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"You crack me up little Buddy"
Max, a "hyperkinetic rabbity thing", is one of the two titular characters in the Sam & Max franchise.
Character Detail
Violent, impulsive and indulgent in the extreme, Max is the source of much of the franchise's unique humor. Max is an active member of the Freelance Police along with his long time partner and friend Sam.
He often refers to himself as a lagomorph, though he also sometimes refers to himself as a rabbit. A rabbit is a type of lagomorph, so these are not mutually exclusive. He enjoys violence and prefers to solve problems aggressively. He has a slight distaste for the long stories, anecdotes, and sentences that Sam constantly spouts forth, often asking Sam and others not to use various words such as 'ensue' and 'acumen'. He shares Sam's enthusiasm in just about anything, especially if it involves large guns and trouble. He also has very poor hygiene, as he sometimes tastes his own belly button lint, and once had a large "suspicious growth" behind his ear. Sam has commented on his pungent bodily odors on more than one occasion. Both Sam and Max have also commented on the obscure fact that Max has a metal plate in his skull.
Max always carries a Luger around, and when asked where he keeps it usually responds with "None of your damn business.". He is fairly trigger-happy with it in the early comics, but this is rarely seen elsewhere. Like Sam, he's a lousy shot and never seen actually hitting anyone. Perhaps because of this, he prefers to get up close and simply leap at his foes and hurt them in whatever way he can come up with. This fails miserably about as often as it works; despite his boundless energy and love for violence, Max isn't particularly good at fighting.
His full name is either Maximilian (in Abe Lincoln Must Die!) or Maxwell (Ruth calls him this in Christmas Bloody Christmas).
Although his eyes look the same color as most other characters (black slits), his is actually brown according to Sam.
As of Abe Lincoln Must Die!, Max is President of the United States of America. Between season 2 and The Devil's Playhouse, Max was somehow re-elected.
In the end of Beyond the Alley of the Dolls, Max was transformed into a gigantic Elder God and began rampaging across New York. During the next episode, The City That Dares Not Sleep, a new side of Max was shown. He turned out to be capable of self-sacrifice, as shown when he told Sam and Papierwaite to help Sybil out of him so she could give birth rather than saving him. In the end, his Super-Ego removed the tumor causing his behavior while Sam, Sybil and Papierwaite escaped through Max's nose. Unfortunately, a nuclear-armed Maimtron flew into Max's chest. He saved New York by teleporting away. In the end, Momma Bosco attempted to clone Max to life using a sample of his snot, but the DNA was "too weird" for the cloning machines to process it. Fortunately, after the credits, when Sam went to Battery Park to mourn Max, the time-travelling elevator from Chariots of the Dogs appeared behind him with a Max from the past, alive and well, inside it. He explains that his Sam also transformed into a huge monster and had to be blown up. After a moment of awkward silence, Sam and Max, reunited, embark on their new adventures together with a few cases in mind.
An alternate ending has Sam rest his hat on the ledge when suddenly the Time Elevator appears and opens revealing nobody inside. Upon closer inspection inside it, Sam discovers the past Max beside him also inspecting it. Max reprises his role in the first ending explaining that Sam in his time gained powers but had to be destroyed. Max failed to hide his joy at the destruction despite his words, causing the awkwardness to resume. Sam and Max then decide to get to embark on their new adventures and enter the Time Elevator, but not without Sam picking up his hat, signifying that this isn't the end of the Freelance Police after all...
Birthday
- August 28 (July 10th in the Telltale games)
Family
Max's family were shown in the comic The Damned Don't Dance, but none were named. Other than in Culture Shock where Max implies that most of his (large) family are criminals or in jail, and in Bright Side of the Moon, where he responds to "It's the Lunar Lander" with "So was my aunt Tillie, but they can't prove anything", he doesn't talk much about them. In tne Season Three episode, The Tomb of Sammun-Mak, Max's great- great-grandfather is shown. His name is Maximus, and he apperse to have work with Sam's great-great-grandfather, Samith.
Likes:
- Sam.
- The Geek.
- Agent Superball
- The color orange.
- Glazed McGuffins
- Cartoons.
- Shooting stuff.
- Burning stuff.
