Jackson Booth-Millard
The first film was very good, the sequel was good, and I was interested to complete with the third and final film in the original trilogy, especially because I knew it had a famous female singer in it, directed by George Miller (The Witches of Eastwick, Babe: Pig in the City, Happy Feet, Mad Max: Fury Road) and George Ogilvie. Basically, in the wastelands of Australia in a post-apocalyptic future, former Main Force Patrol (MFP) officer 'Mad' Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) crosses the desert, Jedediah and his son, Jedediah Jr. (Adam Cockburn), in a Transavia PL-12 Airtruk attack him, stealing his camel-drawn wagon and belongings. Continuing and following their trail on foot, Max reaches the seedy community of Bartertown, he is at first refused entry, he is brought before community founder and ruler, the ruthless Aunty Entity (Tina Turner), she offers to resupply his vehicle and equipment if he completes a task for her. Aunty explains that Bartertown depends on a crude methane refinery powered by pig faeces, which is run by a dwarf called the Master (Angelo Rossitto) and his giant bodyguard the Blaster (Paul Larsson). "Master Blaster" and Aunty hold an uneasy truce for control of Bartertown, but the Master has begun to challenge her leadership, Aunty wants Max to provoke a confrontation with Blaster in the gladiatorial arena Thunderdome, where conflicts are resolved by a duel to the death. A convict called Pig Killer (Robert Grubb), sentenced to work for slaughtering a pig to feed his family, befriends Max, who enters the refinery to size up to Master Blaster, he finds his stolen vehicle, and discovers the Blaster is exceptionally strong, but sensitive to high-pitched noises. Max faces Blaster in the Thunderdome, using his weakness to gain the upper hand, but refuses to kill him, discovering he has special needs and the intellect of a child, Master finds out about Aunty's arrangement to have Blaster killed, he vows to have the refinery, and by extension, Bartertown, shut down. An enraged Blaster executed, Master is imprisoned, and Max is exiled, he is bound on a horse and sent in a random direction into the wasteland, the horse perishes in a sinkhole, allowing Max to free himself, and he presses on. Near death, Max is found in the desert by desert dweller Savannah Nix (Helen Buday), he is hauled to a community of children and teenagers who live on an oasis, they are all survivors of a crashed Boeing 747, and abandoned by their parents who left to find civilisation. The youngsters believe Max is a pilot named Captain G. L. Walker, returned to fix their plane and fly them to civilisation, Max denies this and insists they remain in the oasis for relative safety, knowing the only "civilisation" within reach is Bartertown. Some of the children, led by Savannah, leave anyway, determined to find the prophesized "Tomorrow-morrow Land", Max stops them by force, but another tribe member Scrooloose (Rod Zuanic) sets them free during the night and leaves with them. The tribe's leader Slake M'Thirst (Tom Jennings) asks Max to go after them, he agrees, taking a few of the children with him to help. They find Savannah's group, but they are unable to save one of the children from a sinkhole, with limited supplies, they are forced to head for Bartertown. They sneak in via the underground, and with the help of Pig Killer they free Master, escape in a train-truck, and destroy Bartertown's methane refinery in the process. Aunty leads the inhabitants in a pursuit, catching up to them, Max's group slows them while Scrooloose hijacks one of the vehicles, which happens to be Max's vehicle. The group comes across Jedediah and his son, Max coerces the pilot into helping his group escape in their aeroplane, after clearing a path the plane is able take off and escape, but Max is left to Aunty's mercy. Aunty spares his life, having come to respect Max, she departs and is presumably making good on her vow to rebuild Bartertown, the children are flown to the coast by Jedediah, there they discover the nuclear-devastated ruins of Sydney. Years later, the children have established a small society for themselves, wanderers have been lost in the ruins, Savannah is now the leader, and reciting the story of their journey, and the man who saved them, Max, who still wanders the desert to places unknown. Also starring Frank Thring as The Collector, Angry Anderson as Ironbar and George Spartels as Blackfinger. Gibson is sort of still charismatic, but he is perhaps not as "mad" anymore, and Turner is certainly an interesting choice as the local dictator, the gladiatorial battle sequences are alright, the scenes with the nomadic warrior surrounded by children I recognised as being spoofed by South Park, and there is a pretty good chase sequence near the end, but it is perhaps a bit slow and not enough of a flow with the story, but it is not a bad futuristic action adventure. Mel Gibson was number 47 on The 100 Greatest Sex Symbols, and number 17 on The 100 Greatet Movies Stars. Worth watching!
