Is Johnny The Boy really dead at the end of Mad Max?

Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) put Johnny the Boy (Tim Burns) in a very difficult situation at the end of Mad Maxbut the film didn't show him dying, so it's not entirely clear whether he survived. The main Mad Max Villains aren't the only antagonists in Wasteland. Each of them also had subordinates and followers who were as vile as their leaders, and Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) had Johnny the Boy. Most of Max's enemies don't live long, but there's a chance that Johnny the Boy is one one of the few to do so, thanks to its ambiguous ending in Mad Max.

At the end of Mad MaxAfter killing Toecutter, Max finds Johnny the Boy looting the corpse of a man he presumably ran off the road. Max then handcuffed his leg to the chassis of the overturned car and prepared a makeshift bomb from the leaking gasoline. He gave Johnny the Boy a saw and told him he could cut the chain in 10 minutes, or his own leg in five. However, instead of confirming that Johnny the Boy actually died, Max got back in his car and drove to the Wasteland, and Johnny the Boy's fate was left open-ended.

It's (almost) impossible for Johnny The Boy to survive the end of Mad Max

Although the film left some room for him to survive, Johnny the Boy almost certainly died at the end of Mad Max. While the exact passage of time in the scene is a bit shaky, it seems clear that Max only gave Johnny a few moments to free himself. Johnny wasted a lot of that time yelling at Max, and he also didn't seem like the kind of person with enough willpower to cut off his leg in just five minutes. It seems much more likely that Johnny the Boy tried to cut the handcuffs and didn't have enough time before the explosion consumed him.

George Miller, the creator of all Mad Max franchise, probably didn't show Johnny the Boy dying in the explosion because of Mad Maxbasic budget. The special effects required to show Johnny dying on screen would have been too expensive to Mad MaxBudget of 400 thousand Australian dollars. Miller probably decided that strongly suggesting that Johnny the Boy had died would be enough, but his decision also left the door open for the character to return years later.

Johnny The Boy could still return to get revenge on Max in a future film

George Miller planned to bring back other Mad Max characters, so Johnny The Boy could return

As unlikely as it may seem, there is still a chance that Johnny the Boy will return in the next Mad Max film. Mad Max: The Desert could reveal that Johnny the Boy successfully cut off his own leg, and he may even meet Max again years later. It also wouldn't be completely unprecedented for the franchise to bring back one of the characters from the original film. The unused story of Lord Humungus in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior would have revealed that he was once Jim Goose (Steve Bisley), Max's partner at MFP who was burned by Johnny the Boy.

George Miller's plan for Goose makes Johnny the Boy's return possible but unlikely. Just like Johnny the Boy, Goose's death was not shown on screen in Mad Maxprobably because Miller was plotting his return. It's entirely possible that Miller didn't show Johnny's death on screen so he could return later. Mad Max film. After all, he went to great lengths to portray Toecutter being run over by a truck, and he could have done the same for Johnny if he really wanted to show that he was dead.

While it's possible, it now seems less likely than ever that Johnny the Boy could return. Mad Max - particularly Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - surpassed Max's days with the MFP, and Miller apparently has no interest in revisiting the franchise's early days. Goose's return in The road warrior It was also cut because Miller thought few people had seen the first film, and that problem hasn't improved after four decades. Looks like Johnny the Boy died in Mad Maxand that he won't be returning to the screen anytime soon.