This is the third chapter in the life of the character known as Mad Max. He was once a cop in a post apocalypse Australia.
Max (Mel Gibson) lost his family in the first movie to an evil motorcycle gang. Now he wanders the desert in his steampunk caravan made from old car parts and pulled by camels. But then he is attacked by a man on a small gyrocopter who steals his transport.
Max finds his way to Bartertown. A town in the middle of nowhere. He is allowed into the town where he finds that his caravan is being sold. Bartertown is a town based on trading and bartering.
Max picks a fight with the people selling his stolen transport. He is arrested and taken before Aunty Entity – the Queen of Bartertow (Tina Turner). Aunty Entity wears a chainmail dress with huge shoulder pads (that somewhat resemble the Australian Opera house) and has a plunging neckline. She has blond hair. She wears gloves and carries a small crossbow as a sidearm
He makes a deal with Max. Her one rival for power in the little community is Master Blaster. Bartertown is powered by methane gas produced from pig manure. Master Blaster is a team of a super-strong giant – Blaster, and a super-smart little person – Master who control the methane production and the pigs.
Master-Blaster has the power to call shut down strikes at a whim, turning off all power to Batertown, and then demanding that Aunty Entity acknowledge them as the true power in the outpost.
Max picks a fight with Master-Blaster and is taken to the Thunderdome. Which is a huge geometric dome more than 30 feet high in the middle. The raggedy people of Bartertown climb the sides of the dome and hang on to the outside to watch the fight to the death. There are a number of weapons hanging from hooks inside the dome for the combatants to use if they can get their hands on them.
Max and Blaster are strapped into harnesses and attached to a rotating device at the top of the dome from rope made from strands of surgical tubing. The two men seemingly bounce in weightlessness as they move around the arena and fight to the death.
Max then unmasks Blaster to find that he is really a gentle giant. Max doesn’t want to kill him but Aunty does the job for him. Shooting Blaster with a crossbow dart.
Aunty accuses Max of “breaking a deal” which is a capital office in Bartertown and he is tied to a mule and led out into the desert to diet
Max is found by a tribe of children and later they return to Bartertown. There is a fight between the children and the steampunk warriors of Bartertown in their steampunk collection of cars.
The chase ends in the nuclear-devistated remains of Sydney, where the tribe of children settle and live the rest of their lives in the shattered buildings.
Aunty Entity returns to Bartertown with her tribe.
Trivia:
The fight between Aunty Entity and Master-Blaster is a parody of the political climate in Australia in the 1970s and early '8os with the fight between the conservative coalition and the labour unions.