Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Max comes into conflict with Aunty Entity and helps a group of lost children on their journey back to civilization.
Genre
Characters/Groups
The Flying Jalopy
The People of Bartertown
Aunty's Guards - Ollie Hall, Lee Rice, Max Worrall, Susan Leonard, Robert Simper, Virginia Wark, Ray Turnball, Brian Ellison, Geeling, and Gerard Armstrong
The Tribe Who Left
Cusha...the pregnant girl - Toni Allaylis
The Tribe Who Stayed
The Hunters - Gerry D'Angelo, Travis Latter, Miguel Lopez, and Paul Daniel
The Guardians - Tushka Hose, Emily Stocker and Sandie Lillingston
The Gatherers - Ben Chesterman, Liam Nikkinen, Dan Chesterman, Christopher Norton, Katharine Cullen, Heilan Robertson, Gabriel Dilworth, Hugh Sands, Rebekah Elmaloglou, Marion Sands, Shari Flood, Kate Tatar, Rachel Graham, Pega Williams, Emma Howard, Tarah Williams, Joanna McCarroll, Daniel Willits, Toby Messiter, and Tonya Wright
The Little Ones - Charlie Kenney, Amanda Nikkinen, Flynn Kenney, Luke Panic, William Manning, James Robertson, Adam McCreadie and Sally Morton
Character thumbnails with links to profiles
Detailed Synopsis
Max is driving a vehicle pulled by camels when the Flying Jalopy, flown by Jedediah and Jedediah Jnr., flies overhead and then knocks Max off the wagon. Jedediah gives the controls to Jedediah Jnr. and jumps onto the wagon, taking over the controls and driving it away from Max. As the wagon drives away, Monkey leaves a trail of items for Max to follow. He follows the trail of items and finds his cowboy boots and bosun's whistle. Max continues walking and eventually arrives at Bartertown. As he is following the group of people entering Bartertown, Waterseller offers to sell Max water, which Max refuses and uses a Geiger counter to show the water is radiated. Max is next in line behind Fur Trader who makes a deal with The Collector for a bunch of furs in exchange for grain or two hours with a woman. When it is Max's turn, he describes Jedediah, but The Collector isn't interested unless Max has something to trade. Max offers his skills and is derisively told the brothel is full and as he pulls out his shotgun, a group of Aunty's Guards start to approach Max and he shoots the horsehair crest off of one. Ironbar continues to approach Max, until Max threatens to kill The Collector. Max asks for one hour to find Jedediah and The Collector makes him a counteroffer, 24 hours to get back what was stolen from him in exchange for his life. Max agrees, but before he is let inside Bartertown, he is forced to leave his weapons with the Armorer.
As Max enters Bartertown, he sees his camels and wagon being sold at the House of Good Deals by Dr. Dealgood. Max is pushed forward by Aunty's Guards and brought before Aunty Entity. The Collector tells Aunty about Max wanting to make a deal and she has Ton Ton Tattoo play a sad song as she tells Max her story, that before the collapse, she was a nobody and then became someone, a survivor. She takes an apple and offers one to Max and while she thinks he is distracted, takes a loud bite from her apple. Max is attacked, but manages to fight off Ironbar, two of Aunty's Guards and The Collector. Aunty points a hand crossbow at Max and congratulates him on being the first to pass the test. She offers Max fuel, a vehicle and animals in exchange for Max killing a man. She then uses a periscope to show Max Underworld, and The Collector explains to Max how methane from pig feces is used to power Bartertown. He continues that Underworld is controlled by Master Blaster, The Master, who is a little person engineer and The Blaster, his giant enforcer. Max is told the easiest way to see Master Blaster up close is to take a job shoveling pig feces and is brought to Underworld. He sees Master Blaster holding Monkey by a string and starts to yell out to him and is stopped by Pigkiller. Pigkiller tells Max that he was given a life sentence to work in Underworld for killing a pig to feed his family, but people in Underworld usually only last three years. Blackfinger is working on Max's car when he tells Master that the car is booby trapped with dynamite. As Blackfinger is about to turn off the battery, Max stops him and tells Master that the car is his. Master orders him to remove the explosives and Max tries to make a deal. Blaster lifts Max up by the neck and Master tells him he is in charge of Bartertown. When Max disagrees, Master gets on the public address system and makes Aunty publicly declare that Master runs Bartertown in order to stop a power embargo. Blaster orders Max to disable the dynamite and as Max is disabling the booby trap, he notices that Blaster is susceptible to high pitch noises.
Max returns to Aunty and agrees to kill Master Blaster in Thunderdome. Later, Master Blaster is riding around in Bartertown on Max's vehicle and Max stands in front of him and yells the vehicle belongs to him. Master has Blaster grab Max by the throat and as he is about to kill Max, a group of Aunty's Guards point their rifles at Master and Ironbar orders Master to listen to the law. Master challenges Max to a fight in the Thunderdome and Aunty agrees to it. Dr. Dealgood explains to everyone why Thunderdome was created and then the rules to Thunderdome and the fight begins. Blaster at first is easily beating Max until Max uses his whistle to cause Blaster to drop his weapon and cover his ears. Max uses a large hammer and knocks Blaster's helmet off, revealing him to be mentally handicapped. Max yells out to Aunty that killing a mentally handicapped man wasn't part of the deal and Aunty has Ironbar kill Blaster. For breaking his deal, Max is forced to face the wheel. He is brought before it by Dr. Dealgood's Dolls and Max spins the wheel, which lands on gulag. Max is then brought out to the desert where he has a large mask placed on his head and he is placed backwards on a horse with his hands tied. Ironbar smacks the back of the horse and it walks out into the desert with a small container of water hanging from a pole in front of it. Master is brought to Underworld and when he refuses to fix something, Ironbar has him lowered into the pig pen. Aunty walks into the area and has Ironbar bring Master back up and tells Master to do whatever Ironbar tells him. Pigkiller takes a canteen and ties it around Monkey and sends it to help Max.
