Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

• Directed by George Miller
• Written by Terry Hayes, George Miller, Brian Hannant
• Stars Mel Gibson, Bruce Spence, Michael Preston, Max Phipps
• Run Time: 1 Hour, 36 Minutes
• Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlwtiOyaoo0

Spoiler-Free Judgment Zone

Years after “The Road Warrior,” things have gotten apocalyptic. This is the tale of loner Max who becomes a reluctant hero helping out some folks in need. The effects budget was clearly higher this time around, with over the top vehicle action, fights, and explosions. It’s still horror adjacent, but it’s got a high body count with people meeting horrible ends. We would recommend it.

Spoilery Synopsis

We get a voiceover about a time of chaos and ruined dreams. We see that there were wars that ended up causing the fall of civilization. “Only those mobile enough to scavenge, brutal enough to pillage, were able to survive.” We heard about the warrior Max as we see some flashbacks to the first film. He wandered out into the wasteland to learn to live again…

Max and his dog drive down the road, pursued by some baddies; he’s nearly out of gas. He makes them all crash, but he gets out to steal their gas. Later, he drives “home” to find someone with a tiny helicopter that has landed there. The pilot gets the drop on Max and demands his gasoline. With the help of his dog, Max turns the table on the man, who tries to buy his safety by telling Max where a gasoline refinery is. 

They go to the site. A road gang led by Humungus has the place mostly under siege, but the villagers inside are holding them off. There are lots of people and vehicles down there, and they’re not very friendly looking. In the morning, Max watches as some of the refinery people try to go out, and some of the Humungus gang run them off the road and do bad things to them. On the bright side, they do leave the whole refinery mostly unmolested. 

Max takes his car down the hill. Nathan, the man who survived the biker attack, is Max’s ticket into the refinery. The gang returns, and Max helps the refinery people hold off the baddies. Humungus turns on the P.A. and warns them about not cooperating with him. A feral kid throws a boomerang at one of the main baddies, Wez, but kills his boyfriend instead. Wez gets angry and wants to kill everyone, but Humungus calms him down. Humungus gives the refinery villagers one day to surrender. 

The villagers all argue about whether to abandon the refinery or not. Max knows where they can find a truck big enough to haul their gas tanker away, and he makes a deal with Pappagallo, the leader of the group. They give Max fuel for the abandoned semi that he passed yesterday, and he starts walking. First, he sneaks past the Humungus camp with the help of the feral kid. 

Meanwhile, the helicopter pilot has been dragging the log that Max chained him to for miles and miles. The pilot then flies him to the truck, where they work together to get it running. He leaves the pilot behind and drives the truck back to the refinery. 

Driving past the Humungus camp, Max stirs up all kinds of trouble, but Humungus shoots him in the radiator. The pilot flies over and drops rattlesnakes on the baddies, which they do not enjoy. 

Max, Wez, and a few of the bad guys get through the gate into town. There’s a fight, and people die on both sides. Finally they get things under control again. It’ll take twelve hours to repair the damage done to the truck. Max is a hero to the people now, but he says he’s leaving. 

Humungus isn’t gone. We get a “What’s in your wallet” montage as they roar and stomp and pose ferociously all night. The pilot tries to convince a blonde woman to fly away with him, but she refuses to abandon her people, giving him something to think about. 

Pappagallo tries to convince Max to stay and help, and he offers him a home with them if they can get 2,000 miles away. Even the pilot tries to talk Max into staying. Max and the feral kid have bonded, and he feels bad about leaving, but he does. 

Out in the wilderness, Wez hears Max driving by and his guys start the chase. Everyone nitro-turbos their engines, and things get crazy. Max’s car goes off the road, and that’s not gonna be a quick fix. The bad guys shoot Max’s dog, but the engine booby-trap kills several of the raiders. Wez assumes Max died in the explosion and leaves. 

Max crawls out of the wreckage and passes out just as the pilot lands next to him. He saw the smoke from the explosion and flew over to save Max. Back at the refinery, Max wakes up and volunteers to drive the truck. The villagers have been preparing for this, putting spikes and weapons on their own vehicles. 

Max drives the tanker, equipped with a cow-catcher, right through the enemy lines, making room for the others to follow. Most of the villagers evacuate in a different direction, and the baddies chase after the tanker and some escort vehicles. The refinery is left to the baddies, and a few go in, but they find it to be booby trapped. The entire base explodes excessively!

Now it’s time for the crazy chase. All the baddies, in their modified bandit-mobiles, chase Max’s truck. Max runs a few enemies off the road, but he loses the helpers he brought with him, one-by-one. Wez jumps on board and really hurts Max, but the feral kid gets involved and gives Max the break he needs. 

Humungus throws a spear that kills Pappagallo, and the pilot continues dropping fire bombs until he’s shot down. Wez jumps back onto the hood of the truck and they run head-first into Humungus killing the bad guys’ leaders. The truck rolls over, and the remaining raiders turn around and leave. 

Max and the feral kid crawl out of the wreckage. Max sees that the truck was full of sand, it was just a decoy so most of the people could get away. The pilot drives up in what’s left of his plane, and the three of them join the rest of the caravan at an arranged meeting place. The villagers had hidden all the fuel in barrels inside the school bus and smaller vehicles. 

We see that our narrator is the feral child, all grown up, telling about how they got away and the pilot became their new leader. He still remembers Max, the road warrior, who left them. 

Commentary

This takes place five years after the previous film, and this time, we’re definitely post-apocalypse. They never explain what any of these people do for food. Maybe they have a well for water, but there’s no farms anywhere. Gasoline isn’t the only thing that matters– dressing like a bondage leather-daddy seems to be a big part of the experience as well. 

The leader of the baddies is Humungus, but Wez is much more of a real threat here. All the villains here look cool, but they’re no Toecutter-level cool from the first movie. The car chases and the cars themselves are all several levels beyond the previous film, already getting into the suspension-of-disbelief realm, but they’re fun. 

Again, the situation these people are all in is very bleak, but it’s only marginally horror. There is some good gore and creative deaths. It’s essentially a bunch of people in the desert under siege by an army of baddies with only one man to save them.