# Mad Max Premise : World is low on Oil, huh **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 16, 2014, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374 "2014-12-16T07:32:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Habeed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a587f6/32.png) [@Habeed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Habeed)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/1 "2014-12-16T07:32:44Z")
So why in the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNWi-ZWL3c)does it show these savages driving massive fleets of what appear to be the least fuel efficient vehicles in existence? All kinds of monster trucks, inefficient vehicles with spikes sticking out every which way, carbureted engines… Not to mention they are blowing them up every which way. Not to mention, if these guys are evil cannibal/savages, how are they so darn good at refining fuel and keeping their jalopies running? Also, how is the **entire planet** a desert wasteland? Where did all the water go, the Earth has a lot of it… I get it, it’s a movie. I’m not trying to nitpick a minor detail here. Literally the entire premise of the movie and everything in the trailer doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/2 "2014-12-16T07:38:13Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > I get it, it’s a movie. I’m not trying to nitpick a minor detail here. Literally the entire premise of the movie and everything in the trailer doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. Welcome to the world of Mad Max. This has been true for every movie in the series, except for the first one, which was less “post-apocalyptic” and more “violent gangs are only going to get worse because its the 70s.” The whole series doesn’t make any sense if you think about it for too long, so I just don’t. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 2:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/3 "2014-12-16T14:46:02Z")
The first Mad Max was, I have heard, set in a world with an economic collapse, not a nuclear war. Society hadn’t fully broken down, but it was teetering on the edge. There was a semblance of law and order. The gangs were outlaws, caused a lot of trouble, but society still attempted to live by the rule of law. Note that Johnny Boyle was going to be put on trial, but no one showed up. It was only after that that Fifi gave his MFP cops carte blanche, as long as “the paperwork was clean.” They still cared about the paperwork. Even Max’s family could expect to travel without body guards across country. The world wasn’t the shithole it had become by _The Road Warrior_. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/4 "2014-12-16T15:10:26Z")
> [@Habeed](#): > > So why in the [trailer](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNWi-ZWL3c)does it show these savages driving massive fleets of what appear to be the least fuel efficient vehicles in existence? All kinds of monster trucks, inefficient vehicles with spikes sticking out every which way, carbureted engines… > > Not to mention they are blowing them up every which way. Not to mention, if these guys are evil cannibal/savages, how are they so darn good at refining fuel and keeping their jalopies running? They aren’t savages. They have a society built around a worship of car culture. It’s kind of a satire. > [@Habeed](#): > > Also, how is the **entire planet** a desert wasteland? Where did all the water go, the Earth has a lot of it… …what makes you think the entire planet is a desert wasteland? It’s like watching the trailer for “Nightcrawler” and saying “So the entire planet is the city of Los Angeles?” > [@Habeed](#): > > I get it, it’s a movie. I’m not trying to nitpick a minor detail here. Literally the entire premise of the movie and everything in the trailer doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. What IS the premise of the movie to you? ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/5 "2014-12-16T15:19:55Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Even Max’s family could expect to travel without body guards across country. The world wasn’t the shithole it had become by _The Road Warrior_. They weren’t just traveling, they went on a beach vacation to visit family. All the problems with Toecutter and his gang started after they hassled Max and his family while they were getting _ice cream_. There’s no hint that an apocalyptic war is about to start any day now and even the “teetering on the edge” description that is used by a lot of people isn’t very accurate. Essentially, each Mad Max movie takes place within its own universe. ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/6 "2014-12-16T15:35:31Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > They weren’t just traveling, they went on a beach vacation to visit family. All the problems with Toecutter and his gang started after they hassled Max and his family while they were getting _ice cream_. There’s no hint that an apocalyptic war is about to start any day now and even the “teetering on the edge” description that is used by a lot of people isn’t very accurate. > > Essentially, each Mad Max movie takes place within its own universe. There’s nothing to preclude the films from taking place in the same universe–the only weird continuity is the Gyro-captain and the pilot in 2 and 3 being the same actor. (Deadwood did the same thing on HBO by having Garrett Dillahunt play McCall and Wolcott in different seasons) Mad Max is clearly a society in some decline–the already mentioned “no one showed” scene regarding the trial is the most concrete example. And in the background of a scene you here a radio report about rising world tensions. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/7 "2014-12-16T15:38:06Z")
