Explain the children in MMBT please.

[DemolitionWarrior]

I've watched the movie a hundred times and I really either don't understand the purpose of the children from the crack in the earth or maybe there is nothing to get. I just don't know.
Are the children helping Max Regain his humanity? I don't see why he goes back to Bartertown and rescues Master and PigKiller?
I thought that maybe going back to the Crack in the earth was too far with no supplies so he had to go to Bardertown? IDK because all I see is Max and the kids all of a sudden on a spur of the moment rescue mission. Why?

Also what does the whole Captain Walker thing with the story?

I feel like MMBT really lacks any victims to save or any major Villains to overcome.

I always thought that MMBT could have followed a Lost Boys vs Captain Hook scenario where Max keeps hearing about and glimpses of seem like stealthy "dessert savages" that attack Bartertown at night and are cloaked. After The whole Blaster being killed Max finds out from Master that Auntie lied and that the Dessert Savages are actually not what he'd been led to believe. These savages are actually the children. Auntie could have some how killed off the children's parents/tribe and enslaved the Children that then revolted, escaped and now attack Bartertown at night to save the still enslaved children whom are forced to shovel Pig Shit.

Then I could see a reason for these Children and made Auntie a much better Villian.

So any way someone please explain The children and the final reasons for the strange rescue.
Please no "know it all" answers

Thanks much

[mahenoguy]

O.K Then , I'll give you a "Know fuck all answer "
From a real world perspective this whole section of the film is a little incoherent , I know miller had to reduce the running time so a few scenes were cut , Some characters just disappear ( I.e Geko and the pregnant girl ) so maybe it was explained in deleted scenes .
As for a Mad Max Universe perspective , Perhaps they head to Bartertown because they are lost , there was a huge sand storm when the kids are getting swallowed be the sand , which would have erased their tracks , plus they were much further from the Crack in the earth than they had ever been . Perhaps Max had to Show Savannah Bartertown for her to believe it wasn't Tomorrow-Morrow land so she wouldn't run away again . Perhaps Max regaining his humanity is remorse for Master and Pig killers plight , plus master would Make a useful captive with his knowledge of alternative energy , or even a trade off with Auntie .

As for the kids existence I believe the Adults left in search of Medical supplies . There seemed to be enough food and water in the Crack in the Earth , and they knew there was no Tomorrow-morrow land and they were walking off into the Nothing so They left the elderly and Invalid to watch the kids while they set out in search of other survivors .The skulls in Screwloose's cavern could be the remains of the last of the Adults who remained . I would guess they would have been swallowed by the sand or Bartertown as Max warns Savannah would happen , and Both Ironbar and Pig Killer look at the kids with a certain look of recognition which could suggest they are members of the "Great Leaving "party . Perhaps Cpt. Walker didn't pass Aunties Test as Max was the first to survive . The Captain Walker character is inspired by a book , the name of which I can't recall but I'm sure other members can enlighten. so maybe the Kids don't just Humanize Max but also the people of bartertown . They could also be a sign of hope in they are a new generation when for all intensive purposes it seems humans are going extinct . Or Maybe Miller just wrote them in after The Feral Kid proved such a popular character in MM2

[MWFV8]

I think that, knowing the film was a likely blockbuster, the pre-production just turned into what's known as development soup. It's sort of unavoidable without a very strong and influential individual at the helm, and as we know, for good reason, Miller's heart wasn't in it. Sadly the whole movie smacks of doing things for the sake of having impact or stirring emotion over favouring realism, narrative and theme. That doesn't make it a bad movie, in a way that's what highly successful movies are all about. When you need to generate a massive return just to cover the budget, it makes sense to development executives to give the audience the roller-coaster they're looking for. I don't believe there's much to dissect like there is in the preceding films (note: not movies).

[themanw/oaname]

I think they were there to sell the movie series to kids.

[DemolitionWarrior]

Thanks much for the replies. That's a good thought about the skulls. I would like to see any deleted scenes that may help explain the many unresolved aspects of the movie. The movie almost feels like Miller may have been given a big check and told to make a more summer blockbuster type movie with MMBT rather than a subtle gritty film like the previous two. I'm going to do some research and see what Miller may have said about MMBT somewhere. I guess MMBT couldn't have too many great road brawls when there are no roads in the whole movie.
Again thanks

[kickherintheguts]

The movie almost feels like Miller may have been given a big check and told to make a more summer blockbuster type movie with MMBT rather than a subtle gritty film like the previous two. I'm going to do some research and see what Miller may have said about MMBT somewhere.

What really happened is that Miller's producer/friend Byron Kennedy died in a helicopter crash between MM2 and MM3. Kennedy's death was such a huge loss to both Miller and the Mad Max franchise that they never really recovered. Miller only shot the action scenes for MM3 and relegated the rest of the directing duties to George Olgivie.

