Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Trivia
According to director George Miller, the film's storyboard was made even before the screenplay. The reason behind this was because Miller envisioned the film as a continuous chase, with little dialogue and more focus on the visuals. The storyboard was made with the collaboration of five artists and had about 3,500 panels.
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Spoilers (36)
Over eighty percent of the effects seen in the film are practical effects, including stunts, make-up, and sets. CGI was used sparingly, mainly to enhance the Namibian landscape, remove stunt rigging, and for Imperator Furiosa's (Charlize Theron) left arm, which is a prosthetic limb.
Editor Margaret Sixel had roughly 470 hours of footage to edit. Watching it took three months.
Margaret Sixel (Editor) is director George Miller's wife. When she asked why he thought she should take on this project, as she had never edited an action film before, Miller replied, "Because if a guy did it, it would look like every other action movie." Sixel's work paid off; she received an Academy Award for Best Editing.
When 78-year-old Melissa Jaffer was asked why she took a part in the film, she said, "When this role came along, I thought well, I won't get another chance like this before I die, and that's why I took it. It was absolutely wonderful."
In a Cannes press conference for the movie, Tom Hardy apologized to George Miller for the reportedly complicated relationship between the star and the director during filming. He stated: "There was no way, I mean, I have to apologize to you because I got frustrated. There was no way George could have explained what he could see in the sand when we were out there. Because of the due diligence that was required to make everything safe and so simple, what I saw was a relentless barrage of complexities, simplified for this fairly linear story. I knew he was brilliant, but I didn't know how brilliant until I saw it. So, my first reaction was 'Oh my god, I owe George an apology for being so myopic'." Charlize Theron mentioned similar experiences where she had no idea what she was filming, up to the point where she would ask the director what the hell he was doing. In the end, seeing the finished film greatly exceeded her expectations as well.
Regarding the look of the film, director George Miller laid down two stipulations for the production to follow. Firstly, the cinematography would be as colorful as possible in order to differentiate the film from other post-apocalyptic movies, which typically have bleak de-saturated colors. During pre-production the initial concept was for a black and white film. However, producers strongly advised against this as they believed it would deter audiences (Miller's original concept would come to fruition and be released in the Mad Max Fury Road Black & Chrome Edition). Secondly, the art direction would be as beautiful as possible as Miller reasoned that people living in the post-apocalypse would try to find whatever scraps of beauty they could in their meager environment.
Tom Hardy suffered a broken nose during filming when Charlize Theron accidentally elbowed him. She was wearing a green arm cast at the time, which was used so the graphics artists could digitally remove Furiosa's arm.
The jacket worn by Tom Hardy is a replica of the one worn by Mel Gibson in the last two movies of the original trilogy. The original Gibson jacket was found in storage at Kennedy-Miller and copied heavily.
On April 3, 2015, Tom Hardy announced he would sign on for three more Mad Max films.
According to Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, whenever she or the other Wives' clothes slipped, Tom Hardy would never tell them directly. Instead he would act out a cartoonish eye popping out action to let them know.
Charlize Theron shaved her head for the role of Furiosa and as a result, she had to wear a wig for her role in A Million Ways to Die in the West (2014).
This is the second Mad Max movie featuring Hugh Keays-Byrne. He first played the villain Toecutter in Mad Max (1979), and in this installment, he plays Immortan Joe.
To prepare themselves to go into battle, ready to sacrifice their lives for Immortan Joe, the War Boys spray their lips and teeth with a silver substance, very much like common spray paint. Both the War Boys and Immortan Joe often speak about this as though it is a religious ritual, saying that it will allow them to enter "the gates of Valhalla, shiny and chrome". However, in a May 2015 interview with CraveOnline, actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, who plays Immortan Joe, said that this practice, which the War Boys think is purely ritualistic, actually involves the inhalation of "...a very euphoric drug" that keeps the War Boys high and suicidally devoted to Immortan Joe. Another clue to the spray's narcotic properties is the fact that "chrome" and "chroming" are Australian slang terms for inhalant abuse. Writer/director George Miller said that he got the idea for this from Australian filmmaker David Bradbury's 1981 Vietnam War documentary "Front Line", in which Cambodian soldiers preparing for battle suspend small jade figurines of Buddha from their mouths with little straps.
George Miller and Charlize Theron didn't get along with Tom Hardy during filming. They both found him difficult to work with. Hardy would later apologize to Miller at the film's Cannes premiere.
After George Miller screened some footage at SXSW film festival, director Robert Rodriguez stood up and asked: "How the hell did you film that!?"
The cake-decorating company Wilton makes a decorative "Color Mist" in silver that is meant to be sprayed onto baked goods to give them a silver sheen. Before May 2015, the Amazon listing for this product contained a few pages of reviews only from bakers opining on the quality of the product when used as intended (on cakes). After the release of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), both the comments section and FAQ on the Amazon listing were filled with comments from users posting as though they were War Boys or Immortan Joe "reviewing" the product that the War Boys spray onto their mouths before going into battle. As of mid-June 2015, there were nineteen pages of Mad Max-related "reviews" of the Wilton product on Amazon.
Night scenes were filmed in bright daylight, deliberately overexposed, and color-manipulated. In many shots, the sky was digitally replaced with more detailed or interesting skies.
The gesture made by the War Boys when they mesh their fingers together is the sign of the V8; they literally revere and worship the power of the engine. It may also be viewed as a reference to Valhalla.
The script contains almost no profanities. The Dag says about Max "He's a crazy smeg who eats schlanger." The use of the word "smeg" echoes its use in the television series Red Dwarf (1988), where it was used as an alternative for various expletives. There was almost no swearing in the earlier Mad Max movies, either. "Schlanger" itself is an Aussie slang word for penis.
Director George Miller told cinematographer John Seale to keep the main actor centered in the screen so that the viewer's eye did not have to search the screen due to the film's fast editing style. According to Seale, Miller said, "Keep the crosshairs on her nose!" Seale, who was used to composing an anamorphic shot, took a while to get used to this technique. He was not used to actors being cut off in the edges of the frame.
According to Tom Hardy, he had lunch with Mel Gibson to discuss him taking over the iconic role of Max Rockatansky. Gibson told him "I'm just too old to effectively play Max" and gave Hardy his blessing.
The film was originally intended to star Mel Gibson in the title role back in 2003, but because director George Miller ran into problems with shooting locations, and Gibson's interest in The Passion of the Christ (2004), this never happened.
