The film stars Mel Gibson and Tina Turner, and follows a lone roving warrior who is exiled into the desert.

Initially refused entry because he has nothing to trade, he impresses the local officials with his toughness, and the founder and ruler of the town, Aunty Entity, offers to resupply him if he completes a task.

For breaking a deal, Max is bound, placed on a horse, and sent into the Wasteland, his punishment determined by the spin of a wheel.

They believe Max is the pilot, "Captain Walker", come to fix the aeroplane and fly them to the fabled "Tomorrow-morrow Land".

Disillusioned, some teenagers and children led by Savannah want to attempt the journey to Bartertown, but Max stops them and has them tied up, saying everyone should go on living in the oasis.

The combined group sneaks into Underworld and, with Pig Killer's help, frees Master and escapes in a modified truck down train tracks, destroying the refinery and most of Bartertown in the process.

With the approach of Aunty's army shortening the runway, Max gets in his vehicle, which a child stole from their pursuers, and crashes it to create an opening so the plane can take off.

While they attempt to rediscover the knowledge of the pre-apocalyptic world, each night Savannah recites the story of their journey, and they light up the city as a beacon for Max or any other travellers to follow.

Beyond Thunderdome was the first Mad Max film made without producer Byron Kennedy, who had been killed in a helicopter crash in 1983.

[13] Exterior location filming took place primarily in the mining town of Coober Pedy, though the set for Bartertown was built at an old brickworks (the Brickpit) at Homebush Bay in Sydney's western suburbs, and the children's camp was in the Blue Mountains.

The website's consensus reads: "Beyond Thunderdome deepens the Mad Max character without sacrificing the amazing vehicle choreography and stunts that made the originals memorable.

"[23] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 71 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

[24] Critics disagreed over whether they considered the film to be the highest or lowest point of the Mad Max trilogy.

Most of the negative criticism focused on the children in the second half of the film, whom many found too similar to the Lost Boys from the story of Peter Pan.

[25] Robert C. Cumbow of Slant Magazine identified "whole ideas, themes and characterizations" adopted from Riddley Walker, a 1980 post-apocalyptic novel by Russell Hoban.

[30][31][32] As with the previous installments of the Mad Max series, Beyond Thunderdome has influenced popular culture in numerous ways.

Of particular note is the widespread use of the term "thunderdome" to describe a contest in which the loser suffers a great hardship.