Here's a nice tribute to Byron Kennedy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STkZhRjpaFY

[roadwarriormfp]

I've watched the movie a hundred times and I really either don't understand the purpose of the children from the crack in the earth or maybe there is nothing to get. I just don't know.
Are the children helping Max Regain his humanity? I don't see why he goes back to Bartertown and rescues Master and PigKiller?
I thought that maybe going back to the Crack in the earth was too far with no supplies so he had to go to Bardertown? IDK because all I see is Max and the kids all of a sudden on a spur of the moment rescue mission. Why?

First off MM3 was aimed at a bigger market audience as apposed to just "madmax" fans.
Why did Max go on a sudden rescue mission? Well if you look at MM2 youll see Max do the same thing and he tells Pappagallo "You haven't got a choice"
Max IS their salvation and drives the tanker because he still has his morals and conscience. He is afterall "the hero" who sees himself as the only person capable of getting them out of the proverbial shit.

Also what does the whole Captain Walker thing with the story?

Im guessing you missed the "tel"..... If you listened to the annoying kids youd know who Walker was. He was the captain the Qantas 747.

I feel like MMBT really lacks any victims to save or any major Villains to overcome.

Aunty and her Bartertown is the villain in the film, her unique way of "law" (ie her way or death) isn't a true society, but a small time dictatorship.

So any way someone please explain The children and the final reasons for the strange rescue.

Max insisted they stay but they didn't listen and instead wanted to see the bigger world essentially, to see where they came from. Again his sense of morals and "doing the right thing" meant that he had to help them as he saw no else around to do the job. Sometimes you have to step up to the plate.

[MWFV8]

Thematically Walker is a false idol. The children worship him and have a belief system that he'll one day arrive and lead them to a divine place (home/tomorrow-morrow Land ). The irony being that they are actually living in a tiny oasis. It's clearly a commentary on our obsession with religion derived from hearsay, the way we are living in a (mostly) wonderful world yet strive to ascend to a more divine place.

It's also a good plot device, by having a few refuse to accept the truth, to pull Max back to Batertown for a showdown with the antagonists.

However it doesn't fit the ending very well. Max heroically helps the Children ascend into the sky but they end up flying back to destroyed Sydney. The payoff is satisfying, we get a compelling view of the destruction, but it doesn't really satisfy the Children's story, they effectively end up separated from their tribe somewhere worse. Although it could be argued they have arrived at their perceived destiny or home. Contrasting this, in RoadWarrior, nearly everybody gets away and reaches the oasis of the coast.

It also doesn't really give Max an arc. He doesn't change like he does in RoadWarrior, where we see him go from selfish to selfless. He just sort of has to go save them 'because kids'. It's a very plot driven movie and Max makes very few tough decisions that show his character. Again compare this to RoadWarrior where Max choses to enter the refinery, choses to make a deal, choses to leave, and choses to lead the assault on the marauders.

This to me is evidence of development soup. It seems the development execs just took a bunch of thematic elements from RoadWarrior and tried to make them bigger. The Interceptor becomes the F150 and thus Max's motivation to enter the story and retrieve it. The Marauder's camp becomes Bartertown. The deal becomes the Thunderdome fight. The refinery becomes the crack in the Earth. The tanker chase becomes the train chase. The Gyrocaptain becomes well... Gyrocaptain 2.0.

But it seems that either through a process of rewrites or a process of generally not giving a molly frock about story, the more poignant and ultimately subliminally harrowing elements of RoadWarrior were lost. However the box office takings demonstrated just how much a place they really don't have in blockbuster production.

[decosabute]

The Captain Walker character is inspired by a book , the name of which I can't recall but I'm sure other members can enlighten. so maybe the Kids don't just Humanize Max but also the people of bartertown . They could also be a sign of hope in they are a new generation when for all intensive purposes it seems humans are going extinct . Or Maybe Miller just wrote them in after The Feral Kid proved such a popular character in MM2

I think you're referring to the 1980 novel 'Riddley Walker' by Russell Hoban, which tells the story of a boy growing up in a post apocalyptic England which has devolved to something like the bronze age. The children in MMBT and their unusual speech are heavily inspired by Riddley Walker, and George Miller naming the captain Walker in Beyond Thunderdome was a clear acknowledgement of the influence.

I have a hunch that Miller was a huge fan of the book, toyed with the idea of adapting it as a film, before settling on incorporating ideas from it into the third mad max film. Perhaps that's why this segment of the film, while interesting, doesn't quite sit well with the rest, plot wise.

I can't recommend the novel highly enough, though be warned it's very unusual and the language is difficult to decipher at times.

Just wondering has anyone else ever heard of Miller talking about Riddley Walker in interviews?

[decosabute]

Also wondering is there any interview/hard evidence to support the claims (seen on Imdb's trivia and on this forum) that Beyond Thunderdome was originally going to be a non-Mad Max film, and centred more around the lost kids?

There is a reference somewhere else on the forum to an interview with John Baxter, where he says the lost kids element was actually in an early draft of the Road Warrior script, which was then rehashed for the third film.

That might debunk my theory that Beyond Thunderdome partly grew out of a desire to adapt 'Riddley Walker' for the big screen, but I'm very curious to hear if anyone knows how it ties together?