After a nuclear attack, Australian civilization is in ruins, and a lawlessness rules the day, as a dark age has descended on this land. In this dark time, the most precious commodity is gasoline. As the big cities are all destroyed, small bands of human survivors live in small outposts, often finding themselves at the mercy of murderous, raping bandits, out to kill, destroy and take what they want. One such group of survivors, who are making a living producing precious gasoline at their mini-refinery compound in the desert, are being terrorized by a motorcycle riding of bandits, Humungus (and his gang, who want to annihilate these people, and take over their potentially lucrative gas producing business.

Luckily for them, Max, a former police officer, stumbles upon them, and joins their fight for survival, against the evil, oil- hungry, motor vehicle driving, morally bankrupt bad guys. Max manages to get inside the compound makes a deal with the people inside the refinery that he will bring a rig to them, that can carry all their gas, if they give him all the gas he can carry. He then protects the people as they move their entire gas supply across no man's land to safety.

One of my favorite scenes takes place early on. The camera explores a leather- clad man and his car: we see his boots, the back of the car, seat belt being buckled, the back of his head, gear shift popped, his blue eyes briefly in the rear view mirror. Man is car and car is machine. This is how we meet Mad Max, and it's one of the best introductions of a character in any movie.

This thrilling, intense, riveting action screenplay, by Terry Hayes and George Miller, is a breath-taking, heart pounding, action thriller that readily found an audience among fans of action science fiction yarns.

Director, George Miller, with a modest budget, created a wonderful masterpiece that even some women will watch, despite the violence... (it must be Mel). There is a brutal rape scene that is filmed at a distance, that results in the woman's violent death, that is disturbing.

"The Road Warrior" has great racing sequences, especially the last climatic vehicle chase, which is "an exercise in action craftsmanship, full of spectacular and on-road carnage." This film offers fantastic car/truck stunts. The vehicle mounted cameras really put you in the driver seat.

The characters are very well drawn and even the supporting cast seems perfect, all who really got into the script, making it come alive.

Mel Gibson is his usually true to form fine action hero, who courageously kicks bad ruffian butt, with flair and determination. It is interesting to see Mel portray Max as a man who goes through personal growth as he endeavors to carry out his part of the bargain with the people he is helping.

Kjell Nilson as Lord Humungus, and Vernon Wells as Wez, are great as the dastardly villains who personify evil, and have no trouble getting the audience to hate them and wish for their demise, as they have no redeeming values and behave like the ultimate "evil doers."

Bruce Spence, as The Gyro Captain offers comic relief in this tense, edge of your seat film.