Did Mad Max know? (possible Road Warrior spoilers)

Okay, I’m putting the question to the Teeming Masses. This was the topic of a heated lunchtime discussion the other day, and where better to get enlightenment than here? (I’m going to try to dance around any specifics here, so as not to spoil the greatest action movie of the last forty years for anyone who hasn’t seen it…)

Did Max know what was in the oil tanker during the climatic scene of The Road Warrior?

It seems impossible that the group in the fortified camp could have made their preparations without him knowing…

But it also seems unlikely that Max, cynical as he is, would have signed up for the mission as it turned out…

Or did he know, his knowing acceptance of the mission being a sign that he’s become re-connected with other people?

His facial expression at the end is engimatic, not to mention how durn beat-up he is, so it’s hard to read anything into it.

SPOILERS AHOY!

He didn’t know. When he came to in the camp, the tanker was allready loaded and all the plans had been made. He convinced the crew to let him drive the tanker, not as a way of helping the group, but as a way to go up against the barbarians in order to win out over them for destroying all he held valuable, his dog and his car.

At the end, after the tanker has crashed and he’s laying on the ground, a smile comes to his face as he realizes the ruse when he sees sand pouring from the tanker.

I agree with Purd Werfect on this one. I doubt that Max would have felt the need to go to the tanker and run his hands under the falling sand had he already known it was in the tanker.

Also, IIRC, the narrator’s voice-over implies that he didn’t know what was in the truck.

I agree; Max didn’t know what was in the tanker, as it was already loaded before he arrived at the compound. He reckoned he was the best driver and decided he would prefer to put his life in his own hands.

Obviously Pappagallo knew the contents (remember him driving up alongside near the end of the chase and saying “OK, it’s over”), but it’s unclear whether everyone else in the compound knew, or perhaps just a few leaders.

Oh, and that Wez, he he he, what a character.

Well, none of us watching it knew. They did give a nifty hint of it, though, after Max leaves the first time and the guy says “Who’s going to drive the truck now?!” Pappagallo looks up bleakly and says, “I will.” Then you see the sand running through the little hourglass in his hand.

The first time I watched it, I thought that Max had no idea. But thinking about it, I realized that I might be projecting my own surprise onto Max, and I watched it again…

Max’s expression at the end is enigmatic, and his rueful grin as he examines his payload might just as well be, “Look what my newfound idealism got me into,” as, “Look at the trick those people played on me.”

Besides, I think the movie’s theme plays better if Max knows. He’s found a cause he can support in the refinery people (i.e, rebuilding civilization), he realizes that there’s no place in the new world for lost souls like him, but he can redeem himself by making this sacrifice for them. It’s the classic Shane plot: Outsider with a shady past comes to town, cleans up the problem, rides away at the end.

OFF TOPIC …but pretty darn cool
The hot warrior chick that bites it when she gets arrowed on top of the tanker is none other than Pa’u Zotoh Zhaan (real name Virgina Hey) of Farscape (the bald blue butt naked priest chick I have been salivating for).
Now back to your regular rants

I dunno, I’ve always thought the movie’s theme plays better if Max DIDN’T know. I don’t think Max finds a cause he can believe in until near the end, when he realizes he cares what happens to the little kid (Feral Kid?). To me, the movie has always been about Max’s nihilism. I don’t think he starts to think about rebuilding civilization until after this movie ends. The next movie was a big let-down, BTW.

Hmmm, I can see that I’m going to have to examine this “Farscape” of which you speak.

And I agree that “Thunderdome” was a letdown; competent enough, but nowhere near “Road Warrior.”

I hadn’t thought of putting Max’s redemption at the point where he rescues the Feral Kid. Hmmmm. Incidentally, Wez’ reappearance right about there is one of the great movie shock scenes, isn’t it?

Another interesting tidbit: The original film, Mad Max, was redubbed because the distributor was concerned that American’s would have trouble understanding Australian accents.

Only in the US. The version of Mad Max I own has the original voices.

I’ve actually written a paper analyzing the soundtracks in Road Warrior-- so I’ve watched and studied the film a lot. (Hint: listen for changes in the music to figure out when significant people die)

Max did not know what the oil tanker contained. You have to remember Road Warrior is a sequel to Mad Max-- where a cop loses his family to a biker gang, enacts his revenge, then disappears into the wasteland. In Road Warrior Max saw a chance to rejoin society after a period of mourning, then actually gets screwed over by that society.

I just can’t see it that way, Barbarian. I see the movie overall as having an optimistic tone, not the cynical one you propound.

