Mad Max

Mad Max
Official franchise logo since 2015
Created by	George Miller Byron Kennedy
Original work	Warner Bros. Entertainment
Years	1979–1985; 2015–present
Print publications
Novel(s)	Mad Max (1979) Mad Max 2 (1982) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Comics	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Films and television
Film(s)	Mad Max (1979) Mad Max 2 (1981) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Games
Video game(s)	Mad Max (1990) Mad Max (2015)
Audio
Soundtrack(s)	Mad Max (1980) Mad Max 2 (1982) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Mad Max is an Australian

The series follows Max, who starts the series as a police officer in a future Australia which is experiencing societal collapse due to war, critical resource shortages, and ecocide.^[1] As Australia devolves further into barbarity, Max becomes a wandering drifter in the wasteland. He periodically encounters remaining pockets of civilisation, which rope him into their political machinations or personal problems. Max, who is habitually wary of others, frequently struggles to decide whether to help others or go his own way. Ultimately, he assists the survivors in the nick of time before departing into the wasteland once more.

The series has had a highly positive reception; The Road Warrior and Fury Road in particular have been ranked among the

Most Mad Max films are told from the perspective of a questionably reliable narrator retelling the story many years after the fact, suggesting that the characters of Max and Furiosa have crossed over into the folklore of a survivor civilisation.^[2][3][4] (Although Fury Road lacks a narrator, Miller has said that in his mind, it was also "based on the Word Burgers of the History Men [cf. folktales told by bards or griots] and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."^[5]) Miller "sees Mad Max as a series of legends about the titular character, the kinds of campfire stories that might be passed around in the Wasteland at dark."^[6] Because Mad Max films are generally told as folklore, the Mad Max franchise has historically been less concerned with continuity than most science fiction or fantasy franchises, like Star Wars or Star Trek. There is "no strict chronology,"^[7] and the films are allowed to contradict each other.^[6] At least one critic has suggested that "the franchise’s canon cannot be reconciled in any way — barring the introduction of time travel."^[8]

Mad Max is a 1979 Australian action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and James McCausland from a story by Miller and producer Byron Kennedy. Set "a few years from now", it tells the story of highway policeman Max Rockatansky, who is repeatedly attacked by a criminal biker gang amidst a broader social breakdown, and who is caught between his opposing desires to stay home with his family and to take revenge on the bikers.

The film, starring the then little-known

Mad Max 2 (released as The Road Warrior in the United States) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller, Terry Hayes, and Brian Hannant. Mel Gibson returned as Max Rockatansky. In this film, the societal breakdown depicted in Mad Max has degenerated into a global apocalypse, for which the film's prologue provides additional backstory. Max, now wandering through the post-apocalyptic wasteland, meets a community of oil drillers trying to defend itself against a roving band of marauders. The film follows an archetypal "Western" frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man who rediscovers his humanity.^[12] Miller explained that the Mad Max films "effectively look forward to the past ... in the same way that the American Western allowed for allegory figures playing out morality tales in a landscape."^[13]

This sequel to Miller's Mad Max was a worldwide box office success that further boosted the career of Mel Gibson.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is a 1985 film, the third installment in the franchise. The film was directed by George Miller and George Ogilvie, was written by Miller and Terry Hayes, and starred Mel Gibson and Tina Turner. In this film, Max is still wandering through the wasteland, civilisation has shifted to a barter economy, and gladiatorial combat is a key source of entertainment. After robbers steal Max's belongings, the local boss Aunty (played by Turner) recruits Max to fight a political rival in her "Thunderdome", with a promise to replace his belongings if he wins.

Miller initially lost interest in the project after his friend and producer Byron Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash, but he later agreed to move forward with the assistance of Ogilvie.^[14] The original music score was composed by Maurice Jarre.

Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film of the franchise,^[15] is a 2015 post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris. It features Tom Hardy as Mad Max and Charlize Theron as his unlikely ally Imperator Furiosa. In this film, the remaining trappings of pre-apocalyptic civilisation have given way to a system of ruthless warlords, who dominate Australia's remaining agricultural and industrial centers with their private armies. Max, still wandering the wasteland, is captured by warlord Immortan Joe, but seizes the opportunity to escape when Joe's lieutenant Furiosa attempts her own escape from Joe's fortress. Max and Furiosa team up to fend off Joe's army so that they can reach Furiosa's home, from where she was kidnapped twenty years earlier.

The film spent many years in development hell; Mel Gibson was attached to return as Max in 2003, but the production fell through.^[16] Location scouting resumed in 2009,^[17] but production was delayed until June 2012 due to unusually high levels of rain, which caused vegetation to grow in the Australian desert, detracting from the post-apocalyptic feeling that Miller wanted. Shooting ultimately took place in Namibia the following year.^[18]

In 2016, Fury Road won six Academy Awards from ten nominations; the six wins were more than any other film that year.^[19][20] In Metacritic's tally of 105 critic lists of the best films of the decade, Fury Road topped more lists than any other film, with 20 critics placing it at number one, over twice as many as second-placed Moonlight.^[21] In addition, a 2016 BBC poll of 177 film critics listed Mad Max: Fury Road as the 19th-best film of the 21st century.^[22]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth film in the franchise, is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and Nico Lathouris. It is a prequel to Fury Road; Miller said that while the franchise has "no strict chronology," it "probably" takes place after Beyond Thunderdome.^[7] The film stars Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as her adversary, the warlord Dementus; in addition, Jacob Tomuri portrays Mad Max in a cameo appearance.^[23] In this film, Furiosa is kidnapped by Dementus's Biker Horde, which sells her to Immortan Joe. Over the following decade, she trains as a soldier and mechanic so that she can take revenge on Dementus for killing her mother.

While writing Fury Road, Miller and McCarthy found that they had enough story material for two additional scripts, one of which centered on Fury Road co-protagonist Imperator Furiosa.

In March 2015, Hardy revealed that he was attached to star in three more Mad Max films, following Fury Road.[31] After the release of Fury Road, Miller announced that he was planning to release a follow-up film with the working title of Mad Max: The Wasteland.^[32][33] Miller provided more concrete details while promoting his films Three Thousand Years of Longing and Furiosa. He revealed that The Wasteland would be another Fury Road prequel, explaining that he and Lathouris had written what was "basically ... a novella" about Max's travels in the Wasteland in the year preceding his capture by Immortan Joe's forces at the start of Fury Road, and that they were planning to adapt the novella into a screenplay.^[34][35] Miller envisioned that The Wasteland would feature a character-based story like that of Furiosa, although there would still be "a lot of action."^[36] He added that he was "waiting to see the reception on Furiosa" before taking more concrete steps.^[36]

Following the release of Furiosa, Hardy (who was promoting The Bikeriders at the time) said "I don't think it's happening" in an interview, either talking about his involvement in the film or the film itself.^[37]

Miller confirmed in a February 2025 interview with Vulture that he was still interested in making The Wasteland, but hoped to focus on other projects first. Stating that, "But if for whatever reason the planets align, you can never tell. Too often, you’re lining up to do a movie and then something happens. Some things fall into place and some don’t, so all I can say is we’ll see."^[38]

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Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave both Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.^[59]

Many licensed products are based on the Mad Max franchise. Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials.^[60]

Novelisations of the first three films have also been published by QB Books. The first two novelisations were written by Terry Hayes, who ended up co-writing the script for the second film after getting along well with Miller.^[61] A novelisation for the third film was written by Joan D. Vinge.^[62]