Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is a 1985 Australian post-apocalyptic film directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie, written by Miller and Terry Hayes and starring Mel Gibson and Tina Turner. It is the third installment in the action movie Mad Max series, its story taking place three years after that of the previous film. The original music score was composed by Maurice Jarre. A fourth movie in the Mad Max series, remained in development for over two decades, before Mad Max: Fury Road, a prequel to the original film, was finally greenlit and commenced production in 2012. Mad Max: Fury Road is slated for release in 2014. Contents
Plot[ | ]
Max Rockatansky rides a camel-drawn wagon across the Australian desert eats Blaster with the aid of a high-pitched whistle, but he refuses to kill him upon discovering that Blaster has a developmental disability and the functional mentality of a child. An enraged Aunty has Blaster executed and invokes the law against Max since he broke his agreement with her: "Bust a deal, face the Wheel." The Wheel is divided into sections marked with outcomes that range from acquittal to death; when spun for Max, it stops on "Gulag," meaning exile to the desert wasteland. He is placed on horseback and sent out of Bartertown, riding until the animal collapses and dies from exhaustion.
Some time later, Max - now near death from exposure - is saved by a group of children led by Savannah Nix. The children, hardened to the desert environment, are descendants of the survivors of a nearby crashed Qantas Boeing 747. They have formed a tribe in the sheltered oasis. Clinging to the hope of rescue, they keep their memories of the past civilization alive in the form of spoken "tells," including the return of the messianic "Captain Walker" who will repair the aircraft and return them to civilization. The "tell" explains that Flight Captain G.L. Walker at one point took the adults to seek help, promising they would be back to rescue the rest, but never returned. One of the kids is seen with a "sonic," a record attached to a stick. Max looks so much like Walker, the children believe that he has indeed returned to take them to "Tomorrow-morrow Land." After nursing him back to health, they are shocked that Max insists that they remain in the relative safety of the oasis, knowing that the only "civilization" within reach is Bartertown. Some of the children decide to leave anyway, determined to find "Tomorrow-morrow Land," so Max goes after them.
Max catches up with them at the outskirts of Bartertown. They sneak in, intent on finding Master. Without Blaster to protect him, Master is little more than Aunty's slave. Max and the children free him with Pig Killer's help, but the guards are alerted and give chase, resulting in a series of explosions in the methane refinery. Reaching Jebediah's hideout, the children find out that the "sonic" is just an old French learning record. Max coerces Jedediah to help them escape in his plane, but there is too much weight and not enough runway between them and the attackers' vehicles. Max takes the nearest vehicle and drives it in front of the plane, smashing through Aunty's approaching forces and allowing the plane to take off. Aunty finds Max, but spares his life out of respect for his abilities and departs.
Some time later, the children are in the ruins of a destroyed Sydney, lit up by hundreds of fires and lights. Savannah, the leader of the children, recites a nightly "tell" of their journey and the man who saved them.
Cast[ | ]
- Mel Gibson as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a former MFP officer and lone warrior, Max roves the desert aimlessly, his existence entirely based around self-survival.
- Tina Turner as Aunty Entity, the ruthless, determined ruler of Bartertown. Entity is a glamorous, Amazon-like figure who recognises a strength of character in Max, and hopes to exploit him in order to gain sole control of Bartertown from Master. Despite her brutality and Bartertown's chaos, Entity is an intelligent, cultured woman, who holds a hope of one day rebuilding society to its former glory.
- Bruce Spence as Jedediah the Pilot.
- Adam Cockburn as Jedediah Jr., Jedediah's son, who often helps his father steal supplies, flying his dad's plane whilst Jedediah procures the goods.
- Frank Thring as The Collector, head of Bartertown's trade and exchange network.
- Angelo Rossitto as Master, a diminutive former engineer, who parlays his technical expertise into building the methane extractor responsible for Bartertown's electricity. When the film begins, Master has grown power-crazed under the protection of Blaster, and frequently humiliates Entity into acknowledging his power. When Blaster is killed, however, Master becomes a far more subdued, humble character, and eventually escapes with the help of Pig Killer and the children.
