Bruce Spence

Lestat (Stuart Townsend) has slumbered for two ceturies, but the world above his tomb has changed from the colonial pretension of the 18th century to a more free and colourful world of new more revealing fashions, louder music, caring for the world's future and the hungry machine that is the media. He rises from his resting place and feeds upon a victim, feeling more revitalized that ever before. He then proceeds to go and find where the music he hears is coming from, delighted to discover that it is from his old house, and soon shows the young mortal band his talents and makes them famous, calling the rock band The Vampire Lestat. He is controversial, over the top and utterly sesuous, portraying all the sins of the world in his lyrics and his over all demour. But unaware to him a young member of secret vampire expert society, is in fact obsessed with him and reads the thoughts that he put in his diary that her boss, David (Paul McGann), found. She learns of his maker the talented painter Marius (Vincent Perez), who kidnapped him from his homeland and made him immortal to have an outside link to the everchanging world. Lestat proves to be more trouble than he's worth, wanting to be seen and heard by mortal, and not be in the shadows waiting to feed upon them. He learns to play the violin like an angel, but kills a Gypsy girl and her father after revealing his supernatural attributes while hunting with Marius. He then discovers the secret room that Queen Akasha [(link=nm0004691]) and her King slumber. He plays the violin for her, and falls into her trap of drinking her blood. But he is chained to the bed by Marius and discovers that Akasha and her King are the makers of all vampires, brutal and bloodthirsty, they had drank the ancient world dry and finally lost their will to drink. Later Lestat awakens alone, to find Marius is gone and so are Akasha and her mate, showing Lestat that after all is said and done, we are all alone. Even more intrigued by this nocturnal hearthrob, Jesse (Marguerite Moreau) sets out to a vampire club in the old section of London, only to be nearly devoured by a pack of yuppy vampires and be rescued by Lestat. She tells him of her reading his diary and asks him about his violin, telling him he can't have forgotten about it. He returns home and once again plays the treasured instrument. The next day he has a press conference with his band and stirs up trouble with both humans and vampires, saying that the immortals must come and find him at his one and only concert in the valley. Soon after he recieves a visit from Marius and hears that Akasha has awoken and drank her King to death. Now she is after Lestat, as is Jesse, but for different reasons, Akasha seeks to make him her new King and Jesse wants to learn more about immortality from him. The night before the concert Jesse's wish is almost answered, as Lestat very nearly turns her, but he disappears claiming that she doesn't truly want the dark gift. At the concert the vampires gather and try to kill Lestat, but Marius helps him fight them off. When Akasha arrives she promptly flies Lestat off to an island resort where she's killed the entire populous and makes love to him in a mixture of mortal love making, mental and also drinking from him and having him drink from her. Jesse wakes in the house where she lived as a child, in awe at the sight of her Aunt Maharet (Lena Olin), who hasn't aged, and is a vampire. Back on the island Lestat is able to walk in the sun, and is told by Akasha that they will rule all once more. He asks if their kingdom will include only corpses and she replies with a blissful affirmation of his theory. Finally Marius, Maharet and all the other vampire elders gather to make a plan against Akasha and Lestat. But they are interrupted by the queens arrival with her new king. She tells Lestat to kill Jesse, and mocks the girl when she says that it is what she desires. Jesse collapses and Akasha says that Lestat is most obediant, he drinks from her once more, but does not stop and she throws him off. The other vampires try to also kill her, some turn to dust and others survive. But it is Maharet who drinks the last drop from Akasha. Maharet turns to stone, to slumber forever for drinking the last drop of the vampire queen's blood. Akasha turns to ashes, blowing away into nothingness. Jesse and Lestat pay a visit to a very nervous David, returning the diary she took. She offers him the gift, but he says he is too old. The couple walk off into a haze of lights and flashing by figures who carry on with their normal lives. Marius enters David's office, well aware that David has obsessed over him for many years, and greets David with a polite tone. This ends the film with the question whether Marius will infact turn David, and if Lestat and Jesse will truly be lovers until the ending of the the universe.

