io9
You've just seen Doomsday, and you're pumped to strap a bolt-gun to your car and go on a mohawked demolition-derby frenzy. Luckily for you, there's a whole society (cult?) devoted to reenacting Mad Max: The Road Warrior on the highways of America... and they've only gotten thrown in jail once. Details and a gallery below the fold.
It used to be that if you wanted to get a crazy hairstyle and big shoulder pads and reenact the climactic chase/fight from Road Warrior, you'd have to go to Australia or Japan. But in 2004, a group called Roadwar USA came together to bring the post-apocalyptic road rage to America. The group has done three events so far, starting in the SF Bay area, and another event is planned for the Las Vegas area in June, in conjunction with the Dark Skies/Singularity artists' convention.
The basic format of the Road Warrior reenactments is pretty simple: the Roadwar U.S.A. crew rents a semi truck (an R-series Mack truck with something resembling a fuel tanker), to stand in for the tanker that Max drives at the end of the movie. Then as many Mad Max replica cars, trucks and dune buggies as possible chase the truck down the highway and surround it. The star of the show is usually the black "pursuit special," aka the interceptor or the Black-on-Black (BoB for short.) In the movie, the BoB is a 1973 Ford Falcon GT, a model only sold in Australia. The reenactors have managed to get the exacct same model, only from 1974 instead of 1973. And of course, the BoB has a supercharger ("blower") mounted on its hood.
The participants in the highway chase scene have only gotten arrested once, in San Antonio. Says organizer Karol Bartoszynski:
Basically the media assumed we had "fake machine guns" and looked like we were "attacking" the tanker truck. All we had was [what you can see] in the pics: Roadwarrior-type thing in the truck, a fake crossbow, a pick-axe. People thought the 4-barrel fake gun was a rocket launcher... and we were some kind of militia or terrorists. Most of us spent overnight in jail.After the post-atomic berzerkers were picked up, the cops realized their weapons were fake, but one cop still decided to bust them for highway obstruction — even though they had a video proving they drove safely. The charges were thrown out half a year later.
Vehicles usually also include a red pick-up truck, with a snake painted on its side and a gun-wielding maniac riding shotgun. People dress as Wez, with the trademark red mohawk, and as random Bartertown guards. Sometimes there's even a gyrocopter flying above the whole mess.
And the real Wez (Vernon Wells) has turned up for the two most recent Roadwars. The shows also usually include a meeting at a racetrack, a car show, a cruise down the major strip of the local town, and parties.
Karol says he really wanted to have a get-together for Mad Max fans in the U.S., and didn't just want to have people sitting around a conference room eating hotel food and dissecting the deeper meaning of the films:
I just wanted to feel the spirit of the movie and bring people together to help bring that feeling of being IN the movie to life. I'm not against panels, or anything, I just thought it would be cool to have a "chase" be the main piece of the event. That's what Mad Max is all about.[Roadwar USA]
Comments
That's certainly some dedicated fandom there!
It just looks like a bunch of Raiders fans going to a game.
That is Greatness.
Makes all those pansy ass Civil War re-enactors look pretty darn white-bread by comparison.
A post apocalyptic MX-5? I'm all over that!
I give them a hardy pat on the back and a thumbs up.
And I also say that soon, one of them will be smeared all over the road.
@selfhatingotaku: that's how you can tell it's science fiction...
There are no words to address the kind of awesome this is.
@selfhatingotaku: I'm all about the Nuclear Winter V-Rod myself.
@OldeEnglishD: nice
More signs of the coming apocalypse... or did it already happen? Did I miss it? Damn.
..or just go to Burning Man & find the Death Guild crew [www.madmaxmovies.com]
They had me until the Miata.
This is much more exciting than those "Driving Miss Daisy" reenactments of a few years back.
@graverobber: thanks, I needed that laugh!
@graverobber: Nice. :)
That is awesome, but where is the guy in the ultra-light?
Oh right, next movie.
Very cool. I'll bet they could get someone who owns a speedway to present their chase scene as a special event. They could actually get paid to do their reenactment. If they spice it up with some pyro, it could be a huge hit. Bigger than Robosaurus!