The unique tracked vehicle driven by the Bullet Farmer, known as "The Peacemaker" was considered the most dangerous and problematic vehicle on set. It was constructed by mating a Ripsaw tank chassis with a Valiant Charger body. Despite extensive development, the vehicle still had severe problems with braking and engine cooling. The original diesel engine was replaced with a water cooled Merlin V8, which was itself replaced by a Chevrolet 502 V8 when the former was destroyed after ingesting sand on set. A complete redesign of the brake and cooling systems was required to make the vehicle usable on set. Like many of the vehicles used in the film, The Peacemaker was crushed after production concluded.
John Seale came out of retirement to head the film's cinematography.
As in the previous movies in this franchise, many characters' names are never said in full or at all on-screen, and are only provided in the credits.
In the German-dubbed version, as in the original English version, the Buzzards speak Russian. In the Russian-dubbed version, they speak German. This way, they sound foreign to either audience.
An R-rated version and a PG-13 version had been made. After test screenings, Warner Bros. decided to release the R-rated version.
Mel Gibson was at the Cannes premiere and approved of the movie. According to George Miller: "Mel was at the premiere of the movie, and I sat next to him. We hadn't seen each other in a long time. Mel is someone who, in a sense, cannot lie. And he started chuckling during the movie and I thought, There's that chuckle I remember! Mel kept chuckling, and he started digging me in the ribs. He gave me great perspective because he is a great actor, but in the end, he is a really great director."
Actors were digitally duplicated in post-production to expand the crowd scenes, so, in reality, only a few actors were actually needed on-set during filming.
According to Production Designer Colin Gibson, the sandy desert environment took a heavy toll on the vehicles used during filming. Nearly all intakes for the superchargers lacked air filters, and so were very prone to ingesting sand.
The vehicle driven by Immortan Joe, the "Gigahorse" is fully functional, and was designed and constructed entirely from scratch for the film. Fitting for Immortan Joe, the design of stacked Coupe DeVilles was intended to symbolize the power and status he wields. The Gigahorse was powered by dual supercharged Chevrolet 502 V8 engines linked together by a custom gearbox feeding into an Allison transmission. In this configuration, the Gigahorse produced over 1,200 horsepower and was capable of reaching 75 miles per hour. According to Hugh Keays-Byrne, who portrayed Immortan Joe, the vehicle was his favorite on-set, and could be heard for miles when it was being driven.
The film used three identical War Rigs, the large main truck in the film. They were based on a Czechoslovakian all-wheel-drive military vehicle.
Quentin Kenihan, the actor playing Corpus Colossus, is disabled in real-life (he has osteogenesis imperfecta - previously depicted in Unbreakable (2000), where Samuel L. Jackson's character was born with Type 1 Osteogenesis imperfecta). No prosthetics, puppets, or special effects were used; the only alterations to Mr. Kenihan were make-up.
When Max awakes abruptly from his dream, right after the blue sequence, the last image of his dream is a close view of eyes popping out of a face. This footage is from Mad Max (1979), when Toecutter is killed.
A particular favorite of director Bong Joon Ho who said seeing the film moved him to tears.
Production was originally set to film around 2011 in the traditional setting of Broken Hill, Australia, but due to heavy rainfall transforming the desert landscape into a lush meadow of flowers, the production was moved to Namibia.
While on location in Africa filming Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) in June 2012, Dayna Grant, the stunt double for Charlize Theron, and Dane Grant, the rehearsal double for Tom Hardy, met, fell in love, and, in March 2013, got married. In February 2014, they had their first child, a son named Ryder. Dayna, who changed her last name to Grant after the marriage, founded a school in New Zealand for training stunt performers, and has performed stunts in other projects based in New Zealand, such as Xena: Warrior Princess (1995) and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys (1995). Another stunt performer in the film also met his spouse on the set: in February 2015, stuntman Ben Smith-Petersen married actress Riley Keough, who played Capable.
There was a fan theory that Mad Max in this film is actually the Feral Kid from the second film, The Road Warrior (1981). Max does not speak very much in this film, and he grunts a lot like the Feral Kid. He also has a music box, like the one that Max gives the Feral Kid in the second film. However, a Vertigo comic miniseries cowritten by George Miller establishes that Hardy's Max is the same character as Mel Gibson's Max.
Near the end of the credits, there is a memorial dedication that reads "Lance Allen Moore II, May 24, 1987 - March 10, 2015. "Moore was a Mad Max fan, killed in a motorcycle accident near Silverton, New South Wales, Australia, where The Road Warrior (1981) was filmed.
The paracord bracelet that Max wears belongs to Tom Hardy.
On July 12th 2017, Charlize Theron announced in an interview that George Miller is developing the first Mad Max spin-off film, adding that it would be a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and that it focused on her character Furiosa.
Nicholas Hoult learned how to knit from a make-up artist during the seven-month shoot in Namibia.
George Miller has written a background story for The Doof Warrior, the heavy metal musician, played by Australian singer/songwriter Sean Hape (a.k.a. Iota), playing the flame-shooting electric guitar on The Doof Wagon.
Former SAS soldier Jon Iles, who played the War Boy named The Ace, also headed a security team on the set, to ensure the safety of the cast, crew, and their families.
In a July 2014 interview at San Diego Comic-Con International, George Miller said he designed the film in storyboard form before writing the screenplay, working with five storyboard artists. It came out as about 3,500 panels, almost the same number of shots as in the finished film. He wanted the film to be almost a continuous chase, with relatively little dialogue, and to have the visuals come first. Paraphrasing Alfred Hitchcock, Miller said that he wanted the film to be understood in Japan without the use of subtitles.
The second sequel to receive an Academy Award nomination for Best Picture without any of its predecessors being nominated, the first being Toy Story 3 (2010).
The girl who Max sees in his visions, commonly believed to be his daughter, is in fact Glory the Child, who can be seen in the comic series. It can also be noted that she is seen being run down in a desert by a selection of vehicles, while Max's child was killed by a biker gang prior to the war.
According to George Miller, ninety percent of the effects were practical.
George Miller directed the Mad Max action franchise, noted for its violence. Ironically, he is also the director of three family friendly films: the second Babe movie, Babe: Pig in the City (1998), and both Happy Feet pictures.
Writer and feminist Eve Ensler (The Vagina Monologues) was consulted to enhance the portrayal of female characters.
