Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is still in my memory today. Until that film, I had not seen any other sequel from the Mad Max world, but Charlize Theron was incentive enough to lure me to the cinema. Although she barely uttered a word, the madness of the post-apocalyptic world has given birth to Imperator Furiosa into a mesmerizing and terrifying action heroine. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, 2024) lives on the laurels of a hardened character that director and screenwriter George Miller was able to create with the help of Theron.
For the first time, George Miller focuses on expanding the world he created 45 years ago with the first film Mad Max (Mad Max, 1979). It may be a coincidence that he uses the character of a young Furiosa, but the symbolism of fertility is used as an explicit motif in both films with Furiosa as the central character. In a desert land where violence is induced in search of water and the fight for bare survival, women and seeds become the most precious prey. Just as they are a symbol of continuation and abundance, young Furiosa is the seed from which the world of Mad Max expands.
We meet Furiosa as a little girl at the moment when she plucks a fruit from a tree as if she were in the Garden of Eden and her ‘hell’ begins by picking a peach. That’s how she is noticed by a group of renegades who see her as a lucrative prey. Her mother rushes to her aid from to help her from the Land of Plenty, where, it seems, the only members are women. Both Furiosa and her mother are caught by a gang led by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) after a long day and night chase. When they both refuse to reveal the location of Earth, Furiosa’s mother is crucified and set on fire after being tortured.
Dementus now puts himself in the role of Furiosa’s father. That is; Furiosa serves as a substitute for two of his own children who he lost in unexplained circumstances. However, this does not stop him from exchanging Furiosa for some favour or another with Immortan Joe and the resourceful girl runs away from Immortan’s lustful sons to the mines. There, her dexterity and military skills come to the fore and Furiosa becomes an important pawn in Immortan’s workforce.
The world of Mad Max is cruel and primitive. It consists of several paramilitary strongholds that trade with each other despite their distrust and road gangs that try to steal the traded goods. In this sequel, we are introduced to Gas Town and Bullet Farm in more detail and the journey between them is always accompanied by some adventurous action scene. Ana Taylor Joy is just as good at frenetic action as Charlize Theron; however, after the terrifying assault on all the senses in Fury Road, the action in the latest sequel (that is, the prequel) feels a little restrained. The lack of excitement arises from the fact that we know that Furiosa has to survive in order to appear in Fury Road.
What is interesting in the last two films of the Mad Max Saga is the clash between the ‘male’ and ‘female’ worlds. There is no shortage of aggression, need for dominance and vanity, but what Furiosa strives to fight for is peace, prosperity and community. One does not have to scratch far below the surface to uncover themes of ecology, exploitation, and the value of women. Although he never specifically addresses them, Miller undoubtedly shows where egoistic capitalism leads and what values are needed to oppose it.
Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga is unfortunately not as good as its predecessor. There is also the fear of franchising, which means boring recycling of previously exciting material. So far, it is still one of the more interesting films in the cinema repertoire well worth experiencing on the big screen.
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