Action Junkie: Mad Max 2 – The Road Warrior
The Road Warrior is, like most action films, a story dealing with extremes, and nothing is more extreme in this film than the villains. A point so finely illustrated in their initial introduction. Riding in on vehicles the wasteland gang surrounds the refinery, recalling scenes from classic western movies where bad guys, portrayed as Native Americans, would surround a wagon train that circled in on itself for protection. The leader of these Post-Apocalyptic bad guys is The Humungous, his name, the very definition of extreme. To further push the point, The Humungous is just that, huge. He’s shaped like a body-builder and wears something you’d expect to see He-Man in. To cap off his physical presence, The Humungous wears a Hockey mask, obviously covering up some serious head and facial scars, and in doing so predates the iconic image of horror movie monster, Jason Vorhees, who was seen by audiences for the first time donning the Hockey mask in Friday the 13th, Part 3-D a year later in 1982. Around The Humungous’ neck is a giant steel brace which coupled with the mask indicates the possibility of a very serious injury, and as part of the intimidation over others factor, he’s adopted this extreme, over-the-top look to turn his misfortune into an asset. When The Humungous speaks his voice is raspy and strained, but his intonations are soft, almost inviting, as he talks through a megaphone attempting to persuade the people in the refinery to just walk away. He even goes so far as to offer clemency, if they chose to give the place over to him, free roam of the wastelands where The Humungous and his gang will leave them be. It’s a strange dichotomy between fear and safety that the villains offer for the people inside, an extreme situation for sure.
George Miller achieves with this film the ultimate goal any action film should strive for, delivering a story with character and plot as progressed through the entertainment of spectacle driven action sequences. Essentially an action scene should serve more than to just wow an audience, it should become the definition of its description, to be, action. No finer can you visually represent the concept of progression, the essence of stories, than to physically see humans forwarding the narrative of life in a live or die situation they create. If life were to be measured in ‘doing’ instead of ‘done to’ where one makes life happen instead of waiting for it to happen to them, than the action film is life in motion. This is where the need to control one’s destiny is given physical agency, and to prove this point we have The Road Warrior’s climatic chase sequence.
Already told that Max is a remembered hero in the prologue, he’s obviously done a few things by the end that leave the audience questioning whether he really is the hero mentioned before or not. To help even more with our questioning of his worth Max, after going through hell at the hands of the gang, finally agrees to drive the tanker. This seems like a heroic gesture, but given the situation, where the people of the refinery are leaving with or without Max, really leaves Max little options. Would they take him as an extra mouth to feed even if he didn’t offer help? My guess is probably not, and Max knows this. Driving that tanker is his salvation. Over the course of the gauntlet that Max, and those who go along with him to help protect the truck, go through, real character fortitude will be tested. Max proves his worth as a hero, defending off advancing attackers with his bare hands at some moments, and blasting them with the few shotgun shells he was given for the occasion, at others. The camera captures perfectly some raw and audacious stunts. While mounts were once again installed on the vehicles bringing the audience into the action, cinematographer Dean Semler, delicately keeps the spectacle in steady frame. This allows the audience to experience the thrill of the stunts while keeping it all in relation to external environments the action has to interact with.
The final progression of Max to mythic hero comes in his defeat. The rig and tanker he is hauling is finally overcome by Max taking care of both Wez and The Humungous. After the death of the refinery’s leader, Pappagallo, Max throws the vehicle into a u-turn and heads straight into his oncoming pursuers, with Wez hanging onto his front grill. The scene climaxes with the head on collision of Max and The Humungous, killing both Wez and The Humungous and sending the tanker crashing onto its side. For a moment, after the dust settles, it seems Max has failed, but in one of the film’s final twists of expectations we learn that the tanker was not hauling the gasoline like the audience and Max thought, but dirt. It was a diversion. The film cuts to the people of the refinery, traveling in a caravan of vehicles, safe from attackers, on their way to the land of salvation. To finally cap off the last twist we learn as the caravan moves across the wasteland that our narrator was a story participant, and none other than the feral kid, who Max befriends and acts as possible surrogate parent to, over the course of the movie. The last shot of the film comes full circle framing Max in the middle of the road, beaten and bleeding, the same shot we opened on. Here he is, a hero, even if he was used as a decoy, his actions still delivered the people to safety, regardless of intent. And, in the end Max, while growing as a person, is left alone again, returning to the wilds of the wasteland that he inhabited at the beginning. He and his environment, like fuel and society, are inextricably linked. Without this world there would be no need for Max, but without this world, there would be no Mad Max.