The film opens with an aerial view of a desert vehicle being towed by a team of camels. As the frame moves in closer, a plane flies in very close to the vehicle, knocking it's driver off. The plane, being flown by a man named Jedediah and his son, flies over the vehicle again and Jed jumps out, landing on it. Though the owner tries to catch up, Jed gets away quickly. A monkey in the back of the vehicle throws several items out for the driver, including his boots and water. The driver is Max Rockatansky, a loner who scratches a living out of the desert. He finds his small whistle in the belt of one of his boots and blows on it almost ritualistically. Some time later, Max crests a ridge and sees desert vehicles like his heading toward a remote city called Bartertown. Max approaches the gatehouse and finds a man, The Collector, who is making deals for goods with visitors. Max demands to be let inside for an hour to find the pilot who stole his vehicle and camels. He offers to trade his skills in lieu of material goods to which the Collector tells him "the brothel's full." Max suddenly grabs the man and shoots the headdress off a guard who threatens him with knives. The Collector determines that Max may have more to offer and agrees to take him in. On the streets of Bartertown, which are populated by citizens and criminals alike, Max sees his vehicle and camels being sold but is dragged away to meet with Bartertown's flamboyant and charismatic leader, Aunty Entity. The two chat for a bit and Aunty sends a signal to her guards to attack Max. He dispatches them all fairly easily. Auntie tells him he's the first to "survive the audition." Aunty and the Collector explain that Bartertown is an attempt to reconstitute civilization in the face of the post-nuclear apocalypse that has destroyed all rule of law. With neither an atomic-based nor a petroleum-based energy economy, Bartertown runs on methane gas, which is produced from pig feces by prisoner-slaves. All methane comes from an underground cavern, Underworld, where pigs are raised and herded for their waste. Aunty also shows Max a large, armored man carrying a smaller man on his back. They are Master Blaster. The larger, muscular man protects the smaller man, Master, an intelligent dwarf who runs Underworld. Of late, Master seeks to wrest control of Bartertown from Aunty through embargoes where he threatens to cut off the town's energy supply. Aunty wants Max to kill Blaster in a "fair" fight so they can keep Master and use his genius to continue to run the reactor. She offers him the return of his vehicle, his camels and a supply of methane. In exchange, Max will work for 24 hours in Underworld, where he'll be able to size up his opponent. In Underworld, Max is subjected to hard labor. He meets a prisoner who has been branded "Pig Killer." Max sees that Master wants his vehicle and has a mechanic working on it. The mechanic has run into a problem; the vehicle is booby-trapped with explosives. When Master demands Max defuse the bomb, Max refuses. His defiance enrages Master who immediately enacts another embargo against Aunty. The power to the city is nearly turned off and Master tricks Aunty into saying Master Blaster now runs Bartertown; in doing so, Master slyly switches on the city-wide intercom and Aunty's voice is heard everywhere. Master lifts the embargo and forces Max to defuse his vehicle's bomb. While he does, he trips an alarm siren and notices that Blaster is nearly incapacitated by the noise. He tests him further with his small whistle, finding it to be an effective weapon. Max is released from Underworld and makes a deal with Aunty to kill Blaster. Aunty shows Max Bartertown's only means of settling disputes (and it's chief form of entertainment), Thunderdome, a large domed cage that serves as a combat arena. Max picks a fight with Master Blaster as they drive through town celebrating their victory over Aunty. Master accepts the challenge of Thunderdome. Max and Blaster are taken to the arena and trussed up on elastic bands. The rules are simple: they must try to kill each other using any means necessary, including the weapons placed in the dome. Both show considerable skill in combat with Max eventually gaining the upper hand by using his whistle. He uses a large sledgehammer to knock Blaster's helmet off. As