Mad Max (1979)

• Directed by George Miller
• Written by James McCausland, George Miller, Byron Kennedy
• Stars Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 28 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=caHnaRq8Qlg

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

This was a heavily action thriller movie, but it’s grim enough to be horror adjacent. It’s set somewhat in the future from the 70s, or in a vaguely alternate timeline, without really being futuristic or seeming too science fiction. We thought it holds up pretty well, and it’s one that you should check out as where the ongoing Mad Max movies began.

Spoilery Synopsis

After the most 70s credit ever, we are told it’s “a few years from now…” 

A couple of young cops get a call about a cop killer on the highway. Before they go, they argue over who gets to drive. They’re chasing “terminal psychotics” and we see the police leader, Max, getting into his car. They pick up more cops and some tow trucks as the chase continues. 

We cut to a couple arguing, an RV driver who can’t drive, and a baby walking in the road. This goes badly for all involved, except the maniac, who calls himself The Night Rider, gets away with his girl sidekick. Charlie, one of the cops, gets hurt pretty badly. Max finally starts his car and awaits the Night Rider, who says on the radio that he works for Toecutter. 

Night Rider and Max play chicken on the road, and then it’s another chase. Night Rider’s car explodes in a big fireball. 

That night, back at home, Max watches his wife Jessie play the saxophone. They have a really nice house out on the Australian coast. Max goes to work, and we see the police aren’t what they used to be, but they do have some really souped-up cars. 

Max hears from the captain that the Night Rider’s friends are out to get him now, but Max doesn’t seem concerned. 

A whole bunch of bikers come to town, led by Toecutter. They’ve come to pick up Night Rider’s body. The gang is rowdy in town, picking on the locals. They chase one guy and his girlfriend’s car, and they soon run him off the road. They destroy the guy’s fancy car and terrorize the couple inside. 

Max and Goose get a call about the bikers, and they respond. They find the girl in shock, and Johnny the Boy, one of the bikers, high out of his mind. Toecutter sends one of his guys to get him out. No one in town presses charges, and they have to release Johnny. This enrages Goose, who takes it all very personally. Later, Toecutter shows Johnny how much he is displeased. 

Later, while the cops are all at a dance club, someone sabotages Goose’s motorcycle. In the morning, Goose rides off and Johnny smiles from a distance. Naturally, his bike waits until he’s going at a very high speed before it all falls apart. He’s not hurt, but the bikers ambush him in his borrowed truck on the way back. With Goose trapped upside down and gas leaking, Toecutter goads Johnny into setting him on fire, and they watch him burn. 

Max rushes to the hospital, where all the other cops are waiting. Goose is badly burned and on a ventilator. What Max sees is bad enough to give him nightmares that night. The next morning, Max tries to resign, but the captain, Fifi, offers him a few weeks off instead. 

We get a montage of Max and Jessie enjoying their time off together. They go on a picnic, get a flat tire, and take it to the mechanic to get the tire fixed. Jessie and the baby go to town for some ice cream and run into the bikers. Jessie knees Toecutter in the groin and drives off, with the whole gang in pursuit, but they do get away. We do see that the bikers aren’t very far behind. 

Later, Jessie goes to the beach, and the bikers chase her through the woods.  She gets away, but the baby suddenly goes missing. She’s confronted by the gang, steals the baby, and runs away down the road, where she’s run down by the gang. The baby is killed and Jessie is severely injured just before Max catches up. 

Max freaks out and goes to get the souped-up police “Pursuit Special.” He starts tracking down the Toecutter gang. He finds a group of them and runs several off the road. The survivors call Toecutter to join them. Max gets shot in the knee and his arm gets run over. That just makes him mad. He shotguns Toecutter’s last remaining gang member. 

Max gets back in the car and chases Toecutter into running head-first into a semi truck. Later, he finds Johnny at the site of another accident that he probably caused. Max cuffs Johnny’s ankle to the wreckage, sets up a lighter next to leaking pooling gasoline, and gives him a saw. He tells Johnny he can’t saw through the cuff in time, but he could cut his foot off to get free. Max drives away and there’s an explosion behind him, Goose has been avenged. 

Commentary

Mel Gibson was only 21 here and was paid $10,000 since he was an unknown actor. On release, American audiences had a lot of trouble understanding the dialogue, so it was all dubbed for non-Aussie theaters. The Aussie dialogue has since been restored. 

When Max gave Johnny the saw and the choice to either cut off his own foot or burn to death, we were reminded of “Saw,” which had to have been at least slightly influenced by the scene. 

This is very different from what the franchise later became. There were some crazy bikers in the desert and very offbeat cops, but it wasn’t really anything close to a post-apocalyptic wasteland. There were a few “prohibited area” road signs. At worst, it was an under-funded police force trying to keep order in the outback. 

Still, Jessie spends a good portion of the film being chased and terrorized by the biker gang, and a lot of people die. It’s probably more action-adventure than either horror or sci-fi, but it’s the first entry in the series, so we’ll get there. 

It’s a little slow in the middle, but it doesn’t drag, and it still entertains, just without the insanity of the later films.