The original Mad Max was released in 1979 and has since grown into a hugely influential franchise. Countless films, video games, and other media have drawn inspiration from the series. Even if you haven’t seen any of the three films, it’s pervasiveness in pop culture is unavoidable. Now, thirty years after the release of the third entry, Beyond Thunderdome, director George Miller is back in the wasteland with the wildly fun thrillride Mad Max: Fury Road.
Set in a world long destroyed, where civilization has been replaced by violent, territorial gangs, Fury Road centers on the struggles of two characters: Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a commander in the army of warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who goes against her leader by smuggling his five wives out from under his nose, fleeing his cult of personality in hopes of bringing the women to safety; and Max (Tom Hardy), a lone survivor of the wasteland who is kidnapped by Joe's gang of War Boys and fights to escape his imprisonment. The two are eventually forced to work together to their mutual benefit in order to escape the ruthless army relentlessly pursuing them.
The movie wastes no time in its setup, opting to forgo some convoluted backstory. Everything you need to know for the remainder of the film, you know by the first ten minutes. While you receive glimpses throughout to give you more context, where these characters come from isn't really all that important. All that matters is what lies ahead.
in order to escape the ruthless army relentlessly pursuing them. The movie wastes no time in its setup, opting to forgo some convoluted backstory. Everything you need to know for the remainder of the film, you know by the first ten minutes. While you receive glimpses throughout to give you more context, where these characters come from isn't really all that important. All that matters is what lies ahead.
The characters do get their due, though, however minimal it may be. The actors all play their parts extremely well, but to the benefit of the story rather than any character development. This is particularly of note with Max; the way Tom Hardy portrays him, constantly muttering in fractured sentences, you clearly get the sense of how this bleak, harsh world has greatly affected him.
Furiosa, on the other hand, is a bit of an outlier in the world, driven and fearless in the midst of a living hell, with Charlize Theron's presence absolutely commanding the role. Despite being called Mad Max, this is Furiosa's story, though even with a huge bulk of the character moments going to her, those scenes are still just a scratch in the surface of the greater context of the film. You never truly get to know these characters, but that's not really the point.
Mad Max: fury road