he moves in finish him, he sees that his opponent is mentally retarded. Feeling remorseful at besting an opponent that doesn't understand his own involvement, Max turns to Aunty and says "this wasn't part of the deal". Master demands to know what this "deal" involves and promises that he'll further squeeze the city for the power he provides. Suddenly, Aunty's guards kill Blaster. The crowd, realizing the outcome of the match, begins to yell the motto of Thunderdome "TWO MEN ENTER, ONE MAN LEAVES!!", a collective demand to let Max go. When Max tries to leave the arena, he's not permitted. Aunty quells the crowd by saying that Max broke their deal by not killing Blaster himself and introduces a new form of sentencing, the Wheel of Fate. The vanes of an old windmill contain punishments for Max, who spins it to reveal his fate; "GULAG". He's tied to a horse and banished to the desert. When his horse collapses, Max is met by his monkey, who brings a goatskin filled with water. Max stumbles on, carrying the monkey, for a bit longer and finally collapses. Some time later he is found by a person dressed and equipped for desert survival. It is a woman, Savannah, who lives with a group of children in a crevice. Savannah takes Max to her home and tells everyone that she's found their savior. Max wakes up a few days later and is puzzled by the presence of the children. In a bit of playacting they show him that he bears a striking resemblance to a man named "Captain Walker". Walker was the pilot of a passenger airplane carrying colonists seeking to escape the crumbling post-atomic cities; the plane crashed in the desert years before and the children are the descendants of the passengers. The kids have believed that Walker will lead them to civilization, a place they call "Tomorrow-morrow Land". Max tells them that he's not Captain Walker and that civilization is gone, wiped out by the apocalypse. He tells them that they'll stay in the valley. Savannah, disheartened by Max' revelations, decides to leave with a small group of the children to find their paradise. Max stops them and has them bound so they won't leave. One of the group, Scrooloose, frees them in the night and they strike out. Max goes after them with a few more of the children and finds the group struggling to save one of them from a sinkhole in the desert. Even with Max's help, they fail. Later that night, they see the distant lights of Bartertown and go there, sneaking into the city. Max knows that they need to free Master and take him along to help build a new home. They are quickly spotted by Underworld's guards and a fight ensues. Pig Killer, whom Max had befriended while working there, starts up a locomotive with an attached caboose and breaks out of Underworld into the desert. The damage to the city his heavy, however Aunty knows they can rebuild if they can recapture Master. She and her warriors pursue the train for several miles while Max and the older kids fight off Aunty's men. At one point, Aunty seizes Master and has her mechanic decouple the caboose. As they drift away, Max grabs Master and leaps into the locomotive. Coming to a sudden stop at the line's end, they see Jedediah's young son who tells them all to raise their hands. However, he runs when he sees that Aunty's crew is rapidly approaching. Max and his crew chase the boy to his father's hideout; Max tells Jedediah that they'll have to escape in the pilot's plane. With Aunty bearing down, Jedediah says that there isn't enough runway between them and Aunty to take off. Using a vehicle captured by Scrooloose, Max drives out ahead of the plane at high speed, heading directly toward Aunty's lead vehicle, driven by her bodyguard, Ironbar. Max leaps out just before the collision and the Jedediah's plane takes off safely. Max is met by Aunty and a few of her crew, who point their rifles at him. Aunty, however, simply lets Max go and they leave him in the desert. Jedediah flies his passengers far into the desert where they eventually come across the city of Sydney, recognizable by its famous bridge. They settle there with Savannah, who has recently borne a child, saying they keep the lights on in the city in case Max returns. The film ends with the words "For Byron", a dedication to Byron Kennedy, who produced the first two Mad Max films and died in 1983.

