Synopsis

In a devastated Australia where gasoline is more valuable than gold, former police officer Max Rockatansky wanders the wasteland in search of fuel. After reaching a besieged oil refinery, he agrees to help its small community transport their precious petroleum past Lord Humungus and his marauding gang. The desperate escape becomes a brutal, high-speed battle for survival.

Factoids & Trivia

• The film was released in Australia as Mad Max 2 and in the United States as The Road Warrior. Warner Bros. changed the American title because the first Mad Max had not become widely known there.

• Principal photography took place around Broken Hill in New South Wales, whose remote desert landscape supplied the film's stark wasteland setting. The location's isolation also made the production physically demanding.

• With a substantially larger budget than its predecessor, Mad Max 2 was the most expensive Australian film made up to that time.

• The action production involved serious real-world injuries. Stunt performer Guy Norris broke his leg during a tumbling leap, while stunt coordinator Max Aspin was also injured during a vehicle stunt. Both incidents were captured in the authorized behind-the-scenes featurette The Making of Mad Max 2: Stunts.

• The film won five Australian Film Institute Awards in 1982, including honors for direction, editing, production design, sound, and costume design.

• Mad Max 2 became the highest-grossing Australian film worldwide until Crocodile Dundee surpassed it in 1986.

• The movie's combination of desert mythology, improvised-looking vehicles, leather-clad raiders, and elaborate vehicular stunts became a major visual influence on later post-apocalyptic action films, television, comics, and video games.