‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ and Respecting Your Audience
The scene where Max and Furiosa meet for the first time assumes you’re following the clues.
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Every now and then I conduct a study to determine where along the Mad Max Scale of Societal Collapse we are1. So far, we remain at original flavor Mad Max levels, though we’re heading towards Road Warrior status pretty quickly. By the time we get to Fury Road levels I likely won’t have an Internet to post to, so I’ll never be able to alert you2. The bright side is, we’ll all probably have been killed by roving gangs of Master Blasters, so we won’t care3.
Mad Max: Fury Road is a terrific film. I remember being dubious that a Mad Max sequel released thirty-odd years after the previous installment could be good, but it’s actually legitimately great. Essentially an extended post-apocalyptic chase scene with one brief respite in the middle, Fury Road is a celebration of practical effects, grungey apocalypse fashion4, and sharp writing that does something a lot of stories fail to do: Trust its audience.
Fury Road doesn’t coddle you or treat you like a weirdo who needs everything explained several times using short words5. In fact, it doesn’t bother using words at all during many stretches. Director George Miller and screenwriters Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nick Lathouris convey much of the character work and dynamics visually, without bothering to explain or highlight stuff, and trust that you’ll understand what’s happening. For a concise example of the sort of stellar visual storytelling I’m talking about, let’s take a look at an early scene when Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) meets Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and the fleeing wives of Immortan Joe (Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton) for the first time.
Six Pages of Max Grunting
At this point in the film, Max has been kidnapped by Immortan Joe’s (Hugh Keays-Byrne) warboys and used as a living blood bag for the warboy Nux (Nicholas Hoult), strapped to the front of a speeding car, and generally abused pretty savagely6. He’s still wearing a metal mask on his face, still chained to an unconscious Nux, and wielding a non-functional shotgun as his only weapon. He drags Nux to the war rig, where he finds not just Furiosa (as expected) but also the five wives, busy bathing and removing their uncomfortable-looking chastity belts. Everyone is terrified. Max threatens the wives and tries to get them to cut him free from Nux, but Furiosa seizes a moment of surprise and a bareknuckle fight ensues.
Max wins with the help of Nux, who assumes Max will turn everyone over to Immortan Joe in hopes of a reward, but Max makes it clear he wants nothing to do with Nux or Joe or any of it, and tries to leave everyone behind in the war rig. But Furiosa has rigged the truck to shut off if she doesn’t enter a code, and Max finds himself negotiating with her, eventually relenting and letting Furiosa and the wives back on board7.
And then something curious happens: Furiosa shows Max kindness. She offers him a tool to try and remove his mask. She does not try to draw one of the many, many guns she has secreted around the truck’s cab—in fact, she allows Max to find them and secure them so he feels safe. She doesn’t even pull the nasty knife she has hidden in the gear shift.
And then, Max responds in kind: When Nux sabotages the truck and someone must go reconnect the hydraulic lines, Max volunteers for this dangerous duty, sparing the wives. In other words, in the space of about three minutes, Max and Furiosa go from attempting to kill each other to trusting each other more or less implicitly8. You could assume that mutual terror of Immortan Joe’s approaching army is all the reason they need to form an alliance, but that doesn’t quite explain it, does it? Why does Furiosa give up all of her advantages? Why does Max think they won’t betray him the moment he’s out of the cab? Is it just bad writing?
No, it’s good writing. Because it’s all there in the scene, it’s just unspoken and un-commented upon.
He's a Crazy Smeg Who Eats Schlanger
Let’s walk through the scene: Max arrives, dragging Nux. He threatens the Wives, forces Splendid to bring him the water hose and then has The Dag bring him the bolt cutters and try to cut the chains between him and Nux. When he’s distracted, Furiosa charges and takes Max by surprise, getting hold of the shotgun and learning the hells are no good only when she’s literally attempts to shoot him in the face. They struggle, Furiosa reveals her hidden gun, and attempts to shoot Max in the head a second time9. Then, with the help of the hapless Nux, Max gains the upper hand, gets the loaded gun, and has Furiosa pinned.
And he shoots into the sand.
He could have easily shot her in the head, as she attempted to do twice while they fought. Instead, he spares her, wasting three bullets to shock her into compliance. Then, as Nux gloats, Max makes it very clear he isn’t allied with the War Boy or Immortan—he wants nothing to do with either. He leaves everyone alive—again, when Splendid makes for the rig he wastes bullets with warning shots instead of simply cutting her down—and attempts merely to steal the war rig10. In this moment, Furiosa realizes that what she saw as aggression, as evil intent, was just terror and survival instinct. Plus, she’s just gone toe-to-toe with Max, who was chained to a full-grown man and had a metal mask on his face after having been bled for several hours and he could have killed her, attesting to his value as an ally11.
When the war rig stalls and Furiosa catches up to him, she’s almost friendly. Sure, she’s desperate—Immortan Joe is coming up on their ass quick, and she just lost control of her rig. But she also knows that Max won’t actually kill them. That he’s desperate, too, and twitchy with terror—but not a murderer. So when she gains access to the truck again, she comes in gently, she lets Max feel safe by gathering the weapons, she offers him assistance with his uncomfortable mask problem. Because she knows he’s not a bad guy.
All of this is implied by the scene. All of it is just there for you pick up on and put together in your head. Miller and company could have given Furiosa and Max a few simple lines of dialog to convey all of this, make it clear, make it text. Instead they let the visuals—especially the acting of the two leads, Theron and Hardy (who absolutely hated each other’s guts)—do the talking.
If I live long enough to see a Mad Max-style apocalypse, you know who I’d be in Immortan Joe’s hellscape, right? A blood bag. No doubt12.
NEXT WEEK: Barbie undermines itself.
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Also, where I am personally on the more interesting Mad Max Personal Grooming Scale. I’ve been stuck on 10 for many years. I’ll leave it as an exercise for the reader to decide if that’s a good or bad thing.
Hmmmn … living in a hellscape filled with violent mutants who want to eat me, or living in a hellscape filled with shitposters? I’m thinking, I’m thinking …
I am just Jeff: Too small to be a Blaster, too big to be a Master.
I adore the fact that they’re apparently only making two things in the Max universe: Bullets and gasoline.
I get enough of that experience when I have to attend family events, thank you very much.
Apparently Max was born to be a blood bag, because he donates a lot of the stuff during this film and somehow maintains a very high energy level.
Personally, I’m instantly terrified of any woman name Furiosa, for fuck’s sake, but then the Somers’ have always survived based on simple cowardice. We’re not a proud people.
This happens to me and any stranger standing next to me in a bar somewhere between the third and fourth round.
Perhaps in Mad Max world, trying to shoot someone in the head is a sign of affection, like pulling someone’s hair in the second grade.
Apparently everyone in the shithole future knows how to drive a big rig. And here I was feeling smug because I know how to drive a manual transmission (sort of; the clutch won’t last long with me working it).
One assumes all of these people are simply noseblind to all body odor.
Okay, let’s stop kidding ourselves: I’d be dead long before we got to Fury Road levels of shithole. Probably within the first few minutes of the apocalypse, very likely by my own hand when I accidentally set myself on fire in a panic as I flee the zombies or whatever.
Another movie I've been meaning to see. I remember being a bit high when I saw The Road Warrior and sat too close to the screen. The opening chase scene has been forever etched in my brain. Somewhere.