“Where must we go… we who wander this wasteland in search of our better selves?”
-The First History Man
After Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome failed to excite at the box office, primarily from the scaled-down violence and lack of visceral action, it seemed like the Mad Max saga had come to an end. Indeed, there would not be another film in this franchise for thirty more years; not that there wasn’t talk of another in various stages of production during that time. In fact, the initial idea that would become Mad Max: Fury Road came about in 1987, just two years after Thunderdome, but it fell into development hell before finally getting brought back into production in the late 1990s. Then real-world tragedies and the Iraqi war that followed shut it down again.
Director George Miller, who helmed all the films in this franchise, was determined to get this project off the ground, though. What was initially going to be another Mel Gibson-helmed sequel had to be retooled and recast as the many delays aged him out of the project. On top of that, when the film finally did begin shooting, it was a grueling experience that suffered many additional delays and hardships, part of which was disagreements with Mel Gibson’s replacement, Tom Hardy, who reportedly didn’t get along with some of the cast.
This film was envisioned as a non-stop chase, a two-hour action set-piece with barely a moment here and there to breathe before ramping back into overdrive. The final project could be seen as almost a silent picture for how little dialogue there is. On top of that, its visuals lend perfectly to the black-and-white format, something George Miller leaned into with a version of the film released that way. Another film around the same time, Logan, followed suit with its own release in black-and-white as did the horror film The Mist. This fad has since fallen out of favor, but when it was en vogue, no one did it better than Fury Road.
Fury Road can be seen as a sequel to the other Mad Max films, but it can also be seen as a stand-alone film; either way works for it. In fact, seeing it as a stand-alone film basically works in the film’s favor as there is little to no continuity with the previous movies. It opens with Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) being captured by cult leader Immortan Joe’s (Hugh Keays-Byrne) War Boys and taken to his fortress, the Citadel. As a universal blood type, Max is chained up and forced to transfuse his blood to Nux (Nicholas Hoult), a sick War Boy.
During this time, Immortan Joe sends his lieutenant Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) on a routine trip in the heavily armored “War Rig” to trade produce, water, and mother’s milk for petrol and ammunition with two of his allies, the Bullet Farmer (Richard Carter) and the People Eater (John Howard). When the War Rig abruptly goes off course, Immortan Joe realizes what has happened. Furiosa has taken his five “wives,” women whom he is attempting to breed healthy babies with. These five women are determined to get away from him, and Furiosa has used the War Rig as a means to smuggle them away. Immortan Joe immediately rallies up his War Boys in pursuit, calling in war parties from both the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater to aid in the pursuit.
Nux, determined to be a part of the war party, has his blood bank, Max, strapped to the front of his vehicle so that he can continue receiving his transfusions while in pursuit. And thus begins a feature-length pursuit filled with spectacular stunts, impressive and immersive CGI, and imaginative action set pieces the likes of which have never been seen on film before. Characters will have arcs, some will die along the way, and the film will ultimately end right back where it began in a surprise turn of events.
When this film’s trailer first dropped, it became apparent that we were in for a different kind of film. There was more raw energy in that two-minute spot than in most action films. There was also a great sense that what we were seeing was not your typical CGI generic action, something that had become increasingly over-saturating the film industry. We could see that most of this action was done for real, even if it was heavily augmented with the CGI. That assessment was borne out when we got to see the finished project. Seeing real stunts makes a lot of difference. Compare this to the prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, where the film relied far more on the computer graphics than on the stunts, and you’ll easily see why people generally disliked the prequel.
Films like this usually do not fare well at the Academy Awards; very few action films do. This film was the beneficiary of the expanded Best Picture category that began in 2009 after the backlash that happened when The Dark Knight failed to secure a nomination. George Miller did get nominated for director, something that was well deserved, but everything else was in technological categories, which is where it scored all of its wins. This film is a feat in film production. It had a script, but for the most part, it was filmed off of storyboards, about 3,500 in total. It’s a very visual film with little dialogue, yet it manages to keep you engaged and is never confusing.
George Miller has crafted a masterpiece of the action genre. While it is basically just one big chase sequence, he peppers in a handful of slower moments to allow audiences to breathe and to give us a little bit of character development. Max and Furiosa are basically the same from beginning to end, but Nux starts out as the blind servant of Immortan Joe, willing to die for him and enter, shiny and chrome, into Valhalla. By the end of the film, he is just as determined to rescue the “wives” as Furiosa is, even sacrificing his life to make it happen. The most we get from Furiosa is some breadcrumbs of her background before ending up working for Immortan Joe. This is a direct result of George Miller’s initial plans to shoot a Furiosa prequel back-to-back with Fury Road. That film eventually materialized and we got our backstory but it wasn’t made until nine years later. By that time people had moved on and mostly forgotten about it. This is reflected in the box-office where Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga struck out.
Not every great film has to be filled with important ideals or tackle timely social issues. Sometimes a great film can be nothing more than an elaborate amusement park ride. Usually, these kinds of films are derisively referred to as popcorn movies or check-your-brain-at-the-door films. If this were merely that, I wouldn’t think very highly of it. George Miller has succeeded in superseding the mere action film. It has many of the same trappings inherent in the genre, but the production value and the sheer raw energy make this so much better than the average action flick. The visuals are so well done that, even though it is heavily augmented with visual effects, the real stunts shine through, heightening the excitement. The characters, while not incredibly well defined, are sympathetic and avoid being overly generic. This is raw and brutal and one of the most stunningly realized films we have had in a very long time.
Academy Award Nominations:
Best Picture: Doug Mitchell and George Miller
Best Director: George Miller
Best Cinematography: John Seale
Best Costume Design: Jenny Beavan (won)
Best Film Editing: Margaret Sixel (won)
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Lesley Vanderwalt, Elka Wardega, and Damian Martin (won)
Best Production Design: Colin Gibson and Lisa Thompson (won)
Best Sound Editing: Mark Mangini and David White (won)
Best Sound Mixing: Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff, and Ben Osmo (won)
Best Visual Effects: Andrew Jackson, Tom Wood, Dan Oliver, and Andy Williams
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Release Date: May 15, 2015
Running Time: 120 Minutes
Rated R
Starring: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoë Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton
Directed by: George Miller
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