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Max's Pursuit Special Interceptor, a VERY distinctive vehicle with a VERY distinctive supercharger appears in Mad Max, the first film, The Road Warrior, and Fury Road. So far, so good — these must all be the same car.

However...

In Fury Road, the Interceptor is stripped to bare metal by the War Boys, and subsequently destroyed in the chase. Max even says "This is mine" when he polecats over to it at one point...

On the other hand...

In Road Warrior, the Interceptor is destroyed in a massive explosion when one of Humungous' lackeys fails to deactivate Max's booby trap.

So...given these two different fates for the car, do we just have to throw up our hands and enjoy the fun but say that they're happening in different timelines?

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  • I don't think the continuity of this series is particularly important :) – Andres F. May 19 '15 at 23:07
  • Maybe that's how he likes to build his cars? – eirikdaude May 19 '15 at 23:08
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    I believe Fury Road takes place after Mad Max and before The Road Warrior, so there's still time to fix the car, paint it black and blow it up in the RW. Additionally, this doesn't answer the question, but if you're a fan of Mad Max and his Falcon.... madmaxmovies.com/mad-max-interceptor/index.html – Major Stackings May 20 '15 at 1:59
  • That is a legendary car. – Chris B. Behrens May 20 '15 at 18:02
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It's open to debate which of the following categories Fury Road fits into:

  • A straightforward sequel taking place after the events of the next most recently released film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome?
  • A prequel taking place at some point during the timeline established by the first three films? (If Fury Road is set between Mad Max and The Road Warrior, the presence of the Interceptor in the new film makes sense.)
  • A reboot in the sense of Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (a story taking place in an alternative timeline with a clear relationship to the timeline of the original canon)?
  • A reboot in the sense of the recent Total Recall and Robocop remakes (a new telling of a similar story but with no suggestion, explicit or implicit, that the worlds of the new and old movies are connected in-universe in any way)?
  • Something else? Commenters on this article suggest an interesting theory: that neither the three original Mel Gibson films nor Fury Road should be taken as a linear chronology with strict continuity from one to the next. Rather, they are a loosely related set of stories about the same quasi-mythological character, filtered through different people's memories. For example, the framing narration that begins and ends The Road Warrior implies that the Feral Kid is telling the story as a middle-aged adult, perhaps some forty or fifty years after it happened.
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    Great answer. Other than the original Mad Max (which is a pretty straightforward revenge story), I've always read the films as a series of tall tales and legends passed through the Wasteland. These events may or may not have happened as they are told, and may not even involve the same person - but they have all been accredited to this mythical Mad Max, The Road Warrior and saviour of the Wasteland. – Dr R Dizzle May 20 '15 at 7:38
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    @DrRDizzle ...unless you apply the same logic to the Gyro-Pilot as you do to Max and assume that the former lives in his own set of tall tales and legends, some of which happen to intersect with the myths about Max! – dodgethesteamroller May 20 '15 at 14:53
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    Theories regarding Scrooloose and the War Boys incoming in 3...2...1... – Dr R Dizzle May 20 '15 at 15:30
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    @DrRDizzle Good point... and might as well apply the same logic and see Immortan Joe and Toecutter as the same person as well since they are played by the same actor! – dodgethesteamroller May 20 '15 at 16:46
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    Yeah, I would say that Fury Road is, in particular, a 300-esque fireside retelling of events rather than a gritty, realistic depiction. – Chris B. Behrens May 20 '15 at 18:06
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The Mad Max: Fury Road comics act as a prequel to the movie. In the first issue, Max goes to Gastown and enters a Thunderdome there to get a new engine for his Interceptor that he'd been rebuilding.

enter image description here

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  • I've added an image from early in issue 1 and removed some of the unnecessary spoilers from your description. Hope that's ok. – Plutor Apr 6 '16 at 13:17

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