Mad Max 2

Mad Max 2
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	George Miller
Produced by	Byron Kennedy
Written by	Terry Hayes George Miller Brian Hannant
Starring	Mel Gibson
Narrated by	Harold Baigent
Music by	Brian May
Cinematography	Dean Semler
Edited by	David Stiven Michael Balson Tim Wellburn
Production company	Kennedy Miller Productions
Distributed by	Warner Bros.
Release dates	24 December 1981 (1981-12-24) (Australia)
Running time	96 minutes[1]
Country	Australia
Language	English
Budget	A$4.5 million[2]
Box office	A$10.8 million (Australia)[3] US$23.7 million (USA)[4] $34.5 million (Worldwide)

Mad Max 2 (also known as The Road Warrior and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller. The film is the second installment in the Mad Max film series, with Mel Gibson starring as Max Rockatansky. The film's tale of a community of settlers moved to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders follows an archetypical "Western" frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man who rediscovers his humanity when he decides to help the settlers.^[5] Filming took part in locations around Broken Hill, in the outback of New South Wales.^[6]

Mad Max 2 was released on 24 December 1981, and received ample critical acclaim. Observers praised the visuals and Gibson's role. Noteworthy elements of the film also include cinematographer Dean Semler's widescreen photography of Australia's vast desert landscapes; the sparing use of dialogue throughout the film; costume designer Norma Moriceau's punk mohawked, leather bondage gear-wearing bikers; and its fast-paced, tightly edited and violent battle and chase scenes.

The film's comic-book post-apocalyptic/punk style popularised the genre in film and fiction writing. It was also a box office success, winning the Best International Film from six nominations at the Saturn Award ceremony, including: Best Director for Miller; Best Actor for Gibson; Best Supporting Actor for Bruce Spence; Best Writing for Miller, Hayes and Hannant; Best Costume for Norma Moriceau. Mad Max 2 became a cult film: fan clubs and "road warrior"-themed activities continue into the 21st century. The film was followed by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985, with a fourth film in the series, Mad Max: Fury Road, slated for release on 15 May 2015.^[7]

Plot

The supplies of gasoline have been nearly exhausted in the near future following a global war. Law and order have vanished, taking with them Australia's Main Force Patrol (MFP). Ex-MFP officer "Mad" Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) roams the now depopulated and desolate desert in his scarred, black supercharged V-8 Pursuit Special, scavenging for food, drink, and gas. His only companions are an Australian Cattle Dog and a rare functioning firearm–a sawn-off shotgun–for which ammunition is very scarce.

The film opens with Max trying to escape a group of gang members, led by a crazed motorcycle rider named Wez (Vernon Wells). Max manages to crash two of the gang member's vehicles and injure Wez; recognizing his defeat, Wez flees. After collecting some fuel from the destroyed cars and checking a nearby Mack semi-truck, Max inspects a nearby autogyro for fuel. Its pilot, the Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence), ambushes Max and manages to capture him briefly before being overpowered. In exchange for his own life, the pilot guides Max to a small oil refinery nearby. Max arrives just as the facility is under siege by a gang of marauders riding a motley collection of cars and motorbikes. The gang leader, known as 'The Humungus' (Kjell Nilsson), tries to convince the refinery's defenders to surrender the facility in exchange for safe passage out of the area.

A group of defenders attempts to break out of the compound, but the marauders capture, torture, and kill all but one of them, who is rescued by Max. Max makes a deal with the mortally-wounded sole survivor: he will bring him back to the compound in exchange for a tank of fuel. The man dies shortly after they enter the facility, and the facility leader, Pappagallo (Michael Preston), reneges on the deal. His group is on the verge of killing Max when the marauders return, and Humungus repeats his offer. Max offers Pappagallo a different deal: he will retrieve the abandoned Mack semi-truck, which is capable of hauling the tanker trailer that the facility inhabitants use to store the fuel they refine, in exchange for freedom, his vehicle, and as much fuel as he can take with him. The group accepts, but keeps Max's car to ensure his cooperation. Max sneaks out, joining forces with the Gyro Captain to return to the truck.

