Max Rockatansky is a highway patrolman in a collapsing Australia whose wife and son are killed by a biker gang, and he becomes a lone drifter in the wasteland that follows. Across the later films he helps others survive almost against his will: settlers guarding a fuel refinery, a tribe of lost children and, in Fury Road, Imperator Furiosa, who overthrows the warlord Immortan Joe. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga goes back to tell Furiosa's own story and ends just before Fury Road begins.
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No. 01 · 1979 · Film
Mad Max recap
A few years from now, society in Australia is breaking down, and the Main Force Patrol polices the highways against violent gangs. Its best driver, Max Rockatansky, chases down a gang member who calls himself the Nightrider, who dies in a crash. The Nightrider's gang, led by the Toecutter, comes to town to collect his body and terrorises the locals. Max's partner Jim Goose arrests one of them, Johnny the Boy, but Johnny is released when no witnesses appear. In revenge, the gang ambushes Goose and burns him alive in his crashed car. Shaken, Max quits the force, and takes his wife Jessie and their baby son Sprog on a holiday along the coast. The gang finds them there. Jessie escapes them once, but the bikers catch up with her and the baby on the road.
How Mad Max ends
The gang runs down Jessie and the baby, and Max, in the Patrol's black supercharged Interceptor, hunts the bikers down one by one. The Toecutter is crushed by a truck. Max finds Johnny the Boy looting a crashed car, handcuffs his ankle to the wreck, sets a fire, and gives him a hacksaw: he can cut through the chain or his own ankle. Max drives off into the wasteland as the car explodes.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 1981 · Film
Mad Max 2 recap
After a global war, fuel is the most precious thing left. Max, now a drifter haunted by his family's death, roams the wasteland with his dog and his Interceptor. He takes the Gyro Captain, a pilot of a small gyrocopter, prisoner and learns about a small oil refinery held by a group of settlers led by Pappagallo. The refinery is besieged by a gang of marauders led by the masked Lord Humungus and his violent lieutenant Wez, who demand the fuel. Max offers to bring the settlers a big truck to haul their tanker in exchange for all the fuel he can carry. He gets the truck, but leaves after being paid, and is attacked on the road by the gang, who kill his dog and wreck his car. Badly hurt, Max is rescued by the Gyro Captain, and he agrees to drive the tanker in a dash to the coast.
How Mad Max 2 ends
Max drives the tanker through the gang until it crashes, and it turns out to be full of sand: a decoy, while the settlers escape with the fuel in their other vehicles. Pappagallo is killed in the chase, and Humungus and Wez die in a head-on collision with the tanker. The Gyro Captain leads the settlers south to the coast. The Feral Kid, a boy who befriended Max, grows up to lead their Great Northern Tribe and narrates the film as an old man; his last sight of Max is of him standing alone on the road.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 03 · 1985 · Film
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome recap
Fifteen years later, Max's camels and belongings are stolen by Jedediah, a pilot, and his son. He walks to Bartertown, a desert trading post ruled by Aunty Entity, which runs on methane from pig manure produced underground. Aunty offers Max his things back if he kills Master Blaster, a dwarf, Master, riding on the shoulders of a giant, Blaster, who controls the power and challenges her rule. Max fights Blaster in the Thunderdome, a cage arena where the rule is "two men enter, one man leaves", and wins, but refuses to kill Blaster when he sees he has the mind of a child. Aunty has Blaster killed anyway and sends Max into the desert on a horse as punishment. He collapses, and is found by a tribe of children living in an oasis, who think he is Captain Walker, the pilot of a plane that crashed there years before.
How Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome ends
Max leads some of the children to the ruins of Sydney, escaping Aunty's forces in a train, and stays behind while they fly away in Jedediah's plane. First Max rescues Master from Bartertown and they flee with the children, chased by Aunty's gang. Max drives a truck at the pursuers to clear the runway so Jedediah's overloaded plane can take off, and Aunty, impressed, spares him and leaves him in the desert. Years later, the children's leader, Savannah Nix, tells their story to the children of the rebuilt city.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 2015 · Film
Mad Max: Fury Road recap
Max is captured by the War Boys of Immortan Joe, a warlord who rules a desert fortress called the Citadel, controlling its water. Max is used as a "blood bag" for a sick War Boy, Nux. Joe sends his lieutenant, Imperator Furiosa, in an armoured War Rig to trade for fuel, but she drives off course: she has hidden Joe's five wives, whom he keeps as breeding slaves, in the rig, and is taking them to the Green Place, where she grew up. Joe gives chase with his army, joined by the gangs of Gas Town and the Bullet Farm. Nux brings Max along chained to his car, and Max frees himself and ends up joining Furiosa and the wives. Nux, after failing Joe, joins them too. They reach the Vuvalini, Furiosa's people, and learn that the Green Place has turned to poisoned swamp.
How Mad Max: Fury Road ends
Max persuades Furiosa to drive back and take the Citadel, which has been left almost unguarded. Furiosa kills Immortan Joe during the chase, and Nux sacrifices himself to block the canyon pass with the War Rig. Furiosa is badly wounded and Max saves her with a blood transfusion. At the Citadel, the people raise Furiosa and the wives on a lift, and Max disappears into the crowd.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 2024 · Film
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga recap
In the Green Place, a young Furiosa is kidnapped by raiders from the biker horde of Dementus, a warlord. Her mother, Mary Jabassa, chases them across the desert, and Dementus has her killed in front of Furiosa. Dementus keeps the girl, then trades her to Immortan Joe for control of Gas Town. She escapes Joe's plans for her, hides in the Citadel disguised as a boy, and grows up working on a new War Rig. As a young woman, she becomes the partner of Praetorian Jack, the rig's driver, and they fight off raiders on the road. The two plan to escape together to the Green Place, but Dementus captures them during a battle at the Bullet Farm. Jack is killed, and Furiosa loses her left arm escaping.
How Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ends
Furiosa hunts down Dementus and takes her revenge, and the story leads directly into Fury Road as she hides Joe's wives in her rig. After a war between Joe and Dementus, Furiosa finds him alone in the desert. The History Man says there are different accounts of what she did; one shows her planting a peach seed inside his body so that a tree grows from him. Furiosa becomes an Imperator, and the final scene shows the wives boarding her War Rig.
Post-credits scenes
During the credits, scenes from Fury Road play. There is no post-credits scene.
Common questions
What is the Mad Max story so far?
Max Rockatansky is a highway patrolman in a collapsing Australia whose wife and son are killed by a biker gang, and he becomes a lone drifter in the wasteland that follows. Across the later films he helps others survive almost against his will: settlers guarding a fuel refinery, a tribe of lost children and, in Fury Road, Imperator Furiosa, who overthrows the warlord Immortan Joe. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga goes back to tell Furiosa's own story and ends just before Fury Road begins.
Where did Mad Max leave off?
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) is the latest. Furiosa hunts down Dementus and takes her revenge, and the story leads directly into Fury Road as she hides Joe's wives in her rig. After a war between Joe and Dementus, Furiosa finds him alone in the desert. The History Man says there are different accounts of what she did; one shows her planting a peach seed inside his body so that a tree grows from him. Furiosa becomes an Imperator, and the final scene shows the wives boarding her War Rig.
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