My life fades. The vision dims. All that remains are memories. I remember a time of chaos. Ruined dreams. This wasted land. But most of all, I remember the Road Warrior. The man we called "Max".
The second Mad Max film, released in 1981. It was retitled The Road Warrior for the American market, and is also known as simply Mad Max 2.
The movie follows Max into the anarchic wasteland that used to be Australia, where a few years later he is now Walking the Earth with his Post-Apocalyptic Dog in his Cool Car. He runs into a small ragtag group of survivors barricaded in an isolated oil refinery, who are surrounded and terrorised by a vicious gang of bandits led by the mysterious masked Lord Humungus. After at first resisting their pleas for him to help them, Max ends up assisting them in their plan for escape to the north, exorcising some of his own personal demons.
2015's Mad Max: Fury Road borrows a lot from this film, more than it does from any other Mad Max film.
This film provides examples of:
- Abhorrent Admirer: The Gyrocaptain becomes one for Max when the former keeps insisting they're "partners". It saves Max's life when the Gyrocaptain airlifts him to safety, assuring Max he's his "partner".
- Action Prologue: The film opens with Max being chased by the Lord Humungus' flunkies, well before we actually meet him.
- Actually Pretty Funny: In the end, Max and the Gyrocaptain are badly injured and briefly chuckling at the fact that they risked their lives for a truck full of sand. It's the only time Max smiles in the entire film.
- Air Guns: There's a Marauder vehicle with a four-barreled air gun mounted on the back. Not sure where they'd find a working air compressor though, so they'd have to use a handpump to fill the air bottles we see mounted on top of it.
- All There in the Script: The screenplay names the Humungous' gang as the Marauders.
- And Starring: The cast roll here ends with "and Emil Minty as the Feral Kid".
- And Then What?: Lord Humungus promises to let everyone go free if they just hand over the pumping station to the Marauders. While a few of the defenders are actually in favor of taking the offer, Papagallo points out that even if the Marauders do let them go (already a huge stretch), what happens next? Do the defenders just roam the wasteland like scavengers until they're no different from the Marauders?
- Animal Companion: The cattle dog that accompanies Max in his travels across the wasteland.
- Annoying Arrows: Both played straight and subverted
- In the opening chase Wez gets his arm impaled by a bolt fired by another Vermin. He slowly pulls it out while glaring at Max, then uses it to replace one of his own. While from his expression the experience is painful, the only time he screams is before this, over frustration at Max having killed the others and escaped him.
- In every other scene, arrows and bolts are at the very least painful and very dangerous, and in most cases - simply lethal. Just about every single character that doesn't die in a vehicle crash or explosion meets their end by arrows.
- Ass Kicks You: When raiders enter the refinery, the Mechanic's assistant swings him in his suspension rig to knock one down- hitting him rear first.
- Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Lord Humungus is a freakishly muscular giant of a man and leads his dogs of war. When Wez (himself a large psychopath) goes berserk at an inconvenient moment, Humungous personally chokes him out.
- The Bait:
- The Gyro Captain leaves his gyrocopter seemingly abandoned by the side of the road, with footprints leading away from it. The pilot is actually buried under the sand waiting to ambush Max.
- The big rig tanker Max drives out of the compound turns out to be full of sand. The fuel is actually being hauled in 44 gallon drums in the bus, which escapes along with the rest of the civilians while the Marauders are busy chasing after Max.
- Batman Gambit: After the Gyro Captain works out that Max has a hidden weapon next to the fuel tank booby trap, Max walks to the car door without being told. Thinking he's going for another weapon, the Gyro Captain shoos him away from the door and opens it himself, whereupon the dog lunges out at him.
- Barbarian Longhair: Many of the bad guys have grungy hair-metal mullets.
- Battle Boomerang: The Feral Kid's preferred weapon.
- The Berserker: Wez. He wants to charge into the refinery after his boyfriend is killed and has to be calmed down by Humungus, who's hoping to coax them out.
- Big Bad: Lord Humungus, who is besieging the oil refinery.
- Big Badass Rig: The Mack R-600 Coolpower tanker truck used for the final Stern Chase, modified for defense with spiked fighting positions and a steel plate with cowcatcher blade protecting the engine.
