The Right Order To Watch The Mad Max Movies
Few franchises outside of "Star Wars" have retained relevance over the decades as effectively as "Mad Max." George Miller's apocalyptic Australian saga basically created the entire aesthetic of modern wasteland sci-fi — a subgenre that remains strong across film, television, video games, comics, and more. And with the release of "Mad Max: Fury Road" in 2015, Miller delivered an updated story that many view as both the series' best and one of the greatest action movies of the 21st century.
The cultural impact of "Mad Max" is even more impressive when you recognize how little official material there actually is. Aside from one video game and a handful of supplementary comics, there are only four movies, with a fifth — the Anya Taylor-Joy-led "Fury Road" prequel "Furiosa" — set to premiere on May 24, 2024.
If you're planning a rewatch in preparation for the upcoming film, or you just haven't seen any "Mad Max" movies and are looking to start, there are a couple of different ways to tackle the series' chronology. The best option, however, is still to just watch the "Mad Max" movies in release order.
You should watch the Mad Max movies in release order
The first three "Mad Max" movies are a clear trilogy, following the eponymous Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) as he descends from highway patrol officer to grizzled wasteland wanderer. As with many film franchises, the best way to watch the movies is in the order they were released.
- Mad Max
- Mad Max 2
- Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
- Mad Max: Fury Road
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
In the original "Mad Max" timeline (more on that in a second), "The Road Warrior," also known simply as "Mad Max 2," takes place just a couple of years after the first movie. A nuclear war occurs in the aftermath of the second film, leading into the events of "Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome." However, this order of events has been altered a bit in recent years, with a tie-in comic for "Fury Road" retconning things and placing the nuclear holocaust just before the start of "The Road Warrior" instead.
"Fury Road" retcons a lot of things from the original trilogy — car models are from long after when the first film is supposed to take place, Max is still quite young despite spending decades in the wasteland, etc. — but according to the tie-in comics, it still treats the first three movies as canon. It's a soft reboot that still takes into account everything Max (now played by Tom Hardy) has been through. And though "Furiosa" is a prequel to "Fury Road," it will probably still be best enjoyed by those who already know Charlize Theron's version of the character and have seen her story play out.
The chronological Mad Max order is a little bit different
Release order is the best and simplest way to watch the "Mad Max" movies, especially if it's your first time. However, if you wanted to make a project of lining the films up in chronological order, it would look a little bit different.
- Mad Max
- Mad Max 2
- Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
- Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
- Mad Max: Fury Road
The main change would be watching "Furiosa" after "Beyond Thunderdome" but before watching "Fury Road." This would put Furiosa's story in order and fill in an earlier piece of the timeline. However, it's still important to remember that prequels are meant to be watched after the films they chronologically precede. For first-time viewers, you could also skip the first "Mad Max," which is a much lower-budget film that's a bit harder to get into nowadays, and jump straight into "The Road Warrior" for a shorter binge and a more exciting start.
In truth, though, most of the movies after the original "Mad Max" are pretty standalone, which is part of what makes the franchise so interesting. There's a ton of lore baked into the background of the films (Remember those stilt guys? Remember Master Blaster?), but very little of it is addressed in an overt textual way. If you didn't know the release order, you could easily mix up "The Road Warrior," "Beyond Thunderdome," and "Fury Road" without really knowing when each film is supposed to take place in relation to the others. In the end, they're all just tales from the wasteland — echoes of a restless, mythical character cursed to walk the desert forever.