# Please Explain Mad Max to Me **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 10, 2005, 11:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077 "2005-12-10T23:47:53Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Lochdale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/edb3f5/32.png) [@Lochdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lochdale)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/41 "2005-12-12T22:35:03Z")
That was confusing. Why would Max say he has a plane when he had a gyrocopter in RW. He had a plane when he jumped Max at the beginning of BT (which was fairly stupid way to take someone out, like he would not have heard the plane). ---
**Author:** ![Duke\_of\_Rat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ad7895/32.png) [@Duke\_of\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke_of_Rat)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 10:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/42 "2005-12-12T22:45:24Z")
I thought that the lost tribe or whatever in BT wanted to get back to “civilization” even though it was pretty much shot by then. They lived in a nice little oasis, but knew that they had come from a city that was home and wanted to get back to that. Where the learnin’ or knowin’ or something was, IIRC. I think civilization was still functioning in MM, just society was going down hill. The train still ran on time, and the kid with the Chevy had it fixed up. And [Bubba Zanetti](http://www.geocities.com/irishdaffy/) was a bad ass. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2005, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/43 "2005-12-12T23:17:44Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I was never sure of that. He is credited as the Gyrocaptain in Road Warrior but as Jedadiah the Pilot in Thunderdome. But Max seemed to immediately recognize him - “YOU!! You’ve got a plane…” and I assumed 1) Gyrocaptain wasn’t his given name, 2) the kid was the offspring of him and the mousey faced girl he hit it off with in RW and 3) it would be stupid to have the same actor play two similar characters. I think they’re supposed to be related. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/44 "2005-12-13T01:20:05Z")
> [@Chairman Pow](#): > > But that was his name. I always heard it as (forgive misspellings) “Robatanski”. I could be wrong. I drink. Alot. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/45 "2005-12-13T01:31:14Z")
In the scripts posted online, and in Joan D. Vinge’s (iirc) novelization of MMBT, it is indeed Rockatansky. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Miskatonic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mr.miskatonic/32/310_2.png) [@Mr.Miskatonic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Miskatonic)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/46 "2005-12-13T04:12:02Z")
Re: Bruce Spence. I believe they were seperate characters. Max had a couple of opporunties in BT to see him up close. (once while hanging from the walls of Thunderdome). More telling is the narration at the end of RW, where the Feral Kid says that the Gyro Captain became the leader of the Great Northern Tribe. I have a hard time beleiving he’d give that up. My suspicion is that Bruce Spence may actually be a qualified pilot, aiding in his use as a pilot character. Or maybe George Miller likes his gangly ‘look’ as the perfect post-apocalyptic scavanger. There’s no evidence of nukes being fired until BT, when Max waves a geiger counter over a water dealers supply and it clicks like mad. According to one timeline I have read, the nukes flew after the events of RW. For RW, one should think that Australia has become something of a hardcore Somalia in many regions. The rest of the world was in (conventional) war and economic collapse. Fun Fact: Wez had more lines in ‘Weird Science’ than in ‘Road Warrior’. Yeah, I know its not credited as being Wez, but its Wez! ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 7:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/47 "2005-12-13T07:23:54Z")
> [@Mr. Miskatonic](#): > > My suspicion is that Bruce Spence may actually be a qualified pilot, aiding in his use as a pilot character. Or maybe George Miller likes his gangly ‘look’ as the perfect post-apocalyptic scavanger. Or it could be that there’s just a small and finite number of Autrailian/New Zealand actors. Kind of like how all the actors who are in Farscape can/were often be found in Xena, Hercules, The Lost World and every other show and movie produced in those countries. I mean Lucy Lawless played like five other unrelated characters in Xena and Hercules. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 1:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/48 "2005-12-13T13:44:17Z")
> [@Mr. Miskatonic](#): > > More telling is the narration at the end of RW, where the Feral Kid says that the Gyro Captain became the leader of the Great Northern Tribe. I have a hard time beleiving he’d give that up. I thought the Feral Kid said that he himself became the leader, not Gyro Captain. I could be misremembering, of course. ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 5:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/49 "2005-12-13T17:41:47Z")
Yes, the Feral kid became the leader. RW has one of the saddest scenes in the movies in it, too; the more so because it’s unexpected: The death of The Last of the V-8 Interceptors. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 8:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/50 "2005-12-13T20:26:18Z")
> [@Revtim](#): > > I thought the Feral Kid said that he himself became the leader, not Gyro Captain. I could be misremembering, of course. The Feral kid became leader much later, after he had grown up. Gyro captain was leader at the end of the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/51 "2005-12-13T21:16:42Z")
> [@The Long Road](#): > > Gyro captain was leader at the end of the movie. Was this indicated by the narration, or something else? ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/52 "2005-12-13T21:57:26Z")
^^^Narration by the voice of the Feral Elderly Man. He says something like: “We headed north with our new leader, the man from the sky. Many years later, I became the leader of the tribe. I never again saw the Road Warrior.” That’s not even close to exact, but is the gist of it. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![The\_Long\_Road](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b5a626/32.png) [@The\_Long\_Road](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Long_Road)\ **Post date:** [December 13, 2005, 11:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/53 "2005-12-13T23:40:21Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > ^^^Narration by the voice of the Feral Elderly Man. He says something like: “We headed north with our new leader, the man from the sky. Many years later, I became the leader of the tribe. I never again saw the Road Warrior.” > > That’s not even close to exact, but is the gist of it. > > Sir Rhosis Yeppers. As for him leading the tribe, he says something about “in the fullness of time I took my place as leader of the tribe.” so it’s in the narration. ---
**Author:** ![sleeepy2](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9a140/32.png) [@sleeepy2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeepy2)\ **Post date:** [December 14, 2005, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077/54 "2005-12-14T00:03:00Z")
> [@Landshark](#): > > I’ll just add one personal opinion about _The Road Warrior_: It concludes with what I think is one of the best vehicular chase sequences ever. Simply amazing. I’ll second that. You got the feeling stuntmen were being killed in that sequence. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/please-explain-mad-max-to-me/335077.md?page=2)