Mad Max 2 (1981) a.k.a The
Road Warrior, is one of the reasons why Mel Gibson was once of the biggest
movies stars in the world. Who is Mad Max? He is the lone hero in a
post-apocalyptic world, he is the last warrior in a war-torn Australia, and the
deadliest man behind the wheel of a car. George Miller’s film is a true product
of the 80s. It’s all practical effects and stuntmen as cars pummel and tear
each other to pieces in a battle to get the last remnant of oil after a
devastating war. Everyone is dressed like they have raided a leather clothing
store and they stopped at a sporting goods store for armour. There was never a
lot of optimism about the future back then in the 80s, but on the plus side it
made for some pretty kick-ass movies.
I have seen the
entire Mad Max franchise completely out of order. The third one I saw when it
was playing on TV in Spanish back in the 90s when I was living in Peru (whose
roads and drivers sadly reminded me of the movie sometimes). I got to the
second one years later while taking summer courses at the University of British
Columbia in 2009 after I saw it was on iTunes. This is why video stores are
going out of business: you can be hundreds of kilometres away from your home
and rent whatever classics you want online without having to worry about late
fees or waiting in line. Plus this was the summer when the first Transformers
sequel came out so I felt like watching a movie sequel that actually gets the
job done. No school like the old school.
Like most action
movies, the story of Mad Max 2 is
pretty straightforward. Following the events of the previous film, Max (Gibson)
is drifting the Australian roads in search of food and petrol. Since Max’s
family was murdered by a bike gang and he quit to force to hunt them down, law
and order has collapsed in the wake of a global war caused by a fuel shortage.
After surviving an encounter with another gang, Max runs into a drifter (Bruce
Spence) who prefers to travel by air with a tiny gyrocopter. The Gyro Captain
tells him of an oil refinery in the wasteland, which in the eyes of marauders
is more precious than water.
Unfortunately the
refinery and its inhabitants are under siege by a deadly gang. Their leader,
The Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) is a beast of a man whose face is covered by a
hockey mask, much like another 80s icon. He and his vicious gang of rapists and
vandals offer the refinery settlers a deal: leave all the oil behind and they
will get safe passage out of his territory. When a group of settlers tries to make
a break for it, they are captured, tortured, raped, killed, and their bodies
are used to decorate the gang’s cars. Bringing back a survivor, Max tries to
make a deal of his own. In exchange for all the oil he can transport he will
help the settlers by driving a tanker trailer containing all of their fuel,
leading the marauders away while the settlers drive in the opposite direction.
This eventually
leads to one of the most action-packed car chases ever shot. With Max behind
the wheel of the tanker, Humungus’ gang give pursue him in their gas-spewing
cars and bikes while the Gyro Captain follows from above. In the sun-drenched
desert the pursuers fire bullets, arrows and chains at the tanker, while on top
a few of the settlers try to hold them off with Molotov cocktails. Characters
are blown up, burned, shot, and run over. When Max manages to shoot one of the
marauders with a shotgun while still driving the tanker, a feral kid (Emil
Minty) riding with Max laughs with glee.
This is clearly
not the subtlest of movies. All of the evil marauders are dressed in black leather,
while the good settlers and their benevolent leader Pappagallo (Michael
Preston) are mostly dressed in white. But then again, if you are going to go
see a movie called The Road Warrior
don’t expect any Shakespeare. The Feral Kid does not even have any lines,
although he does have a metal boomerang that can slice your fingers. This is
Australia after all, even in a post-apocalyptic future somebody had to have a
boomerang.
After the third
entry in the franchise, Mad Max Beyond
Thunderdome, Gibson would go on to star in the Lethal Weapon franchise making him one of the biggest stars of the
90s. Then came the 2000s and his many, many breakdowns so who knows what’s next
for Mad Mel? George Miller meanwhile branched out into family films with Babe and Happy Feet, but plans to drive back to the apocalypse with Mad Max: Fury Road in 2014. Tom Hardy
had been wisely cast as Max, but good luck with topping that car chase.
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