In the near future the time of chaos after the collapse of the oil-based economy, and the apocalyptic world war that followed. The narrator relates how gangs of scavengers took over the roads, pillaging for fuel, and how ordinary men were broken in the decay: men like Max (Mel Gibson), the Road Warrior, who lost his family to the gangs. The motorbike-riders pull up as Max is collecting fuel from one of the wrecked cars, and the bike's driver, Wez (Vernon Wells), pulls an arrow from his own arm, screaming defiance at Max. Max spots a gyro-copter by the side of the road. A man camouflaged with sand bursts from the ground, aiming a crossbow at him. The Gyro Captain (Bruce Spence) has been using the 'copter to attract the curious and get their fuel. Max warns him the Interceptor's full tanks are booby-trapped, and when Max's dog attacks the Gyro Captain, tables are turned. To save his own skin, the Gyro Captain offers to show Max an oil-refinery not far away. Max takes the man prisoner and drives to the refinery. They arrive on a hill next to the refinery to find it under siege from a gang using all sorts of odd-looking vehicles, from motorbikes to hot-rods. The gang is under the leadership of a huge, masked man calling himself Lord Humungus (Kjell Nilsson). On one of the motorbikes, Max spots Wez. In the morning four cars make a sortie from the refinery compound, heading in separate directions, with Humungus' people in pursuit. One car is intercepted close to their hide- out, and its driver and co-driver captured and tortured. Watching through binoculars, Max and the Gyro Captain see one is a woman, who is sexually assaulted and then killed. Max arrives and releases the badly wounded male victim, Nathan (David Downer), who offers Max as much gas as he likes if he takes him back to the compound. Pulling up outside the compound, Max gets out and enters the compound at gunpoint, carrying Nathan over his shoulder. Max's car (with the dog) is brought inside by the compound's Mechanic (Steve J. Spears), as the leader of the refinery-people, Pappagallo (Michael Preston), interrogates Max about the fate of the other cars. Max can tell him nothing, and points out he just wants his gas, as Nathan promised. Just then, Humungus' gang approaches, and the gate to the compound is closed, forcing the refinery people to let Max stay inside. Humungus tells the refinery-people he intercepted all their escapees and has learned from the captives that they were sent out to find a rig big enough to haul the fuel-filled tanker from the compound. He offers the refinery-people the chance to walk away free, if they leave the refinery, the tanker and all the fuel to him and his gang. He gives them one day to decide. While Humungus is making his speech, the Feral Kid (Emil Minty) who gets in and out of the compound through tunnels, throws a razor-sharp boomerang at Humungus' gang, killing Wez's companion. Wez goes berserk, and wants to storm the compound immediately, but Humungus wrestles him down. The people of the compound are divided; some want to accept Humungus' offer while Pappagallo and others, among them the Warrior Woman (Virginia Hey). A sticking point being that they have no vehicle that can pull the tanker, and that they're no match for Humungus' brutal gang anyway. Max offers to deliver a truck to haul the tanker, in return for his car and all the fuel he can carry. The deal is accepted. In the dead of night, Max and the dog set off on foot, Max carrying fuel in Jerry cans. Near Humungus' camp, he stumbles, and the noise alerts the guards. But the Feral Kid, who's followed Max, draws them off by imitating the call of a wild animal. In the morning, Max arrives at the hill where he left the Gyro Captain, only to find he escaped. Max follows his trail and catches up with him. Max, dog and Gyro Captain fly to a truck that Max had found abandoned on the road earlier in the movie. Max gets the truck started and throws the Gyro Captain the keys to the shackles, then drives off with his dog. The gyro-copter follows in Max's wake as he heads off to break through the siege. Max takes Humungus' gang by surprise, and - aided by the Gyro Captain who drops snakes on the pursuers - makes it into the compound, although the truck suffers substantial damage. Humungus' crowd are in hot pursuit, and Wez gets inside the compound by climbing aboard the truck. The gang now attacks the gate to get inside. In the confusion, no one except Max notices that Pappagallo is wounded while defending the gate. Max runs to take his place, using a flame thrower to prevent the enemy from breaching the gate. The compound people now greet Max as a friend and hero, wanting him to drive the