The Mad Max film series is as much an insight into elements of the Australian psyche as the now-celebrated band Cold Chisel.
Both of these have arguably taken on a life outside of the authors that are much larger than themselves. For the Mad Max universe, there are multiple real-life re-enactments and the whole ‘Apunkalypse’ theme is so well-trodden now that you don’t really need to have much in the way of exposition as we already know what to expect.
Much like you would expect a Tolkeinesque high-fantasy universe to have elves, dwarves and wizards; with an apocalyptic wasteland you expect there to be mohawks, leather fetish gear and rusty muscle cars with anti-personnel modifications and hotted-up engines that sound like rolling thunder.
And likewise to the ‘medieval with magic’ trope, the Mad Max universe has long since entered the realms of the fantasy epic, with a bank of lore and any grounding in a strict reality long since dispensed with to the chagrin of some of the original fans.
From the wide-open and seemingly inhospitable landscapes to the cult-like worship of the machine, George Miller absolutely nailed a certain Aussie male outlook on the world in the original 1979 Mad Max and then dialed it up past eleven on the 1981 sequel.
This mindset still pervades, not a week goes by that I don’t have a chat with an Aussie farmer about why they’ll keep their 79 Series or 200 Series Toyota Landcruiser forever, ‘last of the V8s’ is a very common catchphrase and it ties in with this belief in their vehicle as a tireless bastion of all that it means to survive and thrive outside of the Big Smoke.
In regard to Cold Chisel, back in the day radio stations wouldn’t play the song “Khe Sanh” as it had explicit references to drugs and sex. Now, it is pretty much an unofficial national anthem with inter-generational reach and–with the right mix of venue, company and beers you–might witness even the quietest of blokey-blokes suddenly break out into song, every verse committed to memory.
Having grown up with both of these institutions having a profound impact around and upon me, and having seriously enjoyed the last of the franchise in Mad Max: Fury Road, I decided to take my girlfriend Bek to see Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga over the weekend.
For those who may not have seen it previously, here is the first trailer:
In order to get into the proper wasteland mindset, we took Project Cactus into town, the pink valve-covered 245-cubic inch inline-six wolfing down guzzolene and barking it out via the rusty exhaust headers in a rhythmic hum as we approached the city lights.
A prequel to the aforementioned Fury Road, the film follows Furiosa from the day her somewhat idyllic childhood changed forever, right up to the opening beats of the 2015 motion picture.
Opening in the ‘Green Place’, it doesn’t take long for the film to launch into the first action sequences.
I won’t spoil much here, but it was great to see David Field finally have a role in this universe. If it weren’t for the machinations of Hollywood requiring leading names in order to get funding and promotion, he (or Patrick Brammall if they required someone younger) would have been my pick for Dementus.
Field has more nuanced menace in a milk ad than most fancy-school actors could convincingly replicate in a lifetime:
Speaking of leading names, like many I wasn’t too sure of the choice of Chris Hemsworth for the bikie leader Dr Dementus when the cast was first announced. Playing up the ‘Aussie Larrikin’, his role certainly lends for many an opportunity to chew the scenery. The proboscular enhancement didn’t prove to be distracting, and the character is well-written overall.
His character appears to be intended as coming from a place of attempted benevolent dictatorship, and even with him being involved in a ‘kick the dog’ moment and much screen time devoted to villainy, he doesn’t quite reach the same levels of simmering malicious tension like Hugh Keays-Byrne did in the very first film as The Toecutter:
As Bek and I discussed on the ride home, Hemsworth just didn’t seem to bring that presence that some other Aussie actors around can carry of someone who has grown up with fistfights behind the local cricket nets and fought to get where they are. He makes an okay villain, although the performance is overshadowed in our minds by great Mad Max villains who have been before.
Speaking of the dearly departed and irreplaceable Hugh, with fellow Aussie actor Lachy Hulme (on double-duty also portraying Dementus’ right-hand man, ‘Rizzdale Pell’) stepping into the clear armor and mask to portray Immortan Joe (the primary villain of Fury Road) he does a more than serviceable turn of the role since vacated by the late Mr Keays-Byrne. With his face obscured by the breathing mask, it was hard to tell if this was archival footage of Keays-Byrne in closeups.
Likewise, with us also losing another veteran Australian character actor, Richard Carter in 2019, who portrayed the Bullet Farmer in the last film, has resulted in his replacement with Lee Perry. I wasn’t taken aback by this casting and Perry seemed to slot right into the role where Carter had left off, although watching the two films back-to-back may alter this perception away from absolute pitch-perfect.
Arriving at the last prominent character replacement, Anya Taylor-Joy plays this relatively mute and physical role with aplomb and I didn’t see any real issues evident in the film with her stepping into the role originally cast with Charlize Theron.
I haven’t really seen a lot of pieces with Taylor-Joy other than The Northman and Peaky Blinders so I probably have less hang-ups with this actor’s presence than some who may think she has been over-represented at the moment.
Rounding out the cast, Tom Burke makes for a convincing Praetorian Jack, a road warrior who has seen more than a few scraps out on the road.
The action is not quite as non-stop as Fury Road, which was basically one long chase scene with a few pauses for breath, but it definitely has some great set-pieces featuring a lot more bikes than prior entries, including a pretty sweet motorcycle chariot that features a radial aircraft engine. I’m not much of a bike buff, so I’ll leave the spotto to those so inclined.
With much of the action being focused on bikes, there are a lot less cars in this film by comparison. However, there are still some cool custom vehicles, and being a Valiant man I was pleased to see a US-sourced ‘62 Plymouth Valiant Signet hardtop that was ute-ised get quite a good deal of screen time late into the second act. Reportedly running a Slant Six which was probably untouched since the bombs fell, I’m sure it would have served many generations of War Boys without dramas in-universe.
