The feral boy is said to have been born at or shortly after the "event" that caused the blight. Yet when he screams, dental fillings and other restorative work are clearly visible — treatments not carried out on "baby teeth'. Such technology would not have been available by the time he reached the age at which he could have received it.
When the masked leader of the Mohawks speaks to the compound for the first time he uses a hand-held microphone, which amplifies his voice. On his second address his hands are raised and his voice is just as loud as before, yet no microphone can be seen.
When Wez strikes Max with a piece of the tailpipe and causes the Interceptor to be written off, he clearly connects with part of the door-frame, yet no sound accompanies the blow.
After the tanker crashed, the remaining barbarians turned away and departed. However, they were several hundred yards from the crash site and couldn't possibly have known the tanker was filled with sand — otherwise they wouldn't have pursued it that far, and they wouldn't have been able to see the sand from that angle or distance. Besides, the lorry would still have been full of diesel, which they would normally have scavenged.
When the Gyro Captain ambushes Max and holds him at the point of a crossbow, he does not seem to realise that his fingers protrude well above the level of the bowstring, and that if he fired the weapon he'd lose the top halves of all his fingers. Max either fails to notice this too, or accepts that the crossbow would still injure him even if its user were maimed.
When Max unexpectedly tears away the tent, thereby revealing the naked couple of enemy marauders inside, the woman momentarily breaks character and briefly grins or laughs, before quickly composing herself and adopting an appropriately shocked and startled demeanour, matching the man beside her who remains so throughout.
As Max's dog chases the Gyro captain, it rushes straight past him just before the shot cuts away.
At the start the narrator speaks of Max and declares that "in the roar of an engine he lost everything", referring to the death of his family. By the film’s end it is revealed that the narrator is the Feral Kid — yet the Feral Kid could not have known that Max’s family had been run over, since Max never mentions it to anyone.
For most of the film the Gyro Captain's teeth are severely decayed. However, at the climax of the film, when he and Max exchange a smile, the Gyro Captain's teeth look nearly pristine.
When Max executes a U-turn with the lorry during the final chase, Wez is clearly not on its front, despite it later being revealed that he survived his presumed death by clinging to the lorry's front.
Towards the end of the film we see the gyro rotors are severely bent; in the next shot, however, as it comes to rest, the rotors appear completely undamaged.
Over the course of the film, the sky shifts from overcast to clear.
After Max takes charge of the flamethrower and helps fend off the marauders, there's a brief shot of him glancing back into the compound. That cut actually comes from an earlier moment when he was handcuffed to a railing. (The crossbow turret is visible to his left.) Because the flamethrower turret sits to the left of the crossbow, the crossbow ought to be on his right.
When Papagallo is shot in the leg by Humungus' henchmen, the arrow that strikes him looks bright red, whilst on impact with his leg it is white and yellow.
In the closing chase, while a marauder and The Mechanic are engaged in a "tug-of-war" over the wounded and dying Warrior Woman caught in the barbed wire, one shot briefly shows another figure atop the tanker moving towards the cab. It could be mistaken for the Feral Kid, but in the shots immediately before and after he is clearly in the cab, helping Max fend off the marauder clinging to Max's shoulder, and there should be no other compound folk left on the truck at that stage (the whole crew comprising The Mechanic, the Warrior Woman, the Feral Kid, Max and the man in the rear turret, who was pulled to his death early in the chase).
Following the crash, several steel plates which had been protecting the lorry's wheels reappear.
At the moment Toadie is blown up, he raises both hands and somehow appears to have all ten fingers again, despite having lost about half of them earlier to the Feral Kid's boomerang.
In the opening chase, immediately after the black Ford Landau smashes into the dune buggy, the verge around the "Mundi Mundi Look Out" [sic] sign is clear. In the reverse shot, as the Landau begins to roll, heaps of wreckage (including the stunt ramp) can be seen beside the sign.
After Wez leaves the road having been struck by an arrow in the arm, he is unexpectedly wearing sunglasses. Additionally, the Golden Youth appears to have become noticeably more muscular.
When Max first spots the Mack he later drives, the left‑hand windscreen is absent. Later, it's been reinstalled.
After being set upon by Wez, Max sends the Pursuit Special tumbling down a slope. When he clambers out of the vehicle, it is in considerably better condition than it was when it came to rest.
When Max leads Nathan back to the compound, he raises his tool-belt in his right hand; the hatchet, with its wooden handle, is pointed toward the camera. In the reverse shot, showing Max from the rear, the hatchet is once more on the side nearest the camera. At no time does the hatchet face away from the camera.
When the pink Desoto screeches to a halt outside the refinery gate and is set alight, it's riding on oversized lorry tyres mounted on shiny chrome wheels. Each time it appears on screen after the explosion, though, it's fitted with ordinary car tyres on plain stamped-steel wheels.
After Max brings Nathan back to the compound, the defenders seize his tool-belt and weapons. Later, while Max is showing the music box to the Feral Kid, the tool-belt's shoulder strap briefly appears on his shoulder but has disappeared by the following shot.
