Mad Max is an Australianmedia franchise created byGeorge Miller andByron Kennedy. It centres on a series ofpost-apocalyptic anddystopianaction films. The franchise began in 1979 withMad Max, and was followed by three sequels:Mad Max 2 (1981; released in the United States asThe Road Warrior),Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) andMad Max: Fury Road (2015); Miller directed or co-directed all four films. A spin-off,Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, was released in 2024 and was also directed by Miller.Mel Gibson originally portrayed the series's title character,Max Rockatansky, in the first three films, whileTom Hardy andJacob Tomuri portrayed the character in the later two films.

Mad Max
Official franchise logo since 2015
Created by	George Miller Byron Kennedy
Original work	Mad Max (1979)
Owner	Warner Bros. Entertainment
Years	1979–1985; 2015–present
Print publications
Novel(s)	Mad Max (1979) Mad Max 2 (1982) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Comics	Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Films and television
Film(s)	Mad Max (1979) Mad Max 2 (1981) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
Games
Video game(s)	Mad Max (1990) Mad Max (2015)
Audio
Soundtrack(s)	Mad Max (1980) Mad Max 2 (1982) Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

The series follows Max, who starts the series as a police officer in a future Australia which is experiencingsocietal collapse due to war, critical resource shortages, andecocide.^[1] As Australia devolves further into barbarity, Max becomes a wandering drifter in the wasteland. He periodically encounters remaining pockets of civilisation, which rope him into their political machinations or personal problems. Max, who is habitually wary of others, frequently struggles to decide whether to help others or go his own way. Ultimately, he assists the survivors in the nick of time before departing into the wasteland once more.

The series has had a highly positive reception;The Road Warrior andFury Road in particular have been ranked among thebest action films ever made. The series has also had asignificant impact on popular culture, most notablyapocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and encompasses works in additional media including video games and comic books. In 2016,Fury Road became the first film of theMad Max franchise to receiveAcademy Award recognition, winning six of its ten nominations. It is an example of thedieselpunk genre.

The exact causes of the collapse of civilization in the series are never specified, but some details are given. In the timeline of the original three films, the1979 oil crisis caused by theIranian Revolution worsened, leading to worldwide energy shortages and unrest. Tensions boiled over when Iranian forces attackedSaudi Arabia, igniting a massivewar in the Middle East and around the world. In the timeline of the later two films, the collapse happened around the 2010s, and was caused by a combination ofresource wars and subsequentenvironmental damage.

The firstMad Max film takes place in the original timeline and is a mostly traditional origin story. In a dystopian Australia where thegovernment no longer has the capacity to effectively protect its citizens, Max Rockatansky is a skilled policeman trying to keep order on the highways. When Max takes his family to the beach for a holiday, a vicious biker gang murders his wife and child. Max kills the gang in revenge. Disillusioned by the collapse of ordered society, Max quits his job and becomes a wanderer in the increasingly devastated wasteland.

The remainingMad Max films follow Max's comings and goings in the wasteland. ByMad Max 2,global war has destroyed the remaining world governments. The old society has essentially collapsed, and gangs and warlords dominate the wasteland. Isolated pockets of civilisation remain, desperately preserving remnants of pre-apocalyptic technology, especially oil refineries (Mad Max 2,Furiosa,Fury Road). By the time ofBeyond Thunderdome,Furiosa, andFury Road, society has devolved into abarter economy, withchattel andsex slavery being widespread.Furiosa andFury Road also suggest thatChristianity and other pre-apocalypse World religions have been replaced by new religions native to the wasteland.

During his wanderings, Max periodically encounters remaining pockets of civilisation, which rope him into their political machinations or personal problems. Typically, Max goes along for self-interested reasons, but eventually his motives become more altruistic.Mad Max films typically highlight their protagonists' struggle to reclaim their humanity in a dystopian wasteland that has taught them to place little value on kindness and decency.

MostMad Max films are told from the perspective of aquestionably reliable narrator retelling the story many years after the fact, suggesting that the characters of Max and Furiosa have crossed over into the folklore of a survivor civilisation.^[2][3][4] (AlthoughFury Road lacks a narrator, Miller has said that in his mind, it was also "based on the Word Burgers of the History Men [cf. folktales told by bards orgriots] and eyewitness accounts of those who survived."^[5]) Miller "seesMad Max as a series of legends about the titular character, the kinds of campfire stories that might be passed around in the Wasteland at dark."^[6] BecauseMad Max films are generally told as folklore, theMad Max franchise has historically been less concerned with continuity than most science fiction or fantasy franchises, likeStar Wars orStar Trek. There is "no strict chronology,"^[7] and the films are allowed to contradict each other.^[6] At least one critic has suggested that "the franchise’s canon cannot be reconciled in any way — barring the introduction of time travel."^[8]

Mad Max is a 1979 Australian action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and James McCausland from a story by Miller and producer Byron Kennedy. Set "a few years from now", it tells the story of highway policeman Max Rockatansky, who is repeatedly attacked by a criminal biker gang amidst a broadersocial breakdown, and who is caught between his opposing desires to stay home with his family and to take revenge on the bikers.