Other vehicular highlights include a ‘59 Oldsmobile Dynamic 88 and a ‘77 Mercury Cougar as additional War Boy battle-utes, a 6-wheeled monster truck, some sweet aircooled VWs (particularly a neat T2 pickup) that would have been my choice for an apocalypse engine plus a sick rear-engined ‘30s Chev hotrod. Being a prequel, as you would imagine many of the vehicles from Fury Road also make an appearance.
With filming completed in Australia as opposed to Namibia in the last entry, the environments feel as though they still fit within the same universe and we get some great looks at other major sites, such as Gastown and the Bullet Farm, which didn’t get screentime in Fury Road. The downside to this homogenizing of scenery is that you can tell in many scenes that there has been extensive post-production work completed to keep the backdrops consistent with the setting (such as editing out the greenery and vegetation in contrast to my personal photos from the Broken Hill area earlier in the article) which can give it a bit of a CGI-superhero look compared to the less muddy visuals of the 2015 film.
The saving grace is that Miller’s insistence on live-action and practical effects means that the action doesn’t feel weightless like several Marvel flicks have been. The fighting is easy to follow and not rife with excessive cuts or other sins of the past few decades.
There’s some novel tricks in the big truck fight scene which seems to be legally required in every Mad Max film since 1981 so it doesn’t feel too much like a retread but I wish there was a little bit more intensive small-scale vehicular combat to make the stakes feel higher like they did in earlier entries. The unfiltered, menacing low-angle shots of cars in the first two movies really felt like something different that hasn’t really been replicated either here or in other action movies before or since.
The 148-minute runtime doesn’t seem to drag on or overstay the welcome, though ironically for the few lines that Furiosa speaks in the film there are a few that are a bit unnecessary and feel a bit like video game ‘filler’ dialogue. A near-silent protagonist is a hallmark of the Mad Max series, actions speaking much louder than words ever could and this film largely keeps to this theme.
Overall, this is an entertaining picture that serves to expand the world of Fury Road and also appears to tie-in to the 2015 video game as well via a few minor references. I wouldn’t say it’s a must-watch, in the same way that Rogue One: A Star Wars Story wasn’t required if you just wanted to see the main films in the original Star Wars trilogy. Both films add some context and build the lore in their respective universes, something more for those who can’t get enough of their chosen series although they both stand as pretty good action movies in their own right.
I give Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga 4 thundersticks out of 5. [Ed Note: Whoops, I already made a graphic with Wez heads]
Top graphic images: Warner Bros
When George Miller planned to film the Fury Road, he wanted to return to the same area where he did the second and third Mad Max films. However, he was surprised to see so much greenery growing there between 1980s and 2010s. So, he chose Namibia as the “substitute” for the Fury Road.
It was following a near-record year for rainfall, and ironically Furiosa was filmed in 2022 in the area also following an extremely wet year!
Another great read Laurence! I’m a huge movie buff so appreciated this…Thank you
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Another great read Laurence! I’m a huge movie buff so appreciated this…Thank you
Thanks, glad you enjoyed it!
Isn’t this something that the original Max Max film started? Most apocalyptic wastelands before that film were more on the irradiated-land-with-mutant-ants genre.
That is exactly what I’m implying, that the MM movies set the aesthetic for the genre
Isn’t this something that the original Max Max film started? Most apocalyptic wastelands before that film were more on the irradiated-land-with-mutant-ants genre.
That is exactly what I’m implying, that the MM movies set the aesthetic for the genre
I just watched the original film yesterday for about the 50th time. Still my favorite of the series.
Mad Max II or The Road Warrior was actually the first I saw in theater because Mad Max did not receive much attention in the US until after its international run generated a lot of buzz. By that time, Road Warrior was in the can and headed to theaters in the US who wanted the latest movie to capitalize on the international reception of Mad Max. Some places ran the two films as a double feature, but most just ignored the original. That they dubbed Mel Gibson’s voice in the American release of Mad Max didn’t help.
I didn’t like Tom Hardy’s performance in Fury Road and thought it would’ve been a better film without the Max character at all. I’m not sure where in the Mad Max timeline the “Fury” films should slot. Given Max’s relative youth in Fury Road, I’d put them 2nd and 3rd in line, just prior to The Road Warrior, though it’s not a perfect fit, so perhaps 3rd and 4th.
Regardless, I’d like to see Gibson back in the car for a Mad Max swan song. The series wouldn’t have to end as it’s established so many other characters it could build upon, Where’s Feral Boy, for instance?
However, the “real” Max deserves a denouement or requiem, because he’s the last of the V8s, too.
To me, the most hilarious part of the American version of the original was the terrible dubbing of the other MFP officer voices. They sound terrible as midwestern farmboys or whatever.
I agree with you re Tom Hardy; his Max wasn’t really necessary, and I think the story would have done just fine without him. I felt the same way about Harrison Ford reprising Deckard in Blade Runner: 2049 – it kinda distracted from the great job Ryan Gosling was doing all by himself as Officer K.
Totally agree on Ford inclusion in “2049.”
I do not understand at all why anyone thought they needed to dub Mad Max. Did they really think American audiences wouldn’t understand the dialogue or was it Hollywood chauvinism toward foreign films? Now, if it had been a Scottish film that’d be a different thing…
The dubbing of Fifi is something else entirely even…he sounds like a cartoon character.
I thought the america dub was the best. very cartoony. made it a better film.
I feel they should have at least redone Night Rider’s high-speed rant at the beginning to lyrics from say a Van Halen song… 😉
My understanding of the timeline is that they went in order of release, excepting Furiosa, which would plausibly be anywhere between The Road Warrior and Fury Road.
