MAD MAX
The film is set in the near future of a bleak, dystopian and impoverished Australia that is facing a breakdown of civil order primarily due to widespread oil shortages. (This is not explained in this film but in the sequel, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.) Central to the plot is a poorly-funded national police unit called the Main Force Patrol (MFP, derogatorily called "The Bronze" by their enemies), which struggles to protect the Outback's few remaining townspeople from violent motorcycle gangs. The MFP's "top pursuit man" is a young police officer, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson), badge number MFP4073.
A member of one of the motorcycle gangs, Crawford Montazano (nicknamed Nightrider), escapes from police custody by killing an officer and stealing his vehicle. Max pursues Nightrider in a high-speed chase, which results in Nightrider's death in a fiery car crash. After the dangerous chase (which results in injuries to a number of officers), the police chief warns Max that Nightrider's gang will be out for him now because of Nightrider's death.
Nightrider's gang, which is led by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne), plans to avenge Nightrider's death by killing MFP officers. Meanwhile, they vandalize property, steal fuel, and terrorize the citizenry. While chewing up a town where the the Nightrider's remains arrived by train, the gang brutalizes a civilian couple that tried escaping to the road; the couple is overtaken, then both of them are raped and the car is wrecked. Max and his close friend and fellow officer, Jim Goose (Steve Bisley), are informed about the incident and go to the crime scene. They find Toecutter's young protegé, Johnny the Boy (Tim Burns), and the girl of the couple in the middle of the wreckage. Johnny's drug-fueled rantings reveal him as a member of Nightrider's gang; Goose looks on Johnny with particular disdain, as his leg was broken during the Nightrider pursuit. However, they do not kill Johnny, but arrest him and drag him away in chains.
A member of one of the motorcycle gangs, Crawford Montazano (nicknamed Nightrider), escapes from police custody by killing an officer and stealing his vehicle. Max pursues Nightrider in a high-speed chase, which results in Nightrider's death in a fiery car crash. After the dangerous chase (which results in injuries to a number of officers), the police chief warns Max that Nightrider's gang will be out for him now because of Nightrider's death.
Nightrider's gang, which is led by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne), plans to avenge Nightrider's death by killing MFP officers. Meanwhile, they vandalize property, steal fuel, and terrorize the citizenry. While chewing up a town where the the Nightrider's remains arrived by train, the gang brutalizes a civilian couple that tried escaping to the road; the couple is overtaken, then both of them are raped and the car is wrecked. Max and his close friend and fellow officer, Jim Goose (Steve Bisley), are informed about the incident and go to the crime scene. They find Toecutter's young protegé, Johnny the Boy (Tim Burns), and the girl of the couple in the middle of the wreckage. Johnny's drug-fueled rantings reveal him as a member of Nightrider's gang; Goose looks on Johnny with particular disdain, as his leg was broken during the Nightrider pursuit. However, they do not kill Johnny, but arrest him and drag him away in chains.