Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) | Sci-Fi Saturdays

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Max is back, and he’s going on a road trip with some friends.

Mad Max: Fury Road benefits from thirty years of advancements in filmmaking, as it continues the trials and tribulations of humanity in a post-apocalyptic future. It is also one of the most beautiful action films of the 21st Century, featuring stunning cinematography that turns the bleak desert into a wonderful canvas of colors and textures. But most surprisingly, this action-oriented tale is an unexpected feminist story about the best ways for humanity to flourish.

First Impressions

Max is captured and manages to escape, partially before being strapped onto a car as the maidenhead. From there, it’s an adrenaline-fueled race across the desert as a whole host of characters battle it out in the Wasteland. The evil-looking leader has lost something, and now he wants it back, and apparently, Max is caught up in it all on Mad Max: Fury Road.

Presented below is the trailer for the film.

The Fiction of The Film

A voiceover recounts what has come before as Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is captured in the desert wastelands by members of the War Boys. He is taken to their Citadel, where he is inspected and tattooed with his traits, including that of a universal blood donor. The leader of the Citadel, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), sends off his War Rig, driven by Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), to trade water and milk for “guzzoline” and bullets from Gas Town and Bullet Farm. On her way, the one-armed Furiosa diverts the modified tanker trunk East across the desert. It is at that time that Joe realizes that his five young wives have all gone missing.

Joe’s War Boys, a group of irradiated young men who are fanatically fervent in their loyalty to their Redeemer, set off in their fast cars to stop Furiosa and rescue the wives. Nux (Nicholas Hoult) is weak from his tumors, but tells the others to strap his “blood bag,” Max, to the front of the car, and he’s good to go. The War Rig is attacked by The Buzzards, a group of outlaws in the desert, and gets slowed down enough for the War Boys to catch up. Furiosa evades their attack, driving directly into an oncoming sandstorm. Nux heads after her, attempting to crash his car into the Rig, but Max manages to stop him, and the car crashes. After the storm clears, Max picks up the unconscious Nux and finds the Rig parked in the sand, while five scantily clad women hose the dust from themselves with water from the truck.

Max threatens the women, getting them to cut the chain that binds him to Nux. Furiosa fights the road warrior, but he gains the upper hand and takes the Rig, stranding the others. He doesn’t get far, as Furiosa has kill switches installed. She convinces Max that she is rescuing these women from the evil Immortan Joe and that they are heading to the Green Place. Max warily comes with them, protecting the women from Nux, who has snuck onboard. Furiosa has bartered a deal for safe passage through the canyon, guarded by a bike gang, but they renege when they observe more War Boys in pursuit, along with reinforcements from Bullet Farm and Gas Town.

Max and Furiosa blow up the gas pod they’re hauling, which collapses the rock archway, blocking the canyon. Joe’s 4×4 navigates the obstruction and chases the War Rig. During the chase and fight, the pregnant wife, The Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley), falls from the cab and is run over by Joe’s vehicle. She dies a short time later, resulting in the stillbirth of a son. That night, the Rig becomes stuck in a mud flat with the Bullet Farmer (Richard Carter) racing towards them. Nux helps them extricate themselves as Furiosa blinds the Bullet farmer with a well-placed bullet, before Max heads back to deal with them. Nux becomes friendly with Capable (Riley Keough), another of the wives.

Following her recollections, Furiosa navigates them to what she believes is the Green Place, marked by a watchtower. The all-female Vuvalini encircle the group, recognizing Furiosa as one of them from a long time ago. They tell her that the Green Place is no more, and offer Max a ride with them as they set off across the salt flats. Max has a better idea and suggests that they return the way they came and head back to the Citadel, which is currently unguarded. The women all take up their remaining weapons and hop on the War Rig, traveling back through the canyon, which they believe will have been cleared of rubble now. Surprised, Joe and his minions take pursuit, sending Pole Boys, Harpooners, and other scary menaces their way.