After finding the truck, Max drives it back to the compound, evading Humungus' men. The defenders want Max to escape with the group, but Max opts to collect his petrol and leave. However, his attempt to break through the siege fails: Wez gives chase in The Humungus' nitrous oxide-equipped car and runs Max off of the road, wrecking his vehicle and severely injuring him. The marauders kill Max's dog with a crossbow, then attempt to siphon the fuel from the Pursuit Special's tanks, but trigger an explosive booby trap, which kills some of the attackers. Max, left for dead, is rescued by the Gyro Captain as he is trying to crawl back to the refinery.

With no other means of escape, and with the refinery's defenders preparing to make their escape, Max insists on driving the repaired truck, now hauling the tank of fuel. He leaves the compound in the heavily-armoured truck, accompanied by a "Feral Kid" (Emil Minty) he has befriended, and by other inhabitants aboard as defenders. Pappagallo escorts him out in another vehicle. The Humungus and most of his warriors pursue the tanker, leaving the remaining inhabitants free to flee the compound in a ramshackle caravan and buses. Papagallo and the other defenders of the tanker, as well as numerous marauders, are killed during the chase, and the Gyro Captain is shot down. Max and the Feral Kid find themselves alone, pursued by the marauders. Wez manages to board the truck and attack Max, but a head-on collision with Humungus' car kills both Wez and Humungus. Max loses control of the tanker, and it rolls off the road. As the injured Max carries the Feral Kid from the wrecked tanker, he sees not oil, but sand, leaking from the tank.

The truck and its trailer are thus exposed as a decoy, allowing the other settlers to escape with the precious fuel in oil drums inside their vehicles. With Papagallo dead, the Gyro Captain succeeds him as their chief and leads the settlers to the coast, where they establish the "Great Northern Tribe." Max remains alone in the desert, once again becoming a drifter. Years later, the Feral Kid, now the Northern Tribe's new leader(voice by Harold Baigent), reminisces about the legend of the mythical "Road Warrior" (Max) who now exists only in distant memory.

Cast

• Mel Gibson as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a former member of the Australian highway patrol called the Main Force Patrol (MFP). However, after a biker gang kills his family, he leaves the force and hunts down and kills all of the gang members. The trauma transforms him into the embittered, "burnt out...shell of a man". The narration describes him as The Road Warrior, who despite his acerbic nature, elects to assist the settlers in their plan. However once his part is complete, he becomes a drifter once again, choosing not to follow them North.
• Bruce Spence as the Gyro Captain, a wanderer who looks for fuel and supplies. However, instead of driving a car, the Captain flies in a ramshackle old gyrocopter powered by a VW air-cooled engine. He, too, decides to throw in his lot with the settlers, and help defend their compound. A Time reviewer called the Captain "a deranged parody of the World War I aerial ace: scarecrow skinny, gaily clad, sporting a James Coburn smile with advanced caries"; despite his quirks, however, the Captain proves to be wily and courageous. After the death of Pappagallo, the Gyro Captain succeeds him as the leader of the settlers.^[8]
• Emil Minty as the Feral Kid, a boy who lives in the wasteland near the refinery settlement. His speaks only in growls and grunts. The boy wears shorts and boots made from hide, and defends himself with a lethal metal boomerang which he can catch using an improvised mail glove.^[8] The narration of the opening and closing sequences, provided by Harold Baigent, proves in the closing sequence to be that of the Feral Kid, grown to adulthood by then, and remembering the circumstances of his youthful encounter with "Mad" Max.
• Michael Preston as Pappagallo, the idealistic leader of the settlers in the barricaded oil refinery. Even though the settlers' compound is besieged by a violent gang, Pappagallo "...carries the weight of his predicament with swaggering dignity."^[8]
• Virginia Hey as the Warrior Woman, an Amazon-like female member of the settlers who initially distrusts Max.
• Kjell Nilsson as The Humungus, the violent, yet charismatic and articulate leader of a "vicious gang of post-holocaust, motorcycle-riding vandals" who "loot, rape, and kill the few remaining wasteland dwellers". Announced by the Toadie as the "warrior of the wasteland, the Lord Humungus, [and] the ayatollah of rock-and-rollah", The Humungus' "malevolence courses through his huge pectorals, [and] pulses visibly under his bald, sutured scalp."^[8] The Humungus' face is never seen, as he wears a hockey goalie's mask. In a 1985 interview with Danny Peary, Miller posited that he thought the character "was a former military officer who suffered severe facial burns," and who "might have served in the same outfit as his counterpart, Pappagallo."^[9]
• Vernon Wells as Wez, a mohawked, leather-clad biker who serves as The Humungus' lieutenant in the gang. Vincent Canby, the New York Times reviewer called the Wez character the "most evil of The Humungus's followers...[a] huge brute who rides around on his bike, snarling psychotically."^[10] In the same Danny Peary interview, Miller states the characters of Wez and Max are near mirror images of each other, with each being chained by the leaders of their respective camps, and who both find themselves spurred on by the death of a loved one somewhere in their past, in Wez's case the relatively recent death of The Golden Youth at the hand of The Feral Kid.^[9] Empire magazine listed Wez as the greatest movie henchman of all time.^[11]
• Max Phipps as the Toadie, the gang crier. He is a thin, bespectacled man. He wears a decorated mink stole as a hat and has many automobile badges and hood ornaments on his clothes. His behavior with The Humungus and Wez make him a classic sycophant. Toadie takes pleasure in molesting helpless prisoners, but the gang has little respect for him.
• Arkie Whiteley as The Captain's Girl, a beautiful young woman among the settlers who became the Gyro Captain's lover.
• Moira Claux as Big Rebecca, a female warrior among the settlers who wields a bow and arrow.
• David Downer as Nathan, a member of the settlers who tries to escape the settlement and is fatally wounded by some of the Humungus's bikers.

