Mad Max

After an unnamed catastrophe reduces society to chaos Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) is one of a few remaining police officers desperately trying to protect the 'normal' citizens from lawless biker gangs. The plot is set in the Australian bush and the timeline is 'near future'. Max is not keen to pursue this career as he has a wife and child at home but he is regarded as one of the top officers by his superiors and they don't want him to retire. He is bribed to stay by the provision of a powerful pursuit car with which to chase down the gangs. After one particularly brutal chase in which several of his colleagues are hurt, and his young friend the Goose (Steve Bisley) gets killed, Max is even more determined to quit this violent and dangerous life so he takes his wife and child on holiday in a secluded area. Mad for revenge, the biker gang's leader, Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) leads his men to the area and in pursuit of Max his wife and child are killed by being run down by the gang's machines. This is too much for Max who abanadons the letter of the law, turns his gun into an iconic sawn-off shotgun and goes off in the supercharged pursuit vehicle to track down his family's killers. One by one he eliminates them, and in a final act of madness, handcuffs the remaining villain to a wrecked vehicle with a leaking petrol tank. He sets a fuse and hands the gang member a hacksaw with the choice to cut off his foot or burn alive.