Trivia / Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior

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• Actor-Inspired Element:
  • According to George Miller, it was Mel Gibson's idea to make Max look as rough and ragged as he did. Before filming began, he cut his own hair and eyebrows, cut the sleeve off his leather jacket, and tore up his gloves.
  • As part of his audition, Emil Minty had to think up a Back Story of how he became the Feral Kid. The one he came up with was used for the tribe of feral children in Beyond Thunderdome.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: Mel Gibson and George Miller named this as their favourite entry in the series.
• Fan Film: Mad Max: Renegade shows how Max got his Canine Companion. It's set shortly after the first film.
• Fountain of Expies:
  • Practically EVERY apocalyptic fiction (with the Fallout series in particular) features raiders modeled after Wez's costume and hairstyle.
  • Max himself is the template for the typical lone wasteland wanderer. Entertainment Weekly noted that the characters played by Kevin Costner in Waterworld and The Postman are copycat descendants of Max.
• On-Set Injury: One of the more spectacular stunts in the film was actually a serious accident. One of the motorcycle-riding raiders hits a car, flies off the bike, smashes his legs against the car, and cartwheels through the air towards the camera. This was a real, genuine accident: the stuntman was supposed to just fly over the car without hitting it. But the nearly fatal incident looked so dramatic, that it was kept in the movie. The stuntman broke his leg badly, but survived.
• Star-Making Role: For Mel Gibson. In America, anyway.
• Throw It In!:
  • The mook sent flying through the air as the result of crashing into the car that Max shoots in the truck chase sequence was not scripted, but looked too awesome to leave out.
  • The mechanic in the swing evaluating the truck and the blond guy repeating it much louder wasn't planned; the actors just started doing it on their own.
• What Could Have Been:
  • It was originally going to be revealed near the end of the film that Lord Humungus was in fact Max's old Main Force Patrol partner Jim Goose, who was horribly burned (but not confirmed to be dead) in the first movie. While this didn't make it into the film, some elements of the final product might be leftover hints:
    • Humungus' scoped pistol is a very similar weapon to the standard sidearm used by the MFP (albeit a different model)^note  for the record, MFP's issue weapon is a Smith and Wesson Model 28, the utility version of the Model 27, the first .357 Magnum revolver. Humungus uses a .44 Magnum Model 29., and other members of his pack use modified police patrol vehicles.
    • He appears to have terrible burn scars underneath his mask, as evidenced by the back of his head, though the rest of his body is completely unblemished.
    • His speeches about losing the people you care about and "ending the suffering" seem to hint at a more conflicted and tragic personality.
  • The opening scene was originally shot with Max driving past a farm that Wez and others were ransacking while the bodies of the owners that they killed were hanging dead from a tree. During the massacre the sound of a high-powered V8 approaching is heard by Wez. In the distance, he sees the interceptor with its large fuel tanks drive past. Wez jumps on his bike and he and the others make chase. The camera then pans out of the car's charger to signify a short passage of time and THEN the scene is as we know it with just Wez and two cars still in pursuit due to the Pursuit Special's power.
  • The Pursuit Special was originally supposed to have been built around a Ford Mustang, but the budget didn't stretch far enough to import one.
  • In the original script, Pappagallo was once the Chief Executive of Seven Sisters Petroleum, a major oil company. After 'the world crumbled' he decided to escape out into the wastelands along with a group of people.
  • The Golden Youth was supposed to be female and The Warrior Woman was originally a man. The writers decided to change the sex of the character to show how gender roles became interchangeable in Mad Max universe.
  • The film was originally going to be dubbed over with an American English voice track replacing the Australian English much like the first film. An early trailer even shows this with Humungus speaking with an American sounding voice.
• Word of Saint Paul: According to Vernon Wells, Wez's partner (Golden Boy) wasn't actually a sexual partner. Wells says there was a Deleted Scene which explained that Wez rescued Golden Boy as a child and became a sort of surrogate father to him. However, there is no evidence of this aside from this statement.
• Editing mistake? During the final chase scene, Max hits the brakes to shake off Wez who was on top of the truck's cabin. Wez slips and falls to his apparent death in front of the moving truck. Later on, Max makes a u-turn in an effort to lose some of his pursuers and the camera shot shows us the truck well enough to see Wez is not in the vehicle's front bumpers, yet by the time Max is trying to make the Feral Kid reach for the remaining bullet in the truck's hood, Wez springs up in front to fetch the kid. Apparently he grabbed a hold in front of the truck all the time, yet the u-turn shot makes it clear he wasn't there.

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