He showed her a defensive helmet that the Russians had constructed for him - to prevent telepathic powers from "getting into his head.A man who wandered out into the wasteland.And it was here in this blighted place that he learned to live again."The opening (and closing) images of lone rogue cop or ""road warrior"" Mad Max (Rockatansky) (Mel Gibson), an ex-member of the Australian highway patrol (the Main Force Patrol (MFP)), portrayed him standing as a lone figure amidst visions of a post-apocalyptic violent world.The opening image shows a flat, paved highway road in rural Oklahoma lined by telephone poles.A small figure walks out of the distance toward the camera.At a crossroads (a symbol of America""s plight in the late 30s), one of the poles at the left of the frame leans dramatically askew.She was terribly upset about how she had her heart broken by her male suitor, and threatened to commit suicide by cutting her throat.The hero""s first words express his metaphysical angst: "Ouch, ouch." In a comfortable, well-lit, San Francisco hillside apartment [near North Beach, ostensibly with a view from Vallejo and Jones streets, although truly located at Montgomery and Union streets], a commercial artist/lingerie designer Marjorie "Midge" Wood (Barbara Bel Geddes), a blonde woman with an unflattering pair of glasses, is working at her drafting table easel in her studio/living room.