Mad Max 2

Wednesday 2 September, 9pm, TCM Movies

Mad Max 2 is, you’ve guessed it, the follow up to Mad Max. It’s just as charming as the first and still features Mel Gibson, but it’s just a bit plusher and better put together.

Essentially the plot follows a former cop who roams the wastelands of Australia after a nuclear war. He agrees to protect a settlement of residents as they ward off biker gangs who make The Hell’s Angels look like toddlers on tricycles.

Much like the original, this film has a definite underlying Western theme, but features hot-rodded trucks and

cars instead of gunslingers and horseback riding.

As it was released in 1981, most of the cars are from the Seventies, and a great deal are Australian, because that’s where it was filmed.

Mad Max himself of course had a supercharged V8 in his Ford Falcon XB GT coupé, while lesser characters are restricted to ‘utes’, trucks, Holden Toranas... and a 1955 Hillman Husky.

And if that wasn’t enough to whet your appetite, one of the stunts in the film went so badly wrong that they decided to leave it in. Murray Scullion