Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) left Johnny the Boy (Tim Burns) in a precarious situation at the end of Mad Max, but his fate was left ambiguous. In the film, Max kills Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne) and finds Johnny the Boy looting the corpse of a man he had presumably run off the road. Max handcuffs Johnny’s leg to the undercarriage of the upturned car and rigs a makeshift bomb using the leaking gasoline. He gives Johnny a hacksaw and tells him that he can cut through the chain in 10 minutes or his own leg in five. Instead of confirming Johnny’s death, Max walks back to his car and drives into the Wasteland, leaving Johnny’s fate open-ended.
Although the film left some room for interpretation, it is likely that Johnny the Boy died in the explosion. Max only gave him a few moments to free himself, and Johnny wasted a significant amount of time yelling at Max. It is unlikely that Johnny was strong-willed enough to cut off his leg in just five minutes. It is more probable that he tried to cut the handcuffs and did not have enough time before the explosion consumed him.
George Miller, the creator of the Mad Max franchise, likely did not show Johnny’s death on-screen due to the film’s low budget. The special effects required to show his death would have been too expensive for the 400,000 Australian dollar budget. Miller’s decision to leave Johnny’s fate ambiguous also left the door open for the character to return in future films.
However, it now seems less likely that Johnny the Boy could return. The Mad Max franchise has moved on from Max’s days with the MFP, and Miller has shown no interest in revisiting the early days of the franchise. The return of Goose in The Road Warrior was also cut due to concerns that not enough people had seen the first film, and this problem has not improved over the past four decades. It seems that Johnny the Boy died in Mad Max, and he will not be returning to the screen anytime soon.