Mad Max References

Vernon Wells, reprising his role as Wez, in "Wierd Science"
Thanks to John Hoyt

Film References

• In the movie Weird Science, look for a cameo appearance by Vernon Wells, reprising his role as Wez.

• Christian Slater references Mad Max in the film True Romance, "Mad Max was a movie, Rio Bravo was a movie, The Good The Bad and The Ugly was a movie".

TV References

• In the Cheers episode in which we first meet Eddie LeBec, Frasier goes with Carla to a hockey game and ends up in jail after getting into a fight. When Frasier returns to the bar after being detained by the Boston Police, he relates the story to the regulars in the bar, "I've just spent the last 6 hours in a holding cell with the cast of the Road Warrior." To which Woody says excitedly, " Wow, Dr. Crane! Did you get Mel Gibson's autograph?"

• In the Seinfeld episode "The Dealership", George is getting increasinly worked up over the attitude of the staff, and his lost Twix bar, and finally exclaims "There's no laws in this place, anything goes - it's Thunderdome!"

• On the Mystery Science Theater 3000 episode "Eegah!", the main character of the movie they're watching drives around the desert in a junky looking dune buggy with his girlfriend. Tom Servo comments "On their way to Thunderdome."

• In the episode or Nickelodeon's Rugrats "The Sky is Falling", there is an end-of-the world scene which parodies Mad Max 2. They are heading down a road in the desert towards and abandoned city. Their vehicles are engineered out of other things (cribs, etc...). One of the characters, Chuckie, it piloting a GyroCopter and is dressed very similarly to the gyro captain (leather cap, shirt, tan colors).
  
  
  
  See the Rugrats sub-page for some more pictures.

• The Simpsons episode "Bart Sells His Soul" has a scene during Bart's dream where Jimbo Jones and his "soul" on piggyback say "Master Blaster!".

• The Simpsons episode "Lemon of Troy" seems to be making a reference to Road Warrior in the car compound scenes. The Springfielders watch their impounded van through binoculars from their vantage point, while the children from Shelbyville ride there bikes in circles around the compound.

• According to "The Dark One", the Simpsons episode "Bart Vs Australia" contains a Mad Max 2 style biker (Wez) in the chase after Bart.




The Simpsons episode "Beyond Blunderdome" features Mel Gibson's voice, and of course several Road Warrior references. This episode is now available on DVD in Australia (Region 4, PAL) in the compilation "The Simpsons Film Festival", pictured to the left. It will also obviously be available in the Simpons box sets that are gradually being released, although it will probably be some time before this season comes out.

• The Australian children's TV series Thunderstone is heavily influenced visually by Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, see the Thunderstone sub-page for more info.

• One episode of the Super Mario Brothers Super Show, "Toad Warriors", directly parodies "The Road Warrior". In the episode, Mario and his friends try to help a group of rebels who are trying to deliver a truckload of tomato sauce to another compound. On his way to the starting place, Toad snags a Starman and becomes the Toad Warrior. A massive car chase set to Steppenwolf's "Born to be Wild" ensues and Toad defeats King Koopa in a chicken challenge.

• The Sliders episode "Desert Storm" visits a world that has no water, and is a desert type world. Wade wells comments that the people in this world are like Mad Max because of there cars, and the way they act like savages because of the lack of water - water is rare instead of gasoline. From http://www.scifi.com/sliders/seasons1-3.html - "The Sliders encounter telepaths and battle pirates in order to save a girl with the power to detect water".

• Vernon Wells is currently playing the villain Ransik in the show "Power Rangers Time Force". The episode "Movie Madness, Part 2" (which aired July 29th, 2001) featured a whole sequence modelled after the final car chase in the film, yet first and foremost, Well's costume was replaced with one very much resembling Wez' for most of the episode. Most of the 'bare flesh' was toned down, of course, but it was still pretty obvious. Thanks to Julia 'Road Dawg' Titus for the description and pics!

