Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior Filming Locations
A guide to the filming locations used in Mad Max 2 / The Road Warrior.
Mad Max 2 was filmed in New South Wales (Australia), around the areas of Broken Hill and Silverton.
The first stop for any Mad Max tourist should of course be the Silverton Hotel, pictured above. There is a wealth of history surrounding the hotel, and inside you will find pictures from Mad Max 2, and many of the other productions that have been done out there over the years. The road out past Silverton will also take you to the Mundi Mundi plain, where much of the opening of the film was shot.
Note that several Broken Hill residents managed to keep various items from the film, and if you ask around you should be able to find them and look at these things for yourself. All that they ask is that if you take a look, please leave things as you find them, for everyone else to see after you.
For those unable to make it to Broken Hill - a way to visit the locations interactively is through http://earth.google.com. Visit the web site and download the package, then come back here and grab the file of Mad Max 2 locations. Just open it up by double clicking. Any locations listed as (approx) aren't pinpointed precisely yet, and many are missing, so feel free to send me your updates.
Mad Max 2 / Road Warrior Locations
Opening Sequence
The road out past Silverton, towards Mundi Mundi plain, was used in many shots, primarily the opening chase, and the final truck wreck. The truck is initially parked at the Mundi Mundi lookout (note that the sign was a film prop, and is not there).
The reverse side of the hill is used in the opening chase, where Max dodges the wrecks, while the Landau just crashes through them. Down from the Mundi Mundi lookout is a tight corner, which is where the truck is crashed off the road in the final scene.
Looking up the hill towards Mundi Mundi lookoutAround the corner and onto the straight, and this road is again used in the opening chase. Note in the opening chase that you can see the cars fly past some old electrical poles, about when the Landau is knocking posts out of the ground. The poles are still there, as pictured below.
Mundi Mundi Road, as used in the opening chase, looking towards the corner
The Gyro Captain
The location of the parked Gyro Copter is Stephen's Creek. If you take Kaolin street out of town (I hope that's the one!) and keep driving for half an hour or so, you should reach the dry creek bed where this scene was film. It would be advisable to take a 4 wheel drive, to avoid becoming bogged in the sandy creek bed.
The Compound
The compound was set out at "The Pinnacles", a series of three hills, about 20km out of Broken Hill. The Pinnacles are fairly prominent as you drive in towards Broken Hill, they are the only hills for miles around. The compound was at the base of the middle pinnacle, which is the one closest to the road. Max also used the middle pinnacle as his vantage point to overlook the compound. After its explosive destruction seen in the film, the compound site was bulldozed flat, but from atop The Pinnacles you can still see the scars where it once was.
The road to the pinnacles was used in the rig delivery, the road up towards the compound was actually created for the film, and is still there today.
Max Escapes In The Interceptor
The "rollover" scene, when Max gets taken out by Wez, was on the road to Menindee lakes, not that far out of town, (at closest approx. 15 k's) a drop to another plain. It's apparently easy to find, you're coming down a noticeably large hill, then it's flat until the rivers and lakes. On the right hand side of the road (going out of town) there is a cliff face. After the filming you could still see the tyre tracks, etc leading off the edge. (Thanks to Josh Nixon for this one)
The Final Chase
The majority of the final chase was filmed on the road from Broken Hill to Menindee. Follow the road out past the section used for the cannonball stunt, and head out about a further 15km. You'll hit a long straight stretch of road (about 4km long), which was reused back and forth for much of the chase..
The Chase Conclusion
The end of the final chase was mostly shot out at Mundi Mundi, on the road out past Silverton. The Gyro Captain throws the molotov cocktail at Humungus about 500 metres after the corner where the truck crashes (see below). They are heading north towards the Umberimberka reservoir. When Humungus is on fire, he is about 2km out from the truck crash corner, heading south.
The Truck Crash
The final truck roll over scene was just down from the Mundi Mundi lookout, as mentioned above (same locations as for the opening chase).
The impact itself occurs just as the hill starts to drop down from the Mundi Mundi lookout. In the truck crash picture shown above, the lookout is just over the crest of the hill, behind the F100. After destroying Humungus' truck, the truck careers down the hill, and leaves the road and hits the dirt as it rounds the corner, shown below. See the separate page for more detailed information on the truck stunts themselves.
Given that most of Mad Max 2 was shot on open roads, the above general info is probably just about all that there is! However, if anyone can think of anything else, please just contact me. I will try to identify and photograph a few of the other identifiable locations next time I manage to make it out there.
Broken Hill Tours
As far as I can determine, there are no tour companies that do a specific "Mad Max" tour. The majority of people venture to Broken Hill to see the area in general, and incorporate more sight seeing than just Mad Max locations. Some tours will of course take you past some locations and point them out, however you are probably best to make your own way there if Mad Max is all you want to see.
If you want just a general tour of Broken Hill, I have discovered a couple of companies online, perhaps email them for more info (I have not dealt with any of these companies directly myself):
- Firstly, there is Outback Tours, http://www.outbacktours.net/. They mention the fact that Mad Max was filmed around Broken Hill on their page, although I don't know if they tour to any of the locations specifically.
- Secondly, there is Goanna Safari, http://www.goanna-safari.com.au/. It seems that their tours are aimed directly at people who wish to see the bush, wildlife, etc, and it is highly unlikely that they would have tours aimed specifically at Mad Max locations. They do have tours that go through the Broken Hill area though, if you just wanted to see that area in general.
Finally, a couple of people have pointed out to me that although some tour operators do offer tours of film locations in the Broken Hill area, the information on these tours may not be 100% accurate. If you make the effort to go to Broken Hill then I would suggest taking the above list of locations, so that if you do go on a tour that doesn't take you everywhere, at least you can hire a car or something and find the rest for yourself.