All 5 Mad Max Movies, Ranked From Trash to Triumph (Sorry Furiosa, You're Not Even in the Top 3)

George Miller's post-apocalyptic franchise Mad Max has reached new heights – now we have five films about road wars and deadly battles in the scorching sands.

With Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga in theaters, we rank all the films in the franchise, from the outright failure to the action masterpiece.

5. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, 1985

The city of Bartertown is ruled by the treacherous ruler Entity. To consolidate her power, she turned to Max, an unsurpassed master of street fighting. And the law of the Thunderdome arena is extremely cruel: two in, only one out.

Max must lead a group of lost children out of the desert to lay the foundation for a more humane civilization than the one born after the nuclear apocalypse of World War III.

The movie is George Miller's most exotic entry in the entire history of Mad Max – so exotic that fans of the franchise prefer to ignore Beyond Thunderdome. The movie tried to use a new structure and the name of the then popular Mel Gibson, but it turned out to be an empty and unnecessary project even by B-movie standards.

4. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, 2024

Furiosa tells about the revenge of a kidnapped girl on the mad warlord Dementus. The movie is divided into five chapters, and this decision seems to be the only way to somehow connect the separate parts of this project. Basically, it is a series of short films about the main character's life, barely held together by one main idea: the girl wants to return home and take revenge on Dementus.

The audience already knows that Furiosa will not reach the end of her journey for a long time: that will only happen in Fury Road. We also suspect that Dementus will not live to see the credits: otherwise, he would have been in the previous movie. George Miller had a story with absolutely nothing to build intrigue around: the ending was predetermined, the fates of most of the characters were known.

But Furiosa still packs a punch with its crazy punk energy – and that is the main reason why we love the Australian director's films.

3. Mad Max, 1979

1979 was a turning point for Australian cinema – George Miller directed a movie that opened the world of struggle for resources, rolling out monstrous cars on the roads. In the first Mad Max we saw a young Mel Gibson and the deeply tragic story of his character – he lost his family to the atrocities of criminals.

The 1979 movie is not considered a favorite by many, and the dramatic plot twists are not nearly as impressive as the non-stop chases. However, it is worth giving the film its due – it played a huge role in popularizing Australian cinema and also accelerated the entry of movies with cool car scenes into the mainstream.

2. Mad Max: Fury Road, 2015

Disputes with producers, terrible weather conditions, lack of money – Miller overcame all these adversities to create a truly unique sequel. Fury Road not only incorporates the best developments of the previous Mad Max films, but also uses the full range of action cinema techniques.

Mad Max: Fury Road is a two-hour non-stop chase, where each encounter with the enemy is more vivid and memorable than the last. Most importantly, it is a movie that tells its story almost entirely through action – the highest level of excellence in the genre.

1. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981

It's easy to explain why the second Mad Max is put on the franchise pedestal. George Miller charged the screen with frenetic energy for the entire hour and a half of action. This is a masterpiece of post-apocalyptic cinema, born from the pure enthusiasm of the film crew; the embodiment of the punk spirit of cinema and the fanaticism of people truly in love with art.

Why is The Road Warrior so highly praised? Because it is pure, unrelenting energy that never lets up for a second. Cutthroats, desert, fire-breathing tanks, tricks with harpoons and guns – in these punk mechanics Miller found the secret of the perfect action movie.