The Road Warrior and Fury Road are widely regarded to be the two best Mad Max movies, but which one is truly the greatest film in the classic post-apocalyptic action franchise? Mad Max originated as a no-budget indie production in the late 1970s. George Miller’s first Mad Max film is a grounded police thriller set in a dystopian near-future on the brink of collapse. It wasn’t until the first sequel, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, that Miller plunged audiences into a gonzo wasteland full of gas-guzzling villains driving high-octane cars.
Mel Gibson was recently asked which Mad Max movie he thought was the best and Gibson named The Road Warrior as his favorite. He said that, from an audience perspective, The Road Warrior told the “cleanest” story with “some excellent thrills.” But the only Mad Max movie to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture arrived decades after Gibson left the franchise. Mad Max: Fury Road, starring Tom Hardy as Max, was hailed as one of the greatest action movies ever made. So, which Mad Max movie is better: The Road Warrior or Fury Road?
The Road Warrior And Fury Road Are Mad Max's Highest-Rated Movies
They Have Near-Perfect Scores On Rotten Tomatoes
All the Mad Max movies have “fresh” scores on Rotten Tomatoes — and none of them have dipped below 80%, which is pretty impressive for an action movie franchise spanning five decades — but The Road Warrior and Fury Road are the highest-rated films of the lot. The Road Warrior has an approval rating of 93% and Fury Road has an even more respectable rating of 97%. The other three movies have their own admirable scores, but they’re slightly lower: Mad Max has 90%, Beyond Thunderdome has 81%, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has 90%.
| Movie | RT Score |
|---|---|
| Mad Max | 90% |
| Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior | 93% |
| Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome | 81% |
| Mad Max: Fury Road | 97% |
| Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga | 90% |
Every Mad Max movie has its own merits that have been praised by critics. The first movie introduced a unique vision of sci-fi action cinema through a low-budget indie lens. The second movie expanded that vision with explosive action and mind-blowing visuals. Beyond Thunderdome introduced the iconic titular death-match arena and a great performance by Tina Turner. Fury Road is an airtight action masterpiece that’s essentially a feature-length car chase. And Furiosa is a sprawling revenge epic with a delightfully eccentric villain and a jaw-dropping twist ending.
How The Stories Of Mad Max 2 And Fury Road Compare
The Road Warrior Is More Of A Spaghetti Western, While Fury Road Is Post-Apocalyptic Stagecoach
Miller has often described his Mad Max movies as “westerns on wheels.” Much like classic westerns, the Mad Max films tell mythic stories of good versus evil and take place on a lawless wasteland full of gunslingers. The only difference between traditional westerns and the Mad Max movies is that westerns are set in the past and Mad Max is set in a post-apocalyptic future; the characters in westerns ride on horseback, while the characters in Mad Max drive modified trucks and muscle cars. Both The Road Warrior and Fury Road tell standard western stories with a post-apocalyptic twist.
The Mad Max series was one of the early pioneers of the dieselpunk genre, a rubber-burning variation on the cyberpunk style.
The Road Warrior is a post-apocalyptic version of a typical spaghetti western, like Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars. Max, like Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name, is a lone wolf prowling the wasteland. When he comes across a town full of innocent people being terrorized by a nefarious gang, he intervenes and liberates the townspeople. Fury Road is more like a post-apocalyptic version of John Ford’s Stagecoach, as an ensemble of heroes driving across the desert get attacked by legions of bad guys and have to fend them off.
Fury Road Has The Best Action Sequences In The Mad Max Franchise
Miller Used A Combination Of Old-School Practical Stunts & Modern Filmmaking Technology
From the opening marauder chase to the climactic tanker chase, The Road Warrior has some of the best action scenes in the Mad Max franchise. But Fury Road has the greatest action in the series by far. All the other Mad Max films are traditional action movies, with character drama wedged in between the big set-pieces, but Fury Road is pretty much just one long set-piece. Unlike The Road Warrior (and most other films in the action genre), Fury Road is all-action — it’s basically a feature-length car chase.
All the other Mad Max films are traditional action movies, with character drama wedged in between the big set-pieces, but Fury Road is pretty much just one long set-piece.
Miller earned a reputation as one of the greatest action filmmakers in the world with the car chases of The Road Warrior, but he was limited by the technology of his time. When he made Fury Road, he stuck to his ethos of using old-school practical stunts and effects wherever possible, but he also had CGI technology at his disposal to enhance the action and touch it up. This combination of time-tested practical methods and exciting new visual effects made Fury Road the best of both worlds, and the gold standard of modern action cinema.
Road Warrior Is More Of A Max Story Than Fury Road
Max Is More Of A Supporting Character In Fury Road
Max plays a prominent role in both The Road Warrior and Fury Road, but The Road Warrior is more of a true Max story. The Road Warrior follows Max on his heroic quest to liberate the oppressed townspeople from their sadistic overlords. But in Fury Road, Max is just along for the ride. The real main character is Furiosa as she frees Immortan Joe’s wives and drives them to salvation aboard the War Rig. Furiosa is the protagonist; Max is more of a supporting character, helping her on her journey.
Road Warrior Vs. Fury Road: Which Is The Better Movie?
Fury Road Is A Slightly Finer Film
Both The Road Warrior and Fury Road are fine Mad Max films that rank among the greatest action movies ever made. The Road Warrior delivered some jaw-dropping car chases, offered a fresh perspective on the spaghetti western formula, and created a lot of the tropes that are now intrinsically tied to the post-apocalyptic genre. But Fury Road is arguably the finer film. There’s very little fat in The Road Warrior, but Fury Road is an even leaner, meaner piece of action cinema. It gets on the road nice and early and doesn’t let up until the end credits.
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Mad Max is a very different franchise now than when it started in 1979. How has George Miller's post-apocalyptic saga changed over the years?
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Fury Road adheres to Miller’s Hitchcockian dedication to telling his stories as visually as possible. It has very little expositional dialogue; a viewer in any country could watch this movie and follow the story without turning the subtitles on. It’s an essential cinematic experience. Even someone who hates car chase movies would have to admit that Fury Road is a masterpiece. The Road Warrior and Fury Road are undeniably the two greatest Mad Max movies, but Fury Road just about edges out The Road Warrior for the title of very best.
Mad Max
- Movie(s)
- Mad Max, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mad Max: The Wasteland
- First Film
- Mad Max
- Cast
- Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Steve Bisley, Tim Burns, Roger Ward, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne
- Character(s)
- Max Rockatansky, Immortan Joe, Furiosa, Rictus Erectus, Angharad, The People Eater, Corpus Colossus, Toecutter, Nux, Dr. Dementus
- Video Game(s)
- Mad Max (1990), Mad Max (2015)
