FAQ for
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) More at IMDbPro »Mad Max 2 (original title)

No. In the US r-rated version some short plot scenes as well as some scenes of violence, which had to be cut in order to get an r-rating, are missing. This version has been released on DVD, Laserdisc and VHS in the USA. In early VHS times a few European releases (e.g. Germany and UK) as well as the Australian version offered the so called unrated-version. Later then, new re-releases based on the cut US-Master have been released in these countries which lead to the fact that the original unrated copies vanished more and more.

Until now only one version has been released on DVD and it's the r-rated-version. The reason for this, is the same as the later VHS re-release being only the r-rated version: The US-Master has been used for every DVD-print on the planet (although there are rumours that the first Japanese DVD had the unrated version).

But there is some light at the end of the tunnel: At least the new HD-releases (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) offer a slightly longer version. This version includes the scenes that had to be cut to achieve an r-rating. However it seems that even the HD-releases still lack the short plot scenes.

A detailed comparison between the r-rated version and an old unrated VHS-Version can be found here.

According to director George Miller on the Blu-ray commentary track, costume designer Norma Moriceau was given very few limitations on how to design the film's unique outfits. Miller said he wanted the "clothing" of the future to look post-apocalyptic & pieced together from whatever the wearer could scrounge up from anywhere they happened to be. Moriceau had the idea of using American football shoulder pads & clothing she bought from sex shops (like Wez' seatless leather pants).

As far as Max's outfit goes, it is heavily modified from the original leather uniform he wore as one of the "Bronze" policemen in the first film. Each alteration has a unique origin:

* The sleeve of his jacket is missing since he had his arm run over in the first movie and medics would have cut the sleeve off rather than remove it by pulling it over the injured arm.

* His leg brace is due to his knee cap being shot through by Bubba Zanetti in the first movie.

* His spanner and tool harness is for running repairs on the V8.

* His fingers are missing on the first two fingers of each driving glove to enable easy insertion/retrieval of shotgun shells or to use his tools or other items.

There's different ways of interpreting this. One argument is that he felt he owed them for patching him up and not leaving him to die in the desert. Another is that he is still as cynical and misanthropic as he was before his Interceptor was destroyed and realises that if he doesn't drive the tanker he'll be left behind to the mercy of the Humungus' Dogs of War. It's also possible that Max had long had a death wish and the only thing that kept him going was protecting his car and his dog and, having lost them, he decides he no longer has any reason to live and may as well go out in a blaze of glory, given the slim chances of the small crew that was riding & defending the tanker. Possibly he also wanted revenge on the bikers for killing his dog and destroying his car, and the best revenge he could evoke on them, besides killing as many of them as possible, was to make sure they didn't get the gas either, so that they too were left without getting what they wanted. His line "Believe me, I haven't got a choice" when asked why he wants to drive the truck leaves his motives ambiguous.

The theme of a burned-out loner helping out a rag-tag group of people is an old one in cinema. Some other movies to watch for similar themes include The Seven Samurai & Yojimbo by Akira Kurosawa, and also countless westerns.

The novels of Mad Max 2 and 3 give some background to this. In the 2nd book Max remembers his boss losing control of the MFP after Max's wife and son were killed as society fell apart. In the 3rd novel it states that after the death of his family and his revenge on the Toecutter's gang "the world had finally blown itself to Hell a few weeks later it had seemed only fitting. He had taken off alone into the wastes and lived there ever since".

An Australian Cattle Dog or "Blue Heeler", as it's known in its native land. The dog the producers got for the film was known simply as "Dog" and was retrieved at a local pound where he was scheduled to be euthanized the next day. The production's animal wrangler (trainer) found that the dog could be easily trained for the film. After the film was done, it found a home on a local ranch.

"THE VERMIN HAVE INHERITED THE EARTH". It was likely painted on there by someone who thought of marauders like Wez & the Humungus to be the vermin of the world following the apocalypse, the type of thugs who rape & kill for fuel.

In the middle of the 80s Mad Max 2 got edited in a special version for the TV. The first channel which aired this version was NBC, later the Australian Network 10 as well. This version is censored in nearly every scene containing violence but offers different camera angles and complete alternative scenes which are unique in this way. These scenes were re-inserted to the movie to enlarge him to its original runtime whereas some of these scenes would have been good for the original version as well. In order to show all differences, the comparison was split in two parts: The first one shows the scenes that are missing in the Unrated Version and can be found here. The second comparison concentrates on the scenes that are missing in the Television Version and can be found here.

No, but seeing as how the gang tended to pillage, rape and kill everyone they came across, not too many women would be left by the end of each raid. We see that there were at least a few women in the gang who were likely just as vicious and brutal as the men in the gang and would have "belonged" to certain members. The rest of the crew probably looked at it as a free-range prison; You'd take what you could get. Such as Wez had his submissive partner, whether this was a sex slave or a willing participant is up to the viewer to decide.