Reminds me of when people used to shoot each other on the freeways in Los Angeles. Do they still do that? I moved away before my old Chevy Impala could get shot a second time.
@Annalee Newitz:
Yes.
A 50 year old woman was shot in the head down here just last week, just drivin' along.
Awesome.
This is so kick ass there is no explanation for it!
@OldeEnglishD: lol! So true, especially since I live in SF and this scene wouldn't be that out of the ordinary for those guys on the other side of the bay.
I'm surprised that no one has snapped and gone Road Warrior for realz.
The way commutes are where I live, it will be only a matter of time before I read about punked up, hockey pad and viking helmet wearing and sawed off shotgun carrying psychos driving their version of Dragula.
Maybe this could be the basis for a meta-film on Road Warrior fans--kind of like that 1981 flick, "Knightriders," about a traveling troupe of motorcycle-driving jousters (starring Ed Harris, no less).
"People dress as Wez, with the trademark red mohawk..."
What about the ass-less chaps? The last thing I need to see before a con is some 40 year old dude with a paunch in ass-less chaps hanging off a rusty Kenworth. That being said, I would love to see this caravan tooling through LA county. With all the gangbangers and assorted crazies running around I have no doubt the road trip wouldn't be all that different from an actual Mad Max movie.
Severe shortage of motorcycles. Where are the Kawaaski Z1 streetfighters?
I like the attention to detail on the Falcon's auxilluary fuel tanks.
Hawk and Animal would be so proud.......
Loves me some XB Falcon coupe. Loves. When informed that purchasing one would come with a divorce as a bonus, there was actually some agonized pondering.
@OldeEnglishD:
Legion of Doom reference.
Sweet.
I wasn't sure about the post-apocalyptic miata until I realized that they may be the only cars left on the road in 1000 years. How do you make a Miata scary, without adding power?
no self respecting warrior of the wasteland would ride a v-nod
kz 1000 ftw!!!!
Sweet, they had a gyrocopter too? Thats devotion for ya.
I'm disappointed. No dually sandrail with nitrous.
@Turboner: And no Lord Humongous! Blasphemers!
@Garrison Dean:
The Miata is perfect for the post-apocalyptic wasteland because:
It is rock-solid reliable. (Because it is seriously overbuilt for how powerful it isn't)
It is fuel efficient.
It is easy to work on.
It is tough.
It is...not mind-blowingly fast, but faster than anything else that would likely to be worth keeping running.
The only downside is that living in it would be unpleasant. But there's nothing stopping you from converting it into a hatch.
It isn't authentic, but it makes SENSE.
Needs the Gyro captain, eh?
@zeppelined: Nothing is "Bigger" than robosaurus.
But this is totally amazing, as an avid Bearclaw Mohawker, I would love to see/participate. I can wear my assless chaps and hockey mask right?
I'm surprised that no-one has chimed in to give the proper name for what they've called the 'BoB' in the story.
I've been in Australia for a while now, and here, it's known (with great reverence) as The Last of the Interceptors.
Who, exactly, wrote this? I hope it's not a 'news' type item.
As usual, some of the facts are wrong and certain comments in it are a liitle misleading. If you read it, it sounds like this is an organized 'reenactment' by a particular group of people, like "The reenactors have managed to get the exacct same model, only from 1974 instead of 1973".
Truth be known, while there is a good deal of organizing the event, it is pretty much whomever shows up and whatever shows up. The BoB is one of many (not to mention the replicas of the yellow cop cars), and was brought there by the guy that owns it, not as what sounds like a group effort to find that car and make a replica. There was a second Falcon coupe in attendance.
I know this may all sound a bit anal, but I get tired of people writing things and putting in their spin or flavoring it with their own interpretation. A local paper once wrote a blurb about a local science-fiction convention. Apparently, one of their editors decided 'freaks' read better than 'fans' in the headline.
Anyway, I was suppose to be in attendance at the SA Roadwar, but the very Road Warrior 73 Mach 1 had other ideas.
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