Mad Max 2
1981 film directed by George Miller
Mad Max 2 (released as The Road Warrior in the United States) is a 1981 Australian post-apocalyptic dystopian action film directed by George Miller, who co-wrote it with Terry Hayes and Brian Hannant. It is the sequel to Mad Max (1979) and the second installment in the Mad Max franchise. The film stars Mel Gibson reprising his role as "Mad Max" Rockatansky and follows a hardened man who helps a community of settlers to defend themselves against a roving band of marauders. Filming took place in locations around Broken Hill, in the Outback of New South Wales.
Mad Max 2 was released in Australia on 24 December 1981 to widespread critical acclaim; praise was given to Gibson's performance, the musical score, cinematography, action sequences and costume design, with its sparing use of dialogue in particular being unprecedented for an action film. It was also a box office success, and the film's post-apocalyptic and punk aesthetics helped popularise the genre in film and fiction writing. At the 10th Saturn Awards, the film won Best International Film and was nominated for five more awards: Best Director, Best Actor for Gibson, Best Supporting Actor for Bruce Spence, Best Writing, and Best Costumes for Norma Moriceau. Mad Max 2 is widely hailed as both one of the greatest action films of all time and one of the greatest sequels ever made, and fan clubs for the film and "road warrior"-themed activities continue into the 21st century.
The film was followed by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985.
Plot
After a global war results in widespread oil shortages and ecocide, civilisation collapses and the world descends into barbarism.
The public source identifies “Mad Max 2” as 1981 film directed by George Miller. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around film, directed and George.
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Object files, edition statements, performance records and contemporary criticism preserve different stages of the work’s history. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 23, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1125262. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1981, 1979 and 1985.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mad Max 2” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.