Set in a not-too-far dystopian future, years after the collapse of the human civilization, the movie follows the terror of Mad Max's life. This movie has a gripping opening scene, with powerful narration as well as superb scenery. The first 2 minutes of the movie definitely expresses a lot of important information.

The opening shot of the whole film shows the two main characters names with the actors names below. The placing of the actors names could tell us something important about the plot of the film, like a hierarchy. Specifically, the fact that Theron’s name is above Hardy’s could suggest that her character is more important to the plot than Hardy’s. However this may seem unusual but could represent a bit of foreshadowing in the very first shot of the film.

The next shot shows a character gazing over a dusty, barren landscape with a demolished and damaged car besides him. This establishing shot gives us a clear impression of who the main character could be in this film. Whilst the audience are witnessing this there is a narrator who is describing how the world got like this from its present state. The establishing shot also features a black dusty cloud hanging over the car, this already creates a very worried atmosphere. In addition, the fact that our main character stands so far from the camera sets up emphasizes that mad max is a rather mysterious and isolated character.

This close up shot gives the audience a face to be introduced to. Just by focusing on the long dusty hair, dark clothing and the fact that he is eating a lizard shows how much trouble Mad Max has been in. Breaking this down, long hair in some cases can represent someone who is unhygienic. In addition, this can also show the audience the amount of time the world could've been like this, once again showing how much Mad Max has been through. The dark clothing can be associated with sadness and perhaps even death. It could also show how Mad max wants to hide from the world surrounding him as well as showing that he wants to be separated from civilisation. Lastly, we witness in the shot before that Mad Max kills an innocent harmless lizard with his boot. In this close up we can see how un-phased and uncivilised he is by viciously eating the lizard. This could relate back to his natural instincts as if he was a wild animal.

In this shot the 'War Boys' chase after Mad Max with their very many cars and bikes, as Max drives across the blasted wasteland that we saw him looking over in the previous shot. Firstly, the amount of cars and bikes chasing the main character shows the importance of Mad Max, as well as how evil and unforgiving these 'War Boys' are. However, the ridiculous amount of vehicles used to chase one car could also show that these 'War Boys' are teasing and enjoying the capturing of Mad Max. This instantly fires a hate for the 'War Boys' inside the audiences mind.

The narration is still going on in the background and he explains that he is “the only man running from the living and the dead.” This hints to the audience that there is a sub plot regarding his past that will most likely be explained further on in the movie. In the background, the dust cloud being violently kicked up stops the audience from being distracted by the scenery and helps to highlight the cars in the foreground. Worryingly, one of these cars has our central protagonists inside of it. The sloping mountains in the background highlights the dust clouds and stops them from blending into the sky, the gives us a sense of scale and awe of this barren waste land.