The comics and extraneous lore(non-canon videogame included) put the events as described.
Mad Max > The Road Warrior > Beyond Thunderdome > Fury Road
Put the timeline of Furiosa wherever before Fury Road.
George Miller has always been coy about how everything fits together and has stated he wants each entry to be its own unique story/perspective in the series, somewhat open to interpretation.
I’d also love to see Mel Gibson return for the role.
George Miller likely doesn’t have many good years left. We’ll be fortunate to get one more entry into the series at all. He better get on it soon, because I don’t want him to be in the middle of production, only to pass away and for it to go unfinished. Recall Albert Pyun and Cyborg Nemesis: The Dark Rift.
In my head it went Mad Max, society is starting to fall apart. In the Road Warrior, it has – war has begun, Max is still Max. The Feral Kid ends up head of the Northern Tribe, just as the narrator said. Also, the dude who has “the choice” at the end of Mad Max makes his choice and survives to live on as Lord Humungus (his wisps of what’s left of his hair behind his mask seem like could belong to a burn-victim). By the time we get to Thunderdome, full on nuclear annihilation has occurred. Max is still Max. And, here is where it gets fun.
The Gyro Captain is also still the Gyro Captain (named “Jedediah the pilot”), except now he has an airplane. He just doesn’t recognize Max at the beginning of the movie. The kid with him is the offspring of him and the girl he was with from the Road Warrior. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Towards the end of Thunderdome, there’s a moment of recognition when Max sees the Gyro Captain and quips “you’ve got a plane”. Yeah, they remember each other.
Max doesn’t last long (or maybe he does) after his last encounter with Auntie Entity – he goes off to live beyond the dunes. But, his legend lives on.
The Gyro Captain’s kid hears and internalizes the legend, he listens to “the tell”, he wants to be Max. Hell, for all we know, the Gyro Captain already had named him “Max”. He sets out on his own, builds a similar car, gets into adventures of his own, and finally shows up taking it easy on a bluff munching on a lizard sandwich watching a one-armed lady stumble toward the Citadel.
I think the nuclear war could have begun anytime between the end of the first film and before Beyond Thunderdome. The intro to The Roadwarrior implies but doesn’t specify nuclear war already occurred. The comics do specify the nuclear war occurs between the first and second film. Mad Max is set “a few years from now” when it came out in 1978, and the graffiti on the yellow road sign at the beginning of Mad Max has the year “1984” carved into it. Then during “the tell” in Beyond Thunderdome, the year “1999” was carved into the wall of the cave.
George Miller has confirmed the Gyro Captain and Jedediah are completely different characters, even though Bruce Spence played them both. Miller likes to reuse actors. The actor Max Fairchild who played Benno in the first film also re-appears in The Roadwarrior as one of the victims strapped to Lord Humongus’ truck. Same can be said for Hugh Keys Byrne playing Toecutter in the first film and Immortan Joe in Fury Road.
Thanks for all of the extra info! I completely forgot about the years showing up in different movies/scenes. It had been awhile since I watched the first three – in fact I went and watched The Road Warrior after typing that out last night. Last week was Mad Max, and hopefully Thunderdome sometime next week. It’s been many, many years since I last saw that one.
I also forgot there were comics. I’ve never followed any particular comics, but I may need to go look those up. I’m guessing they may not be the easiest things to find though.
I knew about Hugh Keys Byrne’s roles, but not Fairchild’s. As to Spence, I realize they’re technically not the same character, but it’s that kid-brain from when I first watched these insisting they are. For whatever reason, I really wanted those two to be the same character, so I just came up with a way to do that back then and it kind of stuck.
Mad Max > The Road Warrior > Beyond Thunderdome > Fury Road
If you’re going to do that you’ll need to explain how the Last Interceptor re-spawned between MM2 and Fury Road.
According to the comics, it was rebuilt between Thunderdome and Fury Road.
I think it was still worthwhile having Max in Fury Road, but agree that a different actor could have done better. Sam Worthington comes to mind as a decent replacement for Gibson and he was a decent enough box office draw at the time.
As George Miller has said in interviews, the timeline of the Mad Max universe doesn’t have to make sense. Arguably all MM movies after the original are mythology and are narrated by someone other than Max. By that notion, the age of Max isn’t entirely strict and it may not necessarily be the same Max who was an MFP officer before The Fall.
True enough on the mythology angle, I just think it’s fun trying sequence them based on the greater dissolute depictions of civilization in the various films. Some people see Jesus in a piece of toast; I like to place Mad Max adventures in chronological order.
Headcannon is fun! One detail that always intrigued me in the second movie was Lord Humungus’ Smith & Wesson Model 29.
There’s a bunch of medals and an old photo in the pistol case that we can see.
Was he a veteran of the Resource Wars? Or maybe a fellow ex-MFP officer? Or maybe just a violent felon who went to the house of one of the above for revenge after The Fall?
Damn! Now I’m going to have to watch the movie again and do a frame-by-frame search of that scene. That’s if I can past the scenes of Virginia Hey as the a Warrior Woman.
I just watched the original film yesterday for about the 50th time. Still my favorite of the series.
Mad Max II or The Road Warrior was actually the first I saw in theater because Mad Max did not receive much attention in the US until after its international run generated a lot of buzz. By that time, Road Warrior was in the can and headed to theaters in the US who wanted the latest movie to capitalize on the international reception of Mad Max. Some places ran the two films as a double feature, but most just ignored the original. That they dubbed Mel Gibson’s voice in the American release of Mad Max didn’t help.
