Breaking down The Road Warrior and the oil-derrick fortress

This is probably going to come across as a bit silly but the other day a friend of mine was offering some advice to someone that was having some sort of relationship issues and someone said that he should "just walk away." Any time that anyone says those 3 words I can't help but think of the speech in Mad Max where the roaming horde is outside the gates of the fortress that is protecting an oil derrick that is the undisclosed oil-derrick fortress in the film Mad Max 2 or The Road Warrior as it was known in the United States.

src

The entire film is based around this fortress being something of great importance, and the oil that the pump is pulling out of the ground is one of the few resources left in the wasteland that is of value to the people that remain on the planet.

It's a fantastic movie from the 80's but if you think about it too much, you start to realize that the entire premise of the film is extremely ridiculous, because there is a lot more to turning oil into something that is useable for a vehicle... and that is the reason why this oil derrick was so sought after as it is presented in the film.

src

This oil derrick complex was of great importance to anyone who lived in this dystopian future and I am not going to try to take anything away from people that enjoy that movie. I really enjoy this movie. However, if you break this movie down to its critical elements it doesn't really make any sense.

The main thing that makes the entire importance of this fortress quite silly is the fact that crude oil, the likes of which comes out of the ground, is definitely not something that can just be pumped straight into your car engine and used for "go go juice." That isn't how it works at all. When you do just a little bit of research, you will find out that crude oil from the ground, while somewhat flammable, isn't really all that useful in its raw form. Putting it into a car engine straight from the ground would certainly result in it simply destroying the engine.

Refining crude oil into petrol products like gasoline is actually an incredibly complicated process that would require a massive amount of technology to pull off and they wouldn't have the space or tools for it to happen inside of their complex there in the middle of the desert.

src

Furthermore, although really cool, the flamethrowers that were mounted to the main entrance of the complex, if they were fueled by the oil that was coming from the ground wouldn't work at all. Flamethrowers the likes of which the military would use, or that are featured in this film need two tanks, one holding the flammable liquid which in the case of this film would have to be the crude oil, and a pressurizing agent to force it out of the front. Given the flash point of crude oil, and the very viscous nature of crude oil, and the fact that in the dystopian future that we are presented with along with the relative lack of technology, the pressurizing agent would actually be a lot more difficult to come by than the actual fuel.

src

Technology issues aside, one of the largest plot holes that exists in this movie is the Feral Kid that if you have seen the movie, you certainly would remember.

This kid has a tunnel that he uses to get in and out of the fortress to sneak behind enemy lines and throw boomerangs at them, one of which results in the death of a one of the important baddy's friend/lover/i don't know what.

When this kid pops in and out of the fortress, he is clearly visible to everyone that is out there and his mere presence would reveal this secret tunnel that would give access to the complex to all of the people that are waiting on the outside. This is something that even 11 year old me saw as a very evident plot problem since the entire film is based around the impenetrable nature of the fortress. Having a large tunnel that leads safely to the interior kind of puts a massive chink in the plot armor.

Regardless of these glaring problems with the plot, this still remains an absolutely epic film and this is probably why so many people regard it as one of the most famous films of all time. Hell, Mel Gibson owes a great deal of his fame to this movie because for much of the world, it was the first time we ever saw the guy.

If by some chance you have managed to make it this far in your life and never saw Mad Max 2/The Road Warrior I highly suggest that you do so as soon as possible.