During the chase, Furiosa is stabbed in the side, and Max is injured. He fights with Joe’s son, Rictus (Nathan Jones), while Furiosa sacrifices her mechanical arm to wrench Joe’s facemask off his face–plus some of his face. Joe dies, but the remainder of his army continues their pursuit. Nux helps get all the rest of the wives into another vehicle, staying behind and wrecking the Rig into the canyon arch so no one else can follow. Max provides some of his blood to Furiosa to keep her alive until they enter the Citadel. They roll in with Joe’s dead body in his car, proclaiming they killed him. The crowd cheers for them, and Furiosa and the others take the lift to the top level, turning on the water for everyone. Max stays below and silently disappears into the crowd.

“You know, hope is a mistake.” – Mad Max

History in the Making

The year was 2015, and Mad Max: Fury Road was just one of a handful of films that restarted their franchise after years away. Terminator Genisys appeared six years after Terminator Salvation. Jurassic World thundered back to the doomed animal park 14 years after Jurassic Park III. Star Wars: The Force Awakens woke up a decade-dormant franchise after Revenge of the Sith. And Mad Max returned 30 years after he went Beyond Thunderdome. It was the fourth longest gap between a film and its sequel, falling behind the 64 year gap, between Bambi (1942) and Bambi II (2006), the 59 year wait between Fantasia (1940) and Fantasia 2000 (1999), and the 42 years between One Hundred And One Dalmatians (1961) and 101 Dalmatians II: Patch’s London Adventure (2003). Amazingly enough, Fury Road’s ranking falls to 12th by 2024 with multiple franchises from the 1980s gaining sequels, such as Top Gun: Maverick, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, Blade Runner: 2049, and Doctor Sleep.

George Miller returned as the director, bringing his cinematic vision of the apocalyptic wasteland that many would love to live in. The film may have had one of the longest pre-production phases of any film, taking over 25 years to get made. Miller had originally conceived of the film in 1987, two years after the third Mad Max film, Beyond Thunderdome. The look of the Fury Road is impeccable, with nearly every frame being a beautiful work of art. It is easily the best-looking film of 2015. The lighting is warm and inviting, and the action never appears confusing, thanks to Miller’s dictum of being sure to frame the most important action dead-center. This way, as the shots switched from speeding car to speeding car, the audience wasn’t constantly having to refocus their attention to another portion of the screen, allowing for the pacing to get amped up even more. And action is the name of the game, making up at least 75% of the two-hour run time.

Mel Gibson would not return for this sequel, being 59 years old at the time the film was released. He was replaced by Tom Hardy, known for his work in Star Trek: Nemesis and in the Christopher Nolan films Inception and The Dark Knight Rises. It’s an interesting part, since he was filling the shoes of a popular character portrayed by another actor, but also because his screen time is limited. Max may be the title character, but he’s only along for the ride as the story is more concerned with Furiosa and Nux. Charlize Theron stepped into the role of the one-armed Imperator, known as Furiosa. She had headlined sci-fi films, Æon Flux and Prometheus, proving her acting and action prowess in these and dozens of other films. Her portrayal of Furiosa received many accolades as the driving (no pun intended) force of the film. Nicholas Hoult portrayed Nux, the anemic War Boy. he was primarily known for his role as the titular boy in About a Boy, and as Beast in the later X-Men films. His newest claim to fame is the portrayal of Lex Luther in the newest Superman franchise from DC. The most unexpected casting for the film, however, is Hugh Keays-Byrne as the vile Immortan Joe. Keays-Byrne also served as the villainous Toecutter in the very first Mad Max film in 1979. Having him return to torment the Road Warrior and other members of the Wasteland in this film is absolutely inspired, and his performance as the lusty, narcissistic elder couldn’t have been better.

Genre-fication

For many, Mad Max films are a genre unto themselves. While Mad Max began the saga, it wasn’t quite what the series would become two years later with The Road Warrior. That first film was the cusp of the apocalyptic turn for society as the oil wars heated up. Mad Max featured fast cars and action, but feels more akin to the gearhead exploitation films of the 70s like White Lightning or Vanishing Point. The Wasteland really took hold in Mad Max 2, which featured customized and cobbled-together vehicles racing across the desert roads. The bleached, sun-baked world of a post-consumer culture, short on gas and water, became the backdrop for fast cars, harrowing stunts, and brutal action. Fury Road extends this style, following everything that came before, but also paving new ground, with new groups and new locations.

