Mad Max: Fury Road is a technical and visual marvel and considered one of the best action movies ever made. For most viewers, the spectacle alone is enough to entertain them. It takes multiple viewings and a keen ear, however, to sift out the inner workings of the world of Fury Road. Upon doing so, the dedicated watcher will learn the movie is deeper than first presumed.
Mad Max: Fury Road gloriously detonated on screens in May 2015. Directed by George Miller, who also co-wrote, and starring Tom Hardy as Max, Charlize Theron as Furiosa, and Nicholas Hoult as Nux, it was a moderate box office success, making $375 million worldwide on a budget of $185 million, and was widely celebrated by both the critics and the fans. It received ten Oscar nominations in the 88th Academy Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture, and won six for its outstanding technical achievements. Based on the success of Fury Road, George Miller planned to launch a new trilogy in the world of Mad Max and has in fact announced a prequel about the character Furiosa.
There are three aspects of Fury Road that reveal the deeper meaning of the film: a visual narrative, the language used by the characters, and the lack of a new point of view character.
Fury Road is a stunning masterpiece to watch and it ably uses every millimeter of screen to tell its story. The audience is generally aware the world is a wasteland due to war and resource depletion, but there is no history or background given as to what exactly happened or the impact of those crises. So, George Miller presents that story using the setting.
Mad Max and companions are surviving an environmental apocalypse. Whatever warfare or overconsumption occurred in the past has caused a major cataclysm on Earth. Seekers of lore can see this by the vast desert locale and its weather patterns, seen when the immense dust storm nearly tips over the War Rig. Even more dire, Furiosa is devastated to learn that her haven, “the Green Place,” has turned into a messy swampland since she last saw it. This means that within her lifetime the environment has drastically transformed and is still in the process of transforming.
Resource hoarding is a given for post-apocalyptic worlds, but the way in which necessities like water and milk are guarded has turned them into forms of wealth. Immortan Joe, the god-king of The Citadel, trades them as commodities called “Aqua-Cola” and “Mother’s Milk” to neighboring city-states. Immortan Joe is part of an economic network with Gastown and the Bullet Farm, where his products are water and milk. The transport truck Furiosa used in her escape with the brides was intended to trade milk for gas when it left The Citadel. The presence of a system like this proves a lengthy distance between the dramatic events of the old world and the state of the current. Max and Furiosa might be the second-generation survivors of the apocalypse or were perhaps young children when it all went down.
The language used by the characters in Fury Road is all in-world speak. This might deter the average movie-goer from understanding the narrative, as without a primer in wasteland speak people are left to deduce it all for themselves. A dedicated fan can pick up on the lingo with multiple viewings and learn there is a deeper society at play.
Immortan Joe has established a cult around his control of water. He has an army of zealots, called the “War Boys,” and a farm of women he calls “breeders” to replenish his ranks. Furiosa was to trade “Mother’s Milk” for “guzzolene,” or breast milk for gas. An “organic mechanic” is their attempt at a doctor, sort of. Nux is a “half-life” War Boy who desires nothing more than to die “shiny and chrome” before the eyes of Immortan Joe so he can enter “Valhalla” and “ride eternal.”
Half-life in Fury Road means someone who is dying. This means that Nux has a disease, possibly cancer (he named his tumors Larry and Barry), possibly radiation sickness, or even something else, and is fully aware of his mortality. Nux uses Max as a “blood bag,” literally, to remedy his pain in the short term. What he does with that knowledge defines his character in the film. He starts off a fanatic with the quest to be witnessed in a glorious road death but ends up sacrificing himself to protect his former enemies. Nux earns the death he originally faced in a sincere and genuine way, rather than perverted and exploited by a maniac.
Finally, and most interesting of all, Fury Road does not have a point of view character to usher the audience through the world. It is typical for movies to use a character who is a rookie or an outsider to the world to ask questions and provide context for the audience. It is interesting that none such character exists here.
Instead, the movie begins with Max hallucinating, his sanity fragile, and then he is captured by the War Boys and turned into a piece of equipment for Nux. The audience is smashed into Fury Road without a guide and is left to ride the action foremost, then try to understand the characters and the story if they want to. The lack of a POV character demands the audience pay attention to the meanings of everything the film presents. The lack of easy access heightens the meaning of the setting, the language, and the behaviors of each character. Viewers are required to think in order to understand.
These reasons, and more, are what make Mad Max: Fury Road such an awesome movie. It is an action thrill ride, no doubt, but it is also a rich story that presents to us the consequences of consumerism and current-day capitalism. If the world continues to consume at such an alarming rate, civilization will crumble into tribal city-states ruled by maniacs who think themselves immortal, and society will devolve into grotesque poverty and slavery.
The Mad Max series has always been the peak of post-apocalyptic science fiction, but none come close to the level that Fury Road has achieved. Some viewers will find it difficult to penetrate the deeper layers of Fury Road, but that is all right, the visual symphony is enough of a delight to entertain anyone. Perhaps the prequel, Furiosa,will provide a grander tour of the wasteland world survived by Mad Max. Furiosa is in development and is expected to hit theaters in 2023 (pandemic pending, of course). Mad Max: Fury Road is also available in black and white, for greater viewing pleasure.