Production

After Mad Max, Miller received a number of offers from Hollywood, including one to direct First Blood. He met Terry Hayes when Hayes did the novelisation of Mad Max and, together, they worked on a screenplay for another film, a special effects horror movie. However, after a while, Miller became more interested in doing a sequel to Mad Max, as a larger budget would allow him to be more ambitious. He hired the old Metro Cinema in Kings Cross , and Brian Hannant came on board as co-writer and second unit director. Miller says that he was greatly influenced by the films of Akira Kurosawa.^[2]

Principal photography took place near Broken Hill over twelve weeks. The original cut was a lot bloodier and more violent but it was cut down heavily by Australian censors. There weren't just some shots which were cut but entire scenes and sequences were deleted completely or edited for an "M" rating. When it was submitted to the MPAA, two additional scenes (Wez graphically pulling an arrow out of his arm and a close-up shot of him pulling the boomerang out of his dead boyfriend's head) were cut down. Although there is a version that includes MPAA cuts, there never was any full uncut version with pre-MPAA cuts included. ^{[2] [12]}

Release

When Mad Max was released in 1980 in the United States, it did not receive a proper release from its distributor, American International Pictures. AIP was in the final stages of a change of ownership after being bought by Filmways, Inc. a year earlier. AIP's then-current problems affected the release of the film and its box office in the U.S., although Mad Max proved much more successful when released internationally.^[13] Warner Bros. decided to release Mad Max 2 in the United States, but they recognized that the first film was not popular in North America. Although the original Mad Max was becoming popular through cable channel showings, Warner Bros. decided to change the name of its sequel to The Road Warrior. The advertising for the film, including print ads, trailers, and TV commercials, did not refer to the Max character at all, and all shied away from the fact that the film was a sequel. For the majority of viewers, their first inkling of Road Warrior being a sequel to Mad Max was when they saw the black and white, archival footage from the previous film, during the prologue.

The film was a commercial success, earning $3.7 million in rentals in Australia. As The Road Warrior in North America, it was a greater success. The film earned $11.3 million in rentals and $23.6 million in grosses.^[2] Vestron Video capitalized by releasing Mad Max on video and subtitling it "the thrilling predecessor to The Road Warrior." Despite the title change, grosses from the U.S. release were on par with the other countries of the world. Warner Bros. felt comfortable to keep the title of the third Mad Max film, Beyond Thunderdome, intact for that film's American release.