At the final vehicle battle, one of Immortan Joe's henchmen scares Furiosa with the exact same hiss as the Toecutter in Mad Max (1979).
Max is wearing a metal knee brace, like the one in The Road Warrior (1981). In that movie, he wears it because he was shot in the knee in Mad Max (1979).
George Miller described the film as "a very simple allegory, almost a western on wheels".
Fans of the franchise were confused when it was speculated and debated if the reboot wasn't a reboot, and was a sequel or a prequel that took place before The Road Warrior (1981) (aka "The Road Warrior") or before Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). George Miller had stated that Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) was a reboot, and that he didn't want to do the same story again, and want the new incarnation of Max to be remembered as a man with nothing to lose. George Miller later confirmed that the film is a "revisiting" and is kind of a sequel to the previous "Mad Max" films and that it is mostly a relaunch and revisit to that world.
Second Unit Director and Supervising Stunt Coordinator Guy Norris was in charge of over 150 stunt performers, which included Cirque du Soleil performers and Olympic athletes.
The budget for this film is estimated to be between 100 million dollars and $150 million U.S. dollars, while the converted budget for the original Mad Max (1979) is placed at around 316,620 dollars. That means that without inflation, the budget between the two films increased by well over three hundred times. (With inflation, the difference is 100 to 150 times.)
Immortan Joe's war club actually belonged to Hugh Keays-Byrne's mother-in-law. It was given to her during World War II. After she died, it was laying around, and Hugh thought it was interesting, so he took it.
The character Toast the Knowing is named after visual effects crew member Shyam V. Yadav, who is known for serving free French toast (and hugs) to thousands of people all over the world.
This is the second Mad Max film for screenwriter Nick Lathouris. As an actor, he played a brief role in Mad Max (1979).
Several vehicles, including The War Rig, Immortan Joe's double-decker 1959 Cadillac DeVille Gigahorse, The People Eater's Mercedes-Benz Limousine, and The Bullet Farmer's Valiant Charger Peacemaker, as well as The Doof Warrior's Doof Wagon and many of the vehicles driven by the War Boys, are left-hand drive. The appearance of left-hand drive vehicles is a first in the Mad Max movies. The previous films featured only Australian vehicles, which are right-hand drive, such as the rigs seen in The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and Max's famous 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT V8 Pursuit Special (a.k.a. The Interceptor), seen in Mad Max (1979) and Mad Max 2 (1981) (and this film). In real-life, the Australian states and territories (since 2000) exempt the conversion of left hand drive automobiles to right hand drive if the vehicle is thirty years old (fifteen years old, if registered in Western Australia), but the rear turn signals must have orange/amber lenses.
This is George Miller's first R-rated movie since The Witches of Eastwick (1987).
The idea for a fourth instalment occurred to George Miller in August 1998 when he was walking in an intersection in Los Angeles. About a year later, while travelling from Los Angeles to Australia, the idea coalesced. Miller conceived a story where "violent marauders were fighting, not for oil or for material goods, but for human beings." The film was set to shoot in 2001 through 20th Century Fox, but was postponed because of the September 11 attacks that same year. "The American dollar collapsed against the Australian dollar, and our budget ballooned", Miller said, adding that he "had to move on to Happy Feet (2006) because there was a small window when that was ready". Mel Gibson was also set to reprise his role as the lead character. Miller ended up re-casting the role because of controversies surrounding Gibson and because he wanted Max to remain at a younger age, as the "same contemporary warrior".
Jeremy Renner campaigned for the role of Mad Max. At one point the film's long development, Michael Biehn was considered for the role of Max Rockatansky, as were Channing Tatum and Heath Ledger, before his untimely death in 2008. Sam Worthington stated that, like Eric Bana, he has never been approached for the role of Mad Max, despite widespread rumors that circulated the web following the film's announcement. James Frecheville auditioned for a part.
In February 2013, a leaked draft from the Namibian Coast Conservation and Management group accused the producers of damaging parts of the Namib Desert, endangering a number of plant and animal species. However, the Namibia Film Commission said it had "no reservations" after visiting the set during production. It disputed claims reported in the media, calling the accusations "unjust rhetoric".
90% of the stunts were practical. George Miller hired Cirque du Soleil and Olympic athletes to perform many of them.
According to Visual Effects Supervisor Andrew Jackson, there were over 2,000 visual effects shots used throughout the movie.
The first Mad Max film to win Oscars: The film won six Oscars at the 2016 Academy Awards. Best Achievement in Film Editing. Best Achievement in Costume Design. Best Achievement in Makeup and Hair Styling. Best Achievement in Sound Mixing. Best Achievement in Sound Editing, and Best Achievement in Production Design.
The crossed belts worn by the Valkyrie, played by Megan Gale, are the same belts Max wore in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). The brass belt buckle has been covered or replaced.
During the flashback sequence, after going through the crows, you can see eyes popping out briefly. This is an homage to Mad Max (1979) when a rider crashes into the front of a semi.
The little girl whose voice Max hears and Max sees in hallucinations is called Glory. In the backstory, Max was saved by a mysterious woman when his rebuilt Interceptor was stolen from Russian bandits called The Buzzards who left Max to die. Max agreed to help her rescue Glory from The Sunken City which was The Buzzards' hiding place. Max found and rescued Glory and took her to her mother. However, tragedy struck when pursuing Buzzards ran over Glory and her mother, and Max buried them.
Megan Gale, who plays The Valkyrie, was previously cast as Wonder Woman in George Miller's film Justice League: Mortal before it was canceled. This is her first Hollywood film.
