Mad Max Trilogy

Mad Max: "Who are they?" asks the burly leader of a pack of motorcycle savages. Before the dust settles and the last piston throbs, he'll especially know who one of them is. So will movie fans. Mel Gibson gave notice that he was a name to reckon with in the revved-up, trend-setting first of Gibson's Mad Max collaborations with filmmaker George Miller. Gibson portrays Max Rockansky; the fearless, leather-suited cop waging war with kill-crazy bikers who targeted his family. It is a war that must be seen to be believed, a road-scorching, neo-punk, take-no-prisoners combat set in a post-apocalyptic Australia. In the end, a lone man travels a ribbon of highway now free of the un-roadworthy, a highway leading Gibson to stardom.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior: In the annals of action movies few can compere with Mad Max 2, a full-throttle epic of speed and carnage that rockets you into a dreamlike landscape where the post-nuclear future meets the mythological past. More simply, its also one of the most mind-blowing stunt movies ever made. Before he took aim in three Lethal Weapons and starred on 1994's Maverick, Mel Gibson had already made his mark on movie history as Max, the heroic loner who drives the roads of outback Australia in an unending search for gasoline. Arrayed against him and the other scraggly defenders of a fuel-depot encampment are the bizarre warriors commanded by The Humungus, notorious for never taking prisoners when they can pulverise them instead.

Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome: Two men enter. One man leaves. That's the law in Bartertown's Thunderdome arena. But lawmaker Auntie Entity will soon add another: Don't get Max mad! Mel Gibson returns for the third time as the title hero who takes on the barbarians of the post-nuclear future- and this time becomes the saviour of a tribe of lost children. Tina Turner steals what's left of the screen as Auntie Entity, a power-mad dominatrix determined to use Max to tighten her stranglehold on Bartertown. Directors George Miller and George Ogilvie deliver another rousing final apocalypse-on-wheels and one of the best movie fight scenes ever, as Max and the gladiatorial Blaster face off with maces, chainsaws and anything not nailed down inside Thunderdome.