Toecutter - Plot

Plot

In a dystopic future Australia, after the Earth's oil supplies were nearly exhausted, law and order has begun to break down due to energy shortages. On the deserted roads of Australian desert, motorcycle gangs have been settling, disrupting the remaining population and looting and stealing fuel, so a Main Force Patrol (MFP) has been created to take control of the highways.

Berserk motorcycle gang member named Crawford "Nightrider" Montizano was arrested for a rampage in Sun City, then killed a MFP officer while being in the police custody, then stole a Pursuit Special (Holden Monaro) and ran away with his girlfriend. One car is already in pursuit, and another unit, which was monitoring the road, joins in, as well as Jim "Goose" Rains, an MFP top motorcycle rider. Goose and the two units chase Nightrider through the town, but a series of problems cause all the units to crash, injuring Goose and several other police officers. Left with no options, Goose calls Max Rockatansky, the top MFP driver, to stop him. Being far away from Nightrider, he positions himself on the road as he approaches, then engages him into a game of chicken. Nightrider panicks, and starts to weep in desperation. Max rams him a couple of times, and they arrive to a rig stuck on the road. Max stops in time, but Nightrider crashes into a rig, exploding and killing him.

Nightrider's motorcycle gang, called the Zed Runners, led by Toecutter and Bubba Zanetti, is running roughshod over a town, vandalising property, stealing fuel and terrorising the populace, and they have arrived to the town for Nightrider's funeral. A young couple notices them, and seeing trouble, they skip town and leave away in their 50's hot-rod, but Bubba notices them. The gang chases the couple and ram them off the road. They vandalize and destroy the car, strip both of them, beat up the man and rape his girlfriend. Max and Goose find them, with the girl badly injured, and the guy running away in the field. They also find Johnny "The Boy", who was too high to leave on his bike, and arrest him. When the surviving girlfriend is a no show, with no witnesses appearing, the courts throw the case out and Johnny is released. An angry Goose is restrained while he and Johnny exchange violent threats. After Bubba Zanetti drags Johnny away, MFP Captain Fred "Fifi" Macaffee tells his officers to do whatever it takes to apprehend the gangs, "so long as the paperwork's clean."

A short time later, Johnny sabotages Goose's motorcycle to lock up at high speed and toss its rider off. Though Goose is unharmed, he borrows a ute to haul his damaged bike back. However, Johnny and Toecutter are waiting in ambush with the former throwing a brake drum at Goose's windscreen. After it crashes, with Goose unable to get out of it and being pressured by Toecutter, Johnny throws a match into the gasoline leaking from the wrecked ute. Though he survived with massive disfiguring burns, Goose eventually died from his wounds at the hospital.

After seeing Goose's charred body, Max becomes disillusioned with the MFP and the fear of losing his sanity convinces him to resign, but Fifi talks Max into taking a holiday before making his final decision about the resignation. Max also reports this to Jessie, his wife, at the remote farm where they live, who is happy with his decision so they could take care of their young baby son, and Max decides to quit the force.

While Max is away to buy supplies from a mechanic while on their way north, Jessie and her infant encounter Toecutter's gang, who attempt to rape her. She flees, but the gang learn of their destination from the mechanic and attack them at a remote farm owned by an elderly friend named May. Though Jessie attempts to flee with her son on foot, Max finds Jessie and son run over by the gang's bikes. With his son killed instantly and Jessie near death, a rage-filled Max dons his police leathers and takes a supercharged black Pursuit Special (Ford XB Falcon) from the MFP storage to pursue the gang.

After torturing the mechanic for information, and forcing several of the gang off a bridge at high speed, Max methodically hunts down the gang's leading members: killing Bubba Zanetti at point blank range with a shotgun and forcing Toecutter into the path of a semi-trailer truck.

After Johnny eludes him during the carnage, Max eventually finds Johnny looting a car crash victim he presumably murdered for a pair of boots. In a cold, suppressed rage, Max handcuffs the pleading Johnny's ankle to the wrecked vehicle and sets a crude time-delay fuse involving a slow fuel leak and Johnny's lighter. Throwing Johnny a hacksaw, Max leaves him the choice of sawing through either the handcuffs (which will take ten minutes) or his ankle (which will take five minutes). Max casually drives away with Johnny's fate unknown after the vehicle explodes. Now a shell of his former self, Max drives on to points unknown, going deep into the outback.