5. ‘Mad Max’ (1979)

Yes, it’s the first. Yes, it’s iconic. Yes, it’s heartbreaking. But if we’re really being honest with ourselves, the first adventure of Max Rockatansky is easily his weakest, very much a warmup for both Miller and Gibson before they achieved full action-movie greatness with ‘The Road Warrior.’ Set just before the full societal collapse of the following films, it’s easily the slowest and least full-throttle film of them all, and follows Max not as a wanderer but as a police officer desperately trying to keep order against the rise of lawless motorbike gangs. This status quo is frankly less interesting than the more anarchic world Miller would cultivate in the following films, and for much of the runtime, Max is a bit of a stick in the mud as a protagonist. That changes greatly when tragedy strikes, and the final 20 minutes of the film are so riveting and powerful that they single-handedly make the movie great. But on a whole, this cheaper, grungier film just has less to offer than the sequels it spawned, like the first movie of a superhero franchise that has to tell the origin story so we can move on to the good stuff. 

4. ‘Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome’ (1985)

‘Beyond Thunderdome’ is generally dinged as an underwhelming last film for the original ‘Mad Max’ trilogy, which just goes to show the absolute tastelessness of some fans and critics. The film, a lighter and more Hollywood-ized production than the grungier earlier two films, is a total blast of pure fun, pushing the hero into a power struggle over the society of Bartertown and the titular fighting arena. That set-up leads to the best fight scene of the entire first trilogy, where Max takes on the opponents in the Thunderdome, and introduces Tina Turner as the commanding Aunty Entity. Turner kills her performance in the film, playing it deliciously hammy while still fully controlling the screen. Yes, ‘Beyond Thunderdome’ does have an odd tonal shift to the second half when the Feral Children take central stage, but otherwise it’s hard to deny what a deliciously enjoyable adventure it is. 

3. ‘Furiosa’ (2024)

“You can’t unkill the world. Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa learned that lesson the hard way when she commandeered a rig full of Immortan Joe’s precious war brides and sped across the desert toward the matriarchal eden from which she was stolen as a child. She and her motley crew of reluctant allies drove as far as the highways of Valhalla would take them, only to discover that the Green Place of Many Mothers wasn’t beyond the uninhabitable swampland they had passed to get there — it was the uninhabitable swampland they had to passed to get there. 

Whatever dim but undying hope that Furiosa still maintained for the future would have to be seeded in the same barren Wasteland that had sucked her entire life dry; twice denied the utopia that had been promised to her, Furiosa would have to return to the Citadel from which she had just escaped and claim it for herself. There is no going back, but sometimes you can only find the path forward by looking in the rear-view mirror.

And so it stands to reason that inveterate madman George Miller has followed the most spectacular action movie of the 21st century not with a sequel that continues where ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ left off (though he hopes to make one of those someday), but rather with a prequel that paves the way to where it began. By the same token, it also stands to reason that Miller hasn’t tried to outdo the orgiastic mayhem that brought his Ozploitation franchise screaming into the 21st century all shiny and chrome — the guy might be insane, but he isn’t stupid. 

Nor is he willing to settle for diminishing returns. Rather than reaching for — and failing to clear — the impossibly high bar that he set for himself, Miller has chosen to do something even crazier and more rewarding: He’s created a symphonic, five-part, decades-spanning revenge saga so immense and self-possessed that it refuses to be seen as the mere extension of another movie, even though it manages to deepen the impact of ‘Fury Road’ at every turn.” —DE

Read IndieWire’s Complete Review of ‘Furiosa.’ 

2. ‘Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior’ (1981)

For decades, ‘The Road Warrior’ was what people thought of when they thought about ‘Mad Max’; Mel Gibson in black leather with a tricked out black muscle car, protecting a community against a group of punk raider warlords. This is the film where the series really found its identity, establishing the punk apocalyptic aesthetic that would both define the series and influence decades of science fiction. Nowadays, ‘Road Warrior’ feels like a warm-up for ‘Fury Road,’ which shares a similar premise, but that doesn’t take anything away from how exhilarating the car stunts are, and how much the film stands tall as one of the great ’80s action films.   

1. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ (2015)

Enough ink has been spilled about ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ that we don’t need to tell you why it’s great. We don’t need to tell you that the action is some of the greatest in the history of the genre. We don’t need to tell you about the peerless craftsmanship — from the kinetic editing to the vivid cinematography to the production design that creates an entire universe — that went into the feature. We don’t need to tell you about Charlize Theron’s all-timer performance as Furiosa, or the genuinely incendiary feminist themes, or just how badass it is to see a guy play a flamethrower guitar atop a monster truck. Buy why is ‘Fury Road’ more than just a great action movie? What makes it, quite possibly, the best action film of all time? Because there still isn’t anything, beyond maybe its prequel, even remotely like it. Nothing looks like the world of the Citadel that Miller created for this film, and no action movie has ever been able to recapture the frenetic, breathless pace of ‘Fury Road’ while still finding true human emotion and pathos amid the chaos. Even after the film’s release, few action films even seem to have tried and take inspiration from Miller’s masterpiece. Maybe that’s for the best. There will never be another ‘Fury Road,’ and that makes it’s brilliance all the more special.