#MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME MOVIE#
#MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME SERIES#

If it wants to feel real, other people will be the center of stories, and Furiosa is here, along with all of the women she is helping protect. He realized that the post-apocalyptic, detailed world he created should not just lie solely on Max's shoulders. Miller crafted a story about the injustices and harm a patriarchal society places on women, and having Max be the film's center would have felt odd at best and icky at worst. However, Miller packs into that bare bones structure more spectacular stunt work, political and social commentary, and one-of-a-kind world building than entire film franchises have been able to accomplish.Ī major reason 'Fury Road' works so well is that it finally gives Max (played by Tom Hardy this time) a proper co-lead to play off of in Charlize Theron's Furiosa, someone else completely driven by trauma and seeking justice.

#MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME MOVIE#

Half the movie is one chase scene, and the other half is another chase scene. ' Mad Max: Fury Road' is, quite simply, one of the most jaw-dropping, explosive, and relentless action films of all time. 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' is the one lackluster picture in the series, though it still has plenty to recommend. It is even more of a whiplash when you are coming off of such an entertaining first-half. In 'Beyond Thunderdome,' there's a whole society of children, and all they are really good for is being irritating. The first 'Mad Max' sequel, 'The Road Warrior,' even had one, but with that film, Miller knew to cap it off at one. Filmmakers, particularly genre filmmakers, always have an inclination to throw in children when sequels roll around. Max ends up with a bunch of children, and any kind of rip-roaring fun you were having just fades away. It is when the film goes beyond Thunderdome that we get into trouble. Production designer Graham 'Grace' Walker and costume designer Norma Moriceau get to go absolutely hog wild in creating Bartertown, and you end up wanting to spend the entire movie there, especially when you have the electric Tina Turner hovering over everything. Max (Mel Gibson) has offered his skills as collateral in exchange for entry into Bartertown and ends up in the titular Thunderdome to do battle, on behalf of Bartertown's ruler Aunty Entity (Tina Turner), against Blaster (Paul Larsson), the gladiatorial champion for Entity's rival Master (Angelo Rossitto).

#MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME SERIES#

But the open nature of the series lore makes it ripe for speculation and creates the potential for more stories to come.'Beyond Thunderdome' has a first-half chock-full of wonderful world building. Mel Gibson is neat as Max, but I have never been a great fan of his acting style. With Mad Max director George Miller himself admittedly unclear on all the details of the franchise's timeline, a truly concrete answer is likely impossible. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome works on account of its dynamics and superb stunts, but there is no disguising the fact that Miller’s glossy and tumultuous spectacle is pauperised by needlessly diffuse narrative and latent purpose. A few have even gone so far as to theorize that Hardy’s Max is the feral, boomerang-throwing boy from The Road Warrior. This is supported by the fact that Max has a son in the first movie, while the flashbacks in Fury Road show a little girl. Some suggest Gibson and Hardy's Mad Max characters are completely different people, and that the titles of “Mad Max” and “Road Warrior” were passed from one to the other at some point in time. MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME, while a bit of a different beast than the previous two Mad Max films, is able to stand on equal terms with them in terms of action. This means that Tom Hardy’s Max would have barely been born at the time of the societal collapse, which directly contradicts the first Mad Max.Īccepting Mad Max as more of a myth is the easiest way to reconcile these contradictions, but fans have proposed some interesting theories, too.

Plus, in Mad Max's Fury Road introduction, he sports a new tattoo marking 12,045 days (or exactly 33 years) since the “fall” – presumably the apocalypse. Max still appears to be in his 30s in Mad Max: Fury Road, even though he would have had to be at least forty in Beyond Thunderdome. Even if the dates and car models from Mad Max are ignored, as they seem to be in the comics, and it’s assumed that the events of those movies all still took place as they did, just 30 or 40 years later, it still doesn’t quite work. However, the chronology does not line up. Max’s goods are taken by Spence’s character to Bartertown, the renewed version of civilization. We begin with Max losing his caravan to the trickster airplane man (played by Bruce Spence). Related: Mad Max: Fury Road - “Shiny And Chrome” Meaning & Mythology Explained Max is a Bedouin-esque wanderer now, with a caravan, having lost his trademark sports car in part 2.

Mad max beyond thunderdome