Trivia
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Spoilers (1)
The script called for Aunt Entity (Tina Turner) to drive a vehicle. All of the vehicles were built using manual transmissions, which Turner couldn't drive, so a car equipped with an automatic transmission had to be constructed.
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Director/Co-Writer George Miller was given the rights to Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior and this one to get him to step aside as the director of Contact.
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Two directors were hired so that George Miller could concentrate on the stunts and action scenes, while George Ogilvie handled the performances of the large cast of actors.
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Originally, the film was supposed to be about a group of children living without parents in the wild. They were trying to decide what adult character would find them, when someone thought of Max. After that suggestion, it became a "Mad Max" film.
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The film references a novel by Russell Hoban called "Riddley Walker" about a hero traveling in post-apocalyptic England.
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The possible outcomes on the Wheel are: - Death - Hard Labour - Acquittal - Gulag - Aunty's Choice - Spin Again - Forfeit Goods - Underworld - Amputation - Life Imprisonment
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Max's eyes are different; the pupil in his left eye is permanently dilated. This is a nod to Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior: When his car is forced off the road by Wez and Max crashes, he suffers a severe injury to, among other body parts, his left eye. The disparity is easier to see in close-ups, and VERY easy to see in HD versions of the film. In the regular version, it's most prominent when Max first looks down on the Thunderdome.
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Aunty Entity's (Tina Turner) steel mail dress weighed more than 55 kilograms (121 pounds).
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The sandstorm at the end of the film was real, and a camera plane actually did fly into it for some shots. The storm in its entirety hit the crew in the desert, forcing them to ride it out in their cars and wherever they could find cover.
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Max's shotgun differs in this movie from the one he used in Mad Max and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, which was his duty weapon. This one has exposed hammers and a different grip.
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Jedidiah's airplane is a Transavia PL-12 'Airtruk', a single-engine agricultural biplane designed by Transavia in Australia. First flown in 1965, around 120 had been built by the time this movie was made.
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All of the pigs in the film foreshadow George Miller's involvement with Babe and directing its sequel ten years later.
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The first of the series made with American financing. Which explains why American stars like Tina Turner crop up in the film.
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George Miller lost interest in the project after his friend and producer Byron Kennedy was killed in a helicopter crash while location scouting. That may explain why Miller only handled the action scenes while George Ogilvie handled the rest. The film is dedicated to Byron Kennedy.
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The music video for Tupac Shakur's 1996 hit "California Love" was shot at the Thunderdome set and features vehicles and clothes inspired by the Mad Max series.
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Max's name is only spoken once in the movie. Just after he meets Master Blaster in underworld. Master says "Me Master" and introduces himself, then Max says "Me Max" and does the same.
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In interviews about Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (a.k.a. "The Road Warrior"), George Miller said that while Max's world was after the collapse of the social/political/economic system we know, it was not post-World War III. However, "Beyond Thunderdome" explicitly contradicts this.
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Tina Turner's character is billed as Aunty Entity, but nowhere in the film does anyone call her that. She's always referred to as just Aunty.
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Spoilers
Two scenes were cut from the film to bring down the running time. One where he dreams of his murdered wife and son, wakes up and cries. He realises he's become just as bad as the animals he used to hunt down as a cop. The other is Max takes a dying Gekko to the top of a sand dune at night, sees the lights of Bartertown and tells him they've reached Tomorrow-Morrow Land. A few seconds of this scene are included in the music video for Turner's "We Don't Need Another Hero".
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