The Mad Max Timelines

[Mutant 77]

Hello everyone,

I carefully asked the moderator, Gaelforce, if I could... before posting this. She gently accepted. Such a nice person!

On this simple blog (no advertising of any sort, I did it for free and did not earn any money from it), I compiled two Mad Max timelines and some interesting thoughts about the saga.

http://madmaxtimeline.blogspot.com

The original trilogy: "Mad Max" (1979), "Mad Max 2" (1981) aka "The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985).

Of course, "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015) is an alternate universe, so there's a standalone timeline only for it.


I think you will enjoy my timelines and articles, because they truly explain a lot about the two 'Maxes' and their worlds. It's a work of passion, a labour of love.

Looking forward your feedback. Thank you so much.

[choptop]

It's not a alternate universe it's just one timeline

[numberthirty]

Hello everyone,

I carefully asked the moderator, Gaelforce, if I could... before posting this. He gently accepted. Such a nice person!

On this simple blog (no advertising of any sort, I did it for free and did not earn any money from it), I compiled two Mad Max timelines and some interesting thoughts about the saga.

http://madmaxtimeline.blogspot.com

The original trilogy: "Mad Max" (1979), "Mad Max 2" (1981) aka "The Road Warrior" and "Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome" (1985).

Of course, "Mad Max: Fury Road" (2015) is an alternate universe, so there's a standalone timeline only for it.


I think you will enjoy my timelines and articles, because they truly explain a lot about the two 'Maxes' and their worlds. It's a work of passion, a labour of love.

Looking forward your feedback. Thank you so much.

Just for the record?

I believe that the mod in question might actually be female.

Not exactly a huge deal, but worth the mention.

[numberthirty]

It's not a alternate universe it's just one timeline

And...

That is if you buy into the idea that everything after the first film even actually took place.

Which does not exactly seem to be settled fact.

[numberthirty]

That said...

Mad Max: Fury Road?

May not even be actually taking place in any sort of a "Multiverse..."/"Alternate Timeline..." sort of a scenario.

[Somecrazyaussie]

There was a thread on here before where this very point was argued to death.

Mad Max: Fury Road is very much a part of the same timeline as the original trilogy. Yes, Miller played fast and loose with its connections. But the tie-in comics (which are canonical) went to great lengths to establish its connection to the others.

One could say that only 1 and 2 are directly connected. But Thunderdome was meant to have a nightmare sequence in it where Max relived Jessie and Sprogs death while he was being cared for by the tribe of kids. It was cut.

Fury Road was going to feature similar, but they didn't do it. Links remain from when it was assumed Mel would be a part of it. The days since the war that were tattooed totalled to 30 years. Placing Max at the same age as Mel would have been.

The inconsistencies arise from casting a younger actor in a movie planned around an older character.

Then again, Miller prefers Max's stories to be akin to the oral legends told around campfires. The character is consistent, but the details of the story change depending on who is telling it.

[numberthirty]

...

Then again, Miller prefers Max's stories to be akin to the oral legends told around campfires. The character is consistent, but the details of the story change depending on who is telling it.

Yep.

It's not like this is the "Rocky..." film universe timeline where the "Creed..." films establish that things took place in a rather "Concrete..." fashion.

The "Mad Max..." films are more along the line of something like Streets Of Fire where I could easily buy that not everything taking place isn't a story being told after the fact.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Yep.

It's not like this is the "Rocky..." film universe timeline where the "Creed..." films establish that things took place in a rather "Concrete..." fashion.

The "Mad Max..." films are more along the line of something like Streets Of Fire where I could easily buy that not everything taking place isn't a story being told after the fact.

More like sergio leone's Man With No Name. Streets Of Fire would have been apt if Hill had completed the trilogy (a criminal injustice of cinema) or if you count follow up Road To Hell (some don't class that as canonical).

1 and 2 do follow one another because 1. It was titled Mad Max 2 here in Australia and 2. The flashbacks to the first film at the start of the movie. Those were cut when the film went to certain international markets and the links between the two were severed as Mad Max didn't do well (hence the Road Warrior alternate title).

That's the beauty of it. There is enough there to link them together if you wish. But there is enough fluidity to them that you can just claim they are different tales about the same character.

Saying it's an alternate universe is a bit much though.

[numberthirty]

More like sergio leone's Man With No Name.

1 and 2 do follow one another because 1. It was titled Mad Max 2 here in Australia and 2. The flashbacks to the first film at the start of the movie. Those were cut when the film went to certain international markets and the links between the two were severed as Mad Max didn't do well (hence the Road Warrior alternate title).

