Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981

1979’s Mad Max kicked off the franchise that, decades later, would give us Fury Road, but it was this 1981 sequel that elevated George Miller’s guzzoline-starved apocalypse to the stuff of myth. Called simply Mad Max 2 outside the U.S., this bigger and better sequel has some of the most indelible images in all of sci-fi filmmaking, really establishing that quintessentially Mad Max look that would influence so many visions of the post-apocalypse in the years that followed. Miller directs scenes of violence with wonderful energy, like this unforgettable scene that has to have the greatest boomerang-related carnage ever in a movie, but he also knows when to slow down and deepen our connection to the characters, like in this simple but effective scene in which Max and the “feral child” share a fleeting moment of something resembling human connection in the wasteland. And, of course, it all culminates in one hell of a car chase. “I’ll drive that tanker,” indeed. – Carolyn Petit