- Bloody Hilarious: The Marauders roar with laughter after Toadie loses his fingers trying to catch the Feral Kid's metal boomerang. Then the refinery defenders laugh. Then, finally, even Toadie himself laughs.
- Booby Trap:
- Max has a booby trap attached to the gas tanks of his vehicle. The Gyro Pilot forces him to disarm it, but Toadie and the others aren't so cautious.
- After the survivors leave the compound, some of the raiders drive in, expecting to have an unlimited supply of gas now. Ten seconds later, ka-blam!!
- Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Ammunition is shown to be extremely rare. Max turns out to have been bluffing with an empty shotgun when he finds ammo again which turns out to be a dud. When he has functional ammo again during the final chase sequence, it takes him time to reload the few rounds he does have. The Lord Humungus has exactly five rounds for his Magnum, only loading it sparingly; he fires one shot at the truck when Max brings it back to the refinery and uses his last four at the start of the final chase. After that, he switches to triple bladed knives. Even before the collapse of society in the first film, characters never fire more than two rounds in any one go.
- Brick Joke: The Gyro Captain only discovers Max's shotgun is empty when he removes a shotgun shell from a Marauder's corpse. The Gyro Captain points out the shell could be a dud but isn't willing to try his luck. Turns out the shell is a dud, which Max discovers when he tries to shoot Humungous.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- In the opening car chase, Max comes across a tractor-trailer whose driver has been killed. He makes a deal with Pappagallo to fetch it for them in exchange for his vehicle and fuel.
- Pappagallo inspecting the egg timer.
- The buses.
- The booby trap on two counts: Max's car and the refinery.
- Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Most of the good oil rig defenders wear white and beige clothes while the villainous Lord Humungus and his men mainly wear black. It's probably one of the reasons the refinery settlers assume Max is dodgy, since he's also clad in black leather.
- Continuity Nod:
- The movie never calls attention to it, but Max wears a brace over the knee that got shot during the climax of the first film. The right arm of his jacket is also missing, presumably having been cut off so that he could get treatment on it after it was run over by Bubba Zanetti.
- Papagallo's speech to Max mirrors Max's conversation with Fifi when he resigned from the MFP. Max had become the thing he was afraid of becoming.
- Cool Mask: Lord Humungus was wearing hockey masks before Jason Voorhees made them cool.
- Cooldown Hug: Humungus "hugs" his lieutenant Wez as he is about to go on a premature, suicidal killing spree.
- Crazy-Prepared: Max keeps his car booby trapped to explode should anybody attempt to siphon fuel from the tanks. Furthermore, he keeps a knife right next to the bomb's arming switch so he can use it against anyone who does attempt to persuade him to disarm it. The Gyro Captain figures this out pretty quickly. (He wasn't counting on Max's dog, though.)Gyro Captain: Uh uh uh. A fellow — a quick fellow — might have a weapon under there. I'd have to pin his head to the hood.
- Decapitated Army: Once Max has dispatched both Wez and The Lord Humungus by running them both over with a truck, the half a dozen or so remaining members of their gang look dejectedly at the crashed truck and drive off into the sunset, as the tank turned out to be filled with sand and there is no gas for them to loot.
- Decoy Convoy: At the climax, part of the Northern Tribe goes with Max, driving a fortified tanker truck away from the refinery, which is set to explode. This succeeds in drawing Lord Humungus and his gang away from the rest of the tribe, who are carrying dozens of barrels of fuel in their vehicles for their journey to Queensland; the truck that Max is driving is full of sand, something even he doesn't know about.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: The Warrior Woman is cold to Max at first, but grows less hostile as he becomes more of an ally to the settlement.
- Depraved Bisexual: Some of the villainous gang members are shown raping women, though Wez in particular had an androgynous guy riding with him who was implied to be more than just a friend, and they all were dressed in BDSM-style homoerotic clothing (cheekless pants, black leather galore, lots of chains and studs, leather facial masks, etc.).
- Despair Event Horizon: 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, but this was cut out of the finished script.
- Distant Finale: The narration that Book Ends the film notes that, thanks to Max's efforts, the refinery settlers were able to escape to the north and establish themselves in The Promised Land.
