We Don’t Need Another Hero: The Road Warrior

Mad Max left off with out hero driving into the wasteland, a broken-down “shell of a man.” In this follow up, called The Road Warrior (released in Australia simply as Mad Max 2), things start up fast and never seem to slow down. The experience of watching this film is applicable to being inside a car that can gun it up sixty miles an hour in four seconds. Simply put, if I were to compose a list of my ten favorite movies, The Road Warrior would surely be on the list. It is pure action movie perfection. It adds the ranks of sequels that exceed the quality of their predecessors; a storied list that includes The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part II, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day to name a few (that list is purely subjective, by the way).

This sequel picks up with Max (Mel Gibson) driving through the barren wasteland of the post-apocalyptic Australian outback. He is pursued by a gang of vicious thugs led by the muscle bound yet mellifluous sounding Humungus, the ayatollah of rock n’ rolla as he is referred to by a lackey. Max soon encounters a commune of people guarding a tanker of oil, a precious resource in this future. Max agrees to help them get out if he will receive some of that oil in return.

The movie is somewhat light on actual plot but follows such a clear causal chain of events that everyone’s motivations are easily stated without much explanation needed. Simply put, this is a movie about a man who lost everything and whose only real concern as we begin is his survival. Sure, he has a dog companion (the best way to humanize a protagonist who may seem a little rough around the edges), but Max, still stung by the death of his family in the original film, is out for number one here and it’s clearly expressed in the reason he wants to help the peaceful commune being terrorized by Humumgus’s gang.

The chase scenes in this movie are phenomenal as well. I get such a thrill watching sequences where the camera tracks the action from above the ground, starting behind the gaggle of cars until we catch up and overtake them. It’s amazing work and makes up for some of the best action sequences I’ve seen.

The Road Warrior is, in my estimation, a perfect film. No matter how many times I’ve seen it I come away from the movie with a great adrenaline rush of excitement at what can be accomplished when simple storytelling and filmic perfection come together in one crisp package.

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