Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
★ — Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Pig shit. That's the most accurate two-word summary I can give you, and I'm going to spend the next several hundred words explaining exactly why.
I've been working my way through the Mad Max series, and look, Mad Max was a bit rough around the edges but it had something raw and real to it. Mad Max 2 was genuinely brilliant. So sitting down for Beyond Thunderdome, I had reasonable expectations. The post-apocalyptic world had been built with such grit and texture across those two films. How badly could they mess it up?
Catastrophically, as it turns out.
Let's start with the Thunderdome itself, because the bungee gladiator arena sequence is the moment the film announces exactly what kind of disaster you're in for. Two men enter, one man leaves, sure, fine. But the execution is so daft, so cartoonish, so utterly disconnected from the brutal world the previous films established, that me and whoever I was watching with just looked at each other and said "what? Why?" It's the kind of scene that makes you feel embarrassed on behalf of everyone involved. Grown adults, professionals, looked at that and said yes, this is the vision we're going for.
And then, as if the bungee nonsense wasn't enough, the film takes a hard left turn into a lost children storyline that belongs in an entirely different film. A much worse film. A film aimed at kids who've never heard of Mad Max and probably shouldn't be watching Mad Max. Suddenly we're in Peter Pan territory, a tribe of feral children with their own mythology and their own cutesy dialogue, and the whole thing gets thoroughly Disneyfied right before your eyes. The anarchic, dangerous energy that made this franchise worth watching evaporates completely. You'd be forgiven for wondering whether someone accidentally spliced two different productions together in the editing suite.
What baffles me most, genuinely baffles me, is the sheer number of people who must have read this script, nodded along, and not once raised their hand to say "hang on, should this be good?" Directors, producers, writers, studio executives, caterers, someone's mate who popped by the set. Not one person pulled the emergency cord. That's almost impressive in its own grim way.
And then there's Tina Turner. I know she's a legend. I know she has fans who will come for me over this. But her presence here is baffling, her character is nonsense, and the less said about the soundtrack the better. She sucks ass. I said what I said.
One star, and I'm being generous by not going lower simply because a film has to do something spectacularly wrong to make me actively annoyed, and at least Beyond Thunderdome managed that. It provoked a reaction. It just happened to be the reaction you get when you step in something unpleasant on the pavement and realise too late you're wearing your good shoes.
Avoid it. Watch the first two. Pretend this one doesn't exist. That's my honest advice and I'm sticking to it.
Rating: ★ | Year: 1985 | Watched: 2025-05-03
Where to watch
Watch in the UK
Stream: HBO Max Amazon Channel · Sky Go · Now TV Cinema · HBO Max
Rent: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Buy: Apple TV Store · Rakuten TV · Amazon Video · Google Play Movies
Physical: Amazon UK · Zavvi
Watch in the US
Rent: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Buy: Amazon Video · Apple TV Store · Google Play Movies · YouTube
Physical: Amazon US
Affiliate disclosure: Movies With Macca may earn a small commission on purchases or subscriptions started via these links. It costs you nothing extra.
Related on Movies With Macca
More from George Miller: Mad Max 2 (1981) · Mad Max (1979)
More with Mel Gibson: Lethal Weapon 2 (1989) · Lethal Weapon (1987) · Mad Max 2 (1981) · Mad Max (1979)
More from Australia: Ocean with David Attenborough (2025) · Street Fighter (1994) · We Bury the Dead (2024) · Bluey at the Cinema: Playdates with Friends (2026)
More from the 1980s: Nightmare City (1980) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Style Wars (1983) · Garlic Is as Good as Ten Mothers (1980)
More action: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · The General (1926) · Hand of Death (1976) · Daredevil (2003)
More adventure: Alice in Wonderland (1951) · The Eagle (1925) · Louisiana Story (1948) · The General (1926)