George Miller laid out a widely intricate backstory for the Coma-Doof Warrior. "The approach to the film was you have to be able to explain everything. Not only all the characters but every object how it all found its way into this world and how it survived." Miller told Deadline. "In his case he was blind from birth. when things started going a bit crazy he and his mother were left in a mining town. The only way they could survive was to go into a place where there was a competitive advantage to being blind. And that was to go deep down into a mineshaft where they were able to survive. He took what was most precious to him a musical instrument, probably a guitar." Miller went on to add to the Doof-Warriors lore, explaining: "as they were careening through the wasteland someone heard this music echoing out of that mine shaft, went down there and luckily they saw him as an asset. I think they killed his mother because she wasn't of any use. They took him and he eventually ended up as the equivalent of the drummer, the fife player or the bagpiper in Immortan Joe's army." In wanting to craft as authentic a "bagpiper" as possible Miller casted a real guitarist in the role: New Zealand Australian shredder iOTA . When iOTA stepped into the role he apparently took the backstory even further adding some particularly grisly details of his own. He told Audiences Everywhere in 2015, "I knew that George had said that Coma was found by Immortan Joe in a Cave and taken under his wing and he learned to be a musician. I kind of embellished that for myself. Basically, my story was that Coma was found with his mother's head, after she had been killed, and he was clinging to it and Immortan Joe came and found him and Coma took her face off and made the mask out of her face, to honor her when he went to war." iOTA went all-in when gearing up to bring to life the Coma-Doof Warrior and even prior to landing the role. Chatting with Yahoo! Movies in May 2015, iOTA shared that he went into the audition with dirt rubbed in his teeth, tattered clothes on his body, and black eye makeup on his face. "I just wanted it so bad, so I was going to go all the way. I got in the cab and the guy gave me a funny look," he said. Of course, he wound up getting the gig, and iOTA kept the flames of creative passion burning from then on. Shredding the guitar on set for six months was quite a wild experience, and iOTA poured his whole soul into the performance. "I just sort of got up there and jammed. Whatever I could come up with. It's a double-neck guitar, so it's a bass and six-string electric, but there's a base that I'm standing on and below that is a partial amplifier, so it's blaring, and it's totally squealing all the time. You're just thrashing on it, and making noise. I'm playing Zeppelin or Soundgarden or AC/DC or whatever I was feeling inspired to do," he said. "I was screaming my head off. The whole thing was just mind-boggling. I was just walking around set with my jaw open the whole time. It was incredible. And just tearing through the desert on that truck was really something else. You've gotta try it.""
Rosie Huntington-Whiteley remarked that the cast and crew fraternized a lot after work since they were all residing in a small Namibian town (the nearest to the desert) without any tourist attractions or fine dining. Swakopmund is a major Namibian city, the capital of the Erongo Region, with a population of 44,725, and the major coastal tourist town in Namibia with lots of restaurants and tourist attractions. Part of the crew also stayed in Walvis Bay 41 kilometers south, population 85,000 and the major port for Namibia, Botswana, Angola, Zimbabwe and Zambia.
Of the eight Best Picture nominees at the 2016 Academy Awards, this was the only film not to receive a single acting nomination.
However, of the fifteen films with an acting nomination, eight were not nominated for Best Picture.
However, of the fifteen films with an acting nomination, eight were not nominated for Best Picture.
This film continues the pattern of each Mad Max film, in that each one has an actor returning in a different role (Hugh Keays-Byrne here). Bruce Spence appeared as Gyro Captain in The Road Warrior (1981) and Jebediah in Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), while Max Fairchild appeared in Mad Max (1979) as Benno and as a hostage in Mad Max 2 (1981).
At the beginning of the film, Max has long hair which is cut short by the War Boys. A plausible nod to the previous film Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) in which Max had long hair, which is later cut short by Savannah Nix, when she rescues him from the desert.
In the original film, the character Valkyrie is first introduced trapped in a cage and nude. In the international version, the scene was changed where she is shown wearing underwear. This was possibly done to avoid the film getting a more restrictive age rating in some countries.
Nux's make-up consisted of 8 silicone prosthetics followed by airbrushing, clay application and various levels of dirt. This make-up had to be applied 77 times and took 2 hours each time.
John Seale, who came out of retirement to shoot the film, outfitted his camera crew with six Arri Alexa Pluses and four Alexa Ms, as well as several Canon EOS 5Ds, Olympus PEN E-P5s and Black Magic Cinema cameras that were strapped to the heads of actors and used as crash cams for the action sequences.
George Miller invited playwright Eve Ensler to act as an on-set adviser. Impressed with the script's depth and what she saw as feminist themes, she spent a week in Namibia, where she spoke to the actors and actresses about issues of violence against women.
Although the character Mad Max is an Australian, he has yet to be played by an Australian actor. Mel Gibson, the first Mad Max, was born in the U.S., although raised in Sydney, Australia.Tom Hardy The second Mad Max, was born in England.
The only Mad Max movie to be shot on Digital, and to contain CGI. CGI was used to create the Citadel, the sandstorm, duplicate actors for the crowd scenes, change background scenery, enhance explosions, erase wire work, to alter the sand and sky, the day for night sequences, and to composite shots together. According to John Seale, nearly every shot was computer manipulated in post-production.
The People Eater is a businessman who is the mayor of Gas Town. Inside of his limousine is an abacus for keeping records of lost gas, blood, and soldiers. His steering wheel is adorned with human hair, because he is a known cannibal. This may be why he can be obese.
Australian crows or ravens are used in the Mad Max films, including Fury Road, as symbols of death and destruction.
Corpus Colossus was not included in early versions of the script until Quentin Kenihan contacted George Miller himself asking if there was a role for him in the movie. Miller decided that the addition of Kenihan would create balance between him and Rictus Erectus and so the character of Corpus Colossus was written into the movie.
Tom Hardy had been considered for the role of John Connor in Terminator Genisys (2015). James Cameron, the director and creator of the "Terminator" franchise had cited The Road Warrior (1981) as one of his influences behind The Terminator (1984).
Many of the cast and crew were victims of muggings and burglaries in the Namibia town which the production used as their main base camp. It got so bad the producers had to bring in a group of former British and Australia SAS members and bodyguards to protect them.
Co-writer Brendan McCarthy designed many of the new characters and vehicles.
The music cue "Claw Trucks", composed by Dutch musician Tom Holkenborg (a.k.a. Tom Holkenborg) for the film's score, is a revamp of his earlier composition "Dauntless Attack", written for the film Divergent (2014).
Riley Keough, who plays the red-haired bride, Capable, is the daughter of Lisa Marie Presley, and the grand-daughter of Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley purchased Cadillacs for his friends and family, which outnumbered his personal collection. He purchased fourteen 1959 Cadillacs as 'give away' automobiles, mostly used for charitable causes. He did not own the 1959 model himself, since he was stationed in West Germany when serving in the U.S. Army. Only film to date in which Keough is seen in an automobile connected with her grandfather, who was an admirer of the Cadillac product line.
The film contains about 2,700 cuts of its entire running length, which is equivalent to 22.5 cuts per minute compared to The Road Warrior (1981)'s 1,200 cuts of its 90-minute running time equivalent to 13.33 cuts per minute.
