Why does Aunty let Max live?


Is it because:

a) she sees him as a "kindred spirit" and respects him in spite of also resenting him?

b) she no longer views him as a threat?

c) she figures someone else will eventually finish him off, so why waste the effort?

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could be all of the above but i go with a.

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Why not? The desert is a boring place.

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I came her to ask this. She wasn’t even mad about Mel Gibson’s tribe of kids taking the Master dwarf away. Tina turner should have at least been angry and tried to kill or capture Mel. Seemed kinda cack-handed writing.

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All the above can and maybe do apply.

Though she says "Ain't we a pair..." which to me gave the impression she recognizes Max did everything to protect the children yet is left with nothing, while she also did everything for Bartertown ("I'll do anything to protect it") yet is also left with nothing now that it's destroyed. Killing him now wouldn't change anything so out of an odd form of respect she lets him live.

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Exactly.

Aunty is, first and foremost, a pragmatist; killing Max would gain her nothing at that point. Plus, after all they put one another through she has come to see Max as a fellow "survivor," and therefore to feel a measure of respect, however grudging, towards him.

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To me, Aunty's laugh sounds maniacal before she says "Goodbye soldier" which implied she's relishing leaving him to die. We, the audience, of course know that he won't die because the pilot's home isn't far away for food, water, and shelter but she doesn't know that. But then I've heard people like in this thread say she found respect for him which makes no sense because he destroyed her empire. I give up trying to understand the end of the film years ago.

Savannah says "we lights the city, not just for him..." but the plane didn't stop in mid air so she could witness Aunty leaving Max alone, so she doesn't know he's not dead. At the begining of the film, Max detects radiation in the water the man's selling, so how are the kids not going to die in the city? Surely the city will be full of radiation? Then finally, we see the final image of Max who seems to have returned to the other kids but wouldn't it be a one in a million chance to make it to them again, getting passed the survivors of Bartertown, avoiding the quicksand again?

I just don't get it. It's not an awful film. There's some good visuals and ideas, and I love the Thunderdome fight, but it's a bit of a mess.

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