50 Fun Facts About Mad Max

Who created the Mad Max franchise, directing or co-directing every film in it?

Miller was a hospital emergency-room doctor in Sydney when he met producer Byron Kennedy at a summer film school in 1971.

What is Max's surname?

He starts the series as the top pursuit man of the Main Force Patrol before the biker gang murders his wife and infant son.

Which actor played Max in the first three films?

He was an American-born NIDA graduate with one previous screen role, 1976's Summer City, when he was cast.

Under what title was Mad Max 2 released in the United States?

American distributors were worried that few people had seen the original, so they dropped the number.

Which pop star plays Aunty Entity, ruler of Bartertown, in Beyond Thunderdome?

She also sang both of the film's songs, and 'We Don't Need Another Hero' reached number 2 in the US.

Who plays Max in Mad Max: Fury Road?

Hammer and Renner were the other two finalists, and Heath Ledger, Eric Bana and even Eminem were considered along the way.

Who plays Imperator Furiosa in Fury Road?

Back in the early 2000s, when Mel Gibson was still attached, he suggested Sigourney Weaver for the female lead.

Who plays the young adult Furiosa in the 2024 prequel?

Miller considered digitally de-ageing Charlize Theron but decided the technology hadn't beaten the uncanny valley.

Which Thor actor plays the warlord Dementus in Furiosa?

Dementus leads the Biker Horde, kidnaps Furiosa from the Green Place and has her mother killed in front of her.

In the 1979 film, what is the name of the law-enforcement agency Max works for?

Its officers are called 'the Bronze' by the gangs; the film's police uniforms were vinyl because real leather was too expensive.

What is the name of the biker-gang leader who terrorises Max's family in the first film?

Max forces him into the path of a semi-trailer; the actor, Hugh Keays-Byrne, would return 36 years later as Immortan Joe.

What is the nickname of Max's partner Jim Rains, who is burned alive in his ute in the first film?

Steve Bisley, Gibson's drama-school friend, played him; the burning scene got the film banned in New Zealand because it echoed a real gang incident.

Max's black supercharged Pursuit Special was built from which Australian car?

Its supercharger sticking through the bonnet was purely cosmetic and didn't actually work.

Roughly what was the production budget of the original Mad Max?

Miller and Kennedy helped fund it by doing three months of emergency medical calls, Kennedy driving while Miller doctored.

Which 1999 release took Mad Max's twenty-year Guinness record for most profitable film?

Both were made for peanuts; Blair Witch's marketing budget alone would have covered several Mad Maxes.

What did the US distributor do to the first film's dialogue for its 1980 release there?

'Oi!' became 'Hey!', 'windscreen' became 'windshield' and 'proby' became 'rookie'.

Who composed the scores for the first two Mad Max films, sharing a name with a famous rock guitarist?

Miller wanted a Gothic, Bernard Herrmann-style score and hired him after hearing his music for the thriller Patrick.

Where in and around which Australian city was the original Mad Max filmed?

The crew closed roads without permits and avoided walkie-talkies because their frequency clashed with the police radio.

Mad Max 2 was shot in the outback around which mining town in New South Wales?

Fury Road was supposed to return there in 2010, until unexpected rain covered the desert in wildflowers.

What is the name of the masked leader of the marauders besieging the refinery in Mad Max 2?

Miller imagined him as a former military officer with severe facial burns who may have served alongside the settlers' leader Pappagallo.

In Mad Max 2, what weapon does the Feral Kid use to kill Wez's companion?

He catches it with an improvised mail glove; the eight-year-old speaks only in growls and grunts throughout.

What is the twist at the end of Mad Max 2 when the tanker finally crashes?

The settlers had smuggled the real fuel out in oil drums inside their smaller vehicles while everyone chased the decoy.

Which actor plays the Gyro Captain in Mad Max 2 and pilot Jedediah in Beyond Thunderdome?

Time described his Gyro Captain as 'a deranged parody of the World War I aerial ace'.

Empire magazine named which mohawked Mad Max 2 biker the greatest movie henchman of all time?

Miller has said Wez and Max are near mirror images of each other; Vernon Wells went on to play Bennett in Commando.

In Beyond Thunderdome, Bartertown's electricity comes from a refinery in 'Underworld' that runs on what?

Pig Killer is serving a sentence shovelling it there for the crime of slaughtering a pig to feed his children.

Who runs Underworld in Beyond Thunderdome, a dwarf engineer who rides on his giant bodyguard's shoulders?