Critical reception

Mad Max 2 received universal critical acclaim and is regarded by many as one of the best films of 1981.^[14][15] The film holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes as of 9 November 2014.^[16] Film critic Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film three-and-a-half stars out of four and praised its "skillful filmmaking," and called it "a film of pure action, of kinetic energy", which is "one of the most relentlessly aggressive movies ever made". While Ebert points out that the film does not develop its "vision of a violent future world ... with characters and dialogue", and uses only the "barest possible bones of a plot", he praises its action sequences. Ebert calls the climactic chase sequence "unbelievably well-sustained" and states that the "special effects and stunts...are spectacular", creating a "frightening, sometimes disgusting, and (if the truth be told) exhilarating" effect.^[17]

In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "Never has a film's vision of the post-nuclear-holocaust world seemed quite as desolate and as brutal, or as action-packed and sometimes as funny as in George Miller's apocalyptic The Road Warrior, an extravagant film fantasy that looks like a sadomasochistic comic book come to life".^[10] In his review for Newsweek, Charles Michener praised Mel Gibson's "easy, unswaggering masculinity", saying that "[his] hint of Down Under humor may be quintessentially Australian but is also the stuff of an international male star".^[18]

Gary Arnold, in his review for The Washington Post, wrote, "While he seems to let triumph slip out of his grasp, Miller is still a prodigious talent, capable of a scenic and emotional amplitude that recalls the most stirring attributes in great action directors like Kurosawa, Peckinpah and Leone".^[19] Pauline Kael called Mad Max 2 a "mutant" film that was "...sprung from virtually all action genres", creating "...one continuous spurt of energy" by using "jangly, fast editing". However, Kael criticised director George Miller's "attempt to tap into the universal concept of the hero", stating that this attempt "makes the film joyless", "sappy", and "sentimental".

The film's depiction of a post-apocalyptic future was widely copied by other filmmakers and in science fiction novels, to the point that its gritty "junkyard society of the future look...is almost taken for granted in the modern science-fiction action film."^[5] The Encyclopedia Of Science Fiction says that Mad Max 2, "with all its comic-strip energy and vividness...is exploitation cinema at its most inventive."

Richard Scheib calls Mad Max 2, "one of the few occasions where a sequel makes a dramatic improvement in quality over its predecessor." He calls it a "kinetic comic-book of a film," an "exhilarating non-stop rollercoaster ride of a film that contains some of the most exciting stunts and car crashes ever put on screen." Scheib states that the film transforms the "post-holocaust landscape into the equivalent of a Western frontier," such that "Mel Gibson's Max could just as easily be Clint Eastwood's tight-lipped Man With No Name" helping "decent frightened folk" from the "marauding Redskins".^[5]

Awards

The film received much recognition from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films. It won the Saturn Award for Best International Film. It received additional nominations for Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Costume Design. Mel Gibson and Bruce Spence received nods for Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor, respectively. George Miller won the Grand Prize at the Avoriaz Fantastic Film Festival. Mad Max 2 was also nominated for the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation and was awarded the Los Angeles Film Critics Association award for Best Foreign Film. The film was also recognised by the Australian Film Institute, winning awards for best direction, costume design, editing, production design and sound. It received additional nominations for the cinematography and musical score.^[20]

Legacy

The Mad Max series of films, with their emphasis on dystopian, apocalyptic, and post-apocalyptic themes and imagery, have inspired some artists to recreate the look and feel of some aspect of the series in their work. As well, fan clubs and "road warrior"-themed activities continue into the 21st century. In 2008, Mad Max 2 was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.^[21] Similarly, The New York Times placed the film on its Best 1000 Movies Ever list.^[22] Entertainment Weekly ranked Mad Max 2 93rd on their 100 Greatest Movies of All Time in 1999, 41st on their updated All-Time 100 Greatest Films in 2013, and the character Mad Max as 11th on their list of The All Time Coolest Heroes in Pop Culture.^[23]

The film now has a permanent legacy in the small town of Silverton which is 25 kilometres from Broken Hill in NSW Australia. The museum was established by Adrian and Linda Bennett and is the only one of its kind in the world. Its location is due to much of the film being made around Silverton on the Mundi Mundi Lookout Road. Scenes were also shot at "the Pinnacles" which is West of Broken Hill and the famous scene where the Interceptor rolls over and is destroyed in a fire ball by Toadie's trying to drain the precious fuel was shot on the Menindee Road just out of Broken Hill.

