6. Mad Max
When We First Saw Him... Mad Max (1979)/
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) In
Mad Max and
Mad Max 2, our eponymous character is something of a genuine badass - a guy who takes no shit, and is almost always reluctant to assist people, given that he's never in a very good mood (on account of his wife and child being murdered and that). But the "not a very good mood" thing is what we like about this guy, who, in a post-apocalyptic world made up of mostly biker gangs and desert terrain, has gone... well, a bit man. What we like about him is that he's kind of insane - he doesn't really care too much about the consequences of his actions, 'cause that's what being insane is all about (disclaimer: not a doctor).
When We Next Saw Him... Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Beyond Thunderdome, the third and final movie in the
Mad Max trilogy, has Max captured and forced to fight in a gladiator-like arena called "Thunderdome" - the rules are simple: "Two men enter, one man leaves." And though we got the vague impression that Max had gained a little bit of humanity at the end of the second movie (I say vague), the simple fact remains: he's not really all that mad in this one, and we don't really know why. He's just... Max. Kind of tepid and normal and toned down for no good reason. And it's nowhere near as fun to watch. I'm just glad that they removed a scene from the original script that saw Max breaking down into tears for the first time since his wife was murdered. I don't wanna see that. You don't wanna see that. I doubt even the guy who wrote the script wanted to see that.