How do you think they got to be so short on oil in the first place? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/8 "2014-12-16T15:51:09Z")
Society collapsing is a process, not an event, and it doesn’t happen at the same time and rate in every place. In the first movie, there was still rule of law and life going on pretty much as usual in the part of Australia that we get to see. Never been there myself, but my first wife was an Australian and from what I picked up about the place from her, the first movie was set in one of the more populated coastal regions. We don’t know what is going on in the rest of the world, or even in the rest of Australia. The second movie is set, apparently, in the arid interior part of the continent. According to Wife #1, that area has never been more than sparsely populated. All the psychos, sadists, perverts and other dross seem to have drifted there in the second movie. My guess is that, while the Bronze could hold things together in the coastal areas, they hadn’t the resources or the inclination to chase all over the outback. Think of it in terms of old Western movies. The interior is “Indian Country,” only the “Indians” are Lord Humungous and his spikey-haired minions. By the time of the 3rd movie, things have collapsed in general. Whatever the other crises might have been in the previous movies, they seem to have finally led to the real true Poxie Clips with bombs and everything. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/9 "2014-12-16T18:15:10Z")
Was the crashed airliner in I believe the second film an effort to move the children to a place of safety? ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/10 "2014-12-16T18:29:23Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Was the crashed airliner in I believe the second film an effort to move the children to a place of safety? The airliner was in 3. ---
**Author:** ![Tuxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Tuxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuxie)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/11 "2014-12-16T19:03:19Z")
I did wonder this. I guess it would make more sense they are driving hybrids covered in solar panels, conserving as much fuel as possible. But to fit the ‘look’, it is all these huge gas guzzlers. The story is like a bunch of bogans left to their own devices. The trailer made me wonder if there still was oil extraction and refining, but it was sharply limited and isolated. To survive as a post apocalyptic society these gangs would need to trade and transport the fuel for water and food, resources which are probably also scarce. That makes the convoys a ripe target. ---
**Author:** ![Tuxie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ee59a6/32.png) [@Tuxie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuxie)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/12 "2014-12-16T19:05:46Z")
Also the character of Max was written into myth in the wasteland. It has likely passed into oral tradition, hence the spikey monster trucks and such. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/13 "2014-12-16T19:17:08Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > Essentially, each Mad Max movie takes place within its own universe. This is how I think of it. Each film is related but not part of any real continuity. And in truth, I prefer to think of each film as “another try at getting it right”, meaning that I think Dr. Miler realizes he has this awesome character and mien but he hasn’t quite ever fully realized the vision that is possible within the milieu, nor do I think he’s ever fully envisioned that milieu, exactly. For reference, the band Bolt Thrower came up with a sound that was wholly original. They refined that sound over the course of 20 years and 8 albums, until they finally got it right with 2005’s _Those Once Loyal_. The band has continued to tour but has no plans to write any more songs or record ever again. [ > [@](#): > > We’ve spent the last year trying to write songs for a new album, planning to go into the studio this summer, unfortunately, after a lot of thought, we have had to make the difficult decision to postpone the recording indefinitely. We know everybody says that their new album is better than their last, but with us we really believed that. From day one we made it clear that we’d stop recording when we felt we’d written the ultimate Bolt Thrower album, we just never knew when that would be, we kind of took for granted that each release would get better and better. But we have realised now that our last release, “Those Once Loyal” turned out to be that album, and basically the new stuff we have written just doesn’t match up to it. We have a lot of pride in our back catalogue, and we refuse to turn into one of the many bands (like the ones we grew up listening to) who end up releasing crap, and we’re also not prepared to compromise by instead releasing an album of cover versions or a ‘best of’ album. Sorry to disappoint those of you looking forward to hearing new BT songs, but we always said that we would never release anything we weren’t happy with or that, in our view, didn’t at least match up to our previous work. ]([http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=37247](http://www.metalunderground.com/news/details.cfm?newsid=37247))I like to think that Dr. Miller has a similar ethos. ---
