So you want to watch the Mad Max movies, but you don’t want to accidentally get the order wrong and spoil the whole thing? Man oh man, have we got complicated news for you.
The thing is, in the waning days of the MCU era, we’ve become acclimated to a contiguous narrative: One story leading into another, into another. Mad Max, meanwhile, is something closer to the serialized adventures of Conan the Barbarian. Sometimes. Kind of. There’s a subtle continuity to parts of the franchise, while other parts throw the concept to the wind. Whatever rocks your boat, we can — at least for the time being — agree on where the series starts.
Mad Max (1979)
Shot on a budget of less money than Mel Gibson will mutter a slur for nowadays, Mad Max is a wild throwback to the barbaric days of 1970s filmmaking in Australia. It is a shockingly straightforward story compared to later entries, and it makes its place on the franchise timeline easy to pin down thanks to one important detail: The bombs haven’t fallen yet.
Mad Max opens in a world on the brink of collapse, but not quite there yet. It shows its hero as a lawman in the final days of society, trying to maintain order on a landscape desperately begging to self-immolate. It also tells us in its first moments that it takes place “a few years” after its 1979 real-world premiere, and features thoughtfully dated graffiti labeled “1984.”
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
Putting aside the helpful fact that George Miller tossed a “2” into the title, we know that The Road Warrior takes place post-Mad Max thanks to the sequel’s popping-fresh, new-mushroom-cloud-smell post-apocalyptic setting. Another hint that it takes place after Mad Max: Max has a leg brace and a notable lack of his wife and child.
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Another softball, Beyond Thunderdome (starring the late Tina Turner) is easy to place after The Road Warrior. While settlements were still only just being established in The Road Warrior, by Beyond Thunderdome, there was a full-fledged Barter Town, to say nothing of a dead-heat political rivalry regarding the question of “who run” it. Also, Max has at least half a decade’s worth of mullet by this time, and the kids have gone all Lord of the Flies nonsense-talky. That sort of thing takes years.
So far, so easy. Unfortunately, this is where things start to get complicated.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
George Miller’s latest addition to the Mad Max franchise is a prequel, exploring the early days of Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road. We can say, with some certainty, that it takes place before Fury Road, recasting Charlize Theron’s Furiosa with Anya Taylor-Joy. Considering the fact that time is linear, it puts the film 20 to 30 years before its predecessor — potentially right after Beyond Thunderdome.
Probably. See, time is a tricky thing in the Mad Max movies, as illustrated deftly by our final entry.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
When it hit theaters in 2015, Mad Max: Fury Road was the first entry in the franchise in 30 years. It featured a new lead actor playing the same main character. Maybe. Possibly.
Like, this Max — the Max played by Tom Hardy — has the memories of the Max from the previous movies. At the end of his nightmare sequence at the beginning of the movie, he sees Toecutter from 1979’s Mad Max, about to be smashed by a semi. He dresses like Max. He drives the Last of the V8 Interceptors like Max.
Only the last of the V8 Interceptors was destroyed during Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, so Fury Road must take place before then. Except then the Interceptor gets stolen and destroyed during Fury Road, too. Plus, The Road Warrior takes place a couple of years after the fall of the bombs, and Fury Road sees Max rocking a tally-a-day tattoo marking 33 years since that happened.
But also, Max is only in his mid-30s in Fury Road, so how has he been kicking around the wasteland for 33 years when he was already an adult man with a wife and a son during the events of Mad Max? The fan theory that this is a different guy — maybe the Feral Child from Road Warrior — doesn’t hold water if this Max remembers the death of Toecutter. He’d have to be the same person, right? But in his 60s? Looking like he’s in his 30s? Or tattooing himself every day since he was a toddler?
Whatever. It’s a good enough movie that nobody cares about the logic. Huff some chrome, turn off your MCU brain, and witness.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
