FAQ for
Mad Max 2 (1981) More at IMDbPro »

No. In the US r-rated version some short plot scenes as well as some scenes of violence, which had to be cut in order to get an r-rating, are missing. This version has been released on DVD, Laserdisc and VHS in the USA. In early VHS times a few European releases (e.g. Germany and UK) as well as the Australian version offered the so called unrated-version. Later then, new re-releases based on the cut US-Master have been released in these countries which lead to the fact that the original unrated copies vanished more and more.

Until now only one version has been released on DVD and it's the r-rated-version. The reason for this, is the same as the later VHS re-release being only the r-rated version: The US-Master has been used for every DVD-print on the planet (although there are rumours that the first Japanese DVD had the unrated version).

But there is some light at the end of the tunnel: At least the new HD-releases (HD DVD and Blu-Ray) offer a slightly longer version. This version includes the scenes that had to be cut to achieve an r-rating. However it seems that even the HD-releases still leak the short plot scenes.

A detailed comparison between the r-rated version and an old unrated VHS-Version can be found here.

* The sleeve of his jacket is missing as he had his arm run over in the first movie and medics would have cut the sleeve off rather than remove it by pulling it over the broken arm.

* His leg brace is due to getting his knee cap shot through by Buba Zanetti in the first movie.

* His spanner and tools harness is for running repairs on the V8.

* His fingers are missing on the first two fingers of each driving glove to enable easy insertion/ retrieval of shotgun shells

There's different ways of interpreting this. One argument is that he felt he owed them for patching him up and not leaving him to die in the desert. Another is that he is still as cynical and mysanthropic as he was before the V8 died and realises that if he doesn't drive the tanker he'll be left behind to the mercy of the Dogs of War. It's also possible that Max had long had a death wish and the only thing that kept him going was protecting his car and his dog and, having lost them, he decides he no longer has any reason to live and may as well go out in a blaze of glory, given the slim chances of the small crew that was riding & defending the tanker. Possibly he also wanted revenge on the bikers for killing his dog and destroying his car, and the best revenge he could evoke on them, besides killing as many of them as possible, was to make sure they didn't get the gas either, so that they too were left without getting what they wanted. His line "believe me I haven't got a choice" when asked why he wants to drive the truck leaves his motives ambiguous.

The novels of Mad Max 2 and 3 give some background to this. In the 2nd book Max remembers his boss losing control of the MFP after Max's wife and son were killed as society fell apart. In the 3rd novel it states that after the death of his family and his revenge on the Toecutter's gang "the world had finally blown itself to Hell a few weeks later it had seemed only fitting. He had taken off alone into the wastes and lived there ever since".