War Rigged: How Mad Max Pulled Off Five Decades of Mayhem

Mad Max is about motion. Specifically, the motion involved when tons of twisted metal barrel down a desert highway in a nitrous-fueled pursuit of total destruction. Big cars. Little cars. Cool cars. Cow cars. Vans. Dune buggies. Motorcycles. Trucks. Trains, planes, and gyrocopters- if there’s an engine in it, director George Miller can and will blow it up in spectacular fashion.
The mastermind behind the madness has been shredding the unroadworthy for nearly 50 years now, honing his craft through each outrageous crash. But how did the chases and action scenes throughout the Mad Max saga evolve along with the technology, budgets, and skills in Miller’s arsenal?
We’ve got a huge haul ahead of us, so buckle up, thunder up and let loose the dogs of war on a journey into the completely insane, extremely dangerous, and utterly real automotive annihilation that defines Mad Max.
This video was written by Charlie Lopresto, edited by Shiraz Dhume and Justin Donaldson.
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[@davidmitchell-baker1701]

George Miller getting to see his vision and story through from film to film over the decades is surely one of the greatest success stories in moviemaking history. A minimal budget, guerrilla-style B-movie became one of the greatest action series in cinema history, all whilst the original mastermind behind it continued to serve as writer/director.

[@clubsport9334]

Mate.... I'm not sure you understand how much of a cinematic icon Mad Max is for us Australians.

[@aaronluna4779]

What do you expect, it’s Yanks talking about it!

[@neo_bellic]

@@aaronluna4779 IGN more like

[@resistthesystem6145]

If you enjoy a universe inspired by Mad Max, and enjoy “cinematic” metal. Please check out my global recording project, “Resist The System,” a self-funded, fan inspired tribute to the brilliant minds of Kennedy Miller Mitchell. The first single “A Mass Exodus” was released on 05/24/2024 in honor of the magnificent Furiosa! #rememberme kzbin.info/www/bejne/d3mamYeuZ9CWjrssi=WSAcwOBZ1Aiq2WPr

[@ParentsNightIn]

Not just Australians, Mad Max is pretty iconic in the US too, just not as much as MM2 perhaps. This guy is insane for comparing it to a MST3K film.

[@dasonskywalker8806]

Jeezus, I stopped watching this video right after that line was said. Horrendous take on Mad Max.

[@rexpayne7836]

As an Australian, i loved Mad Max. It had all the cars, bikes, and stunts that i love. The early ones are the best. Great content and presentation. 🇦🇺 😊

[@theroebuck123456789]

The Mad Max saga alternates between a "chase" film and a "world building" film

[@Lifad2011]

I’m glad you mentioned all of the great things in Beyond Thunderdome. It’s certainly a messy film, and its second half falls apart at times, but the good stuff is so good! Excellent video!

[@drewhammond5203]

"Max isn't much of a gunslinger" Did you actually watch these movies, dude? Mad Max: Max uses his sawn off to shoot a motorcylcist clean off his bike as he charges at him Road Warrior: Max drives a big rig with one hand while he shoots out the driver of a muscle car behind him, again, with a sawn-off shotgun Fury Road: Max, again, drives a big rig with one hand and uses his off hand to shoot and kill multiple moving motorcyclists and dirt bikers with a glock 17. I understand it's a movie, but that shit isn't easy. Especially with moving targets, while multitasking. Also, everyone's entitled to their own perspective but I really feel like a lot of these takes are invalidated by the bad faith you went into the first film with. The first film is a cult classic in every way and aside from a few production goofs, is frankly very watchable and entertaining throughout. I find it's amateurishness charming and quotable; what's a line legitimately said in the second film that isn't MEANT to be a zinger? To this day I think about "Then we'll see you on the road, Scag!" From the first film all the time.

[@dylanv.4970]

I don't think he's going into this with bad faith about the first film as much as you are with a bias towards the first film.

[@drewhammond5203]

@@dylanv.4970 I don't really have a lot of bias. It's just a fun, campy film that a lot of filmbro types just gloss over because they want to salivate over the road warrior, which is just as sloppy, just as madcap, and just as "George" as the first imo. It just has a higher production budget and slightly less filler, but funny enough, much less character work and much less Max. I find any film critique that barely engages the first film, which is incredibly important to the series in terms of storytelling, backstory, and getting the damned thing off the ground, and writes it off as some low-budget Indy feature that only has a few good chases to be not worth taking seriously. That's some nostalgia critic shit. It's bad faith.

