Mad Max: Fury Road

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Mad Max: Fury Road

"Oh, what a day. what a lovely day!"

Genre:	Post-apocalypse Action Sci-Fi
Directed By:	George Miller
Produced By:	Doug Mitchell George Miller P. J. Voeten
Written By/Screenplay:	George Miller Brendan McCarthy Nico Lathouris
Starring:	Tom Hardy Charlize Theron Nicholas Hoult Hugh Keays-Byrne Rosie Huntington-Whiteley Riley Keough Zoë Kravitz Abbey Lee Courtney Eaton
Cinematography:	John Seale
Music By:	Junkie XL
Production Company:	Village Roadshow Pictures Kennedy Miller Mitchell RatPic-Dune Entertainment
Distributed By:	Roadshow Entertainment (Australia) Warner Bros. Pictures (International)
Release Date:	May 7, 2015 (TCL Chinese Theatre) May 14, 2015 (Australia) May 15, 2015 (United States)
Runtime:	120 minutes
Country:	Australia United States
Language:	English
Budget:	$154.6–185.1 million
Box Office:	$380.4 million
Franchise:	Mad Max
Prequel:	Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Mad Max: Fury Road is a 2015 Australian-American post-apocalyptic action film co-written, produced, and directed by George Miller. The fourth installment and a "revisiting" of the Mad Max franchise, it is a joint Australian-American venture produced by Kennedy Miller Mitchell, RatPac-Dune Entertainment, and Village Roadshow Pictures and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. Miller worked with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris on the screenplay. The world premiere was on May 7, 2015, at the TCL Chinese Theatre. It began an Australian theatrical release on May 14, 2015, and a United States theatrical release on May 15, 2015, including an out-of-competition screening at the 68th Cannes Film Festival, in 2D, 3D, IMAX 3D, and 4DX. After a pay dispute between Warner Bros. and Miller delayed early efforts to produce follow-up projects, a prequel, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, was announced as being in "advanced development" in 2020, with Miller set to return as writer and director.

In 1987, Miller came out with the idea for Fury Road, but before its pre-production began in 1998, it had an infamous case of spending many years in development hell; the attempts to shoot the film in the 2000s were delayed because of the 9/11 attacks, Iraq war, and controversies regarding star Mel Gibson, causing Miller to recast Gibson's role of Max. Miller decided to pursue the film again in 2007 after the release of his 2006 animated comedy film Happy Feet. In 2009, Miller announced that filming would start in early 2011. Hardy was cast as Max in June 2010, with the production planning to begin in that November. Before it began in July 2012, Principal photography was delayed several more times. Filming was wrapped in December 2012, even though additional footage was shot in November 2013.

Summary

In the stark desert wasteland populated by a broken humanity driven with survival and the unending ravage for gasoline, a loner named Max (portrayed by Tom Hardy), a survivor who is haunted by memories of all the people he failed to protect, finds himself unwantedly caught in the middle of a chase while helping the heroine soldier Furiosa (portrayed by Charlize Theron) and her female companions. She struggles to return to her homeland and escape the clutches of a ruthless desert gang leader, Immortan Joe (portrayed by Hugh Keays-Byrne), and his army in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. With the harsh desert sands in front of them and marauders behind, only the maddest will prevail over the storm.

Plot

Max Rockatansky is captured and taken to warlord Immortan Joe's Citadel. In there, Max is imprisoned and used as Nux's (portrayed by Nicholas Hoult and a sick War Boy) "blood bag". Meanwhile, Imperator Furiosa, one of Joe's lieutenants, is sent to the armoured "War Rig" to trade produce for petrol and ammunition with two of Joe's allies (the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater). When Joe realises his five wives are fleeing in the Rig, he leads his army in pursuit of Furiosa, calling on the aid of Gas Town and the Bullet Farm.

Nux joins the pursuit with Max strapped to his car to continue supplying for blood. Furiosa drives into the dust storm and loses all of her pursuers, except for Nux (who attempts to sacrifice himself to blow up the Rig). Max frees himself and restrains Nux, and Furiosa destroys their car.

After the dust-storm pursuit, Max finds Furiosa fixing the rig, accompanied by Joe's wives: Toast, Capable, the Dag, Cheedo, and Angharad, the last of whom is heavily pregnant with Joe's child. Max fights and subdues Furiosa. The former tries to steal the Rig, but doesn't know the code to bypass the kill switches, so begrudgingly joins up with the latter and the wives. Nux gets on the Rig, as it leaves and tries to kill Furiosa. He is overpowered and thrown out, after that, Joe's army picks him up when they pass by.