- Dodge by Braking: Max does this at the beginning of the film when one of the Mooks chasing him pulls a crossbow on him. The bolt winds up in Wez's arm instead.
- Dog Food Diet: Max lives off cans of Dinky-Di dog food. You can even see crates of it stacked in the back of his car.
- A Dog Named "Dog": Max's Australian Cattle Dog. Its name is never given, and the script just calls it dog.
- The Dragon: Wez to Lord Humungus, though Humungus is actually tougher than Wez.
- Dressed Like a Dominatrix: A rare Gender-Inverted Example with the Lord Homungus. While The Apunkalypse is in full swing, the Big Bad nevertheless prefers to dress as a male dominator in the searing Australian heat, with no indication of it being an ouright sexual kink.
- Dwindling Party: The tanker defenders go down one by one as the chase continues: Zetta gets his leg caught with a grappling hook and his platform dragged off the tanker, the Warrior Woman gets shot by crossbow fire, then dragged under the tanker, taking the Mechanic with her when he tries to save her, and Papagallo gets killed by Humungus when he tries to get the Feral Kid off the tanker. Even the Gyrocaptain, while not killed, is effectively taken out of the fight when his autogyro gets shot down. By the end, it's only Max and the Feral Kid left on the rig by the time Max crashes it.
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Happens as the oil rig defenders fight to the last even though the rig is a decoy filled with sand. They still ensure the rest of their community escape to safety.
- Eat the Dog: The Gyro Captain raises snakes as a food source as well as guards for his vehicle.
- Epic Fail: A pursuing Marauder tries to pop one on the Fuel Rig's Tires with a wrist-mounted blade. He gets sucked into the wheels for his trouble.
- Equal-Opportunity Evil: Lord Humungus' crew includes several women, though it's unclear whether they're actual members of the gang or tagalong prostitutes (or both). They're treated much better on-screen than unaffiliated female characters, anyway.
- Evil Plan: Lord Humungus seeks to obtain a small colony's fuel supply.
- Exact Words:
- The Gyro Captain expects Max to let him go free after leading him to the compound. Max reminds him that their deal was to let him live.
- Max takes the badly wounded scout back to the refinery compound in exchange for a promise of fuel. The man dies right after Max brings him inside; as the deal was with him, the other settlers have no intention of honoring it.
- Face–Heel Turn: Implied with some of Humongous followers who wear police uniforms and drive police vehicles.
- Fan Disservice: There's briefly bare female breasts visible, but they belong to the corpse of a woman whom Lord Humungus's gang raped and killed.
- Fingore: Don't try catching bladed, airborn metal, razor-edged boomerangs with your bare hands. The results aren't pretty. The Toadie finds out the hard way.
- Fire-Breathing Weapon: Ammunition and firearms may be in short supply, but the settlers take advantage of their plentiful supply of fuel by manning the walls with flamethrowers, making the Marauders reluctant to storm them.
- Foreshadowing: As the tanker becomes damaged in the climactic chase, sharp-eyed viewers might wonder why sand is pouring from the broken hose on the side.
- Sharp-eyed viewers might also spot the car Pappagallo drives during the final chase sitting abandoned next to Max in the opening shot, a hint that the driver didn't survive the film.
- While Pappagallo tries to save the Feral Kid, he yells, "We won!" This is despite the fact that they are still being chased by Humungus and his marauders. This implies that he knew of another goal, namely they're the distraction.
- Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: Pappagallo turns it into "The Reason You Suck" Speech.Pappagallo: What is it with you, huh? What are you looking for? C'mon, Max, everybody's looking for something. You're happy out there, are you? Eh? Wandering? One day blurring into another? You're a scavenger, Max. You're a maggot. Did you know that? You're living off the corpse of the old world. Tell me your story, Max. C'mon. Tell me your story. What burned you out, huh? Kill one man too many? See too many people die? Lose some family?(Max briefly gives Pappagallo a Death Glare)Pappagallo: Oh, so that's it, you lost your family? That makes you something special, does it? Do you think you're the only one that's suffered? We've all been through it in here. But we haven't given up. We're still human beings, with dignity. But you? You're out there with the garbage. You're nothing.