- Violence.
- The Rubber Pants Commandos.
- Cheese.
- "Lucky Charms" and "Rice Krinkles".
- Buddy Hackett.
- Highway Surfing.
- Cute babies
- Girls (changed to a like after season 2 episode 4 when they change time)
Dislikes:
- Not having an inventory.
- Girls. (changes from a dislike after season 2 episode 4 when they change time)
- Cheese from a pressurized can.
- Clowns.
- Renaissance reenactment participants.
- Long tedious explanations or stories.
- Vampires.
- Auntie Alice.
- Jack-in-the-Boxes.
- Musicals/singing. (?)
- Cats/Kittens.
- Wimps.
- Swiss Cheese.
- Ventriloquist dummies
- Country Music (As stated after being hit into the "Dunk the Beast" in Hit the Road)
Versions
Young Max
Young Max has been in all three mediums Sam and Max has been in. He is a precarious, bold, and somewhat self-absorbed child. He is always seen with Sam and stands up for him whenever someone truly hurts him.
Max's impulsive behavior is probably a main factor in the dangerous mischief he and young Sam perpetrate, such as setting fire to things.
In the Telltale games, Max isn't above name calling and bullying Sam around like the other kids do. Though this may be viewed as taking Sam's friendship for granted, considering Max's spontaneous nature coupled with the way he will treat Sam as an adult, he doesn't seem to really mean what he says and just wants a reaction from the usually timid Sam.
He's also selfish and addicted to videogames. He would rather stay indoors and play them than socialize with anyone except for Sam, because video games are the only things that "really understand" him.
Apparently, a girl named Jennie Tallarico has a crush on him. Max doesn't like her and his main reasoning was because she was known to french kiss anyone in school.
Teen Max
Not much is known about Max when he was a teenager. In the Telltale games, he claimed that Sam begged him to club Sam's opponents in the knees so that Sam would be able to win surfing trophies. Max also was about to go into a story in Chariots of the Dogs about something major that happened to him which turned him off on girls indefinitely. However, he decided not to tell it since there was no flashback.
It may have been a reference to a puzzle that was ultimately cut out of the game, in which Max's dislike of girls started during a game of spin the bottle. Max had to kiss Sam's cousin, who resembled Sam, and was so traumatized by the experience that he never developed an interest in girls.
Old Max/Future Max
Old Max was first seen in the animated series' episode The Dysfunction of the Gods where Sam and Max undergo rapid aging. He suffers from bad back posture, hair loss, and is somewhat overweight, but he still has his destructive tendencies.
In the Telltale episode Chariots of the Dogs, Max looks as if he never aged past his current self. He acts somewhat different, though, almost grown up. This is probably because he has the responsibility of taking care of Sam, who is not faring well in his old age. He is very condescending to current Sam and Max, who he sees as primitive.
He's mastered vulcanology, a reference to earlier in the game and a hint to a puzzle in the room he's in. He and Sam work for Stinky Corp, but suspects that the company is making its popular super-adhesive out of molemen.
Elder God Max/Maxzilla
In the end of Beyond the Alley of the Dolls, the penultimate episode of The Devil's Playhouse, Max accidentally ingested some dark spores, transforming into a giant, Lovecraftian monster and went on a rampage throughout New York. Sam, Papierwaite and Sybil went inside him to transform him into his usual self before The Final Imperative (targeting Max with a nuclear strike) was activated. In the end, They escaped, leaving Max's Super-Ego in charge if removing his brain tumor, which presumably triggered his behavior. Unfortunately, the bomb, built into a Maimtron, still flew into Max's chest and was activated. In an act of self-sacrifice, Max used his teleportation power to transport to Stinky's cell phone, which was with her on Skun-ka'pe's ship in space. Upon arriving, the bomb detonated, killing that timeline's Max, Stinky and Skun-ka'pe.
Character Design Evolution
Voiced By
- Nick Jameson (Hit the Road)
- Robert Tinkler (the animated series)
- Andrew Chaikin (Telltale's Season One: Episode 1)
- William Kasten (Telltale's Season One: Episodes 2-6, Season Two, The Devil's Playhouse)
- David Boat (Poker Night 2)