# The Road Warrior - the case for Lord Humongous **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 25, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900 "2016-07-25T23:49:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/1 "2016-07-25T23:49:58Z")
So I’ve recently gotten around to watching _Fury Road_ (greatest movie of the past five years, easy), which prompted me to re-watch that oldie but goodie which I hadn’t thought twice about since puberty and… is it just me, or are the “good” and “bad” guys back asswards ? Ostensibly, the roles are clear - the raiders loot, rape, murder and tie up the settlers in front of their cars. Also they dress in S&M black while the settlers are all in white, how much more clear cut does it get ?! However. Yes, the Lord’s dogs of war are insane beasts, but he demonstrably does try to keep them in line and he himself is always calm, collected. He wants what he wants, he wants what others have, sure. Yes, he gives the settlers the Genghis choice “submit and live, resist and be annihilated”. It’s a harsh world out there. But let’s examine what the “good guys” do : - first contact with Max they jack his wheels, his gun & tools and kick him out to, very presumably, die (with no food nor tools to get any, in the wasteland ?). This despite the fact that he brought one of theirs back for treatment of his own volition. Had the raiders not arrived right this minute, had Max not had the luck to come upon a rig a few days before, they would have sent him to die in the desert with nary a second thought. - then come the raiders and the settlers don’t offer to share the gasoline, or trade some either. They’re sitting on a huge lake of gas, possibly the only one left, but they really _are_ greedy about it, like Humongous says. They’d rather piss it away to make flamethrowers and Molotovs than just… share it. Presumably the conflict has been going on for a while (hence the “none of us is without sin” and “there has been too much pain” lines) but evidently they never, ever agreed to give any gas to outsiders. - they send Max on a decoy mission on the big rig without telling him, just to save their own butts. At that point it’s not clear whether Max is motivated by his humanity and trying to help them, or for revenge against those who trashed his beloved wheels but it doesn’t really matter : he had a right to know the real plan and what he was walking into. Especially since the settlers knew he had precious few chances of making it in one piece (hence the whole decoy plan). In the end Max is left stranded without gas, food, wheels or tools in the middle of the desert. And they don’t come for him - Gyrocaptain does, but it’s ambiguous whether he really did help Max or came to smirk at him before fucking off with the settlers. In his defence, Max had been a dick to him all along, so 🙂 - they filled the tanker with sand. Which says two things : first, the rig could have been much, much faster, and Max \*could \*have had a shot of making it through. But he didn’t. Second, they _really_ didn’t want Max to know he was a decoy. See point/betrayal #3. - the worst offence : so the whole camp picks up sticks and tries to push through the blockade with their bus full of gas. They could have negociated that - it’s not like the tanker is it and the whole of it, Gyrocaptain says a couple of time that the oil well pumps day and night. Hell, they could have just _left the tanker_, since they obviously didn’t need it to move their gas. The refinery itself still works fine, and that’s all the raiders want. But rather than leaving _that_ there, they blow it up. Right the fuck up. Now, gents, this is post-apocalyptia. This might be the only fuel refinery still working in the entire world. Forget the raiders, any number of innocent people in need could have used that gas - hell _they themselves_ could have used it again should their pipe dream prove fruitless. Hell, that one refinery could have been the seed for a small enclave of settled civilization. But nope. They’d rather blow it the fuck up rather than letting Humongous (or Max !) have a lone drop of “their” gas. Fuckers. Maybe Max chose the wrong side, is all I’m saying. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/2 "2016-07-25T23:55:15Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Maybe Max chose the wrong side, is all I’m saying. I’m pretty sure Max was on his own side. The only reason he brought one of the colonists back was for his own need of gas. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2016, 11:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/3 "2016-07-25T23:59:41Z")
But I do agree with you that the colonists were pricks. Not only did they sent Max on the decoy, but they even sacrificed two of their own (ok, one and a half) on the decoy truck rather than share. And a few more in other various vehicles. ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/4 "2016-07-26T00:04:05Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > I’m pretty sure Max was on his own side.] That’s my story, and I’m sticking with [it](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PjQA8lqyqfw). ---
**Author:** ![Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/channing_idaho_banks/32/250_2.png) [@Channing\_Idaho\_Banks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Channing_Idaho_Banks)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/5 "2016-07-26T00:11:06Z")
Never really thought about it like that. ---
**Author:** ![Randolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e5b9ba/32.png) [@Randolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Randolph)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/6 "2016-07-26T01:30:55Z")
Just walk away. Just walk away. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/7 "2016-07-26T02:00:30Z")
I suppose that’s one way to look at it. Another way to look at it is as a Republican’s worst nightmare. A group of hard-working, industrious white people with strong ties to petroleum interests find themselves under siege by a diverse gang consisting of homosexuals and other fringe groups who want to socialize what they have. Fact is, we don’t really know the events leading up to Humongous’s siege of the refinery nor why they were not able to negotiate any sort of trade. What we do know is that Humongous is clearly articulate, organized, calculating and patient. He isn’t some mindless savage bent on random banditry (compared to Wez for example). But we also know that he permits his men to commit atrocities such as the rape and murder of the refinery’s scouts. And I think we can be reasonably certain at this point that he wouldn’t actually let the refinery’s inhabitants just “walk away”. As for Papagallo’s gambit, they needed to send the entire truck, not just the cab, so that Humungous would chase it. He also needed to blow up the refinery to kill as many of Humungous’s men as possible, otherwise they would have just hunted the inhabitants down at their leisure after they secured the gas. But also remember that Papagallo was riding escort on the rig with Max and was ultimately killed along with everyone else. I don’t even know that he didn’t tell Max that they were just a decoy. I mean Max can count. He knew most of the refinery folk weren’t on the truck or it’s escort convoy. It’s kind of hard to not notice people filling a semi truck full of sand. I think only Lord Humungous and the audience were unaware of the ruse to build dramatic tension. ---