The customized vehicles of the Mad Max Saga owe some thanks to Damnation Alley, a post-apocalyptic film with a giant customized tank-like APC, the Landmaster. Its apocalypse was a nuclear-based World War III, while the Mad Max series features the implosion of society due to the collapse of consumerism. Either way, only the strongest survive. Each film has had its own group of specialized vehicles, from Max’s Interceptor V-8 to the Gyro-Copter and the tanker truck in The Road Warrior, with Fury Road winning the title of biggest gearhead movie. Miller took the tools he had created in the previous films and made something even more magnificent and exciting. The chases still occur in the Wasteland, but instead of being sun-bleached, the look of this film is warmer and more vibrant than its predecessor, ushering in a new feeling for the dystopian apocalypse. No longer is it a hellscape. There are now areas of beauty and fertility that are actually more inviting.

Fury Road also goes to new territories by creating a post-apocalyptic Western. In true John Ford fashion, George Miller has crafted a modern-day version of the 1939 Stagecoach. In that film, a small group of passengers in a stagecoach, led by John Wayne, must travel a dangerous route through Apache territory, avoiding all types of dangers, both natural and man-made. Fury Road replaces the stagecoach with the War Rig, horses with motorcycles and other armored cars, and John Wayne with a combination of an ex-enforcer blood bag and a cyborg truck driver. Fury Road surpasses all previous incarnations of post-apocalyptic Westerns, including Waterworld (which is really The Road Warrior on water), The Postman, The Book of Eli, and even the superhero film Logan.

Societal Commentary

Stepping outside the sheer survival themes from the previous Mad Max films, Fury Road addresses several current social issues of the early 21st Century. Well, they’re also survival-based, but cover so much more ground. Who would believe that a Mad Max film would become a leading proponent of women’s rights? Certainly, no one had that on their bingo card in 2015. Nevertheless, it is a film with strong feminist roots as it deals with female agency and autonomy over women’s bodies. Everyone at The Citadel is in the service of Immortan Joe. He has installed himself as a messiah and godhead, tasked with recreating the old world in his own image. He’s making the Wasteland great again in his sweaty, pervy way. He holds a harem of women, his wives, all young and fertile, whom he impregnates to continue his lineage. Nothing about their “work” is consensual, as rape is implied. The women all wear chastity belts of one sort or another, preventing other men with inferior seed (like the War Boys) from propagating. Their frustration, the “fury” in Fury Road, has reached a boiling point by the start of the film, and their escape with Furiosa is the impetus for the entirety of the story. They refuse to let their babies grow up to be warlords, taking control of their lives at their own peril. The Splendid Angharad, a visibly pregnant woman, is the strongest voice and the first to be culled by the dangerous escape. Miller seemed in touch with the zeitgeist of the world and Hollywood, two years before the emergence of the “Me Too” movement.

The other big theme from the film is redeeming one’s destiny. Nux is the focal point for this story, as he discovers that he does not have to live for the glory of others, but only for himself. He is one of the War Boys, a fervent group of young men who have been indoctrinated as soldiers in Immortan Joe’s army. They have been told that their sacrifice, when needed, will allow them to enter the halls of Valhalla as gods. They do not question their mission, as they have no agency of their own. All glory to Joe! The similarity to the rise of online sycophants of powerful alt-right movements is not an accident. Nux only knows of his testosterone-fueled vehicle and his undying pledge to uphold the power of his master. That is, until he attempts to return the wives to The Citadel. Nux sees firsthand who these women are and hears their stories. He experiences empathy for the first time and realizes it’s not a deficit, but an advantage. His character goes from being willing to sacrifice his life for Immortan Joe, a man who knows not his name or cares about him, to willingly sacrificing his life on his own terms so that Furiosa and the wives can escape the onslaught of the armies. The results are the same, but the difference is Nux’s intention, being able to see himself for what he’s worth rather than another cog in a nitrous-fueled machine.