Power Rangers Time Force

• A recent South Park episode (August 2001) parodied Road Warrior. As a result of their sex education class, the boys are told they "spread diseases" by the girls, but then come to the conclusion that it is the girls who have diseases. This leads the boys to go after the girls. The boys are dressed in various makeshift outfits and armour, as well as arriving on bikes and jeeps (kid versions), while the girls have set up a defence (like the compound). Cartman tells Butters to tell the girls to leave, at which point Butters puts on the hockey mask, and begins to do a variation of Humungous' speech in the same deep voice:
  
  BUTTERS: "Just walk away. Just walk away and I'll spare your lives."
  STAN: "Wow! He's really good a that."
  
  This episode will be out on DVD in the USA on June 4 2002, check the listing at Amazon for further info.

• A show called Samurai Jack on the US network Cartoon Network has an episode where the character (Samuari Jack) is fighting in The Dome of Doom, and the fight sequence resembles Max's fight in the Thunderdome. At the end of the fight Samurai Jack cuts off his opponents helmet, only to reveal a helpless creature inside. The "Ring Master" is dressed similar to the one in Thunderdome, and the crowd is also chanting in a similar fashion to the movie.

• On the U.S. computer animated kids show, "Reboot" there is a part of one episode where the main characters take part in a Road Warrior-esque "game" (I'm told that you have to know the show to understand). A web site that describes the show and that episode can be found here at http://www.inwap.com/mf/reboot/index.shtml, the specific episode description with pictures is at http://www.inwap.com/mf/reboot/episodes/207.html.

Commercials

There is a Yellow Pages ad in Australia which features Reg Evans as the owner / operator of the Central Garage - exactly as he was in Mad Max. They've even used the same garage!

 

• There is a Mountain Dew commercial (2001) featuring the rapper Busta Rhymes. It is a parody of Road Warrior. Busta is driving a Mountain Dew 18-wheeler being chased by others in trucks and dune buggies across a desert. They are dressed in Road Warrior style costumes and at the end he enters a fort and delivers the Mountain Dew.

Music

• If you have seen the video clip for Tupac's "California Love", you will have already noticed the obvious similarity with the sets and vehicles from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, including a structure looking very much like Thunderdome itself.

• The clip for the song "Summer Hits" by Australian band "Front End Loader" uses a yellow MFP Pursuit replica. The car is actually owned by Steve Nicols, see the real or replica page for more info. Front End Loader's album which contains the song is titled "Last of the V8 Interceptors", and there's even an interview where they confirm our suspicions about the origin of the album's name.

 
Album cover, from the Unofficial Front End Loader Page

• The Australian band Prototype has featured Mad Max references in some of their songs and video clips. The film clip for their song "Transition" (from the Cybercode CD) feaures a Mad Max replica. You can download a small part of the clip here (3MB), or a lower quality version of the full 4.5 minute long clip here (11MB). You can find out more about Prototype at their web site.

 
Mad Max replica from Prototype's video clip for Transition.

• Another Australian band, Scorched Earth Policy, features a song named "Toecutter", with the lyrics being based quite heavily on the first Mad Max film. You can view the Toecutter lyrics here, and thanks to Justin Cook from SEP the track can be downloaded from the fan audio section.

 
Album cover for Scorched Earth Policy

• The band "Re:Zone" has a song titled "M. Rockatansky (The Dark One)". (NB. I have not yet located a copy of this / heard it myself).

• The band "EN BENEFICIO DE TODOS" has a song all about Mad Max, "MAX, ESTAS HECHO UNA PENA". Try visiting their web page to view the lyrics. If you don't speak Spanish, I recommend using http://babelfish.altavista.com to do a Spanish to English translation for you. (NB. Once again, I have not yet located a copy of this / heard it myself).

• One of Biohazard's songs contains the line "I am Humungus from Mad Max".

• In Basel, Switzerland, is a big Disco called Mad Max. The First floor (70 – 90 Rock) is in Mad Max Design, and the newer second floor (Techno, Trance…) is equipped in real Alien Design.