The film, starring the then little-knownMel Gibson, was released internationally in 1980. It became a top-grossing Australian film, and has been credited for further opening the global market toAustralian New Wave films.^[9][10] For twenty years, it held the record in theGuinness Book of Records for the most profitable film ever made.The Blair Witch Project claimed the record in 1999.^[11]

Mad Max 2 (released asThe Road Warrior in the United States) is a 1981 Australianpost-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller,Terry Hayes, andBrian Hannant. Mel Gibson returned as Max Rockatansky. In this film, the societal breakdown depicted inMad Max has degenerated into a global apocalypse, for which the film's prologue provides additional backstory. Max, now wandering through the post-apocalyptic wasteland, meets a community of oil drillers trying to defend itself against a roving band of marauders. The film follows an archetypal "Western" frontier movie motif, as does Max's role as a hardened man who rediscovers his humanity.^[12] Miller explained that theMad Max films "effectively look forward to the past ... in the same way that the American Western allowed for allegory figures playing out morality tales in a landscape."^[13]

This sequel to Miller'sMad Max was a worldwide box office success that further boosted the career of Mel Gibson.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is a 1985 film, the third installment in the franchise. The film was directed by George Miller andGeorge Ogilvie, was written by Miller and Terry Hayes, and starred Mel Gibson andTina Turner. In this film, Max is still wandering through the wasteland, civilisation has shifted to a barter economy, and gladiatorial combat is a key source of entertainment. After robbers steal Max's belongings, the local boss Aunty (played by Turner) recruits Max to fight a political rival in her "Thunderdome", with a promise to replace his belongings if he wins.

Miller initially lost interest in the project after his friend and producer Byron Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash, but he later agreed to move forward with the assistance of Ogilvie.^[14] The original music score was composed byMaurice Jarre.

Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth film of the franchise,^[15] is a 2015 post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller,Brendan McCarthy, andNico Lathouris. It featuresTom Hardy as Mad Max andCharlize Theron as his unlikely allyImperator Furiosa. In this film, the remaining trappings of pre-apocalyptic civilisation have given way to a system of ruthless warlords, who dominate Australia's remaining agricultural and industrial centers with their private armies. Max, still wandering the wasteland, is captured by warlordImmortan Joe, but seizes the opportunity to escape when Joe's lieutenant Furiosa attempts her own escape from Joe's fortress. Max and Furiosa team up to fend off Joe's army so that they can reach Furiosa's home, from where she was kidnapped twenty years earlier.

The film spent many years indevelopment hell; Mel Gibson was attached to return as Max in 2003, but the production fell through.^[16]Location scouting resumed in 2009,^[17] but production was delayed until June 2012 due to unusually high levels of rain, which caused vegetation to grow in the Australian desert, detracting from the post-apocalyptic feeling that Miller wanted. Shooting ultimately took place in Namibia the following year.^[18]

In 2016,Fury Road won sixAcademy Awards from ten nominations; the six wins were more than any other film that year.^[19][20] In Metacritic's tally of 105 critic lists of the best films of the decade,Fury Road topped more lists than any other film, with 20 critics placing it at number one, over twice as many as second-placedMoonlight.^[21] In addition, a 2016BBC poll of 177 film critics listedMad Max: Fury Road as the 19th-best film of the 21st century.^[22]

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, the fifth film in the franchise, is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action film directed by George Miller and written by Miller and Nico Lathouris. It is a prequel toFury Road; Miller said that while the franchise has "no strict chronology," it "probably" takes place afterBeyond Thunderdome.^[7] The film starsAnya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa andChris Hemsworth as her adversary, the warlord Dementus; in addition,Jacob Tomuri portrays Mad Max in a cameo appearance.^[23] In this film, Furiosa is kidnapped by Dementus's Biker Horde, which sells her to Immortan Joe. Over the following decade, she trains as a soldier and mechanic so that she can take revenge on Dementus for killing her mother.

