Mad Max / The Road Warrior
Flubs & Trivia

Where possible, the flubs / trivia are listed in the order in which they appear in the movie. Recent additions marked in yellow.

Note that I don't have the time to verify everything people keep sending me, so I'm marking most new additions with UNVERIFIED.

Film Flubs - The Fun & Interesting Stuff

  • At the very start of Mad Max 2, right before Max smashes that neat custom front end of his to shreds, there is a short clip of the interceptor approaching the rear of the black sedan, with its front end already missing.
  • In the opening chase there is a scene where the supercharger pulley is on the wrong side.  It happens just after Max makes his break and zooms past the bad guys, and switches on the supercharger.  In the following scene, as the car approaches, it has the supercharger pulley on the LEFT side of the supercharger, not the right where it is supposed to be.
  • Check the fuel caps on the tanks in the opening chase, one of them seems to have accidentally sprung open (perhaps that's why Max is finding himself low on fuel?)
  • Can the "Mad Max" interceptor be the same as the "Mad Max 2" interceptor if they have different Weiand blowers? Check the number of bolts on the little wheel in both films. Also check the front plate, vintage plate in Mad Max, standard in MM2. Scott injector is real in MM, but a custom / replica piece in MM2. Blower was also mounted higher in MM2, you can see the bottom, in MM it was only 1/2 to 3/4 out of the hood. Also of note, the exhaust system on the car is different between the first film to the second - the 'zoomie' pipes are not the same - no trumpeting. (Note that the blower change, etc is actually because of the car being for sale between the two films, see the sub-page). Also the car in Mad Max has a white interior, for MM2 it is black.
  • At the beginning, during the car chase when Max rams the rear of the other car and gets all smashed up, you can quite clearly see there are no headlights left on the car after the collision.
  • Man driving the car that rolls in the beginning (chasing max). When he hits the dune buggy that causes him to roll, the next shot is inside the car and it is obvious that the dune buggy is just sitting still.
  • When Wez is shot, the arrow goes in by the side of his arm. But when he rips it out, the arrow appears to have shot him from the above part of his arm. 
  • After Wez takes the arrow out of his arm, watch closely when he puts it back in the holder. The arrow now has no blood on it. There is also apparently no arrow point.
  • I was emailed this, but I'm not so sure it is correct: When Max opens the door of the truck, look closely when the body falls out, specifically for the shot from inside the cabin of the body falling out towards Max. If you still frame it here and take a close look, you'll see that's not Mel Gibson at all, but his stunt double!
  • Look closely at the interceptor in different scenes, sometimes it has windscreen wipers, sometimes it doesn't. A few other things seem to change around as well - it seems the second car they built, although close, isn't quite identical to the original.
  • When the Gyro Captain is threatening to shoot Max with his crossbow, look carefully at the placement of his fingers on the crossbow. How many fingers would he have left if he really fired?!
  • When Max first arrives at the Pinnacles and is scoping the compound through his binoculars, look at the vehicle near the compound gate, in the moat on the left. It looks the the remains of a white 1960's Valiant. Later on when Max is entering the compound there is a completely different wreck there instead.
  • During the "Dinki Di" dinner scene, Max scopes out the compound through a pair of binoculars set on a tripod. Somehow, perhaps through Max' gift of telekinesis, he is able to follow a motorcycle as it jumps a ramp into the compound, without taking his hands off of his fork and dogfood.  (Actually the hand is on the binoculars when he starts to look, but when he looks away he is holding the can and fork, and clearly couldn't have been manipulating the binoculars too)
  • The wrecked Dune Buggy that Max and Gyro Captain are spying on through binoculars/telescope. The bad guys pull the girl and guy out. They strip the girl and shoot the guy. If you look close you can see one guy sitting on top of the girl abusing her. He takes an obvious fake swing acting like he is hitting her, but she seems not to notice as she tilts her head the opposite way.