[@Codogcodog]

I love this behind the scenes look you guys have done here, makes me miss bonus features on disc back in the day. More please!

[@TurinInquisitor]

The more I know about this movie the more incredible it is

[@JosepsGSX]

As a nerd, I must say the "fuel inyected machines" does not mach any vehicle in the first movie. Those were carburators all along. Just nerd's humor, you know. Don´t take me seriously by any means. I enjoyed this piece a lot, nice work, honestly. Those movies I have rewached several times and will again hopefully many more. The first one, specially, is always a joy , maybe cause at times is just a raw sound and visual experience. So many goose bumping moments that I treasure there. As a petrolhead, those frequetn brief iconic shots just make the whole utterly briliant. I can almost smell the gasoline fumes and melting rubber while the child I was when I first saw it, watches it again.

[@piratetv1]

Very thirsty carburetors. As a war boy would say

[@nivlacgaming9211]

Great video, quite informative. Thank you for the upload!!

[@saratov99]

Beyond Thunderdome was good. It has it's own charm and it's different. Like Temple of Doom.

[@Leahcimmichael]

Tina Turner was great in it

[@supercard9418]

Ain't no way you wouldn't recommend Mad Max 1. It's a totally good movie, even if it's not as grand as the other movies. It's darker than the other movies and good on its own

[@PuzzleProjectorBlog]

Mad Max 1 is my favourite after Fury Road. I like Mad Max 1 better than Mad Max 2.

[@piratetv1]

I was a kid when thunderdome came out. I still love the science fiction world, and characters it created. It's ideas are heavily used in video games like fallout and horizon zero dawn

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

I gotta say...Mad Max is full of action in both the movies and behind the scenes

[@MrMann0123]

Outside of Akira, no motorbike has ever felt as fast as Goose's

[@MrMann0123]

I hate the way the first film keeps getting looked over. It is an amazing film that sets everything else up!

[@NeverSaySandwich1]

It's really slow and boring. It has a good first 10 minutes and good last 10 minutes

[@aldrichuyliong8143]

It's not really a surprise that Fury Road came in second to Pitch Perfect at the box office when you realize the whole Mad Max franchise owes a lot of its aesthetic and sensibilities to heavy metal music and in 2015 the general music listening public had long moved away from rock and metal in favor of highly polished rap and pop. Hence, much of the terrifying grittiness and pointless nihilism as epic and bombastic spectacle was (unfairly) seen as nothing more than weird and off-putting edginess.

[@PuzzleProjectorBlog]

Too bad. I still love heavy metal music. I like rap and pop too but heavy metal somehow makes me happy. It makes me smile sometimes listening to it. Movies should have heavy metal music too like the Heavy Metal cartoon and the animated Transformers movie.

[@TheSykobanana]

Poor Vid. Mate...I dont think you get just how different Mad Max was to other movies a the time. You cant discount it without taking history and its place in it into account. The sparse-ness is what the movie IS about, and also reminiscent of other Australian and genre movies at the time. If you cant understand a movie in its historical context and be able to recommend why its important/good, you shouldn't be making these types of vids.

[@supercard9418]

exactly. didn't even finish the video after he said that. fucking ignoramus

[@BoxOfficeJack]

Love this type of documentary video you guys do. Thanks!

[@gregkatz5411]

Master Blaster

[@theonlymegumegu]

29:47 wait, furiosa was originally conceived as an anime? I'm still happy with the live action, but now i really want to see a mad max anime!

[@Kufunninapuh]

Hoooooly f*ck it would have looked so much cooler!

[@howkel]

I saw Mad Max at the drive-in when i was 11 in 1979. The American accent dub was painfully obvious and really distracting. I'd seen plenty of foreign dubbed movies and I didn't understand why, if the lip-sync matched, it was dubbed. It wasn't until I saw Road Warrior at the same drive-in a few years later that I put it together.

[@piratetv1]

I just saw furiosa at the drive in last night. I've seen every one from a car since thunderdome. I was too young to see the first 2 until they were on video

[@porrepokemon]

Going a 180 kilos????

[@waifyandrogyne]

Came here to say the same thing. Americans not understanding the metric system.