The Japanese release features a song titled "Out of Control" that plays over the end credits. The song is performed by American Rap rock band Zebrahead featuring famous Japanese Punk rock band Man with a Mission. The U.S. and international release features music composed by Tom Holkenborg.
In the new Max Rockatansky's back-story, Max lost his family when they were killed in the midst of the chaos of the nuclear attack.
The Bullet Farmer (Richard Carter), who styles himself the "Judge, Jury and Executioner" of the Bullet Farm, wears a headdress of bullets (which appear to be 7.62 caliber) in parody of a British Judge's wig. He has also replaced some of his teeth with bullets, which can be extracted and loaded into his weapons. After the Farmer is killed, Max brings a sack of weapons and ammo back to Furiosa and the Wives, with the headdress draped over his shoulder.
Although Max never gives his exact nickname to the audience, he refers to himself with similar words like "insane" or "crazy".
When Nux head-butts Slit, there is a flash of white, which echoes a shot in The Road Warrior (1981): Wez head-butts a compound defender and there is a similar flash of white to show the impact.
The production spent $2 million to lease a freighter large enough to ship the 80 plus vehicles used in the movie from where they were made in Australia to the desert in Namibia where the outdoor action sequences were shot. For safety reasons and to prevent damage to them all the vehicles had to be stored in shipping containers, but some vehicles, like the massive War Rig, were so large the shipping company did not have big enough containers so special ones had to be built.
Australian showbiz legend Bert Newton was one of the first character actors cast by George Miller when the movie was to be filmed in Broken Hill, New South Wales, the original location for The Road Warrior (1981), a.k.a. The Road Warrior. Unfortunately, rainfall had completely changed the desert landscape, and years later the decision was made to move the production to Namibia. It was then, in mid 2012, that Bert Newton decided to drop out of the production, going on to appear as Franklin D. Roosevelt in the Australian stage revival of "Annie".
Teresa Palmer was originally cast, but due to delays of the production, she dropped out and was replaced by Abbey Lee.
The 'Peacemaker' truck belonging to the "Bullet Farmer", is adorned with various ammunition. Even pieces like the steering wheel are customized, despite not having extended screen time.
The film was originally supposed to be shot in Australia, but there was a problem during pre-production when it rained for the first time in years, and the desert suddenly sprouted green, which clearly doesn't suit the bleak post apocalyptic look of the films. Eventually it was decided to move the entire production to Namibia to use the desert there, which involved shipping most of the bizarre, pre-built vehicles to southern Africa. Then just before production was about to start, it rained in the Namibian desert and delayed production yet again. The odd thing is that this is actually the third time that the franchise suffered delays from unexpected rain in the desert: it also happened during the making of Mad Max 2, when desert rain meant that the production was suspended for a week.
Courtney Eaton was in her mid-teens during filming, and had much less film experience than the rest of the cast, so she ended up taking on the baby sister role among the actors in real-life, too. In addition, she became close friends with Abbey Lee, which is most likely why Cheedo and the Dag are always holding each other.
The highest grossing Mad Max film with a worldwide take of $375 million. However, because of its expensive price tag and advertising budget, it ended up losing $40 million.
The character of Corpus Colossus was originally supposed to be killed off at the end (presumably by one of the Milk Mothers). This ending was shot with about ten takes until George Miller decided that he simply cannot kill off Corpus Colossus. The sequence was re-shot the next day in the form that made it into the movie, which made Corpus the only surviving member of Immortan Joe's family.
You can see a hand mirror attached to the side-view mirror of the War Rig to "repair" the damaged mirror that got destroyed earlier in the movie.
The Coma-Doof Warrior's double-neck guitar, which is a playable instrument weighed 60 kgs and had to be held up with bungie ropes. The lower neck is a bass guitar neck. Both headstocks have automotive spark plugs as tuning keys. It shot actual flames from a valve behind the upper headstock. The flamethrower controller is the whammy bar (though during close-up shots the whammy bar isn't screwed in). A piece of a Datsun 1600 chassis hangs below the guitar body. A guitar pedal is chained to Coma's waist. It appears charred beyond recognition, though the shape and design resembles a generic BOSS four-knob pedal.
Valhalla is the name of an afterlife paradise in Norse mythology. The Valkyries lead half of the men who die in battle to a majestic hall, ruled over by the god, Odin.
During the project's hiatus between 2003 and 2009, George Miller considered making the film as a 3-D animated feature. In addition to that, George Miller was developing an action-adventure tie-in video game based on it, along with God of War II (2007), and video game designer Cory Barlog. Both projects were expected to take two to two-and-a-half years, according to Miller, with a release date of either 2011 or 2012. Fury Road was going to be produced at Dr. D Studios, a digital art studios founded in 2008 by Miller and Doug Mitchell.
The long range rifle used by Charlize Theron is a Chinese Type 56 carbine (which is a Chinese manufactured variant of the Russian SKS but with a fully hooded front sight; production commenced in 1956 alongside the Type 56 assault rifle which is based on the AK-47). Originally designed in 1943 by Sergei Gavrilovich Simonov, it was based off the design of the AVS-36, but used the 7.62x39 round). The SKS was chosen as the standard service rifle with the Soviet armed forces in 1945 (it was chosen over a 1944 selective fire carbine design by Mikhail Kalashinkov, which lost out to the SKS, since Simonov was an elder statesman of Soviet gun design; this particular carbine design had features which were incorporated into the design of what evolved into the AK-47). Making its design seventy years old at the time of the films release.
Most of the dialogue was dubbed on a sound stage in post production as the original on set audio recordings were unusable due to background noise from wind and car engines.
Of the actresses seen as the Five Wives, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Abbey Lee (her film debut), and Riley Keough have done runway modelling prior to acting. Huntington-Whiteley and Lee are past Victoria's Secret models (Lee was featured during the 2008 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show during the Pink Planet segment). Courtney Eaton started as a child and teen model prior to acting, and is a close friend to Lee.
Despite having custom logos starting the film, Warner Bros. Pictures and Village Roadshow Pictures (and RatPac-Dune Entertainment) aren't credited until the very end of the film, after all other credits have rolled.
This film is considered an Ozploitation movie, an Australian genre and/or Australian exploitation movie.
Included among the "1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die", edited by Steven Schneider.
Uma Thurman was considered for the part of Furiosa.
