Celebrating the Villains of the Original MAD MAX Trilogy

This Friday, George Miller returns to the post-apocalyptic universe he first brought to life back in 1979 with Mad Max. His trend-setting actioner has now spawned three sequels, the latest being Mad Max: Fury Road, which has Tom Hardy bringing the seminal hero to life this time around. Since we’re just a few days away from meeting his latest adversary, the ruthless Immortan Joe, I thought this would be a perfect time to look back at the villains from the original Mad Max trilogy who first paved the way and still continue to influence film and pop culture even after three decades.

Mad Max: George Miller’s Mad Max opens with one of the most cinematically exhilarating chase sequences ever committed to celluloid (The Road Warrior coming in neck-and-neck at number two) that is fueled by the actions of a notorious criminal known as the “Nightrider,” who has escaped police custody after killing an officer. He’s part of a motorcycle gang known as “The Acolytes” and once his reign of terror is brought to a fiery end by Max, that’s when we’re introduced to the “Toecutter” (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a bizarrely dramatic psychopath ready to revenge his maniacal comrade’s death by any means necessary. And as expected, it’s Max that ultimately suffers the most by the hand of Toecutter, losing his best friend, his wife and his child.

Because Mad Max was a modest action endeavor with only a small budget in place to utilize during production, Miller’s ensemble didn’t have the elaborate wardrobe touches or huge set pieces to help bring their characters to life, so this film often heavily relied on performances to set the tone of the post-apocalyptic tale. There’s almost a quiet fluidity to how well The Acolytes work within their gang, especially during the first scene where we meet the whole posse and they roll up into a small village and park their motorcycles in sync.

Toecutter and his theatrics are truly one of the best things about Mad Max, as Keays-Byrne has such a uniquely hypnotizing magnetism to his performance that the hugely talented actor commands each and every scene he appears in with a tension-filled tranquility that feels much like a snake ready to strike at any time. Toecutter’s delusional theatrics are also a total hoot, particularly in the scene where he calls a female mannequin that two of his lackeys manage to scavenge up “treacherous” and shoots it dead in the face.

There’s a good reason Miller decided to reteam with Keays-Byrne for Fury Road- he’s the originator and, quite frankly, the greatest villain Mad Max had to contend with throughout the entire franchise and so much of that is due to the (now) veteran actor’s brilliant performance.

Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior): For his follow-up, Miller wastes little time (and dialogue) to set the stage from the start of Mad Max 2 (The Road Warrior). Instead, the Australian filmmaker allows his powerful visuals, rip-roaring action and a heart-thumping score immerse us immediately into a chase sequence featuring Max being hunted down on the road by a roving motorcycle gang led by the deranged warrior Wez (the wonderfully insane Vernon Wells). The ever-cunning Max manages to outsmart his foes, but does manage to wound Wez and ensure he’s got an enemy for life. From there, Max comes across a fortified refinery run by a group of idealists who want to preserve the fuel and start a new life elsewhere. Unfortunately for everyone, the compound has also caught the attention of Wez’s boss, the Lord Humungous (Kjell Nilsson), who will stop at nothing to get his hands on the precious oil that’s being protected.

Lord Humungous is undoubtedly the most influential of the Mad Max villains and comes roaring into the sequel like a post-apocalyptic Jason Voorhees (complete with physical abnormalities and a pulsating skull), leading his anarchic pack of neer-do-wells with his booming voice and larger-than-life presence, complete with an S&M-esque ensemble that allows his bulging muscles room to move around freely (VERY freely, I might add). He’s a guy who likes to make a statement, either by tying his victims up to the front of his vehicle or burning people alive proving he’s undoubtedly one of the deadliest enemies that Max has ever faced. And beyond what we see of him in The Road Warrior, Humungous’ influence still lives on in pop culture and even made a long-lasting impact in the world of professional wrestling through the iconic tag teams of Demolition and The Road Warriors (that one’s not too obvious, huh?) as well as the recent duo known as The Ascension.

That being said, it is arguable that Wells’ unhinged and animalistic performance as Wez in The Road Warrior almost upstages his boss throughout the film, as he’s truly the wild card in the war between Humungous and those at the refinery. So many of his character touches are made through his costuming, composed of punk rock football pads and assless chaps, and the fact that he keeps a male companion chained to him at all times speaks volumes about his sense of ownership. Like a rooster on steroids who is highly driven by his emotions, Wez is the complete antithesis of Max and his stoic demeanor, making them the perfect adversaries. In fact, we see that Wez’s rage is so uncontrollable that he can only be reined in by Lord Humungous, quite literally (Wells’ character is shackled to his master at the beginning of the film’s final showdown). Also, Wells should get some major props for having some serious eyebrow game on display in The Road Warrior as his thousand-yard stare is still unforgettable to this day.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome: In the third installment of the Mad Max franchise, the idea of a true villain is a bit murky, mostly due to the fact that none of the characters are drawn as truly black-or-white when it comes to their intentions (possibly due to heavy involvement from the studio who were looking for marketable characters more so than true cinematic villains). Early on in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, our titular hero ends up in the shady commune known as Bartertown, which is being run by a gladiator-esque warrior woman known as Aunty Entity (Tina Turner). She relies on the two-man team known as Master Blaster to run the Underworld, the part of Bartertown that hosts its only energy source.

The thing is though, Master (Angelo Rossitto) has been trying to pull some power plays on Entity, threatening energy embargoes if she doesn’t play by his rules as she wouldn’t dare traverse into the dingy area where the duo oversees all of Bartertown’s enslaved workforce. Max agrees to help Entity put a stop to Master’s disobedience by agreeing to fight Blaster (Paul Larsson) to the death inside the Thunderdome. It’s during this fight where Max learns the tragic true identity of Entity’s true agenda all along is revealed- to control Master and ultimately, all of Bartertown. When our hero defies her orders inside the cage (“bust a deal, face The Wheel”), he’s exiled into the Gulag- a cruel and barbaric punishment.

Of course, the finale comes down to an epic battle between Entity’s army and Max. Because allegiances change so frequently, it’s really hard to call anyone that Max must fight against in the film as a true villain, but Entity is about as close as they come. Turner’s role was impactful in many ways, as it paved the way for modern pop musicians to also be taken seriously as actors and her character remains the franchise’s only female villain (to date).