That's the beauty of it. There is enough there to link them together if you wish. But there is enough fluidity to them that you can just claim they are different tales about the same character.

Saying it's an alternate universe is a bit much though.

Honestly, there are a few films that play out along that line...

Take the close of The Wild Bunch.

I absolutely buy into the possibility that it could be Sykes/Thorton/Someone From Angel's Village recounting something that "May..."/"May Not..." have actually happened after the fact.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Honestly, there are a few films that play out along that line...

Take the close of The Wild Bunch.

I absolutely buy into the possibility that it could be Sykes/Thorton/Someone From Angel's Village recounting something that "May..."/"May Not..." have actually happened after the fact.

In that scenario I'd say it would likely be the elder from the village. The other two not so much. The events are recounted in greater detail than what happened. It then snowballs as the story gets told and passed along. Mad Max 2 and Thunderdome even play up the oral story angle as each film is framed by it. MM2 is told by The Feral Kid as an adult and Thunderdome by the Kids of the tribe (Savannah Nix mostly). All Fury Road needed was Furiosa to do some narration at the end and there you would have had another.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Just had a look at the blog (a very good read). One thing I want to know is: where did the author gather the timeline from? I ask because the first film opens with "A few years from now." It never gives a concrete date (There is one scene that points to it being the mid eighties).

And there was no societal collapse in place or climate change. The film is set during a fuel crisis (based on the shortages in the 1970's). Everything stems from countries fighting over fuel that escalated into nuclear conflict. It's during the shortages that society begins breaking down. The global conflict/nuclear war didn't break out until between MM and MM 2 (The apocalypse kicking in after MM2).

Also MM2 is set 3 years after the first. Thunderdome is another 15 years after that.

It's an interesting read. But the dates don't match up with various sources out there.

[Mutant 77]

That said...

Mad Max: Fury Road?

May not even be actually taking place in any sort of a "Multiverse..."/"Alternate Timeline..." sort of a scenario.

Miller confirmed on countless interviews that the movie is a RE-IMAGINING.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron themselves confirmed on countless interviews that the movie is a RE-IMAGINING.

That said, what you see on-screen is what you can truly consider as being "canon". And yes, there are multiple visible differences between the two universes. Max 2 owns a Pursuit Special/"Black on Black" Interceptor (impossible to rebuild in the Wasteland), he's younger, there are no white streaks in his hair... the list goes on.

[Mutant 77]

Just had a look at the blog (a very good read). One thing I want to know is: where did the author gather the timeline from? I ask because the first film opens with "A few years from now." It never gives a concrete date (There is one scene that points to it being the mid eighties).

It's an interesting read. But the dates don't match up with various sources out there.

Thank you so much for your kind words. Glad that my work has been appreciated.

I own the (old) novelization books for all 3 original Mad Max movies, as well as their screenplays. That said, ONLY what you see on-screen is 100% canon. The creature goes beyond the creator and the creator's original intentions.

I used details on-screen and deduction combined together, as well as logic.

Also, in Mad Max (1979), there was indeed a date: 1984, as the year in which the MFP Police has been instituted and installed on the territory. You can see that on a plaque set outside the Hall of Justice. The movie is set after that, several years later. 1994.

In MM3, there was another date: 1999. It was the year in which Captain Walker and his "group" left Planet Erf.

Deduction did the rest, as well as Max's age on-screen and the natural evolution of the Wasteland.

[Mutant 77]

Also, in Fury Road:

The tattooes on Max 2's back reveal when the "Apocalypse" occurred in the Fury Road Universe, and it matches Immortan Joe's age.

[AndrewCrossett]

The comics miniseries that served as as a companion piece to Fury Road is also canon and has some interesting stuff in it.

I like the Feral Kid Theory, myself. I think that Jedediah and his (adopted) son in Thunderdome were in fact the same as the Gyro Captain and the Feral Kid from Road Warrior. At some point after Thunderdome Max made his way to the Northern Tribe and re-connected with them. The Feral Kid became his protege and when Max died under traumatic circumstances, the Kid assumed his identity and his roaming ways. This is the Max we see in Fury Road.

(Note that none of this may be what George Miller had in mind.. if he says it's a re-imagining and we should really just relax, fine. But I am determined to see the Mad Max series as a continuous narrative and will deploy whatever headcanon is necessary to make it so.)