FAQ

No one willingly tangles with a shotgun, so Wez didn't need much of an excuse to leave Max alone. If anything, Wez probably figured he could round up a few more members of the gang and come back for another round, since Max seemed to be a new arrival to the neighborhood. This was probably the first time that Wes and Max met each other.

This is likely regional. Some regions say "petrol" while others say "gasoline". In the movie it's often called "guzzeline". It may have also been an attempt to appeal more to American audiences.

Half a decade after he killed the motorcycle gang that slew his wife and son. Max (Mel Gibson) a cynical and selfish wanderer whom aimlessly drives across the barren highways of Australia learns from a deranged pilot called The Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) about a nearby petrol refinery which is besieged by a gang of savage warriors led by the masked Humungus (Kjell Nilsson) that wants the petrol from the refinery for themselves. Max manages to enter the petrol refinery and makes a deal with the leader of the refinery Pappagallo (Michael Preston) to find a truck, so the people running the refinery can safely transport the petrol across the highway whilst evading The Humungus and his warriors and so Pappagallo and his people can travel to a safe place, which in return, he'll be given petrol as payment and hit the road and move on. After, Max manages to find a truck and drives it back to the refinery, Max is injured in an ambush and is nursed back to health and a reluctant Max agrees to drive the truck and soon, Max, Pappagallo and his people are pursued across the highway by The Humungus and his warriors which becomes a high speed fight for survival as The Humungus and his warriors will stop at nothing to get to steal the petrol for themselves.

No. In the US r-rated version some short plot scenes as well as some scenes of violence, which had to be cut in order to get an r-rating, are missing. This version has been released on DVD, Laserdisc and VHS in the USA. In early VHS times a few European releases (e.g. Germany and UK) as well as the Australian version offered the so called unrated-version. Later then, new re-releases based on the cut US-Master have been released in these countries which lead to the fact that the original unrated copies vanished more and more.

Until now only one version has been released on DVD and it's the r-rated-version. The reason for this, is the same as the later VHS re-release being only the r-rated version: The US-Master has been used for every DVD-print on the planet (although there are rumours that the first Japanese DVD had the unrated version).

But there is some light at the end of the tunnel: At least the new HD-releases (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) offer a slightly longer version. This version includes the scenes that had to be cut to achieve an r-rating. However it seems that even the HD-releases still lack the short plot scenes.

According to director George Miller on the Blu-ray commentary track, costume designer Norma Moriceau was given very few limitations on how to design the film's unique outfits. Miller said he wanted the "clothing" of the future to look post-apocalyptic & pieced together from whatever the wearer could scrounge up from anywhere they happened to be. Moriceau had the idea of using American football shoulder pads & clothing she bought from sex shops (like Wez' seatless leather pants).

As far as Max's outfit goes, it is heavily modified from the original leather uniform he wore as one of the "Bronze" policemen in the first film. Each alteration has a unique origin:

* The sleeve of his jacket is missing since he had his arm run over in the first movie and medics would have cut the sleeve off rather than remove it by pulling it over the injured arm.

* His leg brace is due to his knee cap being shot through by Bubba Zanetti in the first movie.

* His spanner and tool harness is for running repairs on the V8.

* His driving gloves are missing the fingers on the index and middle finger on both hands, this may be so he can easily retrieve and load shotgun shells, it may also be due to wear and tear as the gloves have several more holes. Cutting the fingers off the gloves would be easier than repairing any holes.

The novels of Mad Max 2 and 3 give some background to Max' history: in the 2nd book Max remembers his boss losing control of the MFP after Max's wife and son were killed as society fell apart further. In the 3rd novel it states that after the death of his family and his revenge on the Toecutter's gang "the world had finally blown itself to Hell a few weeks later it had seemed only fitting. He had taken off alone into the wastes and lived there ever since".

An Australian Cattle Dog or "Blue Heeler", as it's known in its native land. The dog the producers got for the film was known simply as "Dog" and was retrieved at a local pound where he was scheduled to be euthanized the next day. The production's animal wrangler (trainer) found that the dog could be easily trained for the film. After the film was done, it found a home on a local ranch.

"THE VERMIN HAVE INHERITED THE EARTH". It was likely painted on there by someone who thought of marauders like Wez & the Humungus to be the vermin of the world following the apocalypse, the type of thugs who rape & kill for fuel.

In the middle of the 80s Mad Max 2 got edited in a special version for TV. The first channel which aired this version was NBC, later the Australian Network 10 as well. This version is censored in nearly every scene containing violence but offers different camera angles and complete alternative scenes which are unique in this way. These scenes were re-inserted to the movie to enlarge him to its original runtime whereas some of these scenes would have been good for the original version as well.

As most movie fans should know, Mel Gibson's appearance as The Road Warrior had to be softened in two scenes (arrow in the arm + boomerang in the head) in order to receive an R-Rating. The original version also features some more plot material. Papagallo's motivational speech is longer in three parts. All DVD releases worldwide only contained the R-Rated versions, however, the Blu-ray surprisingly featured the two violence scenes (despite the US release's R-Rated sticker on the back). Papagallo's speech is still cut and the VHS releases are still the only ones featuring the complete movie.