Mad Max: Beyond The Thunderdome is the second Mad Max movie that I’ve watched, the first one being Fury Road. Although I preferred Fury Road, I found both of the movies interesting because of the similarities that they shared. Granted, it was probably Fury Road that was inspired/loosely based off Beyond The Thunderdome.
Both the movies are set in a desolate, desert area, where water and fuel is cherished. Both have a dictatorial leader, who literally lives above the rest of their populaces. In Fury Road, Immortal Joe lived in a rocky cliff above everyone else. He controlled resources of water that he showered from above, based on his mood. In Beyond The Thunderdome, Auntie Entity also lives above everyone else, in a house lifted on stilts. Although she doesn’t shower water like Immorten Joe, she too is in a position of great privilege.
Another interesting parallel was the idea of ‘labelling’ human beings. In Beyond The Thunderdome, we notice that a man is marked as a ‘Pig Killer’, because he tried to feed his family by stealing a pig. Similarly, in Fury Road, once Max is captured, he too is tattooed to be a ‘human blood bag’. Furiosa too had a mark on the nape of her neck.
The plots of the movies also shared similarities. In Beyond the Thunderdome, Savannah calls out to the group of children to signal that she found someone. In Fury Road, Valkyrie also calls out to the Vulvalini of Many Mothers. In both movies, the calls signified important changes in the plot. In Fury Road, Furiosa meets the Many Mothers and later discovers that she was taken from them as a child. In Beyond The Thunderdome, Max meets the abandoned children who he decides to help.
Both movies shared many similarities, almost so that watching them in succession could almost feel repetitive. In both movies, Max is portrayed as the saviour, who never gets gets saved. At the end of both movies, Max’s story line is ended abruptly, leaving the audience unaware of his future plight. This would probably allow greater freedom for the production of sequels.