Mad Max (1979)

“When Mel Gibson first stepped out of that black Ford Falcon, armored in black leather and rage in 1979’s Mad Max, he became the newest incarnation of a centuries-old archetype — the lone righteous man yanked into heroism against his will,” EW wrote in 2015, as good an elevator pitch for Miller’s saga as we’ve heard.

Set “a few years from now” in a dystopian version of Australia corrupted by oil shortages and humanity’s disregard for nature, Miller’s directorial debut follows Gibson’s Max Rockstansky, a member of the fledgling Main Force Patrol (MFP), as he contends with a ghoulish motorcycle gang led by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne). We previously lauded it for being “as hard and fast as a kidney punch.”

In addition to making a star out of Gibson, who would go on to become one of Hollywood’s highest-paid actors in the ’90s, Mad Max articulated a raw vision of dystopia and a spine-rattling style of action that still resonates in everything from film and animation to music and video games.

Where to watch Mad Max: Max

The Road Warrior (1981)

Mad Max was more of a commercial success than a critical one, but its sequel, 1981’s The Road Warrior, managed to surpass its predecessor’s box office pull while also resonating with critics. Calling it the “real masterpiece” of the original trilogy, we described The Road Warrior as “a taut, imaginative sci-fi adventure” that is “equal parts John Ford and George Lucas.”

Set five years after the original, The Road Warrior finds Max swapping in a dog for his late wife and son and scavenging the blasted Outback in his souped-up Pursuit Special. He finds purpose (and plenty of gasoline) in a community of settlers who need help dealing with the ominously named Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). It all culminates in a chase scene involving punk bikers and a gas tanker that we previously called “one of the most exhilarating ever filmed.”

Where to watch The Road Warrior: Max

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

Look, they can’t all be hits.

The franchise’s “silliest entry by far,” Beyond Thunderdome chases The Road Warror by pitting Max against Queen Aunty Entity (Tina Turner), the ruler of an Outback outpost named Bartertown. After a fight in the town’s Thunderdome, a gladiatorial arena, he’s banished to the desert, where he finds a tribe of lost children in search of a savior. Surprise — he’s that savior.

“The heavily ’80s Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome focuses too much on the series’ weirdnesses,” we previously wrote, “and not enough on its fuel-injected action sequences, looking like a big, showy caravan compared with the previous films’ sleek roadsters.”

Arguably the best thing to emerge from the threequel is the song Turner performed for it, “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” one of our favorites from the late singer. That said, she has fun delivering some absurd dialogue. ”How the world turns,” she says to Max. “One day cock of the walk, next a feather duster.”

Where to watch Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: Max

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Miller spent nearly two decades trying to get Mad Max: Fury Road off the ground. He didn’t make it easy for himself, forgoing a script in favor of storyboards and insisting that close to 80 percent of the movie be shot using practical stunts and effects. But the gambit paid off — it won six Oscars and topped dozens of year-end lists. Oh, and it also grossed a staggering $380 million worldwide.

Though it’s technically a Mad Max film, with Tom Hardy taking the mantle from Gibson, the real hero is Charlize Theron‘s Furiosa, who turns against her commander, Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne), and attempts to abscond with the ruler’s five wives to her homeland. Max, who’s taken prisoner by Joe, lends her a helping hand across a film that’s more or less a two-hour chase scene.

”I wanted to tell a linear story — a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes,” Miller told EW ahead of the film’s release. ”In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed.”

”Nothing about this movie was a walk in the park,” Theron said to us, adding, “For me, personally, it was an exhausting movie to make.”

“Mad Max: Fury Road may be the first Tantric action flick,” we wrote in our review. “Souped-up motorcycles soar over Nitro-fueled muscle cars, Nitro-fueled muscle cars crash into tricked-out oil trucks, and all of them explode into glorious fireballs. Fury Road not only captures the same Molotov-cocktail craziness of Miller’s masterpiece, 1981’s The Road Warrior — it’s also a surprisingly hyper-caffeinated film for a director in his fifth decade behind the camera.”

Where to watch Mad Max: Fury Road: Max

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

After the success of Fury Road, a sequel was basically a foregone conclusion. What nobody expected was a prequel — one that wouldn’t star Theron.

But Miller, no stranger to cultivating backstory, told EW that he plotted out Furiosa’s entire history before even making Fury Road. It begins roughly two decades prior to the events of Fury Road and ends up “[butting] up directly into” its predecessor, per Miller. It follows a young Furiosa as she’s kidnapped from her home in the Green Place of Many Mothers by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and taken to the Citadel of Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme), where she witnesses the pair battle for control. Stepping in for Theron are Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy.

If you’re looking for Max, you’ll be disappointed. He’s absent aside from a quick cameo, though Miller did tell us he’d like to make a film about “what happened to Max in the year before we encounter him in [Fury Road.]”

“Basically, we had to see that Mad Max was lurking around somewhere because we do know what happened,” Miller told us. “The writers know what happened to Mad Max in that year before, and we have a whole story of that, which I would like to do sometime if I get the chance.”

Satiating the noble road warrior archetype in Furiosa is Tom Burke‘s Praetorian Jack, who our critic found lacking in light of the Maxes of yore.

Still, we found plenty to like. “Furiosa has car chases and biker hordes and flaming death, but almost more impressive are the small moments of beauty that you won’t find anywhere else. As Furiosa stands against an assault from Dementus and his minions, there are a few seconds of Taylor-Joy standing against an iron gate, with fire flowing all around her — beautiful!”

Where to watch Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga: Max