10 Mad Max Clones and Ripoffs : Horror Timelines Lists Episode 79

....Vic Morrow's last movie, until John Landis dropped a helicopter on him ! Cold, but true. I swear, I almost fell out of my chair when you said that!

I bet Italy alone could fill 20 slots. Space Hunter Adventures in the Forbidden Zone is basically, "What if Han Solo landed on a Mad Max world". Fist of the North Star clearly owes to Max, putting magical super kung fu in a very George Miller-looking post apocalypse. I'd also like to see Steel Frontier, Equalizer 2000, Exterminators of the Year 3000, and She-Wolves of Wasteland.

There was no pretending with Waterworld. The cinematographer was Dean Semler, who shot The Road Warrior. Fun fact: Roger Corman was originally offered the concept for Waterworld but replied, "Are you crazy? That'll cost us $5 million!"

Mad Max fans should check out The Ultimate Warrior (1975) with Yul Brynner. The mercenary played by Brynner is very much a blueprint for Max (this movie could be interesting if you ever do a list of post-apocalyptic movies that preceded Mad Max, like The Omega Man and Damnation Alley). The Book of Eli is my favorite Mad Max style movie.

"Mad Max" was such a pop culture thing that movies were not the only rip offs. I am a huge pro wrestling fan. There was a tag team of two huge steroidal guys named The Road Warriors. Their ring gear face paint and spiky football shoulder pads. Road Warrior Hawk and Road Warrior Animal looked and growled exactly like Wez, the feral side kick of Lord Humongous in "The Road Warrior." The Road Warriors' promos was all snarling, shouting and grunting. Their charisma was such that fans LOVED The Road Warriors. They are the tag team that has been ripped off the most.

That one about finding the last fertile woman in New York sounds more like a Hell comes to Frogtown ripoff.

I remember one called Cyborgs with Rutger Hauer

I loved 'Doomsday' as a teenager. Just an awesome late 2000s genre movie. I was obsessed with violent apocalyptic scenarios at the time, so it was perfect. Way underrated.

One I found fun was Slipstream (1989), which is basically "Mad Max with Airplanes", starring Bill Paxton, Mark Hamill and Bob Peck.

Great list, a lot of the knockoffs are actually pretty good 😎. RIP Roger Corman one of the most influential directors in Hollywood.

Man, I was sure I'd see Fist of the North Star on here. But that said, it's a deep well

Warrior of the Lost World and Steel Frontier deserve to be added to future lists. As does Battle Truck (Warlords of the 21st Century)

A lot of these could exist in the same universe, just different parts of what remains of the world

A special nod to Demolition Man and the people that live underground and for some unknown reason dress like Mad Max 2 extras which makes no sense.

Good list, I hope to see Warrior of the Lost World (1983) in a future Mad Max ripoff list.

Mad Max is probably one of the franchises with the most imitators (especially the foreign one's like Italy with thos hilarious dubbing) plus that Road Wars will be getting a sequel to tie in with Furiosa (which ironically features Wez Venorn Wells in the antagonist role)

“They really thought the end was going to be in 2019, turns out they were one year off”. So true

No "Solarbabies?" Lolz....Booo!! That reminded me of Beyond Thunderdome.

When I was 10 years old, I was diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma. There was a rough patch where I was hospitalized for a couple of weeks. Eventually I regained enough strength that they cleared me to leave the hospital for a few hours. The very first thing I did was go see a movie. That movie was Waterworld. My first time outside the hospital in weeks and I go and watch Kevin Costner drink his own piss.

Battletruck is another one