form Mad Max series - author   film/TV   science fiction  
Issue Details: First known date: 1979... 1979 Mad Max
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

An ongoing series of films directed by George Miller set in a post-apocalyptic Australia where resources are scarce and violence reigns. 

Affiliation Notes

  • Preppers and Survivalism in the AustLit Database

    This work has been affiliated with the Preppers and Survivalism project due to its relationship to either prepping or prepper-inflected survivalism more generally, and contains one or more of the following:

    1. A strong belief in some imminent threat
    2. Taking active steps to prepare for that perceived threat

    • A range of activities not necessarily associated with ‘prepping’ take on new significance, when they are undertaken with the express purpose of preparing for and/or surviving perceived threats, e.g., gardening, abseiling.
    • The plausibility of the threat, and the relative “reasonable-ness” of the response, don’t affect this definition. E.g., if someone is worried about climate change and climate disasters, and they respond by moving from a riverbank location in Cairns, or to a highland region of New Zealand, this makes them a prepper. If someone else is worried about brainwashing rays from outer space, and they respond by making a tinfoil hat, that makes them a prepper. 

    3. A character or characters (or text) who self-identify as a ‘prepper’, or some synonymous/modified term: ‘financial preppers’, ‘weekend preppers’, ‘fitness preppers’, etc.

    As a tier two work, this text has been identified as key to prepping in a broader, more conceptual relationship. These texts have been classified as ‘key’ prepper-adjacent texts that are important to prepping, even if they themselves are not about prepping or do not include preppers. These texts have been identified in the database through various means such as interviews with preppers, scholarship on preppers, and online prepper forums.

Includes

1
form y separately published work icon Mad Max James McCausland , George Miller , Australia : Kennedy Miller Entertainment , 1979 Z1040124 1979 single work film/TV science fiction (taught in 5 units)

In a post-apocalyptic Australia, law and order has begun to break down due to energy shortages, despite the efforts of Main Force Patrol (MFP) officers like Max Rockatansky. After Rockatansky encounters Toecutter's motorcycle gang, who are running runshod over isolated communities, he grows disillusioned with his role in the MFP. At first convinced by his superior officer not to resign, he is driven into a state of cold-blooded revenge when Toecutter's gang murder his wife and young son.

2
form y separately published work icon Mad Max 2 : The Road Warrior Terry Hayes , George Miller , Brian Hannant , Australia : Kennedy Miller Entertainment , 1981 Z988552 1981 single work film/TV science fiction (taught in 4 units)

In this sequel to the original Mad Max, Max finds himself involved with a small group of settlers who live around a small working oil refinery, producing that most precious of products in a post-apocalyptic society: petrol.

3
form y separately published work icon Mad Max : Beyond Thunderdome Terry Hayes , George Miller , Australia : Kennedy Miller Entertainment , 1985 Z1040130 1985 single work film/TV science fiction

Some fifteen years after the events of Mad Max 2, when civilisation has been all but destroyed by the nuclear war, former policeman Max continues to roam the Australian desert, this time in a camel-drawn vehicle. When father-and-son thieves Jebediah Senior and Junior use their jury-rigged airplane to steal his possessions and his means of transportation, Max makes his way to Bartertown. A cesspool of post-apocalyptic capitalism powered by methane-rich pig manure, Bartertown is ruled by two competing overlords: Aunty Entity and Master (who rides around on the back of his hulking underling, Blaster). Seeking to re-equip himself, Max strikes a deal with the haughty Aunty to kill Blaster in ritualised combat inside Thunderdome, a giant jungle gym where Bartertown's conflicts are played out in a postmodern update of bread and circuses. Although Max manages to fell the mighty Blaster, he refuses to kill him after realising Blaster has a developmental disability. Aunty's henchmen murder Blaster anyway, and then punish Max for violating the law of Thunderdome: 'two men enter, one man leaves.' Lashed to the back of a hapless pack animal and sent out into a sandstorm to die, Max is rescued by a band of tribal children and teens. The descendants of the victims of an airplane crash, the kids inhabit a lush valley and wait for the day when Captain Walker, the plane's pilot, will return to lead them back to civilisation. Some of the children refuse to believe that the glorious cities of their mythology no longer exist, and set off in search of civilisation on their own. Max and three tribe members subsequently set out to rescue them from Bartertown and Aunty Entity.

4
form y separately published work icon Mad Max : Fury Road Mad Max 4 George Miller , Nico Lathouris , Brendan McCarthy , Australia : Kennedy Miller Entertainment , 2015 Z1864561 2015 single work film/TV science fiction

Despite post-dating the third film in the series by some thirty years, this instalment is said to fit in the timeline somewhere between films one and two.