While writingFury Road, Miller and McCarthy found that they had enough story material for two additional scripts, one of which centered onFury Road co-protagonist Imperator Furiosa.^[24] In March 2020, it was announced that Miller had begun auditioning new actresses for the title role; Miller considered usingdigital de-aging technology to make Charlize Theron look like she was in her twenties, but decided that the technology had not yet overcome theuncanny valley.^[25][26] AlthoughFuriosa, likeFury Road, was disrupted by inclement weather in Australia, advances in VFX technology allowed theFuriosa shoot to move forward in Australia as originally planned.^[27] Shooting took place from June to October 2022.^[28][29][30]

In March 2015, Hardy revealed that he was attached to star in three moreMad Max films, followingFury Road.^[31] After the release ofFury Road, Miller announced that he was planning to release a follow-up film with the working title ofMad Max: The Wasteland.^[32][33] Miller provided more concrete details while promoting his filmsThree Thousand Years of Longing andFuriosa. He revealed thatThe Wasteland would be anotherFury Road prequel, explaining that he and Lathouris had written what was "basically ... a novella" about Max's travels in the Wasteland in the year preceding his capture by Immortan Joe's forces at the start ofFury Road, and that they were planning to adapt the novella into a screenplay.^[34][35] Miller envisioned thatThe Wasteland would feature a character-based story like that ofFuriosa, although there would still be "a lot of action."^[36] He added that he was "waiting to see the reception onFuriosa" before taking more concrete steps.^[36]

Following the release ofFuriosa, Hardy (who was promoting The Bikeriders at the time) said "I don't think it's happening" in an interview, either talking about his involvement in the film or the film itself.^[37]

Miller confirmed in a February 2025 interview withVulture that he was still interested in makingThe Wasteland, but hoped to focus on other projects first. Stating that, "But if for whatever reason the planets align, you can never tell. Too often, you’re lining up to do a movie and then something happens. Some things fall into place and some don’t, so all I can say is we’ll see."^[38]

^RDistributor rental

Audiences surveyed byCinemaScore gave bothMad Max: Fury Road andFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga a grade of "B+" on a scale of A+ to F.^[59]

Many licensed products are based on theMad Max franchise. Products include novels, comic books, video games, and other materials.^[60]

Novelisations of the first three films have also been published by QB Books. The first two novelisations were written byTerry Hayes, who ended up co-writing the script for the second film after getting along well with Miller.^[61] A novelisation for the third film was written byJoan D. Vinge.^[62]

Mad Max is a 1990 video game for theNintendo Entertainment System developed byGray Matter and published byMindscape. It is based on the filmMad Max 2, with the object of the game is to survive life in the post-apocalyptic world by battlingsurvivalists and collecting resources. Mindscape did develop anotherMad Max game originally titledThe Road Warrior forSuper Nintendo Entertainment System andSega Genesis, but due to Mindscape losing the license before completion they changed the title toOutlander to avoid legal issues.^[63]

Mad Max is a 2015 video game developed byAvalanche Studios and published byWarner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. It is based on the setting ofMad Max and was released forPlayStation 4,Windows,Xbox One,Linux, andmacOS. The titular character was voiced byBren Foster.^[64]

At the 2024 premiere forFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga, Miller said that he would like for a future Mad Max game to be directed byMetal Gear creatorHideo Kojima.^[65] After viewing an advance showing ofFuriosa, Kojima wrote on Twitter that he had been a fan of the franchise since he saw the firstMad Max film when he was sixteen. He added that Miller "is my God, and the SAGA that he tells is my Bible."^[66]

Mad Max: Fury Road is a limited comic book series created by George Miller,Nico Lathouris, and Mark Sexton. Serving as a prequel to the 2015 film of the same name, the series focuses on several of the film's characters. It consists of four issues. Beginning in May 2015,Vertigo published one issue per month, ending in August. A single-volume collection of all of the issues was published on 26 August. Reception of the series has been mixed; some consider it unnecessary and poorly executed, and many harshly criticised the issue centred onImperator Furiosa. However, the issue focused on Nux and Immortan Joe and the two issues focused on Max Rockatansky were received more positively. Characters from the comic book series were later adapted to the 2015Mad Max video game and the 2024 filmFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga.

The trailer for the 2021 filmSpace Jam: A New Legacy revealed the film's inclusion ofMad Max characters among other Warner Bros. characters in crowd scenes.^[67] In the actual film, in addition to characters being spectators,Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner appear in the Mad Max world doing their classic chase with Wile E. as a War Boy, before Bugs Bunny andLeBron James show up to get them both. Footage fromFury Road is featured with the duo edited into it.