The horse Max is riding on eventually collapses in the desert and is swallowed by quick sand. Monkey finds Max and they travel further out into the desert before collapsing from dehydration. Savannah Nix is walking in the desert when she finds Max and drags him on a sled to the Crack in the Earth. Finn McCoo runs to Savannah and she tells him that she found Captain Walker. Max is brought still unconscious, to the center of the camp and is surrounded by The Hunters, The Guardians and The Gatherers. Mr. Skyfish tries to contact Mr. Walker and Gekko and Anna Goanna use a record attached to a stick to try and contact Max with sonic. Scrooloose pulls the string on his talking Bugs Bunny doll and then hugs it. Savannah cuts Max's hair and he eventually wakes up. Slake tells Max that they are the waiting boys and they have been waiting for him. Savannah then tells Max the story of the Lost Children, who were in a plane with adults who fled when the bombs started to fall. The plane eventually crashed due to turbulence and the surviving children were told to wait by the adults who left with Captain Walker to get help. Max tells them that he isn't Captain Walker, but they insist he is and take him to a plane half buried in the sand. Tubba Tintye tells Max that they are ready to go, but Max just walks away. Later, Savannah bangs a gong and asks the others, who is with her to leave. Anna reminds Savannah that Max was almost dead when Savannah found him and Max tells them about Bartertown and that there is no Tommorow-morrow Land. Savannah continues to leave with some of the children and Max grabs Slake's staff, which is actually a rifle and shoots it towards Savannah, she throws her spear in between Max's legs and he walks up to her and knocks her unconscious.
In the morning, Anna wakes Max up and tells him that Savannah, Mr. Skyfish, Gekko, Scrooloose, Cusha...the pregnant girl, and Finn left in the middle of the night. Slake tells Max that Savannah and the others have been gone for half a night or less and Max prepares to go after them with Anna. Anna tells Slake and Mr. Scratch that they will need a Hunter and Tubba Tintye is nominated. Max, Anna and Tubba head out into the desert and Eddie runs up to them in order to join them. They eventually find Savannah and the others, who are being pulled into quicksand. They manage to save most of them, but Finn and Gekko are killed. Scrooloose sees lights ahead and Max tells them the lights are from Bartertown. They sneak into Underworld in order to rescue Master who is being guarded by Ironbar and a pair of Bodybuilders. Pigkiller sees Eddie and laughs and Ironbar sees Scrooloose, who is sitting above him, motioning to the others. Mr. Skyfish swings on a rope and saves Scrooloose and Monkey and manages to knock one of the Bodybuilders into the pig pen. Ironbar starts shooting at Max and the children and Pigkiller uses a shovel to knock the other Bodybuilder unconscious before using bolt cutters to free himself and Master. Master uses a grain chute to knock Ironbar unconscious and Blackfinger walks in, but quickly runs away when he sees Max and the children. Max runs after Blackfinger, but then runs away when Blackfinger returns with a large amount of Aunty's Guards. Pigkiller gets inside of a truck on train tracks and tells everyone to get inside. Max and the children get inside the truck and Pigkiller starts it and drives it away, causing parts of Underworld to collapse and explode. The Residents of Bartertown start to panic and Aunty tells them they can rebuild, but they must recapture Master.
Pigkiller continues to drive along the track and they are followed by a large convoy consisting of Aunty, Aunty's Guards, Ironbar, Fur Trader and Cowboy. Max shows Anna and Mr. Skyfish how to use the record and puts Gekko's record on the record player. Aunty and her group attack the truck and attached train cars and Max is pulled onto the vehicle driven by Cowboy and punches and throws Cowboy out of the vehicle. Scrooloose jumps onto a vehicle driven by one of Aunty's Guards and repeatedly hits him in the face with a frying pan. Ironbar shoots a harpoon into the truck, impaling Pigkiller in the leg and Max rams the vehicle with Ironbar in it, causing it to crash and leaving Ironbar stuck on the front of the truck. Aunty Entity, one of Aunty's Guards and Blackfinger jump onto the train cars and try to grab Master, who is saved by Savannah. Ironbar tries to grab Master and Max kicks him onto a train exhaust pipe. Ironbar motions for Fur Trader to help him until Fur Trader's motorcycle hits a concrete curb and he flies to his death. Mr. Skyfish uses a hacksaw to cut the pipe Ironbar is hanging from and the truck comes to a halt in front of a berm. Jedediah Jnr. tells them that it is a stick up, but runs away when he sees Aunty and her group driving towards them. Max and his group run after Jedediah Jnr. who runs to Jedediah. Max tells Jedediah it is his lucky day and his plane will save his life. Everyone gets into the Flying Jalopy, but as Jedediah is driving it forward, he tells Max that they are overloaded and there's not enough runway between them and Aunty's group. Max jumps out of the plane while Scrooloose drives up and gets into the plane. Max takes the vehicle Scrooloose drove in and drives it straight towards Aunty's group, killing Ironbar and many of Aunty's Guards. Blackfinger and one of Aunty's Guards points rifles at Max, but Aunty Entity spares Max's life and leaves him in the desert. Jedediah then flies the plane to a destroyed Sydney.
Many years later, Savannah tells a group of people of their origins and how they must keep the lights on so others can find their way home.