The Science in The Fiction

There‘s no doubt that the real stars of Mad Max: Fury Road are the vehicles themselves. Over two dozen bizarre and dangerous-looking metal monstrosities careen over the desert wasteland in pursuit of the fleeing Furiosa. Designed by Jacinta Leong, art director, and built by Colin Gibson, production designer (and their teams), these vehicles made up the majority of the action in the film, save for the sequences at The Citadel in the beginning and end of the film. The main set piece was the War Rig, Furiosa’s 18-wheel (ish) tanker, which hauls an additional fuel pod behind it. Each vehicle was hand-built and customized with elements that might have been scavenged by the survivors in the Wasteland. From the standpoint of the film, each of these vehicles is a dangerous-looking machine, designed for the purpose of surviving the offensive weapons of others while creating as many ways to kill or maim others. They include sheet metal extensions over the tires (protecting the softer rubber from saws and nails), flamethrowers, caltrop dispensers (spikey jacks strewn in front of other vehicles to pop the tires), harpoon guns, and various cattle guards and rams.

What’s even more amazing is realizing that for many of the hero vehicles, multiple versions had to be built for various sequences. Some versions were meant for the actors to be in or around, while others were designed specifically for stunt work, crashes, and explosions. Each was an amazing engineering feat of piece-mealing multiple engines, suspensions, and car bodies together to create things that could actually drive and were safe enough for filming. The myriad of vehicles is made up of some of the greatest customized cars from any production. There’s the Gigahorse, which is Immortan Joe’s double-decked car. It sits on the body of a 4×4 with giant tires, looking like something from a monster truck rally, which allows it to drive over the fallen canyon arch. His son, Rictus Erectus, also drives a 4×4 styled vehicle, known as Bigfoot, but not quite as big as Papa Joe’s car. The War Rig goes up against the Buzzards, a desert gang that places spikes all over the exterior of their car. Most of their vehicles are smaller and sportier, but the Buzzards do have a truck called the Excavator. It features the cab and arm from an actual excavator, but instead of a scoop at the end of the arm, it holds a dual buzzsaw that threatens to make quick work of the heroes. The Bullet Farmer drives a motorized tank that looks like something from a 1980s G.I. Joe cartoon. It’s labeled as the Peacemaker, and can achieve ultra-fast speeds on its souped-up tank treads. But the fan favorite vehicle that is featured in all the promotional shots of the armada has to be the Doof Wagon. It’s built from an eight-wheel drive rocket launching truck, and features giant drums on the back, two stacks of powered amps, and a guitarist (the Doof) attached in front on a bungee cord, playing a guitar that doubles as a flamethrower. Immortan Joe has to have some way to motivate his War Boys.

The Final Frontier

Mad Max: Fury Road set a new record at the Academy Awards, bringing home more awards than any other film from 2015, and the most Oscars for any singular Australian film. It was nominated for ten total awards and brought home six for Best Film Editing, Best Production Design, Best Costume Design, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Sound Editing, losing out on Best Picture, Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. Tie-ins for the film included a four-issue comic prequel from the Vertigo imprint of DC Comics, and included a two-issue limited series on Mad Max, and two one-shots for Furiosa and Nux & Immortan Joe.

Nine years later, Miller would return again to the Wasteland, but this time with a prequel, entitled Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. It features Anya Taylor-Joy as a younger Furiosa and provides a backstory for her popular character. It would be the first of the Mad Max films to not feature Max in some capacity. Fury Road continues to impress audiences even ten years later. Its themes and characters feel even more prescient today, if that can be believed. It’s a film that lures audiences in with the promise of action and adventure, exceptional cinematography, and big stars. But it sends them home with a new appreciation for the human connections that can be forged by a group of people willing to sacrifice their comfort for their freedom.

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