Movies - Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

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	Movies - Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (released in the U.S. by 1981 as The Road Warrior) was director George Miller's sequel to his 1979 film Mad Max
. It was a worldwide box office hit, with its combination of original characters and over-the-top car stunts, and was the film that launched Mel Gibson to international stardom. Mad Max 2 was praised for its revolutionary action sequences, and it helped to popularize the post-apocalyptic science fiction genre as referenced in later films and other works of fiction. It was followed by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
in 1985.

Taglines:

Ruthless... Savage... Spectacular.
In the future, cities will become deserts, roads will become battlefields and the hope of mankind will appear as a stranger.
Only one man can make the differance.
When all that's left is one last chance, pray that he's still out there ... somewhere!

A brief prologue covers the events preceding the original Mad Max
(no backstory was offered in that movie)-- totalitarianism and uprisings in Australia, and eventually an extended war gave way to lawlessness throughout the Outback of Australia, requiring special police assigned to protect the lands. This is followed by a brief recap of Mad Max. No organized government remains, anarchy has a firm grip on the land, and peace and justice have given way to survival at any cost. Max Rockatansky, the former police officer and vigilante, has become a nomadic drifter.

When he checks out a seemingly abandoned autogyro, Max falls into a trap set by its pilot, but turns the tables and takes him prisoner. In exchange for his life, the pilot tells him of a place where he can get all the fuel he wants. He knows of a small working oil refinery out in the open desert, which is under siege by a gang of bloodthirsty bandits led by a masked man called "Lord Humungus". Max observes from a safe distance. The next morning he witnesses an attack on two vehicles that have left the refinery. He rescues the sole survivor and uses him to gain entry to the refinery. The marauders return and offer the compound dwellers a deal: safe passage if they abandon the refinery unharmed.

Max offers the settlers his own deal; he will bring them a truck to haul their tanker if they give him all the fuel he can carry (he had seen an abandoned 18-wheeler earlier). He drives the truck back to the compound, fighting off the marauders, and helps the settlers repel the ensuing attack.

Afterwards, he is asked to become a part the group and help them with their exit strategy, but to their disappointment he collects his petrol and leaves. However, after exiting the compound he is attacked by the marauders and his car is wrecked. The injured Max is rescued by the autogyro pilot and returned to the refinery where the settlers are making preperations to leave. With few remaining options Max now insists on driving the truck despite his injuries.

Max, along with a few of the refinery workers, is pursued by the Humungus's men. After a prolonged, mayhem-filled chase, the truck crashes head on into Humungus' car, careens off the road and crashes onto its side. Instead of petrol, sand spills from the tank; the truck was a decoy. The refinery is demolished in a large explosion as the settlers leave without interference. The petrol was hidden in their vehicles in 44 gallon drums.

Vehicles

Aside from the Pursuit Special there are many vehicles in Mad Max 2. Humungus' vehicle is a heavily modified F100 Ute. Other vehicles include dune buggies, an XA Falcon GT, a Valiant VH coupe, a Landau and Valiant Chargers.

Themes

Atypical of most action-centered films that lack fully developed characters or themes, the storyline of Mad Max 2 actually does tackle a few intellectual concepts amidst all the chaos. The first shows Max regaining some of the humanity he lost after his wife and child were killed in the first installment. By helping out a group of people clinging to a lost cause and hoping for a better future, Max shows that he still cares about the welfare of the weak and defenseless, quite befitting a former law officer. Also, the concept of the settlers trying to escape a hostile environment mirrors the mass migration of families to the suburbs from overcrowded, blighted cities. Though the refinery can hardly be called a city, one of the chief reasons for the city/suburb migration was an ever-increasing violent crime rate among neighborhoods plagued by street gangs.

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