  • When Max arrives after the massacre to rescue Nathan, look closely at the crossbow sitting next to the dark haired mohawker. Initially there is no bolt loaded into the crossbow, however when he makes a grab for it, it is loaded and ready to fire.
  • When Max bring Nathan back to the compound, he gets him out of the car, and closes the door. Shortly after when Max is asked to turn around, the door is open again in the background.
  • Look carefully at the wreck in the moat on the left, which Max walks past as he enters the compound - it's the Landau which was crashed upside down in the opening chase.
  • When Max is entertaining the Feral Kid with the music box, notice when the kid opens his mouth, he has several fillings in his lower set of teeth. Kind of hard to get dental care when you're an orphan in a post apocalyptic wasteland.
  • The scene when Max and the Gyro Captain return to the copter with the fuel cans there is a buggy in the background with its owner apparently dead on the ground. The same buggy appears in the chase scene at the end of the movie.
  • When the Gyro Captain drops the fuel cans, you can quite clearly hear that they are empty.
  • The Gyrocopter can only fly by means of moving forward like a plane (that is why there is a propeller on the back for pushing), it cannot hover fly like shown in the movie. It needs a runway to land and take off.
  • UNVERIFIED In the opening scene, where Max opens the Mack's cabin and the body falls out, there is an arrow in the door. When he comes back later with the Gyro Captain to retrieve the Mack, the arrow is the panel behind the door - a completely different place.
  • When the Humungous shoots at the Mack, the radiator shown is from a late 50's Mack, not the one used in the movie (you have to look close!) Additional information: There were actually two Mack trucks used in the movie, and they were not identical. If you know what to look for, you can pick the differences (exhaust filters, interiors, etc).
  • As Max drives the rig towards the gate, Wez and another vehicle both shoot out tires on the rig's right hand side.  But in the next scene, all the tires are fine.
  • As Max tries to drive the truck into the compound, the vermin try to stop him. As Wez jumps onto the back of the truck, Max, being the good guy he is, seems to put the brakes on.
  • UNVERIFIED When the Warrior Woman is apologizing to Max after he returns with the truck, look at Max instead: He is facing at a bad angle, but you can see his face muscles moving like he is fooling around or trying to make her laugh.
  • When Max is done using the torch, while he's talking to the girl, his face is jet black from the smoke but when he gets onto the ground, it's all gone.
  • After Max crashes the interceptor, the silver-helmet, ex-bronze guy comes down with his crossbow to finish Max off. If you take a good look at the studs on his muzzle, you will notice that he is not the same silver-head that rode in on Humungus' vehicle. As he turns on the nitro' in the previous scene, you can get a good look at the original muzzle.
  • After the interceptor rolls down the hill, one of the caps on the fuel tanks has sprung open. However, when Toadie arrived on the scene, the caps are now both closed again.
  • After Max is run off the road by Wez and is hiding behind the rock, he draws his gun to protect himself, except he drops it.  As he drops it, you will notice that there is no glove on his right hand. A few moments later, after the Interceptor explodes, Max shields his head with his arms and there is the glove on his hand.
  • As the tanker gets ready to leave the compound, you see Lord Humungous loading his revolver.  He places the rounds in the wrong cylinder holes. If he tried to fire the gun like that, he would have to pull the trigger two or three times before the rounds rotated around to the firing pin.
  • As the final chase begins, Wez takes a grappling hook and hooks it on Max' door, tearing the "Earth" door off. On the road in the background, you can see the furry guys in the little dune-buggy all ready swinging their's. In the next scene, the action repeats as the dune-buggy drives up to the rear of the tanker, and the furry guys start to swing the hook, again.
  • Just after Wez rips the Earth door off the truck, there is a shot from the outside of the cabin of Max, and who's that crouching down in the seat behind him? (Actually it's Dennis Williams, the truck stunt driver)  For those with the Road Warrior DVD, go to the 79 minute mark of the film. Look just below the steering wheel / Mel's hand in the picture below.