**Author:** ![OneCentStamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/13edae/32.png) [@OneCentStamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OneCentStamp)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/14 "2014-12-16T19:21:23Z")
And with a Bolt Thrower reference on the SDMB, I can now shut off my computer and go outside for a walk, because it isn’t going to get any better than this online for the rest of the day. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/15 "2014-12-16T19:36:16Z")
> [@Tuxie](#): > > I did wonder this. I guess it would make more sense they are driving hybrids covered in solar panels, conserving as much fuel as possible. > > But to fit the ‘look’, it is all these huge gas guzzlers. The story is like a bunch of bogans left to their own devices. The trailer made me wonder if there still was oil extraction and refining, but it was sharply limited and isolated. To survive as a post apocalyptic society these gangs would need to trade and transport the fuel for water and food, resources which are probably also scarce. That makes the convoys a ripe target. Well in Road Warrior the whole plot revolves around the Lord Humongous wanting to take over the small refinery…and in Fury Road there’s essentially three territories that all work together–the Citadel; which has a deep water well and is able to grow food and sustain a modest peasant population. Bullet-town which we assume is a manufacturing center (possibly just guns, ammo and explosives but maybe more), and…I can’t remember what they called it, but basically an oil and gas refinery town. The three trade regularly and have mutual protection treaties. In this world they ARE the civilized ones. There are “feral” raiders that inhabit hostile territory around them ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/16 "2014-12-16T20:55:07Z")
> [@OneCentStamp](#): > > And with a Bolt Thrower reference on the SDMB, I can now shut off my computer and go outside for a walk, because it isn’t going to get any better than this online for the rest of the day. 😃 😃 They’re one of my favorite bands. I once traveled from Las Vegas to Austin, TX just to see them play. I’d have seen them in Pamona, CA and in Chicago on that tour as well but the shows sold out before I could get tix. They played like 8 shows in the US in 2013; first time they toured the States in like 22 years. One of the best shows I’ve seen in the last decade, too. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/17 "2014-12-18T20:53:47Z")
> [@Scumpup](#): > > Society collapsing is a process, not an event, and it doesn’t happen at the same time and rate in every place. In the first movie, there was still rule of law and life going on pretty much as usual in the part of Australia that we get to see. Never been there myself, but my first wife was an Australian and from what I picked up about the place from her, the first movie was set in one of the more populated coastal regions. We don’t know what is going on in the rest of the world, or even in the rest of Australia. > The second movie is set, apparently, in the arid interior part of the continent. According to Wife #1, that area has never been more than sparsely populated. All the psychos, sadists, perverts and other dross seem to have drifted there in the second movie. My guess is that, while the Bronze could hold things together in the coastal areas, they hadn’t the resources or the inclination to chase all over the outback. Think of it in terms of old Western movies. The interior is “Indian Country,” only the “Indians” are Lord Humungous and his spikey-haired minions. > By the time of the 3rd movie, things have collapsed in general. Whatever the other crises might have been in the previous movies, they seem to have finally led to the real true Poxie Clips with bombs and everything. There was also a nuclear holocaust somewhere between Mad Max and the Road Warrior, not just further general societal collapse and a change of location. ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/18 "2014-12-18T20:58:34Z")
Also, keep in mind that the fuel needed to keep the vehicles of a smallish band of thugs running is much, much less than the fuel needed to keep an entire modern society running. Even if all they are doing is grabbing the dregs of what’s left after society collapses, there’s going to be a lot of dregs. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 9:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/19 "2014-12-18T21:28:33Z")
> [@TBG](#): > > There was also a nuclear holocaust somewhere between Mad Max and the Road Warrior, not just further general societal collapse and a change of location. Is that from the films, or speculation? ---
**Author:** ![ExTank](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/35a633/32.png) [@ExTank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExTank)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2014, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374/20 "2014-12-18T21:54:26Z")
It’s heavily implied in the third film; Auntie Em says of herself: “I was nobody. Except on the Day After, I was alive.” The water vendor: “What’s a little fallout, eh?” The children’s “cave painting:” pretty clearly shows a big mushroom cloud, the “poxie-clips” (apocalypse). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mad-max-premise-world-is-low-on-oil-huh/707374.md?page=2)