Together they're 'Master Blaster'; Max only wins the Thunderdome duel by blowing a whistle, because Blaster can't stand high-pitched noise.

The tribe of children Max meets in Beyond Thunderdome are descended from survivors of what crash?

They believe Max is 'Captain Walker' come to fly them to 'Tomorrow-morrow Land'; critics compared them to Peter Pan's Lost Boys.

Which Beyond Thunderdome song, sung by the actress playing Aunty Entity, hit No. 2 in the US?

'One of the Living', the other Thunderdome song, won her a Grammy for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.

Beyond Thunderdome is dedicated to which co-creator of the series, killed in a helicopter crash in 1983?

Miller nearly abandoned the film after his producing partner's death and brought in George Ogilvie to co-direct while he grieved.

Beyond Thunderdome is the only Mad Max film with which MPAA rating?

Its violence was toned down compared with the films before and after it, which are all R-rated.

Which veteran composer, famous for Lawrence of Arabia, scored Beyond Thunderdome?

He replaced Brian May, who had scored the first two films.

In which country was most of Mad Max: Fury Road shot?

The Atacama, Tunisia's Chott el Djerid and Azerbaijan were also scouted after the Australian desert bloomed with wildflowers.

How many Academy Awards did Fury Road win at the 2016 ceremony?

Editing, production design, costumes, makeup and both sound awards; it lost Best Picture, Director, Cinematography and Visual Effects.

Who edited Fury Road, cutting 480 hours of footage into about 2,700 shots and winning an Oscar for it?

She is George Miller's wife, and he chose her precisely because she had never cut an action film.

Who plays the warlord Immortan Joe in Fury Road?

He had played Toecutter in the 1979 original, and Fury Road turned out to be his final film role.

What is the name of Immortan Joe's cliffside fortress in Fury Road?

Its power comes from controlling one of the wasteland's last sources of fresh water; Gastown and the Bullet Farm are its allies.

At the start of Fury Road, Max is strapped to a car as a living blood bag for which sick War Boy?

Max is a universal donor; Nicholas Hoult's Nux switches sides after Capable shows him kindness.

What is the name of the armoured tanker truck Furiosa drives in Fury Road?

The real thing was built from a Tatra 815 and a Chevrolet Fleetmaster with a Volkswagen Beetle fused to the hull.

Furiosa is trying to reach the land where she grew up. What is it called?

It turns out to be the poisoned swamp the group had already driven through, with only seven Vuvalini left.

How many of Immortan Joe's 'wives' escape with Furiosa in Fury Road?

Toast, Capable, Cheedo, the Dag and Angharad; Angharad is fatally run over by Joe himself.

Of the roughly 150 vehicles built for Fury Road, about how many survived to the end of filming?

The rest were built specifically to be destroyed the way the script demanded; all of them were fully functional.

Which Dutch composer scored Fury Road and returned for Furiosa?

Tom Holkenborg, to use his real name, also worked on the flame-throwing guitar of the Doof Warrior, whose scenes used no CGI.

What is the monochrome version of Fury Road, released in 2016, called?

Miller has said it's his preferred version; cinematographer John Seale wasn't involved but called the idea 'beautifully dramatic'.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga premiered at which film festival in May 2024?

Despite strong reviews it grossed $174.4 million against a $168 million budget and was labelled a box-office bomb.

In Furiosa, what does the young Furiosa secretly tattoo on her left arm?

Her mother Mary Jabassa also gives her a peach pit to remember her by before she is killed.

Who plays Praetorian Jack, the War Rig driver who trains Furiosa in the 2024 film?

Lachy Hulme took over Immortan Joe in the prequel, because Hugh Keays-Byrne died in 2020.

In the 2015 Mad Max video game, what is the name of the car Max builds throughout the story?

His hunchbacked mechanic Chumbucket treats the car as a holy object; the game had the bad luck to launch the same day as Metal Gear Solid V.

Which studio, best known for the Just Cause series, developed the 2015 Mad Max game?

Two earlier Mad Max games, one from God of War designer Cory Barlog, were started and never released.

According to the first three films, what real 1979 event was the trigger for the world's collapse?

Writer James McCausland drew on watching Australian motorists come to blows in petrol queues during the 1973 oil shocks.

What working title did George Miller give the proposed Fury Road prequel about Max's year before his capture?

George Miller and Nico Lathouris wrote it first as 'basically a novella', and Miller said in 2025 he still hoped to make it.