In the opening sequence, as the camera pulls "out" from the blower, the blower's pulley isn't turning (widescreen version only). A short while later Max switches the blower off and the pulley ceases to turn, which suggests it had been running the whole time.
At 0:23:46, as Max approaches the Mohawk seated beside the crossbow, the weapon is neither cocked nor loaded. By 0:23:56, when the Mohawk reaches for the crossbow, it has been made ready to fire.
Wez is atop the tanker, spinning his spiked ball on a chain whilst Max slams on the brakes. In the opening shot Wez falls with his body turned to the right, but in the following shot he is falling with his body turned to the left.
After Max hands the lorry over at the compound and gets away in his battered Pursuit Special, the sequence shifts from shots lit as "dawn" (the car fleeing against a glowing dawn horizon & a close-up of Max and the engine drenched in strong orange gels) straight to a travelling shot along the road where the shadows suggest the sun is positioned roughly just before or just after midday.
During the final chase, the thugs shoot out the tanker lorry's rearmost, left-hand tyre (as seen from behind). In the following shot — the first view of the tanker after the gyro crash — all four rearmost tyres appear intact.
When the Gyro Captain goes to take the tin of dog food the dog is eating from, he is shown using his right hand, but in the subsequent shot of the dog and the tin a left hand is seen reaching for it. He is also clutching a wooden spoon in that right hand, yet the utensil is absent in the shot featuring the tin.
While the mechanic is outlining the work required on the rig, he fiddles with a socket spanner. Moments later, when he agrees to carry out the repairs in 12 hours' time, the ratchet handle is now fitted with a large socket.
The rigid 'belly pipe' on the tanker exists in at least three distinct configurations: it can be entirely absent, present and pointing to the right, or — after the tanker has crashed — present but pointing to the left side of the vehicle.
After the Gyro Captain sets Humungus's vehicle alight, Humungus swerves and pulls up onto the right-hand side to attend to the burning car. Yet, when he is shown again later, having recovered from the incident and rejoined the chase after Max turns the tanker around, he is on the opposite side of the road to the one he had pulled onto earlier.
When Max is eating the dog's food, the Gyro Captain fishes a large wooden spoon out of his coat pocket. Yet when he finally gets his turn at the tin, he tries to dig it out with his fingers instead of using the spoon.
In the opening sequence, as Max is being pursued, he suddenly slams on the brakes to let one of the chasing cars overtake him; he then puts his foot down and barrels into the other vehicle, tearing the Interceptor’s plastic nose-piece off. If you watch closely at that moment, the Interceptor’s grille looks smashed just before the collision, yet appears undamaged afterwards.
On the Interceptor's first approach to the gyrocopter, the windscreen wiper arms are visible in shots from inside the car but missing in the exterior shots.
The tanker eventually crashes on a bend at the foot of a hill. However, it has already performed a U-turn, which would imply it had previously gone round that bend and climbed the hill. Yet none of the earlier sequences show any bend or hill — the road is completely flat and straight.
After the opening chase sequence, when Wez withdraws the arrow from his upper arm it is caked in blood and entrails. However, once he tucks it into the quiver strapped to his thigh, the arrow is immaculate.
When a crossbow bolt lodges in the leader's leg, its fletching (feathers) switches between yellow and red — yellow as the bolt is fired, red when it strikes, then oscillating between the two colours several times.
After the driver's-side door of the lorry is torn away, a crew member can be seen at Max's feet in the cab.
When Max rams Humungus with the lorry, and the camera is positioned on its left-hand side, the driver can be seen wearing a helmet.
In the film's closing sequence, when the tanker crashes, the stunt driver is wearing a helmet.
When Wez flips the Quiet Man over on the catwalk, the springboard is briefly visible in all releases; as he lands, a spotter's hands are seen at the far left of the frame. (widescreen only.)
Gyrocopters, also known as autogyros, do not fly in the same way as helicopters. The engine drives a propeller mounted behind the pilot that pushes the machine forward; as speed increases, the airflow causes the rotor above to autorotate, producing lift. A gyrocopter has to be travelling forward to stay airborne. Essentially, the same principles that govern an aeroplane’s take-off and landing apply to gyrocopters.
During the final pursuit, it is highly unlikely that Humungus, even given his strength, could have propelled the spear with sufficient velocity to reach Pappagallo. Both vehicles were travelling at virtually the same speed, and once the spear left Humungus's hand, aerodynamic drag at speeds approaching 100 mph would have immediately slowed it and driven it backwards.
During the scene in which Max says "I'm the best chance you've got", a hat-wearing figure can be seen in the background on the 'battlements' of the refinery compound. The figure remains completely still, which suggests it is a dummy.
When Max drives the rig into the compound and a number of marauders give chase, one of them is dispatched by the Warrior Woman, who comes up behind him and cuts his throat with a knife. However, she brings the blade several inches too low, severing the leather collar he wears beneath his throat rather than his exposed neck.
