TWO Shoalhaven men worked to bring Mad Max back to life in what is one of the biggest action films of the year.

Scott Cole from Greenwell Point and Mark Gatt from Culburra Beach divided their time over the last five years between Africa and Australia working behind the scenes on Mad Max Fury Road.

Mr Cole was the head truck mechanic and Mr Gatt was in charge of the steel work on the movie sets.

In the real world Mr Cole is a mechanic from Greenwell Point.

He landed the movie role after a conversation at Christmas in 2009 with his sister and brother-in-law.

“My brother-in-law works in movie special effects and told me they were doing a new Mad Max movie and they were looking for a mechanic,” he said.

After landing the role Mr Cole could not believe he was a part of the movie.

He has been a Mad Max fan since the movie’s early days.  

“When I saw Mad Max 2 I wanted a Mel Gibson haircut,” he said.

“I was pinching myself at the start of this project.

“People are blown away when they see these vehicles from the movie.

“I’ve been looking at them for the last six years but people really love them.”

“I even ended up buying one of the trucks.

“I’ve been one of the lucky ones,” he said.

“Over the past 10 months I’ve been in Namibia, Cape Town, Perth, and Melbourne and then about six weeks ago I went to England all with the movie.

“I met all the stars. I was on what’s called Main Unit, basically dealing with the actors.

“I watched the movie last night, and my name came up as head truck mechanic Scott Cole.

“I was pretty happy with that,” he said.

Fellow Shoalhaven resident Mark Gatt, a metal worker from Culburra Beach, took after his father Billy, who had also worked on films.

Mr Gatt has been involved in a number of movies including Superman, Matrix, Babe, Mission Impossible 2 and was filmed welding in Mad Max Fury Road.

His Mother Marie Gatt said she was “very proud of him”.

“It was in 2012 when he first got involved in Mad Max, and he spent a lot of time in Namibia,” she said.

“He loved Africa, he had a great time. He said he had a great crew to work with.

“It’s fantastic. He does have a little part in the movie, he’s doing some welding on a car in the previews but I don’t know if that will make the movie.

“I’m going to see the movie as soon as I can. I’ll be jumping up and down when I see him in it,” she said.

Mad Max Fury Road opened nationally on Thursday night.