees. In ''The Road Warrior,'' he only has sixteen lines. In ''Fury Road,'' it's more plot-relevant, as he's been isolated for so long that he's almost literally forgotten how to speak. Averted in ''Beyond Thunderdome'', where he talks much more frequently.

The series is also notable for [[NegativeContinuity playing somewhat fast-and-loose with continuity]]: while Max's overall character and backstory remain consistent across the franchise, the details tend to fluctuate between entries, and their stories at times outright contradict one another.[[invoked]] WordOfGod holds that this is intentional, with the franchise being less a linear series of events and more a collection of folkloric legends about Max's exploits.

The series is also notable for [[NegativeContinuity playing somewhat fast-and-loose with continuity]]: while certain aspects of the backstory remain consistent across the franchise, the details tend to fluctuate between entries, sometimes outright contradicting one another.[[invoked]] WordOfGod holds that this is intentional, with the franchise being less a linear series of events and more a collection of folkloric legends about Max's exploits.

The series stars "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a former police officer who lost his family and his mind in the chaos that came JustBeforeTheEnd. Clad in the [[IconicOutfit tattered remains]] of [[StillWearingTheOldColors his patrol uniform]], he roams the post-nuclear deserts of Australia in his customized [[CoolCar V8 Interceptor]], fighting to survive while [[KnightInSourArmor reluctantly lending aid]] to people in need. Along his journeys he is menaced by deranged outlaws, despotic warlords, and other unsavory sorts who seek to terrorize and exploit the wasteland's helpless inhabitants.

%% Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1426540497042369800

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/3bb0f749b7931df8d6ce9b608211ae03.png]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[Music/MenAtWork Livin' in a land down under. With Immortan Joe and Toecutter.]]'']]

* ''Film/MadMax1'': The 1979 original starring Creator/MelGibson as Max, who played him for the next two films. Made with practically no money, the film was surprisingly successful in Australia and around the world, earning it the world record for "most profitable film ever made"; a record that stood for twenty years until ''Film/TheBlairWitchProject''.

The series stars "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a former police officer who lost his family and his mind in the chaos that came JustBeforeTheEnd. Clad in the [[IconicOutfit tattered remains of his patrol uniform]], he roams the post-nuclear deserts of Australia in his customized [[CoolCar V8 Interceptor]], fighting to survive while [[KnightInSourArmor reluctantly lending aid]] to people in need. Along his journeys he is menaced by deranged outlaws, despotic warlords, and other unsavory sorts who seek to terrorize and exploit the wasteland's helpless inhabitants.

* BreakOutTheMuseumPiece: Because society has decayed to the point where new ammunition for guns is no longer manufactured, the primary WeaponOfChoice in the wasteland appears to be the humble crossbow. Ammunition is apparently readily available and, probably, more importantly, is reusable. However, the reload time is appalling, as shown by the turbaned warrior in the final chase scene in ''The Road Warrior''.

* AwesomeMcCoolname: Max Rockatansky, who was named such as a reference to physician and pathologist [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_von_Rokitansky Carl von Rokitansky]]. This is a nod to George Miller's history as an [=ER=] surgeon.

* SerialEscalation: Each film has been bigger, more violent, and just all around ''more'' than the last. The first one is a story about a cop JustBeforeTheEnd, with impressive car stunts. The second is a western action movie and also the TropeCodifier of TheApunkalypse, even more car stunts, and an excellent car chase. The fourth is about 65% car chases, distilled into almost pure action, with everything about the previous movies taken UpToEleven.

* AfterTheEnd: ''Road Warrior'', ''Beyond Thunderdome'', and ''Fury Road'' all take place after the collapse of civilisation due to war and a lack of resources; the original is Just Before The End. The intro to ''The Road Warrior'' mentions that "for reasons long forgotten, two mighty warrior tribes went to war" and that said war resulted in a lack of fuel, causing failed peace talks, riots, and civil unrest, leading to the situation in the first film. Between films, civilisation disappeared entirely, leading to roving bands of raiders, lone scavengers such as Max and the Gyrocaptain, and groups of ordinary people trying to survive, like the refinery settlers. We even finally get to see the ruins of Sydney at the end of ''Beyond Thunderdome''.

* ''Film/MadMaxFuryRoad'': The fourth entry, released in 2015 to massive acclaim, after spending ''thirty years'' in DevelopmentHell. Starring Creator/TomHardy as Max, it is by far the most action-packed entry in the series.

* ''Furiosa'': Prequel film to ''Fury Road'' starring Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy, set for release in 2024.

* An in-development Furiosa film starring Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy, set for release in 2024.

A video game called ''Mad Max'' developed and published by Mindscape was released in 1990 for the UsefulNotes/NintendoEntertainmentSystem. Mindscape also developed a sequel based on ''Beyond Thunderdome'' but the lost rights so specific references to ''Mad Max'' were removed and the title was changed to ''Outlander''.

* NegativeContinuity: There are a few consistent elements across all the films (and the comic, and the game) -- Max is/was a cop, and oil wars led to nuclear wars led to the apocalypse. There's also some recurring iconography like Max's jacket, the Pursuit Special, and Max's injuries, most notably his leg brace. But no instalment after the second quite lines up with its predecessors. George Miller even said he doesn't think of the Mad Max movies as a single story, but rather as a series of legends about a mythical Road Warrior named Max; and much like real myths and legends, there's often contradiction and inconsistency. The most notable example is Max's iconic Pursuit Special, which is constantly associated with him in the popular imagination but which is [[spoiler: completely destroyed in '''both''' ''The Road Warrior'' and ''Fury Road'']].

** Bruce Spence appears in both ''Road Warrior'' and ''Thunderdome'' as a wiley scavenger who screws Max over and gets drawn into being a hero.

* FolkHero: The second,and particularly the third and fourth movies are presented as legends told generations after the fact. Just another tale of the man they call Max.

* FolkHero: The third and fourth movies are presented as legends told generations after the fact. Just another tale of the man they call Max.

* WastelandWarlord: The villains of the latter three movies are all people who've taken to craving out a piece of territory of themselves in the post-apocalyptic world. How much do they symbol this trope? Lord Humungus and Immortan Joe currently respectively supply the trope picture and quote.

* An in-development Furiosa film starring Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy.

* ApocalypticLogistics: The whole premise behind the films is the collapse of civilization brought on by Post Peak Oil, yet one character flies a plane, and some other characters are seen driving cars (that are not powered by methane).