- Paul Larsson as Blaster, Master's silent, mentally-impaired bodyguard.
- Angry Anderson as Ironbar Bassey, head of Bartertown's security and Aunty Entity's Number One Henchman. Despite his short height he is a fierce warrior figure, wearing a doll's head standard on his back, who comes to dislike Max more and more as the film proceeds. He is eventually killed in the film's climatic chase sequence.
- Robert Grubb as Pig Killer, a convict in Bartertown sentenced to work in the methane refinery, shovelling pig feces. He befriends Max, and when Max and the children return to rescue Master, Pig Killer escapes to help them.
- Helen Buday as Savannah Nix, leader of a tribe of child survivors (or the children of those survivors) from a crashed 747. Savannah is the one who ensures the tribe remembers its past through the "tells," and acts as a surrogate mother figure to many of them. She is also the partner of Slake.
- Tom Jennings[3] as Slake M'Thirst, the male leader of the child tribe.
- Edwin Hodgeman as Dr. Dealgood, the flamboyant Master of Ceremonies and chief auctioneer of Bartertown.
- Rod Zuanic as Scrooloos
Production[ | ]
The film was the first Mad Max movie made without producer Byron Kennedy who was killed in a helicopter crash in 1983. There is a title card at the end that says, "...For Byron".
Miller co-directed with George Ogilvie with whom he had worked on The Dismissal (1983) mini series. They used a group workshopping rehearsal technique that they had developed.[4]
The main location was at the mining town of Coober Pedy with the set for Bartertown built at an old brickworks in Sydney's western suburbs, and the children's camp shot at the Blue Mountains.[4]
Reception[ | ]
The film was a popular success, although it performed less well in Australia than Mad Max 2.[4]
Critical reaction to the film was generally positive, it holds an 81% rating on Rotten Tomatoes,[5] although reviewers were mixed regarding whether they considered the film the highest or lowest point of the Mad Max trilogy. Most of the criticism was focused on the children in the second half of the film, which many felt was too reminiscent of the Lost Boys from Peter Pan.[6] On the other hand, critics praised the Thunderdome scene in particular; critic Roger Ebert called the Thunderdome "the first really original movie idea about how to stage a fight since we got the first karate movies" and praised the fight between Max and Blaster as "one of the great creative action scenes in the movies."[7]
American Film Institute Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs:
We Don't Need Another Hero (Thunderdome) – Nominated[8]
- AFI's 10 Top 10 – Nominated Science Fiction Film[9]
Additional scenes[ | ]
Further scenes that would have fleshed out the character of Max much more than shown in the final movie were cut before international release for the sake of reducing the running time.
- Max sleeps soundly for the first time in many years in the Crack in the Earth (the oasis). He wakes after dreaming of his wife (murdered by bikers in the first movie) and starts to cry, realizing that he is no better than the "goons and crooks" that he used to hunt as an MFP officer.
- Max takes Gekko (the child from the tribe with the vinyl record tied to a stick) to the top of a sand dune at night, facing the lights of Bartertown and, as the boy lies dying, tells him that they have reached Tomorrow-morrow land and are home.[10]
Sources[ | ]
^ "Box Office and Business Information for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome". IMDb.com. Retrieved 22 May 2010. ^ "Box Office Information for Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome". BoxOfficeMojo.com. Retrieved 22 May 2010. ^ Tom Jennings at IMDb ^ a b c David Stratton, The Avocado Plantation: Boom and Bust in the Australian Film Industry, Pan MacMillan, 1990 p85-87 ^ "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome Movie Reviews, Pictures". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 22 May 2010. ^ Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – Movie Reviews, Trailers, Pictures – Rotten Tomatoes ^ "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome". Chicago Sun-Times. ^ AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs Nominees ^ AFI's 10 Top 10 Ballot ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089530/trivia ^ Film Victoria – Australian Films at the Australian Box Office