The Road Warrior/Heroism

            The movie The Road Warrior takes place in the Australian desert sometime in the near future. There seems to have been some kind of great war that has destroyed most of the world, and those who have survived are struggling for power. There are two main groups of people: the Maurauders and the Defenders; the ladder of the two seems to be the "good" group, while the Maurauders are portrayed as the "evil" group. The Defenders have control over an oil refinery and the Maurauders are on the verge of taking it over and brutally killing all of the Defenders. This is where a man named Max comes in. He belongs to neither of the groups and has no interest in joining them, but is looking out for himself and needs some oil. Max ends up being the only person who can lead the Defenders to safety (he drives a tanker out of their compound as a diversion while the rest of the Defenders drive a bus and all of their cars full of barrels of oil to safety) and does just that, although reluctantly. He is the hero of the movie because he is the only man for the job when the job is good and necessary.
             There are many ways that we can tell that Max is the man for the job (even though he doesn't know it). The movie opens with a chase scene where Max is being chased by some of the Maurauders. There is only one of him and many of them, yet he prevails due to his superior driving skills, quick reflexes and ability to think clearly under pressure. He maneuvers with ease at high speed though a narrow passage way while some of the Maurauders crash. At one point, there is a Maurauder on each side of his vehicle (they are on motorcycles), one is about to shoot Max with a cross bow, and just as he shoots, Max slams on the breaks and the Maurauder on the other side of him takes the arrow in his arm. Another example of Max's quick reflexes is displayed when Max comes across an interesting looking engine. He gets out of his car to inspect it but there is a poisonous snake wrapped around it (the snake was put there by the owner of the engine to keep "intruders" from stealing it).