- Friend or Foe?
- In the opening car chase, Max has Wez on his moterbike coming up on one side and a Marauder car on the other, so does a Dodge by Braking. The Marauder's arrow ends up going into Wez's arm.
- A Marauder tries to Pop the Tires on the Mack truck with a car-mounted multi-barreled air rifle. The Gyro Captain sees this and air-drops a snake onto him, causing the alarmed Marauder to fire into the back of the driver, causing the vehicle to crash.
- From Bad to Worse: The oil shortage in the first movie eventually snowballed into a full-on nuclear war as shown in the opening. It's also revealed that it wasn't just caused by declining oil reserves but by an unspecified large scale conflict in the Middle East that destroyed many of the oil fields, described by the narrator as a clash of egos between two "mighty tribes" (likely the U.S and USSR).
- Generic Graffiti: THE VERMIN HAVE INHERITED THE EARTH is painted on the tarpaulin covering the load on the wrecked Mack truck.
- Genre Shift: The first movie portrayed Australia as a crime-ridden, but still livable, crapsack world, and Max is a Cowboy Cop. The Road Warrior is post-apocalyptic, and Max is more like a traveling ronin or gunslinger.
- Handicapped Badass:
- The mechanic has no legs, but that doesn't stop him from being one of the truck defenders in the final chase.
- Max wears a leg brace, a Continuity Nod to the first movie when Bubba Zanneti shot him in the knee.
- Heroic Sacrifice:
- Max thought he really was driving a full fuel truck and had no intention of being a decoy.
- Papagallo would be a more straight example, since he knew the truth from the start and he was going to drive the truck anyway before Max came along. Also the rest of the truck defenders if they were in on the secret.
- Hidden Depths: The Gyro Captain. He apparently has enough to become the leader of The Great Northern Tribe. Hinted early on in the film when he not only lures Max into a trap, but very quickly susses out the various tricks and booby traps that Max might surprise somebody with.
- Homoerotic Subtext:
- Wez wears assless chaps and drives around with his twink boyfriend clinging to his back. When his boy-toy gets killed, Wez goes berserk, and Humungus has to put him in a very intimate looking sleeper hold while whispering into his ear.
- One group of guys under the Humungus's command is known as "Smegma Crazies" (NSFW, unspoiler at your own risk: smegma is the viscous mix of skin cells and body oils that builds up on the unwashed human penis and another as "Gayboy Berserkers."
- How We Got Here: In the Opening Narration, we see an image of Max, heavily injured and standing in the middle of the road without his V8 Interceptor. It's actually the last shot played in reverse as the refinery settlers leave him.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- The Gyro Captain upon learning that Max has been bluffing him with an unloaded shotgun: "Empty, all this time! That's dishonest! Low."
- Toadie knocks out the captive strapped to the front of Humungus' vehicle, then casts a guilty look at the compound while stroking the man's hair.
- I Gave My Word: Papagallo is urged not to let Max leave the compound, at least not with his valuable Interceptor. But Papagallo just says that Max has kept his 'contract' and, having shown himself to be an honorable man, therefore is free to go. Lord Humungus gives his word as well, but Papagallo isn't silly enough to believe that Villains Never Lie.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: Not so much "fancy" as it is "what outfit?" Lord Humungus must have a major case of sunburn.
- Improbable Aiming Skills:
- The mook shooting down the Gyrocopter with arrows would be nigh-impossible to pull off in real life.
- Wez shoots a running rabbit with his arm crossbow.
Toadie: SEE! Nothing can escape! The Humungus rules the wastelands! - Improbable Weapon User:
- The Gyro Captain likes snakes - both as a booby-trap device and as a thrown weapon. Oh, and as a food source, too - he's got a recipe for snake, Fricasee Of Reptile...
- The Feral Kid uses a razor-edged metal boomerang, using a padded glove to catch it on return.
- Improbable Infant Survival: Played straight with the Feral Kid, averted with Dog.
- Kick the Dog: One of the Marauders shoots Max's dog after the Interceptor crashes, rather than hunt for Max himself; then takes his time reloading- long enough to get blown up by the booby-trapped fuel tanks.