Furiosa drives through a biker gang-controlled canyon to get a deal to have an arranged to trade fuel for her safe passage; but the gang turns on her when they spot Joe's forces approaching, forcing her and the group to flee while the bikers detonate the canyon walls in order to block Joe, while Max and Furiosa fight off the pursing bikers as Joe's car (with Nux now on board). Joe drives over the blockade in a monster truck and catches up with the Rig, allowing Nux to board and eventually attack Furiosa again, but he trips before reaching the cab. While helping Max, Angharad falls off the Rig and is fatally run over by Joe (who temporarily halts his pursuit), mortally wounding her.

Capable (portrayed by Courtney Eaton) finds Nux hiding in the Rig and distraught him about his failure, and consoles him. After night, the truck gets stuck in the mud, so Furiosa and Max slow Joe's forces with mines, but Joe's ally, the Bullet Farmer (portrayed by Richard Carter) continues the pursuit. Nux emerges from hiding to help Max and Furiosa to free the rig, and joining the crew. Furiosa blinds the approaching Bullet Farmer, and Max returns with guns and ammunition.

Overnight, they drive the truck through swampland and desert, and in the morning, Furiosa explains her story to Max and that the "Green Place" (which they are escaping is an idyllic land she remembers from her childhood). She recognises a familiar landmark, but Max suspects that it's a trap, so Furiosa approaches the woman and states her history and clan affiliation. The said woman summons her clan, the Vuvalini, who recognise Furiosa as one of their own who was kidnapped as a child. After she learned that the swampland from the previous night was the Green Place, which is now inhospitable, and there are only seven Vuvalini left, Furiosa is devastated and screams. The group then begins to ride across an immense salt flats, hoping to find a new home.

Max chooses to stay behind, but after he sees a vision of a child that he failed to save, he catches up, and suggested the others to return to the undefended Citadel, which has ample water and crops that Joe keeps for himself.

The group heads back to the Citadel, but they are attacked by Joe's forces and engage in battle. Five Vuvalini are killed, Toast is captured, and Furiosa is seriously wounded. As they approach the canyon, Joe positions his car in front of the truck to slow it. While Max fights Joe's giant son, Rictus Erectus, Furiosa boards Joe's truck to save Toast and the two join forces, enabling Furiosa to kill Joe by ripping off his breathing mask. Nux sacrifices himself by wrecking the truck, killing Rictus and blocking the canyon, allowing Max, Furiosa, the wives, and the Vuvalini to successfully escape in Joe's car. Max transfuses his blood to Furiosa, to save her life.

At the Citadel, Max reveals Joe's corpse, and the citizens are overjoyed at the sight of Joe's death. Furiosa, the wives, and the Vuvalini are cheered by the people and welcomed by the War Boys. Max walks off, taking one last look at Furiosa before vanishing within the crowd.