I have to believe that at the end, Max is redeemed by his heroic action driving the tanker. Papagallo and the others’ actions show him that there are still people willing to die to build a new world, and that pulls him out of the moral apathy he’s been in since his family died; although he realizes that he doesn’t fit into the new society, he’s no longer quite the amoral loner he used to be.

He’s not “screwed over”, he’s inspired!

A) Max did not know… but I think the Gyro Captain did as he reacts with a smile and no surprise (The Joik!)

B) Papagallo does give away the fact the Tanker is only a diversion. (Listen real hard to the background dialogue as Max is awakwening from his injuries. There are a few sentence that Max in his banged up state misses.

C) Max doesn’t fit in. He takes the truck because as he seems to be saying he’s got nothing now. In these movies a man without a vehical is nothing.

D)I think it is his way to prove to himself that he has some humanity left in him, but really he knows it’s a suicide mission.

E)DVD Fans in North America will be happy to know that Mad Max will be released in January with both the crappy (well except for the guys that did the over the top Toe Cutter and Buba Zeneti) American Dubbed sound track and THE ORIGINAL AUSTRAILIAN SOUNDTRACK! after all these years it is about freakin time!

I agree with Rocketeer.

A friend of mine analysed Max’s character as a reference to the Tin Man from the Wizard of Oz. Silly? - not so much as it first sounds. The opening shot, of Max’s metal leg, emphasizes his inhumanity. Then there is the shot where, just before leaving the compound, someone reaches over and oils his leg, just like Dorothy oils the Tin Man. There were other points which I forget, but the jist is that Max is the man who is missing his heart. By the end of the movie he has found it in his sacrifice for the good of the community.

Well, it made sense to me…

I thought he did know. Didn’t they show all the drums of oil in the bus after the tanker bit the dust? It would have been pretty hard for them to hide those from Max. I thought they were just hiding it from the audience, not Max.

I was under the impression that after Max volunteered they got the idea of the decoy, filled the drums from the tanker, refilled the tanker with sand and started the cameras rolling again.

But then again, I haven’t seen it in many years.

Not saying the previous post is wrong, just thought it would be fun to argue against it.

The compound had a working oil well and sufficient refining capacity to produce far more gasoline than the inhabitants needed for their trip. They could have filled both the tanker AND drums and still had plenty left over. As a matter of fact, they did: enough was left behind to blow the compound up real good after they left.

Now to get REALLY anal about it, every able hand was frantically packing or working on repairing the Mack tractor in the 12 hours or so between Max’s delivery of the truck and their departure. Filling the tanker with sand would have been no mean feat, and would have required a large crew with shovels and buckets, and most of the time required. Given the truly amazing attention to detail and continuity throughout the film, I’d be surprised if George Miller wouldn’t have considered this.

Re: the Gyro Captain and Max grinning at each other at the end, I always read this as them realising how ridiculous it was that they had managed to survive the crashes they’d just been through.

Oh, and outstanding if Mad Max is coming out with the original voice track. It does make a big difference.

Sorry to go on, but I do dearly love these films and enjoy discussing them.

Again, it has been a long time since I saw the film…

Did we have any inkling that there were extra drums of gasoline around? If Max did not know what was in the tanker, than it does not say much for the humanity and morals of the refinery people, since he was cruelly tricked.

Of course, that may have been a point of the movie that whooshed over me.

Without having referenced my DVD to make sure, I’ll say there are drums around, as I believe they can be seen in the background of various shots. They are certainly in evidence flying everywhere when the compound blows up.

The morals of the people in the compound ARE in fact suspect, as you noted; When Max first arrives, carrying in one of their wounded number, Amazon crossbow babe is all for throwing him out on his ear. Later, when he has retrieved the Mack truck but declines to stay and aid the escape, one of Pappagallo’s assistants suggests, “Well, at least let’s keep his car.”

Kingpengvin, interesting points, especially the one about a man without a car being nothing. But don’t your points A and D contradict each other? “Max did not know” and “Max knows it’s a suicide mission”?

I agree that the refinery people aren’t above lying to Max, but heck, at that point he’s just another piece of wasteland scum. Now I’ve contradicted myself: The Refineryites think Max is scum, and yet they trust him enough to tell him he’s driving the decoy. Hmmmmmm. And yet I feel that Pappagallo is a man of honor whould would tell Max. After all, he lets Max keep The Last of The V-8 Interceptors

–aside: damn, I love that name: The Last of The V-8 Interceptors–

and generally treats Max fairly.

And I think I agree with El Kabong that the grins at the end meant something like: “heckuva ride, eh?”

darn it, make that:

…man of honor who would…