truck for the escape run. Max just wants to get his fuel and go. Wez brutally kills one of the compound crew and escapes to the outside. The Gyro Captain lands in the compound, attracting excited attention. He immediately befriends a pretty young girl (Arkie Whiteley), persuading her to run away with him. Meanwhile, Max is fueling up and getting ready to leave. Pappagallo tries to persuade him to drive the truck. Max refuses, and Pappagallo in his disappointment confronts him, calling him a coward. As Max pulls out of the compound at daybreak, The Gyro Captain tells Max he's making a big mistake. Humungus' gang sees Max driving away, and Wez - disobedient to his leader's will - sets off in pursuit with some companions. Max uses his booster tanks to escape, however, Wez does the same and overtakes Max. Wez hammers Max's windscreen with length of pipe and the Interceptor rolls off the road. Severely injured, Max barely has time to crawl out of the wreck with his dog and hide behind a rock, before Wez's companions scramble down to the wreck. Wez wants Max alive, but as the dog is killed trying to protect Max. Max is spared from capture when the booby-trapped tank of the Interceptor explodes, killing Wez's men when they try to take his fuel. Wez pulls away, leaving Max for dead. At the compound, the Gyro Captain sees the smoke from the explosion, and fetches a semi-conscious Max back to the compound on the 'copter. Max comes to in the sick bay to find the Feral Kid bringing him his stuff. Outside, Pappagallo is going over the escape plan with his people. The tanker, driven by Pappagallo, is to leave first, to draw off the attackers, allowing the rest of the people to escape in another direction in the school bus and other vehicles, to rendezvous with the tanker at nightfall. Max convinces them to let him drive the truck. They set off, Max driving the now-fortified truck, pulling the tanker which is guarded by the Warrior-Woman, the Mechanic and another warrior. At the last minute, the Feral Kid (Supposed to go in the school-bus) jumps on the truck. The tanker smashes through Humungus' lines and heads off with Pappagallo in an escort vehicle, and the Gyro Captain providing aerial support. The school-bus and the other vehicles quietly leave the compound without attracting interest, just as Pappagallo had predicted. Some of Humungus' people then enter the abandoned compound to take possession, but the compound has been rigged with explosives, and blows up only moments afterward. Humungus has been keeping Wez chained after his disobedience, but now sets him free. They all chase after the tanker, and one by one pick off the warriors defending it, Wez killing the Warrior Woman, and Humungus killing Pappagallo. Things are looking bad for Max, as the gang starts shooting out the tires. The Gyro Captain creates a diversion, dropping Molotov-cocktails from above. The 'copter is damaged and goes down, but Humungus has to stop to put out the fire in his vehicle before he can join the pursuit again. Now there's only Max and the Feral Kid left to battle Wez and another gang-member, who have climbed aboard the truck and are attacking the cab. Max gets rid of Wez by slamming the brakes, throwing him over the front of the truck. The Kid helps Max fight the other guy, and then Max makes a U-turn, heading back the way he came. The Kid goes out on the bonnet to retrieve Max's shotgun shells, when Wez, who's been clinging to the front of the truck, suddenly pops up to grab the Kid. Max hauls the Kid back to safety, just as Humungus, speeding to catch up and realizing too late the truck has turned back, slams into the truck in a horrific head-on collision. Humungus and Wez are destroyed, and the truck goes off the road on its side in a spectacular wreck. When Humungus' people arrive at the wreckage, they can see even from a distance that what's spilling from the broken tanker isn't gas - it's red dirt. The tank was only a decoy. They pull away. A little later, Max climbs out of the truck, carrying the Kid. He stops by a tap, letting the red dirt run through his fingers. The Gyro Captain comes along, driving his copter on the road. Max and the Captain exchange wry smiles, Max shaking his head tiredly. At sunset, the school-bus and the other vehicles head off, with the Feral Kid waving out the back of the bus at someone. The narrator's voice comes on, telling of their journey north, to safety, with the Gyro Captain as their new leader and that the gas was hidden in canisters in the vehicles all along. The narrator is revealed as the Feral Kid grown to manhood, and the Road Warrior is seen standing alone by the side of the road - "the last we ever saw of him."