The Mad Max Timelines

[WebLurker]

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.

That's not a helpful distinction, since "reimagining" doesn't automatically mean "new continuity." Case in point, the Star Trek: Discovery TV show heavily reimagines, retcons, and, in a few places, outright contradicts the franchise's twenty-third century era as established in the rest of the franchise (e.g. the modernized ship designs, anachronistic technologies and icons, new alien makup, etc). However, DSC is still canon to the Star Trek universe in spite of how badly it does or doesn't fit with the rest of the franchise.

Besides, if the Powers That Be have stated that all the Mad Max movies take place in the same timeline and all discrepancies are creative license in the "retellings," that's kinda the end of the discussion on whether they take place in different worlds or not.

[numberthirty]

1- Immortan Joe is old, and he was a Colonel. He went affected by radiation, so nukes went dropped long time before.
2- The Citadel and that type of "new civilization" require many, many years to be properly established. Think about building those structures and vehicles.
3- Max is 37 years old.
4- The tattoo on Max's back. Further details on my website.
5- Max talks about "Oil Wars" and "Water Wars".
6- Oceans and seas don't exist anymore. Just remember what Max told Furiosa: you can drive for 160 days without spotting any water.

Again...

Assumes that anyone can still successfully tell someone exactly what a "Year..." is. Never mind calculate the passage of an entire group of them successfully.

[numberthirty]

1- Immortan Joe is old, and he was a Colonel. He went affected by radiation, so nukes went dropped long time before.
2- The Citadel and that type of "new civilization" require many, many years to be properly established. Think about building those structures and vehicles.
3- Max is 37 years old.
4- The tattoo on Max's back. Further details on my website.
5- Max talks about "Oil Wars" and "Water Wars".
6- Oceans and seas don't exist anymore. Just remember what Max told Furiosa: you can drive for 160 days without spotting any water.

Each one of those could easily be chalked up to detail someone dreamed up to tell a story.

Far as I can recall, we never actually see anyone drive for a full one hundred and sixty-one days to establish that as fact.

[Mutant 77]

They confirmed that things were being reworked...

None of what they said ruled out that this could all just be a tall tale that is evolving with the telling.

1- No. They claimed that at the release of the movie, when everything was done. Multiple interviews.

2- Yes, of course. On the other hand, the continuity of the first 3 Mad Max movies is very solid and detailed, more than many other cinematic series out there. You can also see that Max's costume in MM3 is very coherent with MM2, even in its changes.

Examples:

a) In MM3, Max has a "black" pupil - the eye which was damaged in MM2. It's anisocoria: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anisocoria
b) In MM3, Max's left jacket shoulder has been heavily stitched - the shoulder which was stabbed in MM2.

The list goes on.

[Mutant 77]

That's not a helpful distinction, since "reimagining" doesn't automatically mean "new continuity."

Re-imagining and Retconning/Retroactive Continuity are TWO different things, in all regards. I don't agree.

(to me, the Star Trek prequel series as Enterprise or Strange New Worlds are an alternate universe, sorry)

Miller even claimed that the "new" Max may have experienced some events similar to the original trilogy. Just search for the interviews.

As simple as that, ALL sequels in movie history could be "dismissed" as "retellings", so continuity doesn't exist? This crushes and destroys all complaints and debates about the X-Men movies LMAO.

Also: the creature goes beyond the creator. Always.

[Mutant 77]

Each one of those could easily be chalked up to detail someone dreamed up to tell a story.

.

This way you could put into question all movies in the world. They are all dreams. Even Phantom Menace, or Revenge of the Sith, or The Force Awakens. LOL.

No, thanks.

[numberthirty]

This way you could put into question all movies in the world. They are all dreams. Even Phantom Menace, or Revenge of the Sith, or The Force Awakens. LOL.

No, thanks.

Negative.

There are straight up "Hard..." facts in those films that establish that things have conclusively taken place.

That is just not the case in : Fury Road.

[numberthirty]

Re-imagining and Retconning/Retroactive Continuity are TWO different things, in all regards. I don't agree.

(to me, the Star Trek prequel series as Enterprise or Strange New Worlds are an alternate universe, sorry)

Miller even claimed that the "new" Max may have experienced some events similar to the original trilogy. Just search for the interviews.

As simple as that, ALL sequels in movie history could be "dismissed" as "retellings", so continuity doesn't exist? This crushes and destroys all complaints and debates about the X-Men movies LMAO.

Also: the creature goes beyond the creator. Always.

Politely?

That is a creator attempting to tell folks that : Fury Road is most likely a "Tall Tale..." that is changing in the telling...

[AndrewCrossett]

6- Oceans and seas don't exist anymore. Just remember what Max told Furiosa: you can drive for 160 days without spotting any water.

I don't know what event could dry up all of earth's oceans and seas, but I know human life couldn't exist at all in such a world.

I tend to think that "160 days" number was a result of the writer overestimating distances, but we should also remember that travel is much more difficult in the post-apocalypse and much slower as a result. Roads are terrible and probably noexistent in places, hazards are common, gas is hard to come by, there are bandits and marauders everywhere.