Hi Dennis!

  • When Warrior Woman starts to walk down the top of the tanker to help the mechanic that's on fire, she has a large crossbow in each hand.   When she gets about halfway down the tanker, she shoots one of the bad guys climbing up.  But in the next shot, both crossbows are now empty.
  • When the Gyro Captain hits the ground, the rotor is already bent before impact. Additional info: There were also two gyrocopters used in the movie. One that flew, and which was never wrecked, and the "stunt" one which they simply dropped for the crash scene.
  • When Papagalo drives out of the compound, he had a hand crossbow on his hand.  Later, it is missing.
  • When the bear claw biker breaks through the rear window of the truck, you can see Wez's spiked ball and chain already embedded in the roof.
  • Before the final chase scene, you see Max loading his shotgun.  He has six shells.  He uses two on the red car, and two on bad guys, supposedly leaving him with two shells. Yet when he accidentally loses the remainder, four come rolling out.
  • As Wez is on the roof of the truck, and Claw Biker crashes through the window, Max drops his shells. There is a scene of a shell rolling and coming to a rest on the bonnet of the truck. Look toward the front of the truck and there are black feathers just peeking over the bonnet, as if Wez has already been thrown off the roof. They aren't there as Wez actually does fall.
  • Watch for Humungus's "missing" stack and shift lever in the final chase sequence to switch sides during a close-up (flipped negative). When he activated the nitro bottles they're also on the opposite side to when the ex-Bronze guy previously activated them.
  • In the scene when Max decides to turn around, there is an overhead shot of the U-turn in progress.  Why can't we see Wez hanging from the front of the truck?
  • In the aerial shot of the tanker after it turns around the bear claw biker should be behind the cab but he isn't.
  • The scene in the final chase where Max sends the Feral Kid out to retrieve the shotgun shell: suffice it to say that no child in a loincloth would have been on that hood for more than a second without getting seriously roasted.
  • At least three bad guy vehicles are never destroyed. Yet at the end, only two vehicles and two motorcycles are shown that were never disabled.
  • When Max crashes with the Humungus' vehicle at the end, there is a side-on view of the collision - the driver of the Mack is clearly wearing a safety helmet.
  • When the Mack crashes, watch for the drivers side exhaust stack to go flying. Yet when Max is crawling out, it is swinging behind him, still attached to the truck. Also, none of the tyres on the crashed truck appear to be shredded / shot out in any way.
  • Just before the tanker crashes on its side, you can see the stuntman driver wearing a crash helmet.


The truck, and pursuers

Film Flubs - The Nitpicker & Speculative Stuff

  • I've been emailed this a few times, but don't believe it to be an error: "When Max finds the truck and gets the gas/petrol from the upside down buggy, it has no engine. You can see the transmission housing with the rod that connects to the cranckshaft sticking out." Why isn't this an error? Because in the impact, the engine most probably broke loose on this vehicle, it's not housed in any way.
  • When you see the view the binoculars and through the telescope, look at the black area. You'll see that it is slightly transparent. This is easiest to see in the Widescreen version.
  • I don't necessarily count this one, as the vehicle could have been modified off screen during the course of the film, but here it is anyway: In the scene where Golden Youth's body is put in the red convertible tow truck, the tow truck is missing it's quad dart gun weaponry.  It is also missing in the battle when Max drives the rig into the compound.
  • The sand pouring from the tanker is NOT A FLUB. It's shown in multiple scenes from multiple angles, it's definitely intended to be happening, and not a mistake by the film makers.