The film was the subject of extreme criticism from various conservative and anti-feminist commentators who were angry that Max himself was not the primary protagonist and that the central theme revolved more around Furiosa's story of finding her tribe and leading Joe's brides to freedom. However, critics still sided with Miller and the cast saying that Furiosa's story lent much more depth to the film.
The first time that the fourth entry to be released in a franchise has been Oscar nominated for Best Picture.
The Coma-Doof Warrior's name derives from Australian slang for techno rave parties, dubbed "doof parties" for their repetitive 4/4 beats.
The unofficial Mad Max Wiki website indicates that the film takes place after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). The little girl in Max's vision was called Glory the Child, who appeared in the comics before Fury Road takes place. Max is seen driving a V8 interceptor at the beginning of the film, which was destroyed in The Road Warrior (1981). In the comics, Max was able to find another V8 Interceptor.
Courtney Eaton (Cheedo the Fragile) replaced Adelaide Clemens due to scheduling conflicts. This is her first film. She did not know anything about the films until her dad told her, who was a big fan of the films.
Amidst claims of the film going over-budget and behind schedule, Warner Bros. then sent a producer to oversee production in Namibia.
Although it was shot in the Namibian desert, it was deceptively cold. Riley Keough ended up at one point with hypothermia.
In 2007, George Miller completed Happy Feet (2006) and decided to revitalize his stalled efforts to get Mad Max back before the cameras. It would still take him another 8 years to complete it.
During a May 2020 oral history of the making of Mad Max: Fury Road, production designer Colin Gibson remembered that in 2003, when Mel Gibson was still attached to the project, Colin got an email from Mel's then-wife asking "how many Muslims there may or may not be in Namibia and, therefore, how interested she may or may not be in the whole family coming to visit."
Although the movie is a reboot, George Miller had originally intended for Mad Max: Fury Road to be a direct sequel to Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) with Mel Gibson returning once again as Max. However, it's been debated that Mad Max: Fury Road does take place in the original timeline and that Tom Hardy is the same Max that Mel Gibson played and Fury Road takes place after Thunderdome and that Max is still tormented by the demons of his past.
Every night shot in the film was recorded in daytime. Unlike most films, the camera was overexposed by up to two stops or more, and then was recolored.
The Mad Max franchise was originally slated to continue as an American TV show in the mid-1990s but creator George Miller felt TV could not do justice to his settings and characters as TV at the time was mostly controlled by the networks in America and they were not big on a lot of violence on their shows. However, the discussions for the TV show planted the seeds for Fury Road.
The film came together and fell apart twice before it was shot. Originally scheduled for shooting in 2003, the American studio pulled the plug when the financial crisis after the 9/11 terrorism attacks left the US dollar in a weakened state versus the Australian dollar, cutting off 30% of the planned budget. Soon after Mel Gibson fell from grace in Hollywood and many thought the movie could never be made without him. The film was revived in 2009, casting Tom Hardy as Max, and was set to shoot in the Broken Hills region of Australia (where the first three Mad Max movies had been shot) when unprecedented rain storms in the region turned the desert lush with vegetation. Shooting then switched to Namibia, Africa and the cameras finally started rolling on July 9, 2012.
The movie was shot in three main places: Namibia, South Africa, and Australia. Most of the outdoor shots were done first in the desert in Namibia, then the production moved to Cape Town, South Africa to do many of the interior shots, and finally the outdoor scenes at the beginning and end of the movie at the Citadel were done in Australia.
Furiosa's skill with long-range shots is actually displayed well before the moment she shoots out the Bullet Farmer's lights in the quagmire; earlier while taking a small reprieve, she shoots down two War Boys on a motorcycle who had just barely gotten into visual range -- with one bullet. Two birds with one stone. Even earlier than that; while the group was speeding out of the canyon facing off against the bikers -- take a look at how Furiosa and Max decided to take out their pursuers: Max opted for the handgun -- using as many shots as he needed to bring down a target; while Furiosa took the rifle -- and she aimed for headshots. This also foreshadows the Vuvalini's penchant for long-range rifles, as they say themselves: one man, one bullet.
Immortan Joe keeps a Colt Anaconda as one of his personal sidearms, and brandishes it during the first and last chase scenes. Both him and his eldest son, Rictus Erectus, also carry Ruger Vaqueros with stainless steel bodies and ivory grips as personal sidearms
Final acting role of Hugh Keays-Byrne. He passed away 5 years later on December 1st 2020. He was 73.
The lead visual effects company for the film was Iloura, who delivered more than 1,500 effects shots. Additional visual effects studios that worked on the film include Method Studios, Stereo D, 4DMax, BlackGinger, The Third Floor, and Dr. D Studios.
Filming lasted 120 days, and the film runs at 113 minutes without credits. So, it could be said that each day equals about a minute of the film.
At least four members of the cast have been involved in comic book films. Tom Hardy starred as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Nicholas Hoult starred as young Hank McCoy/Beast in the X-Men franchise, Zoë Kravitz who starred as Angel in X-Men: First Class (2011), and Josh Helman who starred as William Stryker in X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014).
Writing about the film for ABC News, Michael Rothman described Immortan Joe as "a real bad guy who looks nothing like any villain that's ever graced the silver screen". Vanity Fair's Joanna Robinson described him as "nightmarish" and "a fairly classic Miller creation with a skull fetish even a teenage goth would envy". Spencer Kornhaber of The Atlantic wrote, "Perhaps the closest 2015 has gotten to providing fodder for 'Greatest Villains of All Time' lists was in Mad Max: Fury Road, where slaver-warlord Immortan Joe sported a nauseating headpiece and an equally nauseating dadbod."
This is the first film in the Mad Max franchise in which the Max Rockatansky character is seen to fire a standard purpose-built handgun. As an MFP officer in Mad Max (1979), Max carries a revolver, but always reaches for a shotgun - including his iconic sawed-off shotgun - when the need for a weapon arises. In The Road Warrior (1981), Max only uses the sawed-off shotgun. In Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Max threatens another character with a pistol, but never fires it, and handles a revolver without using it.
Max's personal weapon is a Sawn-off Double Barreled Shotgun, in particular for this film, a sawn-off Victor Sarasqueta shotgun.
It was George Miller's idea to add trumpets and tubas to the MAN KAT I A1 (8x8) "Doof Wagon." Production designer Collin Gibson fought this idea for a while, but he realized that they could've come from a bus full of brass instruments that was ran over.
This is Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's second major acting role after Transformers: Dark of the Moon (2011).
