10 Movies That Directly Influenced Gaming
4. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Games Influenced: Fallout, Rage, Borderlands, Metro
Like Rambo, the original Mad Max movie feels like a different breed of film to its sequels, having a low budget, dark fantasy revenge thriller vibe more than anything else.
It wasn’t until The Road Warrior (or Mad Max 2 depending on where you hail) did we get the full-on, over-the-top, desert ridden apocalyptic iconography that the series became known for.
This setting is perfect for open-world adventure. Max Rockatansky is never sure what is hiding beyond the horizon, or where his journey will take him next. This unknown exploration element is why game makers often draw ideas from these films. That and the amazing car fighting action set pieces, of course.
The violent automobile battles may have helped inspire classics such as Road Rage and Twisted Metal, and the hopeless world trying to rebuild from the pieces of yesterday is an atmosphere expertly replicated by the Fallout series, but it’s the more vehicular, explosive insanity driven games such as Rage and Borderlands which feature mental masked desert-BDSM chic character designs that really owe the fantastic George Miller movies a nod.