I didn’t like Tom Hardy’s performance in Fury Road and thought it would’ve been a better film without the Max character at all. I’m not sure where in the Mad Max timeline the “Fury” films should slot. Given Max’s relative youth in Fury Road, I’d put them 2nd and 3rd in line, just prior to The Road Warrior, though it’s not a perfect fit, so perhaps 3rd and 4th.
Regardless, I’d like to see Gibson back in the car for a Mad Max swan song. The series wouldn’t have to end as it’s established so many other characters it could build upon, Where’s Feral Boy, for instance?
However, the “real” Max deserves a denouement or requiem, because he’s the last of the V8s, too.
To me, the most hilarious part of the American version of the original was the terrible dubbing of the other MFP officer voices. They sound terrible as midwestern farmboys or whatever.
I agree with you re Tom Hardy; his Max wasn’t really necessary, and I think the story would have done just fine without him. I felt the same way about Harrison Ford reprising Deckard in Blade Runner: 2049 – it kinda distracted from the great job Ryan Gosling was doing all by himself as Officer K.
Totally agree on Ford inclusion in “2049.”
I do not understand at all why anyone thought they needed to dub Mad Max. Did they really think American audiences wouldn’t understand the dialogue or was it Hollywood chauvinism toward foreign films? Now, if it had been a Scottish film that’d be a different thing…
The dubbing of Fifi is something else entirely even…he sounds like a cartoon character.
I thought the america dub was the best. very cartoony. made it a better film.
I feel they should have at least redone Night Rider’s high-speed rant at the beginning to lyrics from say a Van Halen song… 😉
My understanding of the timeline is that they went in order of release, excepting Furiosa, which would plausibly be anywhere between The Road Warrior and Fury Road.
The comics and extraneous lore(non-canon videogame included) put the events as described.
Mad Max > The Road Warrior > Beyond Thunderdome > Fury Road
Put the timeline of Furiosa wherever before Fury Road.
George Miller has always been coy about how everything fits together and has stated he wants each entry to be its own unique story/perspective in the series, somewhat open to interpretation.
I’d also love to see Mel Gibson return for the role.
George Miller likely doesn’t have many good years left. We’ll be fortunate to get one more entry into the series at all. He better get on it soon, because I don’t want him to be in the middle of production, only to pass away and for it to go unfinished. Recall Albert Pyun and Cyborg Nemesis: The Dark Rift.
In my head it went Mad Max, society is starting to fall apart. In the Road Warrior, it has – war has begun, Max is still Max. The Feral Kid ends up head of the Northern Tribe, just as the narrator said. Also, the dude who has “the choice” at the end of Mad Max makes his choice and survives to live on as Lord Humungus (his wisps of what’s left of his hair behind his mask seem like could belong to a burn-victim). By the time we get to Thunderdome, full on nuclear annihilation has occurred. Max is still Max. And, here is where it gets fun.
The Gyro Captain is also still the Gyro Captain (named “Jedediah the pilot”), except now he has an airplane. He just doesn’t recognize Max at the beginning of the movie. The kid with him is the offspring of him and the girl he was with from the Road Warrior. Her whereabouts are unknown.
Towards the end of Thunderdome, there’s a moment of recognition when Max sees the Gyro Captain and quips “you’ve got a plane”. Yeah, they remember each other.
Max doesn’t last long (or maybe he does) after his last encounter with Auntie Entity – he goes off to live beyond the dunes. But, his legend lives on.
The Gyro Captain’s kid hears and internalizes the legend, he listens to “the tell”, he wants to be Max. Hell, for all we know, the Gyro Captain already had named him “Max”. He sets out on his own, builds a similar car, gets into adventures of his own, and finally shows up taking it easy on a bluff munching on a lizard sandwich watching a one-armed lady stumble toward the Citadel.
I think the nuclear war could have begun anytime between the end of the first film and before Beyond Thunderdome. The intro to The Roadwarrior implies but doesn’t specify nuclear war already occurred. The comics do specify the nuclear war occurs between the first and second film. Mad Max is set “a few years from now” when it came out in 1978, and the graffiti on the yellow road sign at the beginning of Mad Max has the year “1984” carved into it. Then during “the tell” in Beyond Thunderdome, the year “1999” was carved into the wall of the cave.
George Miller has confirmed the Gyro Captain and Jedediah are completely different characters, even though Bruce Spence played them both. Miller likes to reuse actors. The actor Max Fairchild who played Benno in the first film also re-appears in The Roadwarrior as one of the victims strapped to Lord Humongus’ truck. Same can be said for Hugh Keys Byrne playing Toecutter in the first film and Immortan Joe in Fury Road.
Thanks for all of the extra info! I completely forgot about the years showing up in different movies/scenes. It had been awhile since I watched the first three – in fact I went and watched The Road Warrior after typing that out last night. Last week was Mad Max, and hopefully Thunderdome sometime next week. It’s been many, many years since I last saw that one.
I also forgot there were comics. I’ve never followed any particular comics, but I may need to go look those up. I’m guessing they may not be the easiest things to find though.
I knew about Hugh Keys Byrne’s roles, but not Fairchild’s. As to Spence, I realize they’re technically not the same character, but it’s that kid-brain from when I first watched these insisting they are. For whatever reason, I really wanted those two to be the same character, so I just came up with a way to do that back then and it kind of stuck.
Mad Max > The Road Warrior > Beyond Thunderdome > Fury Road
If you’re going to do that you’ll need to explain how the Last Interceptor re-spawned between MM2 and Fury Road.
According to the comics, it was rebuilt between Thunderdome and Fury Road.
I think it was still worthwhile having Max in Fury Road, but agree that a different actor could have done better. Sam Worthington comes to mind as a decent replacement for Gibson and he was a decent enough box office draw at the time.
