Beyond Thunderdome - If Max had stayed on the plane

[levcore]

What do you think would have happened? If the plane could have taken off with Max on it do you think he would have stayed with the crack of the Earth survivors in the ruined city or would he still have gone his own way. On rewatching it last week i picked up on the line when Max says to the children (after he's been given the Captain Walker story) "we're all going to stay here" indicating that he wants to stay in the crack of the Earth and live a life with the children there, suggesting very strongly that he wants to stay with them and settle down etc.

[themanw/oaname]

im pretty sure he meant "here" as in "here in the crack of the earth where it's certain we have water and food."

[levcore]

Yeah i get that that is what he meant, i just mean Max is seemingly the guy who doesn't want company and prefers being on his own.

[MWFV8]

The children in BTTD completed Max. That's why his sacrifice at the end is so much more significant. Very similar to Nux in Fury Road, a bittersweet ending.

[Turbofurball]

Had the rest of the film been better it would have been a really emotional moment of self-sacrifice

[levcore]

I think BT is a fantastic movie. The last 20 minutes are among my favourite in any movie and the closing moments are my all time favourite movie ending.

[MachRider]

What do you think would have happened? If the plane could have taken off with Max on it do you think he would have stayed with the crack of the Earth survivors in the ruined city or would he still have gone his own way. On rewatching it last week i picked up on the line when Max says to the children (after he's been given the Captain Walker story) "we're all going to stay here" indicating that he wants to stay in the crack of the Earth and live a life with the children there, suggesting very strongly that he wants to stay with them and settle down etc.

I don't believe Max will ever be able to settle anywhere, especially after Fury Road characterization. The "we" in that address to children is just a figure of speech, not a promise of any kind. He's aware of his status as a messiah and he is using it as a rhetorical leverage, to give his words a higher meaning.
What he really is saying is: "You're gonna obey capt. Walker and stay here and I'll just be talking all the water I can carry and leave ASAP, gotta rebuild my precious Interceptor, bye."


So, even if he went with them to Sidney, he would just backtrack for his jacket and car parts. His sacrifice at the end was just a convenient way of not having to do all the backtracking.
It's how he thrives. He needs wreckage and chaos to calm him down. It's the same at the end of Roadwarrior and Fury Road and obviously MM1.
Max's choices and "sacrifices" always lead to MORE CHAOS AND VIOLENCE! He was Fifi's favorite cop for a reason...

[Taipan]

Max, being a Campbellian model of a hero will eventually have his closure, because that's what needs to happen. He needs to be out there for a long time to learn his lesson and return to society one day, in one form or another.

He was supposed to do that in Fury Road.
BUT! There is a big conflict of interest between that character arc and the way Miller creates villains in this world. Max might simply become a villain from settling and becoming steadfast. Just like he consequently rejects society, once he decides to rejoin it - he might lose sight of reality (again) and want to protect that position at all cost. This is exactly what happened to Auntie Entity and Immortan Joe too. They were once heroes but they became villains because they fixated on their version of the world and wanted to protect it. Auntie is milder in that she spares Max's life, but she was once considered a hero who built Bartertown. Immortan Joe is way off the deep end in Fury Road, but very early on he thought he was on a quest to rebuild the civilization too.
Somewhere down the line he lost sight of that and turned himself into a cult leader that's fixated on extending his heritage. That's why a lot of viewers don't understand how Immortan can treat everyone like shit and think he's doing them a favor at the same time - he used to be a good guy for a while, at his core he still thinks he's doing good but completely lost his perspective.

With Max and his inability to move on - he could easily become another Auntie or Immortan, unless he gets some kind of resolution, which he should, but at the same time he can't. Max is in limbo. He can't roam the wasteland forever, can't rejoin society either. In MMBT he shows how he's not ready to become a good leader of the kids in the Crack in the Earth - shit, just look at what Max is doing right from the beginning when he takes charge. He quickly starts establishing himself as a tyrannical leader for everyone's good. Sounds familiar? That's not a good sign. He's not ready.

[themanw/oaname]

Max, being a Campbellian model of a hero will eventually have his closure, because that's what needs to happen. He needs to be out there for a long time to learn his lesson and return to society one day, in one form or another.

He was supposed to do that in Fury Road.
BUT! There is a big conflict of interest between that character arc and the way Miller creates villains in this world. Max might simply become a villain from settling and becoming steadfast.

could you imagine a mad max movie where max is actually the bad guy? you've just opened my mind to an honestly great idea and i just cant make myself want to like it because i just cant accept seeing max as anything but good at his core.

though, i think IF max were to get to that point; i'm sure having experienced humoungus, entity and immortan joe; he'd just leave the group he's leading after realizing he's become like the three of them. solitary life is what he knows with out a shadow of a doubt.

[Turbofurball]

Not sure I agree with your assessment of Joe - there's no point (including in the comics) where he's portrayed as anything but power hungry and treating other people as mere resources, in the way of a feudal era king or emperor.

Max as a villain would be a very interesting idea, like Darth Vader ...