Mel Gibson was discounted for the lead role for several reasons. One was sexist and racist controversies after run-ins with the police, and the other was because George Miller envisioned Max as still being a young man.
Furiosa's personal sidearm is a blued Taurus PT99AF 9x19mm, which is confiscated by Max after he joins her and the wives. During the final chase, Immortan Joe draws and fires a stainless steel PT99AF at Max.
Max obtains a Browning Hi-Power after encountering the Bullet Farmer and his men in the Green Place, keeping it as his personal sidearm for the remainder of the film.
Keeping in line with the previous incarnations Max barely speaks in this film, excluding his narration in the beginning.
Weta Digital was originally involved with the film when it was scheduled for a 2012 release. The company was to be handling visual effects, conceptual designs, specialty make-up effects, and costume designs until production was postponed from its November 2010 start date.
The accelerator on Furiosa's war rig is a Brannock Device, which is used for measuring feet for shoes. It is visible briefly when she activates the cruise control and steps away.
John Powell was set to compose the soundtrack.
Megan Gale was planned to play Wonder Woman in Miller's Justice League. As that project fell through, Miller remembered about the Australian model/actress and specifically created a role for her in Fury Road. The character of The Valkyrie was supposed to be one of the surviving Vuvalini at the very end but due to Megan Gale's personal obligations the character had to be killed off quickly, so that Gale would return to Australia.
Furiosa is spanish for Mad (woman/girl). Furiosa also means really angry (woman/girl). Furioso is spanish for Mad (man).
In 2016, the two most nominated films were The Revenant with 12 nominations (of which it won only 3) and Mad Max: Fury Road with 10 nominations (which won 6). Tom Hardy appears in both films
The film is considered to be a loose remake of Stagecoach (1939). George Miller cited the sequence in which Apaches pursue the stagecoach in that film an influence behind the climatic tanker chase in The Road Warrior (1981) (aka "The Road Warrior").
After The Revenant (2015), this was the second most nominated film at the 2016 Academy Awards. It was also the biggest winner on the night with six wins.
Fans of the popular British tabletop game Warhammer 40,000 noted that Immortan Joe and his War Boys bore several uncanny similarities to an Ork war band in the game. Specifically they cite the way the soldiers fought in an almost insane, nihilistic, devil-may-care fashion, and their vehicles possessed a DIY, scrapyard aesthetic, and only worked when they were in control of the vehicle.
Lord Humungus, the main antagonist of The Road Warrior (1981) and Emperor Palpatine, antagonist of the Star Wars series, are considered strong influences behind Immortan Joe. Like Palpatine, Immortan Joe is a disfigured tyrant, and like Lord Humungus, Immortan Joe conceals his deformed face behind a mask.
Composer Junkie XL said in a Youtube interview how the first cut of the movie that George Miller showed him was three and a half hours long, and it still didn't have a beginning or an ending.
It was rumored that Mel Gibson would have a cameo role as a drifter, but it turned out to be false.
In real life, Quentin Kenihan has Osteogenesis Imperfecta (brittle bone disease). It is quite likely that Corpus has the same condition. "Corpus Callosum" is a term for the region of the human brain that connects the left and right cerebral hemispheres.
Marco Beltrami was considered to score the film.
The name of guitar player, Doof Warrior, has different meanings in Dutch and German. In Dutch, doof means deaf or a person who is deaf. In German, doof means daft, silly, dumb, dopey, thick, etc.
The seventh sequel nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture, after The Bells of St. Mary's (1945), The Godfather Part II (1974), The Godfather Part III (1990), The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), and Toy Story 3 (2010).
Keen viewers might notice that, while the characters and film are focused on the explosive skirmish with the Buzzards, the sky ahead is steadily filling with nasty storm clouds.
In December 2002, 20th Century Fox announced " Fury Road" with George Miller directing and Mel Gibson reprising his role for a paycheck of $25m.
Lady Gaga was considered for the role of Imperator Furiosa.
Cinematographer John Seale replaced Dean Semler who quit the project after multiple delays.
Spoilers
The portion of the blood-bag information tattoo being painfully needled into Max's back at The Citadel that was completed before he escapes reads: Day 12045, ht 10 hands, 180 lbs, No Name, No Lumps, No Bumps, Full Life Clear, Two good eyes, No Busted limbs, Piss OK, Genitals Intact, Multiple Scars, Heals Fast, O-NEGATIVE, HIGH-OCTANE, UNIVERSAL DONOR, Lone Road Warrior Rundown on The Powder Lakes V8, No Guzzoline, No Supplies, ISOLATE PSYCHOTIC, Keep Muzzled...
The last image is of Furiosa rising into Joe's Citadel, Max having melted into the crowds. George Miller disclosed: "Very early on, I had (Max) going up to the top of the Citadel with them. But Tom Hardy picked that up very early - Max would never go. He wasn't even remotely ready for that. We end on the idea of Furiosa and the others taking over all the resources. It asks the question: are they going to do any better?"
The scene where Nux flips the War Rig to block the pass was filmed almost entirely using practical effects at the insistence of George Miller, who believed using CGI would ruin the movie and models would be insufficient. The scene was filmed with master stunt driver Lee Adamson behind the wheel, as the War Rig was hydraulically launched onto its side at full speed. Although the production team planned for multiple takes if the War Rig failed to land in the right spot, the stunt was filmed flawlessly on the first and only take. Miller was initially alarmed while watching the footage, having seen the dummy representing Nux being partially crushed when the vehicle landed, and mistaking it for driver Lee Adamson, who was in a protective cage on the other side. After filming the demise of the War Rig, the Doof Wagon was filmed crashing into it from behind, as depicted in the film. CGI was used only for some of the debris.
Megan Gale's character "The Valkyrie" was originally supposed to live, but Gale became pregnant during production and had to leave the project early, so George Miller decided to kill her character off.
Even though it is an independent movie in the series, it has references to other Mad Max pictures: the opening shot resembles the beginning of The Road Warrior (1981) and the music box one of the wives carries is a nod to the music box Max gives the Feral Kid in the same movie. When Max suggests to Furiosa and the other women that they turn the rig around and drive back to where they have just come from this is a nod to The Road Warrior (1981), as is Max's misfiring shotgun and when Max first approaches Furiosa with an unconscious body over his shoulder. He has a metallic brace on his leg just like in Mad Max 2, and was presumably worn in that film because of the injury he sustains being shot in the knee at the end of the previous film Mad Max (1979). Max is staked up front on Nux's Chevrolet coupe, same as the hostages on Lord Humugus' vehicle.
