That is interesting.  That scene's great, but it's not the main reason why I love the movie.  It's very imaginitive.  The glasses.  That transporter to that other planet.  And I don't think he was an antagonist at all.  He's a badass, but he saved the world, and that makes him a protagonist in my books.  There were other good movies with badasses as main characters.  Escape from New York.  Escape from L.A. ... the Evil Dead series.  The Running Man.  

I've never seen Mad Max or Beyond Thunderdome ... but I keep hearing that they're good.