As George Miller has said in interviews, the timeline of the Mad Max universe doesn’t have to make sense. Arguably all MM movies after the original are mythology and are narrated by someone other than Max. By that notion, the age of Max isn’t entirely strict and it may not necessarily be the same Max who was an MFP officer before The Fall.
True enough on the mythology angle, I just think it’s fun trying sequence them based on the greater dissolute depictions of civilization in the various films. Some people see Jesus in a piece of toast; I like to place Mad Max adventures in chronological order.
Headcannon is fun! One detail that always intrigued me in the second movie was Lord Humungus’ Smith & Wesson Model 29.
There’s a bunch of medals and an old photo in the pistol case that we can see.
Was he a veteran of the Resource Wars? Or maybe a fellow ex-MFP officer? Or maybe just a violent felon who went to the house of one of the above for revenge after The Fall?
Damn! Now I’m going to have to watch the movie again and do a frame-by-frame search of that scene. That’s if I can past the scenes of Virginia Hey as the a Warrior Woman.
Just saw this for the third time last night. The first outing was the opening night showing at a local “Brewpub theatre”, with a themed meal and beer served during the movie. The next was one of those “4D” theatres with the moving seats. Last night was IMAX. I knew my daughter would want to see it multiple times – she likes these movies almost as much as myself, but I never would’ve guessed my wife would’ve went to it three times. Somehow, even though she really doesn’t care for any gore in movies, Furiosa turned out to be her favorite of the bunch.
Obviously I enjoyed it – the movie overall is definitely my favorite prequal of all-time. It compliments Fury Road well. And, like Fury Road, it’s great fun to watch multiple times just to pick up on all of the little details peppered about. For example, it took three times for me to notice that Dementus’s revolver is a 9-round LaMat with an extra barrel for a shotgun shell – not your typical pistol. And one of the first bikes Furiosa encounters is powered by what appears to be a small-block Chevy V8.
Mad Miller Movies, the gifts that keeps on giving!
Bek nearly punched me with how much I was bugging her to point out the LeMat when we saw it!
I’ll definitely watch it again, but probably wait for streaming and re-watch back to back with Fury Road.
Bek saw Thunderdome for the first time the other night, and halfway through asked me if it was a kid’s movie!
The LeMat was such a cool detail. We had dinner-out after the movie and my daughter looked up the history of it which then led to this whole discussion of how one of those could have hypothetically ended up in an Australian’s warlord’s hand. It beat talking about work or the weather.
Kid’s movie: Mad Max 3 kind of was for myself. I still remember watching Thunderdome as a kid at the drive-in theatre, kicking back in my dad’s ’83 Ramcharger. I was amazed by the movie – the end chase completely blew me away and being a Cold-War-Kid™, it all felt vaguely plausible. I had watched The Road Warrior on network TV and didn’t even know Mad Max existed yet, so it was my first Wasteland experience at a theater.
Our school had a jungle-gym dome-type thing that did kind of resemble a giant steel cage of sorts and king of that spindly steel-hill became a favorite game at recess not long after the movie came out. The teachers weren’t too fond of it on account of the occasional concussion and numerous bruises several us ended up with after going “Beyond Thunderdome”.
We saw it twice, as Fury Road is my wife’s favorite movie, hands down, and she did not want to miss out. See, she didn’t get to see Fury Road in the theater, as our daughter was not quite three years old at the time and outings for us were few and far between, and she picked Jurassic World as the one movie we ended up seeing. I suggested Fury Road but she wasn’t super into Mad Max at the time. She rues the day still, one of the biggest [non-life-altering] mistakes she’s ever made. So this year for our anniversary, I’d like to rent out some time at the local theater for a showing. Hell, if we can, maybe we’ll see both Furiosa and Fury Road back-to-back. Our daughter will be 12 by then so it won’t be a big deal, she’s a fan of both movies herself, she was on the edge of her seat for Furiosa.
Excellent idea – that sounds like a properly epic anniversary!
Just saw this for the third time last night. The first outing was the opening night showing at a local “Brewpub theatre”, with a themed meal and beer served during the movie. The next was one of those “4D” theatres with the moving seats. Last night was IMAX. I knew my daughter would want to see it multiple times – she likes these movies almost as much as myself, but I never would’ve guessed my wife would’ve went to it three times. Somehow, even though she really doesn’t care for any gore in movies, Furiosa turned out to be her favorite of the bunch.
Obviously I enjoyed it – the movie overall is definitely my favorite prequal of all-time. It compliments Fury Road well. And, like Fury Road, it’s great fun to watch multiple times just to pick up on all of the little details peppered about. For example, it took three times for me to notice that Dementus’s revolver is a 9-round LaMat with an extra barrel for a shotgun shell – not your typical pistol. And one of the first bikes Furiosa encounters is powered by what appears to be a small-block Chevy V8.
Mad Miller Movies, the gifts that keeps on giving!
Bek nearly punched me with how much I was bugging her to point out the LeMat when we saw it!
I’ll definitely watch it again, but probably wait for streaming and re-watch back to back with Fury Road.
Bek saw Thunderdome for the first time the other night, and halfway through asked me if it was a kid’s movie!
The LeMat was such a cool detail. We had dinner-out after the movie and my daughter looked up the history of it which then led to this whole discussion of how one of those could have hypothetically ended up in an Australian’s warlord’s hand. It beat talking about work or the weather.
Kid’s movie: Mad Max 3 kind of was for myself. I still remember watching Thunderdome as a kid at the drive-in theatre, kicking back in my dad’s ’83 Ramcharger. I was amazed by the movie – the end chase completely blew me away and being a Cold-War-Kid™, it all felt vaguely plausible. I had watched The Road Warrior on network TV and didn’t even know Mad Max existed yet, so it was my first Wasteland experience at a theater.
