Ep. # 83 - ALL the Mad Max movies including Furiosa

On our 83rd episode of Fabulous Film & Friends we’re driving headfirst into the maelstrom as we discuss ALL of director George Miller’s post-apocalyptic Mad Max movies including the newly released Furiosa. What’s that you say? Didn’t you just review The Road Warrior on your recent Australian Apocalypse podcast? True enough! But! We glossed over an important ingredient in the film’s success and we’re going to make amends as we break down all the  Mad Maxes.  

I’m joined this week by my kid sister, the renowned English lit snob and biker movie enthusiast Roseanne Caputi and returning to the program after a year-long spell are both author and hypnotherapist Joe Field and erstwhile photographer, musician, podcaster and now website owner Kendrick Wright

The synopses:

 Mad Max is set “a few years” into the future where society is breaking down and car and motorcycle gangs rule the road striking fear into the hearts of ordinary schmoes just trying to survive.  Main Force Patrol officer Max Rockatansky  has everything ]  taken from him, when his wife and kid are killed by the evil Toecutter and a soul-crushed Max becomes a one-man killing force,

The Road Warrior/Mad Max 2  raises the stakes of its predecessor, and calls out the societal issue as a great war between two tribes and picks up the story with Max travelling the barren, hellish, post-apocalyptic highways and stumbling upon an evil road gang led by a brute named Lord Humungus. Humungus is hellbent on invading a compound belonging to a group of  civilized and intelligent settlers who have built an oasis around the last of the oil wells and have running lights and supplies. Losing numbers and their morale under the constant attacks of Humungus, the settlers hatch a plan to escape the vermin on wheels and flee to the coast with their oil in tow. With the help of Max and a pilot called the Gyro Captain, the settlers are given a chance to survive and a little notion called hope. “

In Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome Max, now a full-fledged nomadic warrior, has all his possessions stolen and in trying to track them down, finds a sleazy desert trading post called Bartertown. Max strikes a bargain with the town’s ruler Aunty Entity in order to regain his possessions.  When Max refuses to kill a simple man, he is sent out into the desert to die but is saved by a tribe of kids looking for a hero. 

Mad Max: Fury Road finds Max imprisoned in a rock fortress called the Citadel and forced into being a blood supplier for the sickly War Boys of the cult warlord leader Immortan Joe. When Joe’s chief transportation lieutenant Imperator Furiosa betrays Joe and smuggles his wives from Joe’s harem to bring them to the safety of the Green Place, Joe’s Army and the armies of the neighboring Bullet Town and Gas Town give a desperate chase to get Joe’s wives back. During the chaos, Max escapes captivity and forms an uneasy alliance with Furiosa as the two hurtle down Fury Road in an epic chase for their lives and the future of civilization.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga –  a franchise first prequel and continuity driven story of Young Furiosa, how she lost  her mother, her true love and her arm at the hands of the demagogue Dr. Dementus, a cruel rabble rouser who starts a wasteland war with Immortatan Joe and the leaders of the of Bulletown and Gas Town.