Nightrider saw himself as being fearless, even going so far as to call himself a "fuel injected suicide machine". When Max put him to the test by playing chicken with him, Nightrider got scared at the last moment and swerved out of the way. This revealed that despite all his talk, Nightrider was actually afraid to die. Being confronted with this, and the idea that his opponent had more resolve than he did, Nightrider was broken mentally.
I don't agree with the other poster who believes that Nightrider knew who Max was. Max was just another cop to him, which is why Nightrider and the other members of Toecutter's gang call him bronze, which is the colour of their badges.
This is one of the greatest opening scenes of all time, but I think it takes place too early in the narrative, as it doesn't make sense why Max would do something so risky at this point. Of course, the death of the Nightrider is the inciting incident that starts the events in the story, but as far as the character of Max is concerned, it would have made more sense if this had happened after Goose died, and especially after his wife and child were killed. It also highlights another problem I have with this movie which is that the rest of the film is not up to the level of intensity of this opening scene.
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Jeepster (1145)
5 years ago
Like what you had to say Phoenix. It makes a ton of sense. If you read my posts here you’ll see I asked the same question you did, regarding why would anybody be supposed to know who Max was.
He’s a cop, a nameless civil servant livng in a apocalyptic world. It’s HIGHLY unlikely that he’d be well known or a celebrity of any kind to anybody. In the world he’s from who would even care?
But there are those here who think otherwise.
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cyguration (3951)
2 years ago
This is actually a really insightful post, and it is something I've thought about subconsciously. In fact, it's something I thought about again just after reading the other posts:
This top-of-the-line cop was willing to commit suicide against some crazy psycho on the road, even though the cop has a wife and kid. What was he thinking? Or is that part of what made him "mad" before going mad?
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HellFire (561)
3 months ago
"as it doesn't make sense why Max would do something so risky at this point".
It does if you go along with the premise that the cops are a bit mentally unbalanced right from the start of the film, from their experiences. And that's clearly what the film was showing. It's the reason why Max says to Fifi "Any longer out on that road, and I'm just like one of them. A terminal crazy".
There was even a deleted scene where Max and Goose were having a drag race with each other for fun.
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