Our school had a jungle-gym dome-type thing that did kind of resemble a giant steel cage of sorts and king of that spindly steel-hill became a favorite game at recess not long after the movie came out. The teachers weren’t too fond of it on account of the occasional concussion and numerous bruises several us ended up with after going “Beyond Thunderdome”.
We saw it twice, as Fury Road is my wife’s favorite movie, hands down, and she did not want to miss out. See, she didn’t get to see Fury Road in the theater, as our daughter was not quite three years old at the time and outings for us were few and far between, and she picked Jurassic World as the one movie we ended up seeing. I suggested Fury Road but she wasn’t super into Mad Max at the time. She rues the day still, one of the biggest [non-life-altering] mistakes she’s ever made. So this year for our anniversary, I’d like to rent out some time at the local theater for a showing. Hell, if we can, maybe we’ll see both Furiosa and Fury Road back-to-back. Our daughter will be 12 by then so it won’t be a big deal, she’s a fan of both movies herself, she was on the edge of her seat for Furiosa.
Excellent idea – that sounds like a properly epic anniversary!
I approve of both the ’77 Cougar and the Mack R-model monster truck, for Reasons. 🙂
I guess I’ll have to find some time to watch the flick. Thanks for the review!
Thanks Mike, it’s still worth a watch in the cinema for sure if you’re interested in the Mad Max universe.
I approve of both the ’77 Cougar and the Mack R-model monster truck, for Reasons. 🙂
I guess I’ll have to find some time to watch the flick. Thanks for the review!
Thanks Mike, it’s still worth a watch in the cinema for sure if you’re interested in the Mad Max universe.
I always liked Bubba Zanetti (part of Toecutter’s gang) in the first one as an example of a lesser appreciated Aussie archetype: the quiet, slow burning intensity, but yet still plenty tough, guy.
I always liked Bubba Zanetti (part of Toecutter’s gang) in the first one as an example of a lesser appreciated Aussie archetype: the quiet, slow burning intensity, but yet still plenty tough, guy.
I always wondered what Australian’s thought about Mad Max.
Also, I had no idea the Toecutter and Joe were played by the same guy!
Hugh had some excellent roles over the years. I recommend seeking out ‘The Man From Hong Kong’ where he’s a cheeky hippy-esque detective, or ‘The Chain Reaction’ where he also absolutely steals the show as an evironmentalist.
There are some great Aussie car action sequences in both films, and I hope to review them here someday.
Don’t forget ‘Stone’!
You’re absolutely correct, Stone is one of his absolute best roles
I always wondered what Australian’s thought about Mad Max.
Also, I had no idea the Toecutter and Joe were played by the same guy!
Hugh had some excellent roles over the years. I recommend seeking out ‘The Man From Hong Kong’ where he’s a cheeky hippy-esque detective, or ‘The Chain Reaction’ where he also absolutely steals the show as an evironmentalist.
There are some great Aussie car action sequences in both films, and I hope to review them here someday.
Don’t forget ‘Stone’!
You’re absolutely correct, Stone is one of his absolute best roles
Also of note, that “light me Johnny” scene in the first film is great because of the details.
Toecutter’s joint even has a white powder coating it. It says a lot about a character when they will smoke a PCP-laced joint before riding their crotch rocket, right after burning someone alive.
Absolutely, Miller is great at ‘show, don’t tell’ in the early films
Also of note, that “light me Johnny” scene in the first film is great because of the details.
Toecutter’s joint even has a white powder coating it. It says a lot about a character when they will smoke a PCP-laced joint before riding their crotch rocket, right after burning someone alive.
Absolutely, Miller is great at ‘show, don’t tell’ in the early films
Never heard of Cold Chisel before. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on the other hand…
Never heard of Cold Chisel? I’m pretty sure its part of the test for citizenship for Australia.
You absolutely could not escape Cold Chisel or Jimmy Barnes in Australia during the late 80s to early 2000s if you watched mainstream tv or listened to FM radio.
Never heard of Cold Chisel before. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on the other hand…
Never heard of Cold Chisel? I’m pretty sure its part of the test for citizenship for Australia.
You absolutely could not escape Cold Chisel or Jimmy Barnes in Australia during the late 80s to early 2000s if you watched mainstream tv or listened to FM radio.
I find it amusing that in the 1980s, there existed many low-budget Mad Max/Roadwarrior ripoffs that instead of depicting a world where the oil ran out, the water ran out instead.
With Fury Road, it came full circle, where George Miller’s story evolved into something similar to the low-budget films that ripped off the first two Mad Max films, except with a good budget and Miller’s talent behind it.
I personally think Furiosa was great, even if a weak point in the series(even what I consider the weakest entry, Beyond Thunderdome, is still a great movie and puts all the B-movie imitators to shame). I wasn’t expecting much given that the main character of the Mad Max series had no prominent role of any sort, and given how much the whole girlboss trope has been played out in modern cinema, but this movie was a pleasant surprise and the action scenes were actually quite plausible and the acting for the character of Furiosa was top notch.
I want to see Mad Max: The Wasteland get made, but since no one has money to go to theatres much anymore, Furiosa became a box office disaster, which jeopardizes future funding for the series.
I rank the series in the following order, from most favorite to least favorite:
1) Mad Max
2) The Roadwarrior
3) Mad Max: Fury Road
4) Furiosa
5) Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
But I enjoyed all of them.
Never should have gone up against the Garfield Movie.
Even before Fury Road, the series incorporated a low-budget ripoff element – the nuclear war.
