Mad Max

A dystopian near-future Australia is facing a breakdown of civil order primarily owing to widespread oil shortages and ecocide. The berserk motorbike gang member Crawford "Nightrider" Montazano kills a rookie officer of the poorly funded Main Force Patrol (MFP)—one of the last remaining law enforcement agencies—and escapes with his girlfriend in a Pursuit Special. Nightrider is able to elude the MFP until the organisation's top pursuit man Max Rockatansky manages to steer him into a roadblock, resulting in a fiery crash that kills both Nightrider and his girlfriend.
At the MFP garage, Max is shown his new police car: a specially built V8-powered and supercharged black Pursuit Special. A conversation between Max's superior Captain Fred "Fifi" Macaffee and Police commissioner Labatouche reveals the Pursuit Special was authorised to bribe Max, who is becoming weary of police work, into staying on the force. Nightrider's motorbike gang, which is led by Toecutter and Bubba Zanetti, run riot in a town, vandalising property, stealing fuel and terrorising the populace. A young couple attempts to escape, but the gang destroys their car and assaults them. Max and fellow officer Jim "Goose" Rains arrest Toecutter's young protégé Johnny the Boy at the scene. No witnesses appear in court and Johnny is deemed mentally unfit to stand trial. Against Goose's furious objections, Johnny is released into Bubba's custody.
While Goose visits a nightclub in the city that night, Johnny sabotages his police motorbike, causing it to lock up at high speed the next day and launch Goose off the road. Dazed but uninjured, Goose borrows a ute to haul his bike back to MFP headquarters. On the way, Johnny throws a brake drum through his windscreen and Goose crashes again. Toecutter urges and forces a reluctant Johnny to throw a match into the wreck of the ute, burning Goose alive. After seeing Goose's charred body in the hospital ICU, Max informs Fifi that he is resigning from the MFP to save what is left of his sanity. Fifi convinces him to take some time off before committing to his decision, so Max goes on a trip in his panel van with his wife Jessie and infant son "Sprog" (Australian slang for a child). When they stop to fix the spare tyre, Jessie takes Sprog to get ice cream and is accosted by Toecutter and his gang. She escapes and the family hides on a remote farm owned by an elderly friend, May Swaisey.
The gang continues pursuing Jessie through the woods, capturing Sprog while Max is out looking for them. May helps Jessie free the boy and the trio escapes in the station wagon, which then breaks down. Jessie grabs Sprog and runs down the road until the gang simply runs them over. Sprog is killed instantly, while a comatose Jessie is held in the ICU, in critical condition. Driven into a rage by the attack on his family, Max dons his police uniform and takes the black Pursuit Special, without authorisation, to pursue and eliminate the gang members. He kills several of them before being caught in a trap set by Toecutter, Bubba and Johnny; Bubba shoots Max in the leg and drives over his arm. Max is then able to shoot Bubba, in return, with a sawn-off shotgun. Toecutter and Johnny ride off; Max staggers to his car and chases Toecutter, whom he forces into the path of an approaching semi-trailer, killing him.
Finally, Max finds Johnny at the scene of a car wreck, stealing the boots of the deceased driver. He argues he is not to blame in the deaths of Max's family, but Max handcuffs Johnny's foot to the overturned vehicle and creates a crude time-delay fuse using leaking petroleum and Johnny's own cigarette lighter. He gives Johnny a hacksaw, saying Johnny can either try to saw through the handcuffs in time to escape or take the quicker route of sawing through his own ankle. Max leaves Johnny to make his choice and drives away, with the vehicle blowing up in the distance.