 After Bret Maverick escapes from his botched hanging, he is shown  plodding through the desert, dragging a tree limb behind him as the  sand swirls around him. This mirrors a situation from  _Mad Max 2 (1981)_ (qv), when The Gyro Captain is chained to a log  by Max, also played by Mel Gibson (I) (qv), and forced to find his  way out of the desert.