In the original and Road Warrior, it’s seemingly just global economic/societal collapse that’s leading everyone to dress in leather and engage in conflict with odd vehicles. But then by Thunderdome, there’s suddenly also been a world war, just to further tweak our cold war fears.
Other series have done this too, insert a random nuclear conflict just to add to the grimness, most famously the original Planet of the Apes cycle.
As a Gen-Xer, I still enjoy the trope though.
In “The Roadwarrior”, the intro also implies but does not specify nuclear war. The narration mentioned “two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all” and nuclear explosions were shown.
Also, if you want to see a low-budget ripoff whose setting and world have a close resemblance to Fury Road, but filmed 3 decades prior, check out “Stryker”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ghY68BTrI
Cirio H. Santiago was a sort of 3rd-rate George Miller. But if he had the budget, who knows what he could have made? The original Mad Max was a low-budget film as well, and it is obvious Santiago isn’t on Miller’s level given what Miller accomplished with a similarly restricted budget, but he’s not bad at his craft either.
There’s also “Exterminators From the Year 3000” by Giuliano Carnimeo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKBYHQZFnIQ
I’ve always been partial to the Roger Corman – David Carradine silliness of the now hard-to-find Deathsport. Great concepts, terrible execution, and David Carradine at his peak (or nadir, it’s hard to tell).
Seen it.
If you want TRUE silliness, check out Chopper Chicks In Zombie Town.
Also, in the film Warriors of the Wasteland, another low-budget Mad Max ripoff set after a nuclear war, there is a main character named Nadir, the ally of the lead character/protagonist, Scorpion.
I finally got around to watching the first two Mad Max movies over the weekend and your username now makes sense to me. Before, I thought it was just some inside joke about accidentally cutting your foot on scrap metal.
For your wrassling heads out there, I also now see where Matt Hardy’s inspiration for his “Broken” look came from.
I constantly hope that when Toecutter isn’t working on his 90 mpg streamliner, he’s working on getting some friend of his to join up here under the name Night Rider, just so when questioned over some take, he can shout “TOECUTTER KNOWS WHO I AM!!”
Actually, currently working on a 7,000 mpg streamliner(or the equivalent thereof, since it’s electric, but I expect it to get about 0.003-0.005 kWh/mi, and consider there is 33.8 kWh in a gallon of guzzoline). But it only seats one, is legally a “bicycle”, and weighs under 100 lbs. The last iteration got about 0.008 kWh/mi.
I plan to have two of such vehicles that I can daily, each capable of highway speeds, plus an electric mountainbike as backup.
Once I get the workspace, I plan to finish the Triumph GT6. It’s also an EV.
That’s my only disappointment with Furiosa, that it’s not bringing in the kind of $$$ required to greenlight Mad Max: The Wasteland. My eternally optimistic side hopes that it’s going to slow-burn for awhile and do well-enough internationally to get George Miller back for at least one more of these.
Same; when we got home from watching it the first time, my wife said, “George Miller better goddamn live long enough to make the rest of his movies.”
[edit] My wife just told me that it’s been doing really well in Japan, so fingers crossed
I find it amusing that in the 1980s, there existed many low-budget Mad Max/Roadwarrior ripoffs that instead of depicting a world where the oil ran out, the water ran out instead.
With Fury Road, it came full circle, where George Miller’s story evolved into something similar to the low-budget films that ripped off the first two Mad Max films, except with a good budget and Miller’s talent behind it.
I personally think Furiosa was great, even if a weak point in the series(even what I consider the weakest entry, Beyond Thunderdome, is still a great movie and puts all the B-movie imitators to shame). I wasn’t expecting much given that the main character of the Mad Max series had no prominent role of any sort, and given how much the whole girlboss trope has been played out in modern cinema, but this movie was a pleasant surprise and the action scenes were actually quite plausible and the acting for the character of Furiosa was top notch.
I want to see Mad Max: The Wasteland get made, but since no one has money to go to theatres much anymore, Furiosa became a box office disaster, which jeopardizes future funding for the series.
I rank the series in the following order, from most favorite to least favorite:
1) Mad Max
2) The Roadwarrior
3) Mad Max: Fury Road
4) Furiosa
5) Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome
But I enjoyed all of them.
Never should have gone up against the Garfield Movie.
Even before Fury Road, the series incorporated a low-budget ripoff element – the nuclear war.
In the original and Road Warrior, it’s seemingly just global economic/societal collapse that’s leading everyone to dress in leather and engage in conflict with odd vehicles. But then by Thunderdome, there’s suddenly also been a world war, just to further tweak our cold war fears.
Other series have done this too, insert a random nuclear conflict just to add to the grimness, most famously the original Planet of the Apes cycle.
As a Gen-Xer, I still enjoy the trope though.
In “The Roadwarrior”, the intro also implies but does not specify nuclear war. The narration mentioned “two mighty warrior tribes went to war and touched off a blaze which engulfed them all” and nuclear explosions were shown.
Also, if you want to see a low-budget ripoff whose setting and world have a close resemblance to Fury Road, but filmed 3 decades prior, check out “Stryker”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14ghY68BTrI
Cirio H. Santiago was a sort of 3rd-rate George Miller. But if he had the budget, who knows what he could have made? The original Mad Max was a low-budget film as well, and it is obvious Santiago isn’t on Miller’s level given what Miller accomplished with a similarly restricted budget, but he’s not bad at his craft either.
There’s also “Exterminators From the Year 3000” by Giuliano Carnimeo.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKBYHQZFnIQ
I’ve always been partial to the Roger Corman – David Carradine silliness of the now hard-to-find Deathsport. Great concepts, terrible execution, and David Carradine at his peak (or nadir, it’s hard to tell).
Seen it.