[@porrepokemon]

last time I was going 130 oz over the speed limit, I saw the police behind me, so I had to slow down like 55 kelvin degrees but it wasn't enough, the cop ticketed me 1600 yards, too much money mate

[@Skydrag.V60]

Hearing “kilos” in that context really threw me for a loop too. If anything, you’d call it “klicks” if not kilometers 😆

[@saratov99]

Charlize Theron never gave birth. 29:56

[@NeverSaySandwich1]

I wish Mel Gibson was in Fury Road 😭😭

[@tmseh]

What a puny plan.

[@kenip9800]

That's a really.... unique way to pronounce "oeuvre."

[@acb9896]

"Gyro" Soft g mate. Like "Jeye ro" Not like "guy ro" Ok?

[@acidgougewaltz]

"australia's most expensive movie ever, at the time" ..... somebody doesn't know what "ever" means. just say "most expensive movie to that point"

[@RhettThompsonFilm]

I think it’s probably pretty obvious to most people that saying it was the most expensive ever at the time in Vokes and image of what people said at the time. Just a little bit quicker and more elegant of a way to say that.

[@travisspaulding5835]

Great video, but I would’ve liked to see a bit more research go into a few more of the people behind the work. It would be nice to hear the actual names of the people who worked on some of this stuff and give them proper credit, rather than referring to them as “the special effects dude” at times 😅

[@georgefridman8432]

mad max saga is for people that love fast cars

[@Geronimo_Jehoshaphat]

Beyond Thundrdome is far and away the best Mad Max movie.

[@TheSpudHunter]

great video

[@TroubleAtMillius]

This is littered with inaccuracies. Would recommend a proper making of instead of this regurgitated Chinese whisper of an attempt.

[@iivin4233]

30 mpg is not bad when compared to some real vehicles.

[@nope5657]

Stopped watching at "I don't know if I can recommend the first Mad Max." Miller had that shit on lock from the beginning at not recognizing that shows a lack of understanding of the film and franchise.

[@WhenSithHappens]

So many so-called commentators claim Max was never the lead character in the original trilogy, but that is so untrue.

[@tommc3622]

Well, Dr. George Miller himself has repeatedly said that apart from the original, the main character has always been the world. Max is just the vessel he used to tell stories in this world. He gives the audience a point of view. Furiosa is no different.

[@robinjameshabil5342]

It's so apparent too. Besides the first film, the others in the original trilogy are narrated by someone else (the Feral Kid and Savannah). Making Max less of a character and more of a folklore or legend.

[@tommc3622]

​​@robinjameshabil5342 I'll never get the chance, but if I ever got to ask Dr. Miller a question, it's this; Do the 3 great societies of the late apocalypse find each other? Do they learn of their shared origins that were shaped by their encounters with the mythical Max? Do they find unity? ... I'm an atheist, but there is a biblical parallel that nobody seems to pick up on that I find fascinating. And I think it's exactly what Miller is doing. The Bible is fragmented. It's stories about this influential man told from various points of view. The details don't make sense if you pick it apart. That's not the point. It's geinus world-building.

[@robinjameshabil5342]

@@tommc3622 I get that impression as well. Tho Max doesn't exactly help build those societies, he is the one that gave those future leaders of those societies a chance to be made. Then his stories are passed on generation-to-generation being obscured over time. Also, in Furiosa, they introduce the History Man who kinda records or retells the stories he hears (he never sees them firsthand). It's great when you watch Furiosa/Fury Road back-to-back, it ends with a quote from the first History Man, tieing it all together. Just fantastic storytelling and world-building.

[@89426]

Fury Road brought in new fans, some of whom are determined to wrestle MM from the Boomers and Revise his history.

[@srisridhar1663]

All r mad mad mad 🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[@shakirakurosawa1740]

This stuntwork is as amazing as it is reckless Join a union, ffs

[@GrayD_Fox]

Bad video

[@travislostaglia8861]

Fury road is over done and overrated. It’s nowhere near as good as the first movie and that guy playing the fire guitar is just flat out dumb. The first two are the best, thunderdome is ok , these new ones just don’t cut it

[@tmseh]

First?

[@Assarson_Philip]

36:12 Furiosa flopped because we, the audience, are fed up with the undeserving "d.e.i" female heroes overdressed in impenetrable plot armor. Cheers from Sweden 🇸🇪🤘😎🤙🇸🇪

[@calvinfoo]

I watched it but I didn't like the movie at all

[@-_redacted_]

you realize flick and kino are terms popularized by 4chans television imageboard in the recent 8 years IRONICALLY to make fun of people like you? LOL