Mad Max

Mad Max is an Australian post-apocalyptic and dystopian action film series and media franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. It began in 1979 with Mad Max, and was followed by three sequels: Mad Max 2 (1981, released in the United States as The Road Warrior), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015); Miller directed or co-directed all four films. Mel Gibson portrayed the titular character Max Rockatansky in the first three films, while Tom Hardy portrayed the character in Mad Max: Fury Road.

The series follows Max, initially a police officer in a future Australia which is experiencing societal collapse due to war, critical resource shortages, and ecocide. When his wife and child are murdered by a vicious biker gang, Max kills the gang in revenge and becomes a drifting loner in the Australian Wasteland. As Australia devolves further into barbarity, Max finds himself increasingly more isolated yet still willing to help pockets of civilisation, initially for his own self-interest, though his motives always drift into more altruistic ones.

The series has been well received by critics; Mad Max 2 and Fury Road in particular have been ranked among the best action films ever made. The series has also had a significant influence on popular culture, most notably apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction, and encompasses works in additional media including video games and comic books. In 2016, Fury Road became the first film of the Mad Max franchise to receive Academy Award recognition, winning six of its ten nominations.

North American rights to the original film are currently owned by Amazon's Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (via the libraries of Orion Pictures and American International Pictures).