Max Rockatansky, trapped in the citadel of warlord Immortan Joe, crosses paths with Imperator Furiosa, who is on a mission to free Joe's enslaved 'brides' and take them to the Green Place, the Land of Many Mothers.

5
form y separately published work icon Mad Max : Furiosa Mad Max : The Wasteland Nico Lathouris , George Miller , Australia : Kennedy Miller Mitchell Warner Brothers , 2024 21655430 2024 single work film/TV

'The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before she teamed up with Mad Max in 'Fury Road'' 

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

Works about this Work

Mad Max’s George Miller Gets to the Heart of Epic Stories Andy Hazel , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 25-31 May 2024;

'George Miller’s Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga arrives 45 years after his classic apocalyptic road movie, Mad Max. With a reported budget of $250 million, his latest is the biggest and most expensive film in Australian history.' 

Turning the Outback into Post-apocalyptic Wasteland : What Mad Max Films Tell Us about Filming in the Australian Desert Melanie Ashe , 2024 single work column
— Appears in: The Conversation , 22 May 2024;

'The Mad Max films are set in an arid, barren, post-apocalyptic world known in the movies as “the wasteland”. This is a world of environmental and civil collapse caused by humans. Resources like water are scarce. Clothes, food and transport – such as the film’s famous customised cars – are cobbled together from found and scavenged objects.' (Publication summary)

y separately published work icon The Legend of Mad Max Ian Nathan , Richmond : Hardie Grant Books , 2024 27658459 2024 multi chapter work criticism

'The Legend of Mad Max is the ultimate guide to the high octane post-apocalyptic film series, directed by visionary filmmaker George Miller. This comprehensive history delves into the making of each film, exploring the unique vision and groundbreaking live action and special effects that have made Mad Max a cultural touchstone for over four decades.

'From the unforgettable characters and thrilling action sequences to the complex themes and deep mythology, this stunningly illustrated book provides an in-depth look at the world of the iconic road warrior, Mad Max.

'Buckle up and get ready for a wild ride through the wasteland as you discover the full story behind this classic film franchise. With detailed production information, behind-the-scenes stories, and stunning photography, The Legend of Mad Max is a must-read for fans of this celebrated series.'(Publication summary)

Mad Max Director George Miller on Faith and the American Futurist Who 'Defined Everything' Rosemary Bolger , James Valentine , 2023 single work column
— Appears in: ABC News [Online] , August 2023;
Mad Max and the Uselessness of the Australian Lone Wolf Protagonist Lachlan Walter , 2023 single work essay
— Appears in: Aurealis , no. 163 2023;
Hell for Leather for a Cult Hero Adrian Martin , 2003 extract criticism (The Mad Max Movies)
— Appears in: The Sydney Morning Herald , 14-15 June 2003; (p. 10-11)
On the Beach, Until the End of the World Peter Hutchings , 1997 single work criticism
— Appears in: Australia and Asia : Cultural Transactions 1997; (p. 20-32)
Tribute to the Max Eddie Cockrell , 2011 single work column
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 10-11 December 2011; (p. 18-19)
'Eddie Cockrell meets a fan so in thrall to Mel Gibson’s outsider he built a museum — at home' (p.18).
An Apocalyptic Map : New Worlds and the Colonization of Australia Roslyn Weaver , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 23-53)
'This chapter examines the map that preceded, and eventually superseded, the territory of Australia, in order to demonstrate that early maps of the south land established an apocalyptic tradition that still resonates in contemporary fictions. If one reinterprets Jean Baudrillard's comments in the context of colonization and Australia, it is possible to see how European imagination delineated an apocalyptic map of the country before explorers and settlers even arrived, a map that located Australia as a tabula rasa, a blank slate where heaven and hell might equally be feasible. This chapter surveys the dialectic emerging from these confliction visions.' (24)
An Apocalyptic Landscape : The Mad Max Films Roslyn Weaver , 2011 single work criticism
— Appears in: Apocalypse in Australian Fiction and Film : A Critical Study 2011; (p. 83-107)
In this chapter Roslyn Weaver explores 'the three Mad Max films to consider their contribution to the apocalyptic tradition. In these texts, the outback is 'the nothing,' a threatening place that is hostile to humans. The trilogy reveals future disaster and appears to envisage a better new world, but then subverts apocalyptic hope by suggesting the new world is a false ideal because it only exists far from the Australian landscape and even then only exists far from the Australian landscape and even then only in ruined, decayed form. The repeated dismissals of hope and the negative image of the Australian landscape undercut any security of feeling at home, presenting instead a picture of exile and punishment in the desert.' (83)
Last amended 14 Feb 2024 09:03:11
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