Near the movie's end, Max (Tom Hardy) tells the unconscious Furiosa, 'My name is Max.' At the same time, he performs some facial tics (eyebrow raise, twitches, squints). This is a nod to Mel Gibson's style of acting, who used this technique to communicate a crazed/manic look.
When Engine #1 of the War Rig breaks down during the final chase to The Citadel, the sound it makes is the same sound the Millennium Falcon makes when it breaks down in Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back (1980).
When Max is tied to the front of Nux's car, there is a skull with a pilot's cap and goggles on a spike above him. This is a reference to the Gyro Captain, who appeared in The Road Warrior (1981).
With the exception of Max and Nux, all of the film's male characters are villains. Conversely, all of the female characters are good.
Max's 1973 Ford Falcon XB GT V8 Pursuit Special (aka The Interceptor), seen in the first two films, Mad Max (1979) and a near look alike The Road Warrior (1981), is seen in this film. Its appearance is nearly identical to its battered state seen in the second film, however the prequel comics to this movie reveal it is a completely different car. The new interceptor is quickly wrecked in the film's opening sequence, rebuilt, and ultimately wrecked again.
Max and the main antagonist, Immortan Joe, never directly interact with each other, apart from when Max hijacks the People Eater's Limousine. They exchange gunshots during the takeover.
Max's sawed-off shotgun misfires when he tries to shoot off Nux's wrist, as it did in The Road Warrior (1981). (When Furiosa pulls the trigger, it doesn't misfire, as there was only one live cartridge in the gun, as Nux had fired off the other one earlier).
The only film in the Mad Max franchise where the last road battle does not end in a head-on collision between two vehicles, and a main antagonist is killed in the process.
Charlize Theron will not return as Imperator Furiosa for Mad Max: The Wasteland. The "Mad Max" films are influenced by the western genre and like the mysterious gunfighter, Max leaves and moves on to an entirely new adventure.
Furiosa mentions to the mothers that she had been gone for 7,000 days, plus the ones she doesn't remember. That equates to over 19 years.
A theory supposes that this was originally planned as a sequel to Mad Max (1979) and a prequel to The Road Warrior (1981), with Immortan Joe as Toe Cutter, who survived the accident in Mad Max but was badly injured, and Rictus Erectus was supposed to survive the accident at the end of the film to become Lord Humungus. This is not substantiated by any comments by the creators and directly contradicts the movie's production history.
A deleted scene shows Miss Giddy's fate; she is left with Angharad's body, and attacked by crows (the crows were never added).
In the last scene of the movie, Furiosa's eye is swollen shut as a result of injury, the same as Max's is at the end of The Road Warrior (1981).
Max's first and last lines revolve around him telling somebody what his name is. The first time he tells the audience in a voice over. The second time he tells Furiosa while giving her his blood.
In a likely reference, Nux crashes the War Rig in the same way the tanker crashes at the end of The Road Warrior (1981).
Whenever the camera focuses on the skulls adorning the War Rig, the next scene is going to contain death.
When Max asks Nux if he's a "blackthumb" and can fix Engine #1 while they are on the War Rig may be a reference to the character Blackfinger from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), who is the chief mechanic in Bartertown.
The music box Toast the Knowing is playing is similar to the one seen in The Road Warrior (1981), which Max pulls off a body in a wrecked truck and later gives to the Feral Kid.
After the War Rig is driven off the platform and the platform begins to rise as it is drawn back up into The Citadel, a lone woman can be seen standing in the center. In the previous wide-angle shot of the crowd, The Wretched were shown begging for a place in Immortan Joe's coterie. This woman, played by Debra Ades, was likely brought aboard to be used as a milker or breeder.
The blood-bag information tattoo on Max's back contains a description of his capture: "Lone Road Warrior Rundown on The Powder Lakes V8". Calling him a "Road Warrior" is a reference to the second film, The Road Warrior (1981), which was released under the title "The Road Warrior" in the U.S.
In one of the scenes, the War Rig has a collision with a black Mack tractor unit. The same style of Mack tractor unit was featured in The Road Warrior (1981) to pull the fuel tanker trailer.
After Max searches Furiosa's cab for weapons, and leaves with all her guns, Furiosa reveals a hidden knife sheathed in her gear shift. In Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Max is disarmed before entering Bartertown, but hides a knife sheathed in a fly swatter.
When first spotting "The Gassers" from the War Rig, two breeders look from the window to spot them for Furiosa. One uses binoculars, while the other uses a spyglass. This is a reference to The Road Warrior (1981), where he and the pilot use binoculars and a spyglass to watch the refinery get attacked by Humungus' crew.
Immortan Joe wears a face mask for medical purposes, which is functionally similar to the mask worn by Tom Hardy when he portrayed Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012). In both films, each character is defeated by the hero damaging or destroying the mask.
Pause at the right time when Immortan Joe dies, and you can clearly see that his lower jaw is ripped off.
While he's being comforted by Capable, Nux tells her that he thought he "was being spared for something great". He was. Nux: "If I'm gonna die, I'm gonna die historic on the fury road!"
Furiosa calls Max "fool" when he doesn't tell her his name. This is a reference to 'The Fool's Journey', the story structure of this film. In this structure Max plays the role of "The Fool" co-writer Nico Lauthoris said that he used the Tree of Life of the Kabbalah and the Major Arcana in Tarot as a map for the story. it turns out that the 22 cards of the Major Arcana in Tarot form a story structure called 'The Fool's Journey'. When Furiosa refers to Max as "fool" this is a nod to the fact that Max represents the fool card in this story.
Angharad is the only 'Wife' who is injured when Max shoots at the War Rig. In the entire film, she is the only one of the Wives to die.
When Max, Furiosa, and company take the war rig back through the mountain pass seven women of the Vuvalini clan ride with them and engage in combat with their foes. Only two of these woman survive the battle.
Max gets a metal restraint mask chained onto his face for a good portion of the first act, which resembles Tom Hardy's role as Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012), and his voice slips into Bane's at points. Nux's steering wheel also bears a doll head wearing what superficially resembles Bane's mask. Additionally, this time, he's the one who beats up a huge musclebound bald, superhumanly strong villain who wears a respirator mask on the lower half of his face and defeats him by disabling his oxygen supply.
