Most of the extras used in the film were paid in beer.

The "get-out-of-jail-free card" that Goose gives the triker was an on-set joke. Because of the limited budget, the biker gang was an actual biker gang (the Vigilantes), and they had to ride to the set each day in-costume; often with their prop weapons displayed. Since the production company expected them to be pulled over by the local police, each was given a letter explaining the film's peculiar requirements, and asking for law-enforcement's understanding and cooperation.

George Miller raised the money for Mad Max (1979) by working as an emergency room doctor.

Tim Burns (Johnny the Boy) was so into character that he annoyed everyone on-set, and was abandoned one day during lunch while handcuffed to the wreck.

Mel Gibson got the part of Max Rockatansky while still a drama student. He was paid $10,000.

Continuity

When Jessie walks to the car Max is repairing she is wearing sneakers. When she walks around to the passenger side of the car she has on boots with sheepskin trim. When she walks off to the beach she is wearing the deck shoes again.

When Max hears Jessie screaming when she's being chased by bikers in the woods, he grabs his rifle and runs towards her with no shoes on. In the next sequence, after Max takes a few steps towards the woods, he's wearing shoes.

When Max and Jessie first take off for their vacation, it's just the two of them (no baby). There's no baby anywhere when they're on the beach initially either. The baby first appears at the junk yard, when Jessie tells Max that she's going to buy an ice cream cone.

Goose falls on his left leg during his crash in the opening chase scene. In his next scenes, he has a cast on his right leg.

The Goose's wreck is caused by his rear wheel locking up. As he and the bike fly off the road, the rear wheel is still spinning.



Factual errors

During the car chase scene where the motorcycle gang chases down the car that escapes town. Simply swerving into the motorcycles and / or slamming on the brakes would have eliminated the vast majority of the gang. A motorcycle really has no chance in that type of scenario.

Goose starts up his cold bike in the morning and immediately races a full throttle burnout. A carburetor engine of that time is rather delicate during its cold start phase, it could not deliver that performance, but rather choke and stall when operated full throttle.

As Max crawls past and drives away from Bubba, there is a falcon on Bubba's chest. But falcons don't eat dead prey, or prey on anything as large as an adult man. And even if it had been a buzzard or vulture, it wouldn't have been there so soon, while Max and the car were still there.

Presumably the supercharger was switched off to save fuel, which wouldn't work because the engine would stall. A stopped "blower" would not allow the fuel/air mixture to pass into the engine. The only way that the car would move under its own power would be if the compressor housing was fake and there was a carburetor hidden inside the housing.

When Toecutter hits the semi at over 100 MPH head-on, his motorcycle merely crumples a bit. In fact, the kinetic energy would have been so great that his bike would have literally disintegrated.



Incorrectly regarded as goofs

Poly Styrene, the mannequin that gets a shotgun blast to the face on the beach, shows up later in the film during Mad Max's solo revenge on the back of a bike with its face intact. But it's a mannequin, and there could be dozens of identical ones where the gang found the first Poly.



Revealing mistakes

When the Holden Monaro that the Nightrider has stolen passes the camera, at close range in one scene, we can see that the exhaust tips of the car are actually just dangling on the car and aren't actually connected at all.

Wire visible when Max shoots biker about to run him over.

Despite being "fuel injected", the Interceptor lacks a throttle body, fuel injectors, and a fuel injector rail system.

When the bad guy throws the old car part at the red truck on the way back with the broken motorcycle, when the truck goes off the road and rolls over, you can see there's no driver in the truck.

The van that pulls into Roop's path and is slammed by his patrol car simply exits the driveway and drives straight across towards the other side of the street, which is a grass verge without anywhere to go. It also does not have its indicator on, as quoted, and for some reason the driver fails to react to Nightrider speeding past ahead of the pursuit vehicles and the sirens, and does not give way to an emergency vehicle, blindly entering the road.



Audio/visual unsynchronized

When Jessie has the baby in her arms and runs towards the farm, the baby screams while his lips are closed.



Crew or equipment visible

When the Nightrider crashes in the beginning a chain can be seen pulling his car into the disabled truck.

When Jessie finds Cundalini's hand hanging from the back of the van, a crew-members fingers can be clearly seen holding the chain up.

When Goose is interrogating the stoned biker he turns around and says "Take your time Charlie, we've got plenty of it", when he turns you can see the feet of the camera operator reflected in his glasses. It cannot be the other policeman as he is in the other room.

At 42:59 after the motorcycle crashes into the field there is a black cable center screen.

Before Toecutter's gang chase down a young fearful couple, the camera's shadow can be briefly seen on the young couple's car door.



Plot holes

After exiting the farmhouse looking for her son, Jessie encounters the motorcycle gang at the garage/barn of the farmhouse. However, the property is enclosed by a fence, and the gate to the driveway is locked. In addition, nobody heard the motorcycles drive up to the farmhouse. Yet, somehow, the gang was able to sneak onto the property with their motorcycles without anyone hearing their approach.



Character error

After Roop smashes into the Bongo van, Charlie says that the van driver had his indicator on. The van did NOT have any indicator on.