**Author:** ![snfaulkner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snfaulkner/32/433_2.png) [@snfaulkner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snfaulkner)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/8 "2016-07-26T02:11:40Z")
Well, he knew the bus was going a different route because they were to meet up at a rendezvous later. He wasn’t conscious when they were filling the tanker with sand cause he just got out the wreck of his interceptor. Or, OR the tanker could have been full of sand from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/9 "2016-07-26T02:36:55Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > As for Papagallo’s gambit, they needed to send the entire truck, not just the cab, so that Humungous would chase it. He also needed to blow up the refinery to kill as many of Humungous’s men as possible, otherwise they would have just hunted the inhabitants down at their leisure after they secured the gas. That’s the way I understood it too- the blowing up of the refinery wasn’t so much out of spite, but rather to wipe out the Humongous’ men in one big boom. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 11:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/10 "2016-07-26T11:08:51Z")
> [@snfaulkner](#): > > Well, he knew the bus was going a different route because they were to meet up at a rendezvous later. He wasn’t conscious when they were filling the tanker with sand cause he just got out the wreck of his interceptor. Or, OR the tanker could have been full of sand from the beginning. Possible. They likely wouldn’t have had time to fill the truck up with sand. Actually Papagallo did Max a favor. Max obviously knew the truck would be bait, gas or not. But the fact that it was full of sand and not petrol was the difference between Max surviving a messy rollover and Max exploding in a ball of fire. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/11 "2016-07-26T12:40:44Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > But we also know that he permits his men to commit atrocities such as the rape and murder of the refinery’s scouts. And I think we can be reasonably certain at this point that he wouldn’t actually let the refinery’s inhabitants just “walk away”. I don’t know - he obviously doesn’t mind disciplining them when they go against his wishes, even if he has to choke the everliving piss out of them. He wouldn’t be the boss if he couldn’t make them do what he says. And he looks like the kind of guy who puts much stock in his word. Whereas letting Wez and his buddies go wild on the scouts sends the message he wants to send in the first place (which is “don’t fuck with me, there’s no hope that way and it’ll just hurt you more”), so no incentive to rein them in. > [@](#): > > As for Papagallo’s gambit, they needed to send the entire truck, not just the cab, so that Humungous would chase it. Yes, but they didn’t _have_ to fill it with a hundred tons of sand. My point was that an empty truck would have worked just as well as a decoy AND been faster/more manoeuvrable, which would have benefited Max. > [@](#): > > He also needed to blow up the refinery to kill as many of Humungous’s men as possible, otherwise they would have just hunted the inhabitants down at their leisure after they secured the gas. But that makes no sense. At the time they blow it up, 99% of Humongous’ men are busy chasing the truck. There’s like 4 blokes at the refinery. > [@](#): > > I don’t even know that he didn’t tell Max that they were just a decoy. I mean Max can count. He knew most of the refinery folk weren’t on the truck or it’s escort convoy. It’s kind of hard to not notice people filling a semi truck full of sand. I think only Lord Humungous and the audience were unaware of the ruse to build dramatic tension. I dunno, Max looks pretty shocked/dismayed/on the verge of a complete mental breakdown when he sees it. He’s really got his “all of this for THAT ?!” face on. ---
**Author:** ![Robot\_Arm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/robot_arm/32/18280_2.png) [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 1:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/12 "2016-07-26T13:48:47Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > Yes, but they didn’t _have_ to fill it with a hundred tons of sand. My point was that an empty truck would have worked just as well as a decoy AND been faster/more manoeuvrable, which would have benefited Max. Unless someone on Team Humongous said to himself “hmm, that truck is awfully fast and maneuverable. I’ll just bet that trailer is an empty decoy.” ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 1:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/13 "2016-07-26T13:59:02Z")
Yeah, there had to me a load in the tanker to make it look realistic. But I do wonder why the refiners wouldn’t cut a deal with humongous. Gas for protection/trade. ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/14 "2016-07-26T15:16:40Z")
> [@Robot\_Arm](#): > > Unless someone on Team Humongous said to himself “hmm, that truck is awfully fast and maneuverable. I’ll just bet that trailer is an empty decoy.” Nah, Max could have just let his foot up until they were good and baited, then when the settlers have enough of a lead, _zooom_. That’s of course provided _they let him in on the plan_. As is the trailer needs to be full, not to fool the raiders but to fool Max. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [July 26, 2016, 3:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-road-warrior-the-case-for-lord-humongous/760900/15 "2016-07-26T15:25:01Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > … Yes, but they didn’t _have_ to fill it with a hundred tons of sand. My point was that an empty truck would have worked just as well as a decoy AND been faster/more manoeuvrable, which would have benefited Max. … We don’t really know that. There could have been little containers of sand to spill out of all the tank’s access points. The bulk of the tank could have been empty, or it could even been full of actual gas – with the spilling sand as a decoy so they would leave the tanker alone after their first look.