Mad Max: From Toecutter To Joe

George Miller’s had a weird old career. He started out in medicine, and for much of the 1970s balanced a career as a doctor (in which he found himself treating a notable number of injuries from car accidents on Australia’s highways) with participating in the indie filmmaking scene in his native Australia – eventually, he became a respected Hollywood director with major releases like Happy Feet and Babe to his name. How did he get here from there?

Well, the road to that led directly through those car crash mutilations, because between that and losing friends to traffic accidents Miller was left with a healthy appreciation of just how lethal the open road can be- and how much scope it has for drama. Frequently working without a permit, he and his crew took to the road with some seed capital, some cars, and a fascination with violent mayhem, and they turned out Mad Max. If the shoot went wrong, well, George would have had a busy day at the emergency room – but it went gloriously, spectacularly right, creating an action movie archetype that was the making of his career as well as his lead actor, infamous antisemite Mel Gibson.

Mel Gibson’s gone from the franchise now, and George Miller is back – a pay dispute between him and the studio over the mega-successful Fury Road having resolved – and he’s treating us to Furiosa: A Mad Max Story later this month, a prequel further exploring the pivotal co-protagonist of Fury Road. This makes it a good time to go back over the series and see where the road’s taken us so far, wouldn’t you say?

Mad Max

In the not-too-distant future, social order is on the verge of breaking down. A losing battle to conserve what is left of it is being fought by the Main Force Patrol, an elite police division that combats road bandits with a ferocity comparable to that used by their quarry. One of the best of the bunch is Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), who proves to be the only MFP officer able to cease the rampage of escaped convict the Nightrider (Vincent Gil), in a pursuit which culminates in the Nightrider’s death. That’s a problem, because the Nightrider was a long-time member of a motorcycle gang ruled over by the Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a Charles Manson-esque figure who urges his underlings into ever-greater acts of violence.

When the Toecutter’s gang arrives to collect Nightrider’s body, nobody is safe – not Max, not his best buddy on the force Goose (Steve Bisley), and not Max’s wife Jessie (Joanne Samuel) or his child Sprog (Brendan Heath). As the violence escalates and the Goose gets cooked, Max contemplates quitting the force so he and his family can keep their head down and look out for each other – but when the Toecutter and his cronies ruthlessly destroy any hope of that, Max takes the souped-up Pursuit Special that the department commissioned for him specifically to keep him on the force. Justice is no longer an option – but maybe there’s a chance of revenge for Mad Max…