At 50:49 it becomes obvious that the Gyro Captain's snake is merely a rubber one.
In the first film, the mechanic responsible for building Max's interceptor states it runs on nitromethane. In The Road Warrior that detail is never brought up again. The impression given is that the finely tuned, high-performance vehicle is being fed whatever old petrol Max can scavenge. Unless nitromethane were readily available, he couldn't have kept running that car for as long as he did.
In the final chase Humungus drives his vehicle head-on into the tanker, but had it been carrying a full load of petrol both vehicles would have exploded, thus obliterating the very purpose of the pursuit.
The vehicles that set out from the refinery compound for the final pursuit can carry at most six people (up to three in the semi, two on the tanker, and Papagallo is clearly shown to be alone in his car). Humungus's crew all pursue them.
Although they all know the refinery village harbours many more inhabitants, not a single gang member thinks of the other villagers before or during the chase, thereby wasting an ideal bargaining chip.
Max is hauling four fuel cans back to the articulated lorry (each empty can weighs about 5 lb — 4 cans × 5 lb = 20 lb). He’s using a metal bar to sling the cans (~10 lb). He asked for diesel and high‑octane petrol. The containers appear to be 5‑gallon jerrycans. Diesel weighs roughly 7 lb per gallon (three cans × 35 lb each = 105 lb). Petrol is about 6 lb per gallon (one can ≈ 30 lb). The total load Max is attempting to manage is therefore roughly 160 lb. It isn’t realistic that Max could lift, carry or shift that weight on his shoulder with the ease depicted in the film.
When Max carries the four metal cans of petrol on the pole he's using to retrieve the truck, the way they sway back and forth suggests they are empty. Moreover, when the gyro captain drops them onto the ground after they reach the autogyro, the cans emit a hollow-sounding noise, further indicating they're empty.
During the final pursuit, Pappagallo is killed when Humungous flings a triple-bladed 'harpoon' into his back, lodged squarely between his shoulder blades. At that moment Pappagallo is at the wheel of the Lone Wolf; the vehicle's rear cowl rises above the top of his head. For the area between his shoulder blades to have been exposed, he would have had to be standing up in the driver's seat.
At the moment the tanker collides with Humungus' lorry, the vehicles in the background remain stationary — they are merely parked at the roadside.
In every shot where the jerrycans are being carried, we never hear any liquid sloshing about inside them, no matter how roughly they're tossed about. That implies they are either entirely full or, more likely given how easily the cast members carry them, entirely empty.
(at 01:30:40) In the final scene, when the truck is overturned none of the tyres are punctured, although at least two of them ought to be.
When Papagallo is shot in the leg by Humungus' henchmen, a wire affixed to the arrow is briefly visible.
During the major chase sequence, when the motorcyclist somersaults into a ditch, a blue safety mat can be seen at the foot of the frame. (Only in the widescreen version.)
In the opening sequence, when Max is pursued by the trio — Bike, Car and Buggy — the Car has been fitted with exhaust headers protruding through the wings and running down to running-board side pipes. A moment later, as the car begins to roll, the added prop exhaust is ripped away, revealing a full, standard exhaust system beneath.
When Wez performs a wheelie on his bike as he rides away from the Mundi Mundi lookout, the Golden Youth is portrayed by a female stand-in wearing black leather cuffs on the character's biceps, which do not appear in any other scene.
Ahead of the standoff at the gate, the Warrior Woman winds the pulley mechanism to ready the turret — yet the cable remains stationary.
As everyone prepares for the final pursuit and the Kid is removed from between the tractor unit and the tanker, you can see that the air-brake hoses are not connected, even though the lorry is about to pull away.
During the final pursuit, Max fires through the raider car's windscreen, seemingly striking one of the raiders. Yet, in the fleeting instant before the bullet connects, it is obvious that this "raider" is nothing more than a skull wearing a helmet.
During the final chase, a Ford Fairlane with police lights mounted on the roof is firebombed by the guards on the tanker. For a split second before the bottles are thrown, a thick, Vaseline-like goo can be seen spread across the car's bonnet and roof. It is a flammable gel, applied to the car to make the blaze look more dramatic.
During the opening chase, when the Landau ploughs into the dune buggy, the buggy is plainly stationary—seemingly left in place to be hit. In addition, its engine has been taken out.
When the lorry overturns in the film's climax, some shots show a ramp erected behind the cab; this was in case the laden trailer came adrift, to prevent it from crushing the stunt driver.
After Humungus makes his offer to "walk away" and starts to depart the compound, a wrecked vehicle lies directly outside the compound's gate; it bears a resemblance to the Interceptor.
After Max overturns his car, Toadie inspects the tanks and declares them full. He then takes off the cap and a thin stream of liquid flows out. In the following shot of Toadie, the flow quickly reduces to a trickle and then stops altogether.
When Lord Humungus triggers the nitro boost on his car during the final pursuit, the acceleration effect is plainly a camera trick: the flames belching from the vehicle begin to move in an unnaturally rapid, stuttering way.