If you want TRUE silliness, check out Chopper Chicks In Zombie Town.
Also, in the film Warriors of the Wasteland, another low-budget Mad Max ripoff set after a nuclear war, there is a main character named Nadir, the ally of the lead character/protagonist, Scorpion.
I finally got around to watching the first two Mad Max movies over the weekend and your username now makes sense to me. Before, I thought it was just some inside joke about accidentally cutting your foot on scrap metal.
For your wrassling heads out there, I also now see where Matt Hardy’s inspiration for his “Broken” look came from.
I constantly hope that when Toecutter isn’t working on his 90 mpg streamliner, he’s working on getting some friend of his to join up here under the name Night Rider, just so when questioned over some take, he can shout “TOECUTTER KNOWS WHO I AM!!”
Actually, currently working on a 7,000 mpg streamliner(or the equivalent thereof, since it’s electric, but I expect it to get about 0.003-0.005 kWh/mi, and consider there is 33.8 kWh in a gallon of guzzoline). But it only seats one, is legally a “bicycle”, and weighs under 100 lbs. The last iteration got about 0.008 kWh/mi.
I plan to have two of such vehicles that I can daily, each capable of highway speeds, plus an electric mountainbike as backup.
Once I get the workspace, I plan to finish the Triumph GT6. It’s also an EV.
That’s my only disappointment with Furiosa, that it’s not bringing in the kind of $$$ required to greenlight Mad Max: The Wasteland. My eternally optimistic side hopes that it’s going to slow-burn for awhile and do well-enough internationally to get George Miller back for at least one more of these.
Same; when we got home from watching it the first time, my wife said, “George Miller better goddamn live long enough to make the rest of his movies.”
[edit] My wife just told me that it’s been doing really well in Japan, so fingers crossed
Wait a minute! I’ve always thought these “movies” were just documentaries of daily life in Western Australia. Now you’re telling me that they’re for entertainment?
My Australian brother-in-law said Fury Road is just a documentary of Sydney rush hour.
They’re more like “Training Films” for living in Australia.
Wait a minute! I’ve always thought these “movies” were just documentaries of daily life in Western Australia. Now you’re telling me that they’re for entertainment?
My Australian brother-in-law said Fury Road is just a documentary of Sydney rush hour.
They’re more like “Training Films” for living in Australia.
Saw this with my girlfriend over the weekend and we really enjoyed it. Gave us a great excuse to re-watch the amazing Fury Road to prep for it – would love to see that one on the big screen again someday! She’s never seen the earlier Mad Max films, so we’ve got those on the list…
I re-watched the early films a couple weeks ago. The first one really doesn’t feel like part of the saga and the third one (Beyond Thunderdome) is just campy. Fury road was a great re-imagining of the second one. Haven’t seen the new one yet.
The first one is my favorite because it was more about pure speed and mayhem. When Goose is taking the KZ1000 through the corners, someone was actually sitting on the back with a camera recording the operator doing 180 km/h. You can see it on the speedometer. It was real speed. During the Toecutter chase sequence, even if the film was obviously sped up, it was filmed at 160 km/h, and made somewhat convincingly to appear nearly double that. Hollywood won’t allow that these days…
Many of the stunt sequences in Fury Road and Furiosa were filmed at 15-20 mph, for contrast. Even then, George Miller made it work to perfection.
Not tu mention the great practical effects that went into Toecutters death scene. “Let’s just run over a dummy on a motorcycle with a truck!”
I like the first one for its “storm clouds gathering” feel, heightened if you’ve seen any of the later ones.
Society is down, but not yet totally out. There’s pockets of normalcy and law/order, a decent family life seems possible, and there’s still functioning (if a little sketchy) authorities of various forms around – Johnny the Boy is actually tried in a court of law! – but things seem hanging on by a thread at best.
You should definitely see on a big screen. Definitely worth the money.
I’d see Fury Road on the big screen. In my opinion, it’s the only 3D movie where I felt the 3D effect makes the movie better.
That dust storm sequence in Fury Road was amazing.
Saw this with my girlfriend over the weekend and we really enjoyed it. Gave us a great excuse to re-watch the amazing Fury Road to prep for it – would love to see that one on the big screen again someday! She’s never seen the earlier Mad Max films, so we’ve got those on the list…
I re-watched the early films a couple weeks ago. The first one really doesn’t feel like part of the saga and the third one (Beyond Thunderdome) is just campy. Fury road was a great re-imagining of the second one. Haven’t seen the new one yet.
The first one is my favorite because it was more about pure speed and mayhem. When Goose is taking the KZ1000 through the corners, someone was actually sitting on the back with a camera recording the operator doing 180 km/h. You can see it on the speedometer. It was real speed. During the Toecutter chase sequence, even if the film was obviously sped up, it was filmed at 160 km/h, and made somewhat convincingly to appear nearly double that. Hollywood won’t allow that these days…
Many of the stunt sequences in Fury Road and Furiosa were filmed at 15-20 mph, for contrast. Even then, George Miller made it work to perfection.
Not tu mention the great practical effects that went into Toecutters death scene. “Let’s just run over a dummy on a motorcycle with a truck!”
I like the first one for its “storm clouds gathering” feel, heightened if you’ve seen any of the later ones.
Society is down, but not yet totally out. There’s pockets of normalcy and law/order, a decent family life seems possible, and there’s still functioning (if a little sketchy) authorities of various forms around – Johnny the Boy is actually tried in a court of law! – but things seem hanging on by a thread at best.
You should definitely see on a big screen. Definitely worth the money.
I’d see Fury Road on the big screen. In my opinion, it’s the only 3D movie where I felt the 3D effect makes the movie better.
That dust storm sequence in Fury Road was amazing.