Why It's a Lovely Day

The film proves that you can make an amazing film with only a simple plot. The simple plot of being an unwanted loner (a road warrior) caught in the middle while helping a heroine soldier out is also powerful.
It also proves that you can make a great fourth installment, and a triumphant franchise revival after three great films.
You don't even need to watch the other Mad Max films before this, because it has a different plot than the rest of them, as it uses the said simple plot of being an unwanted loner.
Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron give off extremely good performances as the two main characters; their portrayals of the former being a road warrior (Max Rockatansky) and the latter being the heroine soldier (Imperator Furiosa) easily carry the film throughout.
Speaking of the former, he did an awesome job replacing Mel Gibson, who portrayed the original Mad Max in the previous films.
Even if Max isn't given much to say, he is still likable and is able to be completely forceful at the same time.
- Imperator Furiosa is also a likable and great character, who's given good character development, and likability. She and her band have also managed to be completely forceful along with Max.
Immortan Joe is an amazing villain compared to most villains of the first three Mad Max films. He has also been considered as one of the best action film villains of the 2010s.
Instead of CGI, the film has good use of practical effects, particularly the famous flamethrower electric guitar in the opening scene, and the famous sandstorm chase. Both scenes are intense and make it powerful.
It lacks any clichés found in typical action films. There are no shaky cams and no jump cuts.
It's fast-paced and allows a good descent into insanity, even for a film that is over two hours long.
It is full of intense action scenes and stories that make it extremely powerful, like the pursuit chase scene and the insane stunts done in the film. The behind-the-scenes also show how insanely well-shot those action scenes are. It also makes it where the audiences don't feel at rest, and only gets them to want even more of it.
- The action and the stunts make the film even more crazier and intense to watch; not only that, but they are also enough to keep you from being tired and makes you feel more entertained.
Brilliant cinematography, flawless editing, jaw-dropping techniques, and sound mixing, all of which combined make the film even better.
- The cinematography makes the camera shots so strong, to the point where it makes the driving scenes so fun to watch, since it has enough strength to make it feel realistic, and the cameras are placed on the driving scenes accurately and works so well inside of the desert themed film.
- The sound mixing in particular makes the audio sound so good, especially during the dialogue, and quotes throughout.
- The sound editing is also spectacular, since its makes it motorcycle starting up sounds (like in the film's opening logos), and gives the driving sounds lots of charm.
- The film editing also makes it unique, and helps to make it face-paced (in the aforementioned reason), and how it makes the plot dark-toned.
Its trailer is probably one of the greatest trailers ever made, due to how intense it is.
The intro and the logo openings of Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures are outstanding, and manages to be dark and cool; the orange color for both logos are also creative.
The soundtrack by Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL) is appropriate as well and added to the whole thrill ride. (who also later had compelling scores in films such as Deadpool, Alita: Battle Angel, the Sonic the Hedgehog trilogy, Zack Snyder's Justice League, Godzilla vs. Kong, and many more)
The memorable quote "OH WHAT A DAY, WHAT A LOVELY DAY!"... end of story.
Besides the said quote, there are other amazing quotes as well:
- "I LIVE, I DIE, I LIVE AGAIN!!"
- "If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die historic on the Fury Road!"
- "You know, hope is a mistake. If you can't fix what's broken, you'll, uh...you'll go insane."
- "…Here they come again. Worming their way into the black matter of my brain. I tell myself they cannot touch me: they are long dead."
- "I am the one that runs from both the living, and the dead. Hunted by scavengers, haunted by those I could not protect. So I exist in this wasteland, reduced to one extinct: survive."
- "My name is Max. My world is fire and blood. Once, I was a cop. A road warrior searching for a righteous cause. As the world fell, each of us in our own way was broken. It was hard to know who was more crazy... me... or everyone else."
It gives ideas about what film adaptations of video games like Borderlands would look like, with its storm, desert, and wastelands.
Unlike most R-rated films (which usually contain swearing, such as The Wolf of Wall Street), there is almost no profanity in this film, as it tends to avoid swearing while being rated-R (because of intense violence) at the same time.
The vehicle and costume designs are exceptionally great. The latter even won an Academy Award for said costume designs at the 88th Academy Awards.
George Miller makes a return to direct this live-action film, after Happy Feet Two ruined any potential for George Miller's Dr. D Studios, including an animated Mad Max film.
Genuine feminist themes that are not spoon-fed, nor preachy to the audience. The first film had them too, but this film expanded upon them. This is the film that many late 2010s feminist action films, say like the infamous Ghostbusters reboot, tried to imitate and failed miserably because they didn't learn why it worked here:
- Max and the women get their fair share of forceful moments to shine.
- It doesn't ruin Max's character to make room for Furiosa.
- Nux can redeem himself.
The poster is epic, as it shows Max and Furiosa holding weapons and getting ready to shoot (the former in particular holding a double barrel shotgun and the latter holding a rifle) in the desert storm, not to mention that it has motorcycles on it and also shows on how forceful both Max and Furiosa can be.
It takes all the good qualities of the first three films and cranks them all up to eleven, to the point where it makes it a must-watch film, which is saying something for a highly acclaimed film. It also means that it expanded upon (and took) everything that made the three films that were already great to begin with, and made them even better by a mile, such as introducing new characters like Immortan Joe, and Furiosa, being an amazing fourth installment to a great franchise, bringing the R-rating back after the third film, and great costume designs. This is what makes Fury Road an extremely creative, and delightful film, and what makes it one of the best action films released in 2015, as well as one of the best film releases of the 2010s. It's also a great example of a film that does lots of things correctly at being (and manages to be) dark and cool.

Reception

Mad Max: Fury Road was universally acclaimed by critics, audiences, and fans alike for its screenplay, Miller's directing, action sequences, score, cinematography, editing, costume design, visuals, sound mixing, and the performances of the cast (particularly from Hardy and Theron), and is highly considered as one of the best films of 2015, as well as one of the best films of the 2010s, and of all time; it is also considered as one of the greatest action films of all time. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 90 out of 100 based on 51 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".

Chris Stuckmann gave it an "A+" rating and featured it on his list of Best Movies of 2015.

Trivia

The project was given the green light to begin filming in the Australian desert in May 2003 with a budget of US$100 million, but the location was ruined by rainfall. The film entered then a hiatus in light of security concerns related to its Namibian shoot because of tightened travel and shipping restrictions at the onset of the Iraq War.
Despite being the highest-grossing film in the Mad Max franchise, it was a box office disappointment, grossing $375.4 million worldwide against its $154.6–185.1 million production budget and incurring overall losses of up to $20–40 million.