Faster and with more Fury

The wasteland where Mad Max lives is not a pretty place, my friends.

Apart from the dust storms and tornadoes, it’s a barren post-apocalyptic desert where food and water are scarce indeed. Somehow, a late 20th century fixation on car culture has lasted into this future and gasoline has become better than gold.

In the Australian outback, near an outcropping of protruding mountains, a cult figure named Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) rules over a community of slaves, many of whom follow him for fear of facing his wrath. It’s a brutal regime, but it has some resistance.

Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) is one of his minions, or at least that’s how she starts off this tale. First set off on a mission to collect gasoline in a tanker truck, she veers wildly off course, looking to escape. Her cargo: a small cadre of Joe’s brides – fashion model sex slaves whose only purpose is to breed and bear his offspring. The escape is Furiosa’s attempt to return to her own homeland from whence she was kidnapped long ago. It’s a noble quest, but a long-shot. The dictator doesn’t take to insubordination kindly and quickly sets a squadron of souped-up muscle cars and their drugged up drivers painted ghostly white after him.

And that’s where Mad Max (Tom Hardy) first enters the fray. First strapped to the hood of one of those vehicles in chase, a battle scene enables his harrowing escape. He joins forces with Furiosa to find the mythical Green Place, an oasis paradise in the middle of nowhere to survive another day.

First, let’s be clear. This is not a fluffy family movie or even a fun and frivolous escapist fantasy like the Fast and the Furious. It might be borne out of the same street-racing scene but make no mistake, Fury Road is a dirt path scorched by fire and swamped in blood. There are no pristine high-end racing machines driving around the desert. Everything and everyone is a monster.

And that perhaps is the appeal of these movies, of which this is now the fourth. This is essentially a medieval tale with cars in the stead of horses. There are kings, knights, and pawns, and the queens are not to be underestimated. Mad Max might be the marquee name but this is Furiosa’s film. She’s the only one with enough gumption to retaliate while Max really just tags along for the ride. She drives and fights with the best of them, and she’s got a smart plan to boot.

The world and its characters might remind you of the sleepy world of Dune but there is a level of sustained violence and intense action here that is more akin to that of the Saw franchise. Peril is everywhere and there are a million ways to die, most of which get enacted on the screen … sans gore thankfully. If your heart can keep a steady beat through an adrenalized 20-minute balletic bullet-riddled battle royale on wheels then you’ve got nerves of steel. That, or you’ve become inured to impending doom and video induced seizures, all thanks to the grotesqueries of modern life, such as video games and the endless scenes of terrorism and police states that we see in the news on a daily basis.

Fury Road is better than anticipated though I wouldn’t chalk it up to a Blade Runner level of excellence. From the trailer, you might think that it exists purely for the cinematic explosions, the ‘Death Race’ action and the machines themselves, but there’s a decent underlying story about our dependence on fossil fuels, the preciousness of water, and how humanity must always hold onto hope to outlast oppression.

I was surprised by the juxtaposition of beauty and horror here, entering the cinema thinking that I was in for a character drama but leaving with philosophy and psychology on my brain as many fantastic ghosts and fireballs danced around them.