Soundtrack

Mad Max 2
Soundtrack album by Brian May
Released	1982
Genre	Film music
Length	35:08
Label	Atlantic Records
Producer	Chris Kuchler, Tom Null
Brian May chronology
Race for the Yankee Zephyr (1981) Mad Max 2 (1982) Breakfast in Paris (1982)
Mad Max chronology
Mad Max (1979) Mad Max 2 (1982) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[24]
AVForms	[25]

The film score was composed and conducted by Australian composer Brian May. The 35 minute-long recording is available on CD on the Varèse Sarabande label, catalog number VCD 47262. The music is presented out of order and sometimes retitled; part of the track titled "Finale and Largo" is actually the main title, "Montage" was written for the truck chase scene (and as such would fit between "Break Out" and "Largo") and the "Main Title" is actually the post-title montage. The sound effects suite that concludes the disc has two cues, "Boomerang Attack" and "Gyro Flight", that do not appear elsewhere on the album (the former is actually presented without any overlaying effects).

The soundtrack begins with the music for the "Montage/Main Title" sequence, which gives the back-story to the descent into war and chaos. The next selections accompany the action-packed sequences as Max and the settlers battle with the gang ("Confrontation"; "Marauder's Massacre", "Max Enters Compound"; "Gyro Saves Max"; and "Break Out"). The final tracks include the "Finale and Largo" and the "End Title" music, which is used while the narrator describes the settler's escape to the coast to start a new life. The recording also includes a suite of special effects sounds, such as The Feral Kid's "Boomerang Attack"; "Gyro Flight"; "The Big Rig Starts"; "Breakout"; and the climactic effects for "The Refinery Explodes", when the booby-trapped oil refinery turns into a fireball.

Track listing
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Montage/Main Title"	4:53
2.	"Confrontation"	2:32
3.	"Marauder's Massacre"	3:13
4.	"Max Enters Compound"	4:08
5.	"Gyro Saves Max"	3:55
6.	"Break Out"	3:26
7.	"Finale and Largo"	5:06
8.	"End Title"	3:19
9.	"SFX Suite" (Boomerang Attack/Gyro Flight/The Big Rig Starts/Break Out/The Refinery Explodes/Reprise)	4:36

See also

Seven Sisters (oil companies) (reference in the movie to the conspiracy theory)

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Mad Max 2

• Mad Max 2 at the Internet Movie Database
• Mad Max 2 at Oz Movies
• Mad Max 2 at Box Office Mojo
• Mad Max 2 at Rotten Tomatoes
• International trailer
• US trailer

Mad Max Mad Max Mad Max 2 Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (Soundtrack) Mad Max: Fury Road (Soundtrack) Music "We Don't Need Another Hero" "One of the Living" Video games Mad Max (1990) Mad Max (2015) Miscellaneous Max Rockatansky Main Force Patrol Pursuit Special Legacy and influence

Films directed by George Miller Mad Max (1979) Mad Max 2: Road Warrior (1981) Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) The Witches of Eastwick (1987) Lorenzo's Oil (1992) 40,000 Years of Dreaming (1997) Babe: Pig in the City (1998) Happy Feet (2006) Happy Feet Two (2011) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Saturn Award for Best International Film Scanners (1980) Quest for Fire (1981) Mad Max 2 (1982) Pan's Labyrinth (2006) Eastern Promises (2007) Let the Right One In (2008) District 9 (2009) Monsters (2010) The Skin I Live In (2011) Headhunters (2012) Big Bad Wolves (2013)