Max arrives at a horrifying sight: Sprog is instantly killed, while a badly-injured Jessie lies comatose in a hospital ICU, eventually succumbing to her injuries.ĭriven into a rage by the loss of his family, Max dons his police uniform and takes the black Pursuit Special from the MFP garage to pursue and eliminate the gang. Jessie and Sprog attempt to escape on foot, but are run over by the gang. With May's help, Jessie and Sprog escape, but when they try to drive away, the van inadvertently overheats. Toecutter's gang follows them there and ambushes Jessie in the woods. They flee to a remote farm owned by an elderly friend named May Swaisey. They encounter Toecutter and his gang, who attempt to molest Jessie, but Jessie manages to escape in the van. When they stop to fix the spare tire, Jessie takes Sprog to buy ice cream. Max takes his wife Jessie and their infant son – referred to only as "Sprog", Australian slang for a child – on vacation in a panel van. Fifi convinces Max to take a vacation first before he submits his final letter of resignation. After seeing Goose's charred body in a hospital intensive-care unit, Max becomes disillusioned with the MFP, and informs Fifi that he will resign to maintain what sanity he has left. At Toecutter's insistence, Johnny reluctantly throws a match into the wreck of the ute, igniting the petroleum and burning Goose alive. However, Johnny ambushes Goose by throwing a brake drum through his windshield, causing him to crash. The next day, after the motorbike then locks up at high speed and highsides, a dazed but surprisingly-uninjured Goose borrows a ute to haul his bike back to the MFP. While Goose visits a nightclub in the city that night, Johnny sabotages his police motorbike. When neither the rape victims nor any of the townspeople show for Johnny's trial, the federal courts close the case, with Johnny's attorneys releasing him into Bubba's custody over Goose's furious objections. Max and fellow officer Jim Goose arrest Toecutter's young protégé Johnny the Boy at the scene. They trap a young couple in a car before destroying it and raping the couple. Meanwhile, Nightrider's motorbike gang, led by Toecutter and Bubba Zanetti, run roughshod over a town, vandalising property, stealing fuel, and terrorising the populace. A conversation between Max's superior Fifi Macaffee and Police Commissioner Labatouche reveals that the Pursuit Special was authorised as a bribe to keep Max on the force. Nightrider manages to elude other MFP officers before the organization's top pursuit man, Max Rockatansky, disrupts his concentration during a high-speed chase, resulting in his death in a fiery crash.Īt the MFP garage, Max is shown a supercharged V8-powered black Pursuit Special. In a near-future dystopian Australia, berserk motorbike gang member Crawford "Nightrider" Montazano kills a rookie officer of the Main Force Patrol (MFP) – Australia's highway patrol unit – and escapes with his girlfriend in a Pursuit Special. In 2020, a fifth film, to be titled Furiosa, was announced.
The film became the first in the Mad Max series, giving rise to three sequels: Mad Max 2 (1981), Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Fury Road (2015). The success of Mad Max has been credited for further opening up the global market to Australian New Wave films. Filmed on a budget of A$400,000, it earned more than US$100 million worldwide in gross revenue and held the Guinness record for most profitable film. The film initially received a polarized reception upon its release in April 1979, although it won four AACTA Awards. Principal photography for Mad Max took place in and around Melbourne, and lasted for six weeks. James McCausland and Miller wrote the screenplay from a story by Miller and Kennedy. Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, and Roger Ward also star. Mel Gibson stars as "Mad" Max Rockatansky, a police officer-turned-vigilante in a near-future Australia in the midst of societal collapse. Mad Max is a 1979 Australian dystopian action film directed by George Miller and produced by Byron Kennedy.