• The Phil Collins video clip for "Billy, don't lose my number" includes a Road Warrior style skit. You can download an excerpt of the film clip here. Apparently the setup for the clip is that Phil's producer is throwing him various ideas for what his video clip should be. Thanks to Chris Miller for sending me this!




The video clip for the UK release of Puretone's song Addicted To Bass features a sequence copying the opening chase from Mad Max. A partial clip and some stills from the music video can be found online at http://www.thewarchild.com. Note that you will need Quicktime installed to view this clip. The full clip can be viewed online at Dot Music. For some more information, see the scrapbook page on the clip.

 

• There is a new Canadian band called Humungus, who have a song called Wasteland, which features audio clips and references to Road Warrior. The song can be heard at mp3.com.

Computer Games

• The console game Outlander seems to contain several references to Road Warrior, check the Outlander game page for some further information and screen shots.

• In the mid 1980's, there was a game for the Commodore 64 called "The Last V8".

• The computer RPG "Fallout" contains several Mad Max references. Michael Owen sent the following info:
  
  "In the area known as JunkTown, there is a citizen who cannot get into his house because a vicious dog is guarding the door. The frustrated man mentions the dog was previously owned by a man with a black leather jacket. If your player character walks past the dog wearing a black leather jacket (for armor), "Dogmeat" will think you are his former master and stay with you for life. The canine companion is one of the most valuable allies to have in the campaign. When I play Fallout, Dogmeat saves my life again and again."
  
  Apparently the game even has a town called Broken Hills...

• In the late 1988 a game called "Overlander" was released for most of the home computer platforms (Amiga, Atari ST, C64, Spectrum, Amstrad). Russel Patterson had the following to say about the game:
  
  "The game was basically a behind the car style racing game, set in a post apocolyptic desert. The player is an overlander who has to make runs between underground pockets of civilisation in a suped up 70's hotrod that looks very much like the V8 interceptor. In return for making runs, the player can buy add ons for the car, like guns, nitros, a bigger fuel tank.
  
  Stylistically and conceptionally the game was very close to MadMax 2. I haven't seen 'outlander' for the SNES or Genesis/megadrive so I don't know if it is related somehow. I have a feeling outlander could have been inspired by this original game."

  Russel also sent me a link to a review for the Spectrum version of the game, including a screen shot. The game is probably possible to obtain through the magic of emulation, but I haven't investigated this myself yet. (PS. Russel - your email address bounced).

• In the PC game Star Craft there is a map you can play called "Road Warrior". The map looks exactly like what you would think it would look like, with old broken streets and road sighs, and old broken-in-to stores and such.

• In the computer game "Escape From Monkey Island", the hero reads a sign that reads "Wax Show". He then says "I wonder if it's 'Mad Wax: Beehive Warrior'."

• Street Fighter EX3 on the PS2 has a character named Ace, who apparenty looks like Max Rockatansky - the whole outfit, the face, the hair, you name it.

 
Screen Shots From Street Fighter EX3
Ace vs Unknown, and Ace vs Ace

Law Enforcement

A few people have commented that the new Victoria Police SMART cars resemble the yellow MFP cars from Mad Max - you can find some information and pictures online at http://www.police.vic.gov.au.

 

• Charles Guérin points out that the paint scheme for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police helicopters also bears an MFP paint scheme similarity - check out the photo he sent me here.

Restaurants

The Outback Steakhouse features "The Mad Max" on their menu. See for yourself... Also see their web site, www.outback.com. They also seem to have restaurants in Korea, and possibly elsewhere. Thanks to Sheryl Berger for this contribution.

 

For references thanks to
John Hoyt, Sheryl Berger, Dr Looney, Chris Painter, Marc Clapp,
Adam Davis, Julia 'Road Dawg' Titus, Brian Kelly, Dan Nuttall
Simon Tanner, Chris Kelly, Jason (mfpmax) and Colin Groff-Decker.

Back to the Mad Max FAQ