- Jump Scare:
- When the Feral Kid reaches for a shotgun shell on the edge of the truck's hood during the climax chase, a bloodied Wez suddenly comes out of nowhere and grabs the Kid's hand, screaming.
- When Max first inspects the truck, he opens the driver's side door only for the corpse of its driver to fall out, complete with Scare Chord.
- Leatherman: Wez, Humungus' Dragon.
- Malevolent Masked Men: Lord Humungus and many of his gang who wear police helmets and other assorted masks.
- Men of Sherwood: The survivors at the oil refinery spend the film fighting against a Wasteland Warlord and his army but, after the first few scenes, they only lose a few people and those people are mainly leaders rather than the soldiers who man the defenses throughout the film.
- Molotov Cocktail: The Mechanic throws molotovs from the truck until he is hit and drops one onto himself. He's not too fussed about being on fire though (possibly due to being unable to feel his legs?).
- Morality Pet: The Gyro Captain is planning to escape just like Max, but the girl he wants won't leave the people who've become her family to go with him. He takes a deep breath and stays with her.
- Narrator All Along: The Nostalgic Narrator of The Road Warrior turns out to be an elderly, dying Feral Child, now leader of the Great Northern Tribe.
- New Old West: A post-apocalyptic variation. Like many a Wild West gunslinger before him, Max is a badass drifter who gets roped into helping a beleaguered settlement defend itself from bandits. And just like his predecessors, he moves on after the battle is over, having protected a civilization that has no place for deadly wanderers.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: After Max completes his mission to get the truck to the refinery, he turns down an offer to drive it the ensuing mission to evacuate the area and escape from Hummungus' gang. He then sets out on his own, intending to leave for good, but an attack by Hummungus' troops subsequently destroys his vehicle and leaves him with no choice other than to participate in the mission after all. If Max had been allowed to leave unmolested, it would have deprived the refinery inhabitants of their greatest warrior/driver and significantly reduced their chances of success. Instead, the attack on Max ensures he will be fighting on their side.
- Nitro Boost: The Humungous has nitro boost on his personal vehicle. When Max tries running the blockade in his V8 Interceptor, Wez steals the vehicle and uses the nitro to catch up and run Max off the road. Humungous himself uses the boost in the final battle. As a result, he's going so fast he doesn't have time to swerve on suddenly encountering Max coming in the other direction.
- No New Fashions in the Future: The apocalypse obviously happened in the 1980s, because the remnants of fashion are frozen there. The nameless heroic warrior woman has crimped hair, and Arkie Whiteley's character looks like she stepped out of an 80s aerobics class. The villains' technicolor mohawks and some of their leather gear are also pretty solidly confined to 80s punk culture.
- No-One Could Have Survived That: Wez drives off after seeing Max's crashed Interceptor explode along with all its fuel in a huge ball of fire. He doesn't know that Max crawled out of the car beforehand. Ironically Max was about to be shot by a Maurader when the booby-trapped car exploded, killing the Marauder instead.
- Oh, Crap!:
- Wez wears a wide-eyed, fierce, almost-haka face in practically every scene, but still manages to bug out his eyes even more when he is about to get crushed between Max's tanker and Humungus' speedcar.
- A Black Comedy moment when the Gyro Pilot has a shotgun wired up in his face with Max's dog holding a cord to the trigger in its mouth. At one point the dog turns its head at the sight of a rabbit running past... yikes!
- The Marauders pursue Max right into the compound, but the defenders manage to close the gate after only a couple of vehicles have gone through. The driver of the third vehicle finds himself looking down the muzzle of the gate flamethrower, and his expression says it all.
- After opening the gas tank of Max's wrecked Interceptor, the Toadie notices too late the lit fuse of the booby trap...
- One Hit Poly Kill: The first shot Max fires during the climax takes out the driver of one car, which takes out another vehicle.
- Peekaboo Corpse: Subverted as Max doesn't even blink when the crashed semi's long-dead driver falls out of the cab.
- Pet the Dog: Max's attitude towards everyone is selfish and callous; the first crack in his facade is him clutching his dog protectively after it attacks the disabled mechanic and it looks like the others might harm it. His next moment is when he gives a wind-up music box to the Feral Kid.