[Somecrazyaussie]

I don't know what event could dry up all of earth's oceans and seas, but I know human life couldn't exist at all in such a world.

I tend to think that "160 days" number was a result of the writer overestimating distances, but we should also remember that travel is much more difficult in the post-apocalypse and much slower as a result. Roads are terrible and probably noexistent in places, hazards are common, gas is hard to come by, there are bandits and marauders everywhere.

People forget it's supposed to be set in the Outback. It's easy to get lost out there and unless you know how to divine and bore for water, you are pretty much stuffed. You can drive for days and not come across towns or natural springs and creeks. It's why 85 - 90% of our population lives on the coast in a 50km radius from the beach.

[WebLurker]

Re-imagining and Retconning/Retroactive Continuity are TWO different things, in all regards. I don't agree.

That's what I said.

(to me, the Star Trek prequel series as Enterprise or Strange New Worlds are an alternate universe, sorry)

Enterprise is too integrated in the prime universe for the alt-timeline model to work at this point (its Borg episode is a key followup to First Contact and sets up the original TNG Borg story, the finale and Lower Decks have TNG characters talking about it as historical events and Star Trek Into Darkness and Beyond show for a fact that it was a piece of pre-Kelvin Timeline divergence history.

We may or may not like it, but that's the text we have to account for for "accurate" assessments of things.

Miller even claimed that the "new" Max may have experienced some events similar to the original trilogy. Just search for the interviews.

All I'm seeing online was that continuity was always loose between installments.

As simple as that, ALL sequels in movie history could be "dismissed" as "retellings", so continuity doesn't exist? This crushes and destroys all complaints and debates about the X-Men movies LMAO.

That doesn't make any sense.

Also: the creature goes beyond the creator. Always.

"I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author." -- J.R.R. Tolkien

[AndrewCrossett]

People forget it's supposed to be set in the Outback. It's easy to get lost out there and unless you know how to divine and bore for water, you are pretty much stuffed. You can drive for days and not come across towns or natural springs and creeks. It's why 85 - 90% of our population lives on the coast in a 50km radius from the beach.

It's not that big, though. If you drove a steady 60 miles per hour 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, with no oceans in the way, you could circumnavigate the whole planet in 17-18 days.

At a more realistic post-apocalyptic 40 miles per hour, at 12 hours per day, no oceans, you could do it in 50-55 days.

But if you were driving around obstacles and broken pavement, overland through Outback and desert terrain, having to stop periodically for food and water and gas, dodging bandits and tornado clusters, making repairs to your vehicle, it could take 160 days to drive from one coast to the other, I guess.

[Somecrazyaussie]

It's not that big, though. If you drove a steady 60 miles per hour 24 hours per day, 7 days a week, with no oceans in the way, you could circumnavigate the whole planet in 17-18 days.

At a more realistic post-apocalyptic 40 miles per hour, at 12 hours per day, no oceans, you could do it in 50-55 days.

But if you were driving around obstacles and broken pavement, overland through Outback and desert terrain, having to stop periodically for food and water and gas, dodging bandits and tornado clusters, making repairs to your vehicle, it could take 160 days to drive from one coast to the other, I guess.

Sydney to Perth is 40 odd hours non-stop. But let's say provisions are scarce, your vehicle breaks down (or you are on foot) and the landscape has been transformed by global conflict, it might take you a very long time. Not 160 days though. Only way that works is if you cross empty oceans or something (spitballing here).

But we are trying to apply real world logic to a movie where the world is afflicted by nuclear fallout.

[thwhtGuardian]

I never took the 160 days comment literally, it seemed like him just saying, "You could drive forever without finding water." which we all understand that those kind of statements are figurative. And I just plane don't get the no ocean bit, all I got from the scene at the end of the third movie was that Sydney had been nuked and that there was a dust storm around it when they landed there.

[Somecrazyaussie]

Yeah. In the Wasteland, friendship doesn't last for too long. 14 years after the events of MM2, Max just did not care about Jedediah anymore, especially since he was suspecting that Jedediah was the one who stole his Caravan Truck.

Max was sure that Jedediah had a plane, just because the guy is the Gyro Captain. Max never had the chance to see the faces of the "men" who stole his Caravan Truck in the very first place (just rewatch the beginning of MM3).
As simple as that, Max recognized Jedediah/Gyro and did two plus two. He connected the dots. He was sure because Jedediah is Gyro, and he must be the mysterious marauder who drives a plane like that.

I think you are reading too much into it. Jedediah probably recognized Max as the guy he stole the caravan off by his clothes. Something which would have been confirmed once Max started making a fuss over it once he spotted it in Bartertown.

Max didn't see their faces, no. But he saw their clothes. He was a cop. Not hard to put that together.

Besides, Miller himself has clarified they are two different characters. The Novel for Mad Max 2 stated The Gyro Captain remained with the Great Northern Tribe. He became it's leader and died years later.

I know the theory of them being the same is as old as time at this point, but there isn't anything more to it than what it is.