Four years on from the events of MAD MAX 2 (THE ROAD WARRIOR), Max (Mel Gibson) is a wandering nomad in an even more scorched and nuclear wasted Earth. When his horse-drawn vehicle is commandeered by a pilot (Bruce Spence), the trail leads him to a reviving community called Bartertown, watched over by Aunty Entity (Tina Turner in terrific form) where people can trade anything, including lives.
When Max picks a fight with Ironbar (Angry Anderson), the feud has to be settled in a deadly structure called Thunderdome (the moral: TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVES), but the match is a mismatch and Max is exiled into the desert, where he is rescued by a group of lost children. However, Entity is none too pleased…
The story arc of Max Rockatansky had been completed by the end of MAD MAX 2 and MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME lacks the inner conflict that helped define the first two films in the original Mel Gibson trilogy, but what it lacks there it makes up for in pure rural action, with a climax on board a train that rivals MAD MAX 2’s climactic truck chase.