- Pop the Tires: Wez with his wrist-mounted crossbow, and then a Marauder with an air rifle, fire at the tires of the Mack truck. Since it's such a huge and powerful vehicle with multiple wheels it doesn't accomplish much, and the truck keeps on going despite the flattened tires.
- Post-Apocalyptic Dog: An especially iconic one!
- The Promised Land: The villagers are trying to locate their own promised land.
- Rasputinian Death: Wez takes impressive amounts of damage before finally collapsing.
- Recurring Extra: Several of the unnamed, uncredited members of both the Refinery Tribe (such as the archers guarding the gate, a red-bearded man wearing pink and a slightly built blonde woman, and the doctor who the Captain's Girl assists) and Lord Humungus's marauders.
- Running Gag: Max trying to make his shotgun actually useful.
- Running the Blockade:
- Several settlers are sent out to find a vehicle capable of hauling their fuel, but they're quickly run down and killed (or captured and made to wish they had been killed). Max takes a survivor into the settlement, saving his life in exchange for a promise of fuel, but he dies leaving the deal invalid.
- Max sneaks out on foot (despite carrying several jerry cans of fuel) and fetches the truck he saw earlier and drives it back through the surrounding Marauders. He's given his Interceptor back in exchange, but when he tries to drive it out Wez and his gang are ready for him. Despite driving a faster vehicle, he's quickly run off the road and barely escapes with his life.
- For the final act, Max drives the fuel truck—now heavily modified for defense—while the rest of the settlers use this distraction to flee in the opposite direction.
- Shipped in Shackles
- Max keeps the Gyro Captain in these, even after he leads him to the refinery. He only gives him the key after he helps fly Max back to the abandoned Mack truck.
- After Wez repeatedly defies him Humongous has the by-now slavering and Ax-Crazy Wez chained to the front of his vehicle like a rabid dog, releasing him for the final battle.
- Ship Tease: Subverted. In any other film, the manner of the Warrior Woman's apology to Max, where she briefly touches him on the arm might peg her as a potential Love Interest. Not here, though, as she gets arrowed and subsequently dragged under the tanker during the final chase.
- The Silent Bob: Max himself only has sixteen lines in the whole film.
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: The Gyro Captain and Max's dog have this vibe.
- Still Wearing the Old Colors: Max's tattered MFP uniform aside, one of the occupants of the refinery is an old gent still wearing his army uniform.
- Stock Footage: Used for the opening narration.
- Super Reflexes: Max is able to disable the snake resting on the autogyro with a single grab. The Gyro Captain is impressed, saying no-one's been able to do that before.
- Talent Double: The backflip done by the Feral Kid was actually performed by a local Broken Hill gymnast girl Melissa. That was the only stunt not performed by Emil Minty.
- Trailers Always Spoil: In video releases, the packaging revealed that the fuel was in the bus, not the tanker.
- Vasquez Always Dies: The Action Girl who takes on the task of guarding the oil tanker from above gets killed, while the Gyro Captain's more feminine Love Interest rides in the bus, which is not so much of a target.
- Wasteland Elder: Papagallo is a somewhat younger version of this trope. He leads the refinery settlers to The Promised Land, even if he doesn't survive to see it happen. The Feral Kid eventually becomes this trope in the ending narration.
- Wasteland Warlord: Lord Humungus is a brutal and relentless warlord in charge of a raider party who will stop at nothing to achieve his goals.
- Weapon for Intimidation: Max's shotgun for most of the movie. He uses it to bluff Wez into retreating at the start of the movie and rigs it up to keep the Gyro Captain 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.
- Wham Shot: Two of these occur near the end, the first is at the end of the final battle when it turns out the tanker was carrying sand instead of gasoline, and the other is when the camera pans to the Feral Kid, revealing him to be the Narrator All Along.
- Wild Child: The "Feral Kid," as his name suggests, is a wild kid who seems to have raised himself in the wasteland. He wears fur and growls at people.
- "You!" Exclamation: "YOU! You can run, but you can't hide!"
"And the Road Warrior? That was the last we ever saw of him. He lives now... only in my memories."