Trivia

  • It has been mentioned that the violent stop Max makes after the opening chase is done by putting the car in reverse. While it is possible to stop a car this way, people who have examined the scene closely are sure that in this case it's just a severe case of axle hop. You can see that the left wheel is in the dirt while the right remains on the road, and the smoke doesn't curl around the tyres, but comes from the bottom.
  • The graffiti on the side of the abonded truck reads "The vermin have inherited the earth".
  • Max's dog is quite simply named "Dog". The dog is a Blue Heeler, for some more info on Dog, visit his page.
  • The snake Max faces off with is a common bull snake, about as poisonous as a guppy.
  • The booby trap on Max's Interceptor seems to have been made fairly accurately. One major component of it is a car's ignition coil. The coil takes a low voltage current (12 - 14v) and cranks up the juice to an engine firing 40k volts or more. We see Max's as a roundish yellow piece (possibly Accel, an aftermarket hi-po piece) with two screw terminals for ignition switch leads and a large boot in the center which would send high voltage output to the distributor. The result is that a high energy spark sets off the fuse that blows the explosives, and the car. It is a simple and elegant boobytrap, easy to build and easy to use. Perfect for the situation.
  • The dog food brand Dinki-Di was created for the film, and was never a real brand. (Some people have disputed this, all I ask is that you show me a picture of a can, box, ad, whatever, and I'll happily change my view!) What does Dinki-Di mean? Try the Australian Slang page for this phrase, and a few others from the trilogy.
  • Seven Sisters Petroleum, painted on the side of the tanker, is a reference to the oil companies that used to control world oil markets: Shell, Exxon, Mobil, Chevron, Texaco, Gulf and BP - the Seven Sisters. You can find articles about the Seven Sisters elsewhere on the web, such as the articles here and here. If you find any other good links on this one, please contact me to add them.
  • For those who haven't noticed, the lead mechanic is a paraplegic, that is why he is always hanging around in the yellow sling. Also his legs are tied togther. (A lot of people haven't realised this one).
  • Did you know that Max Fairchild, who played the retarded man, Benno, in the first film also played the "broken victim" in the second film. He's the over-sized bearded guy strapped to Humungus' vehicle. Yes, the same one who loses his head to a rear end of the tanker at the end of the movie!
  • As the Humungous loads his gun we get a look at the inside of his gun case. The skull and crossbones looks identical to a decoration seen on the red XA coupe, which gets wiped out by the truck. Additionally, one of the pins looks like a map of Australia (ANZAC badge?). I don't know anything about the rest of it, does anyone else have any clues - especially for the photo? Tim O'Neill thinks the photo appears to be of a family group where the father is in a Nazi uniform. The skull and crossbones badge is a "Totenkopf" cap badge of the SS. Humungous also has a German accent - Tim thinks Humungous' father was probably a Nazi in the SS.
  • During the rig delivery, just after Wez jumps onto the back of the truck, there is a shot from the gyro copter. The Gyro captain seems to have a picture of something stuck to the controls - can anyone make out what it is?
  • The quote from Wez, "You! You can run but you can't hide" was originally a quote from Heavyweight champ Joe Louis, prior to his fight with Billy Conn. When a reporter asked Louis about Conn's boxing style, The Brown Bomber calmly replied "He can run but he can't hide."
  • Before or after Curmudgeon unravels the postcard pictures in front of Max's face, check the clock behind Max. It's about 1:55a.m. So there you go!
  • Right after the interceptor explodes, there is a very very short clip that you can see The Toadle's right hand had all fingers and no band wrap on.
  • The buggy that swings the hook and hooks on the back of the tanker and gets flipped over, eventually tearing off the back part of the truck and killing the good guy, is the same buggy that Nathan and the girl leave the compound in to look for a "rig big enough to haul that tanker"
  • The two men tied to the front of Humungus' vehicle. Near the end when Max slams on the breaks to make Wez fall off the top of the semi truck, the two men tied to Humungus' vehicle slam into the back of the semi, and when they do, both of there heads fall off(as well as blood splattering all over). Watch it in slow-mo and you will see.
  • Look close at the front of the truck just before it hits the dirt, Wez's arm is still hanging off it. Additionally, in the final slow pan across the truck, you can see his hand wedged under the front.

Cameos

  • Look for Vernon Wells reprising his role as Wez in the film Weird Science.

 

Max's car, with the front end smashed


For flubs & trivia, thanks to:
Kieron Murphy,  Karol (the Wordwarrior), Christopher Crockett,
Coldsnow, Mobydrift, Scott Crawley, Paul (Barney) Miil, Carlos Pina,
Don Gomez, Jason Smith, Peter Horne, George Gorman, Robert Ploof,
Pierre Savoie, [email protected], "warriormax", Rob (Gnarler),
Elliot Wrann, Terry Parker, Andrew Moon, Ross Beckley, Chris Doyle,
Gregory Joulin, George Kritty, Simon Beck, Christopher Tsorotes,
Andre Narbonne, Henry Rexroad, Edward, David Giovannini, Josh Wright
Mike Woodhouse, XBInterceptor, Chuck Nelson, John Slovick
Andy Rusho, Marc Conway and Adam Williams.

A note about flubs...

I originally intended this to be a list primarily of "fun" stuff, like really glaring continuity errors, things being in shot when they shouldn't, etc. Some people have emailed me flubs which require really intricate technical knowledge to even pick, or are either minor and uninteresting, or ambiguous as to whether it's really a mistake at all. For a long time I've rejected the less fun ones to try and keep the list to what I thought was interesting, but I keep getting emailed some of the small ones over and over, so now it's just easier for me to put them up and forget them. But please bear this in mind when you send me something, because I'm sure most people are like me, and would rather just stick with the fun stuff, and not get too picky about minor technical errors and so on.

 

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