MadMax: Fury Road is a 2015 Australian[10][discuss] post-apocalyptic action film co-written, co-produced, and directed by George Miller. Miller collaborated with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris on the screenplay. The fourth installment in the Mad Max franchise,[11] it was produced by Village Roadshow Pictures, RatPac-Dune Entertainment and Kennedy Miller Mitchell, and distributed by Roadshow Entertainment in Australia and by Warner Bros. Pictures internationally. The film stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, with Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zo Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton (in her film debut) in supporting roles. Set in a post-apocalyptic desert wasteland where petrol and water are scarce commodities, Fury Road follows Max Rockatansky (Hardy), who joins forces with Imperator Furiosa (Theron) against warlord Immortan Joe (Keays-Byrne) and his army, leading to a lengthy road battle.
Miller came up with the idea for Fury Road in 1987,[12] but the film spent many years in development hell before pre-production began in 1998. Attempts to shoot the film in the 2000s were delayed numerous times due to the September 11 attacks, the Iraq War, and controversies surrounding star Mel Gibson, leading Miller to recast Gibson's role of Max Rockatansky. Miller decided to pursue the film again in 2007, after the release of his animated comedy film Happy Feet. In 2009, Miller announced that filming would begin in early 2011. Hardy was cast as Max in June 2010, with production planned to begin that November. Principal photography was delayed several more times before it actually began in July 2012. The film wrapped in December 2012, although additional footage was shot in November 2013.
A self-titled prequel comic book series was published by Vertigo from 20 May to 5 August 2015, while following a pay dispute between Warner Bros. and Miller that delayed early efforts to produce follow-up projects. A prequel film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, was released on 24 May 2024, with Miller returning as writer and director.
Max Rockatansky, a survivor haunted by memories of all the people he failed to protect, is captured by cult leader Immortan Joe's War Boys and taken to his fortress, the Citadel. Max, a universal donor, is forced to transfuse his blood to Nux, a sick War Boy.[14] Meanwhile, Joe sends his lieutenant Imperator Furiosa in the armoured "War Rig" to trade produce and water for petrol and ammunition with two of his allies, the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater. When Joe realises his five wives are fleeing in the Rig, he leads his entire army in pursuit, calling on his allies to help.
Nux joins the pursuit with Max strapped to his car, and a chasing battle ensues. After entering enemy territory and fending off a rival gang, Furiosa drives into a sandstorm and loses all of her pursuers, except Nux, who attempts to sacrifice himself to blow up the Rig. Max frees himself and restrains Nux, and Furiosa destroys Nux's car.
After the sandstorm, Max catches Furiosa repairing the Rig, accompanied by Joe's wives: Toast, Capable, the Dag, Cheedo, and Angharad, the last of whom is heavily pregnant with Joe's child. Max fights and subdues Furiosa, but her engine kill switch prevents him from stealing the Rig. To escape Joe's wrath, he begrudgingly agrees to help Furiosa's group. Nux sneaks onto the Rig and attempts to kill Furiosa, but the wives overpower him and throw him out. He rejoins Joe's army when it catches up.
Furiosa drives through a canyon controlled by a biker gang, having pre-arranged to trade petrol for safe passage. The bikers turn on her when they spot Joe's army approaching, forcing her to flee. The bikers detonate the canyon walls to block Joe and then pursue the Rig as Max and Furiosa fend them off. Joe drives over the blockade in a monster truck and catches up with the Rig. He sends Nux to carjack the Rig, but Nux fails, to Joe's visible disgust. While helping Max, Angharad falls off the Rig and Joe fatally runs her over.
Capable finds Nux hiding in the Rig and consoles him as he laments his failure. At night, Furiosa and Max drive through a swamp and get stuck in the mud. They slow Joe's forces with landmines, but the Bullet Farmer continues the pursuit in his ATV. Furiosa and Max work together to blind the Bullet Farmer and disable his ATV. Moved by Capable's compassion, Nux joins the group and helps get the Rig moving again.
In the morning, Furiosa tells Max that her group is escaping to a "Green Place", the bountiful land where she grew up before she was kidnapped and brought to the Citadel. She spots a Green Place watchtower and identifies herself to the watchwoman, who summons their matriarchal clan, the Vuvalini. The Vuvalini recognise Furiosa as one of their own, but inform a devastated Furiosa that the Green Place was the now-uninhabitable swamp from the previous night, and that there are only seven Vuvalini left. The group decides to ride across an immense salt flat, hoping to find a new home on the other side. Max goes his own way.
After seeing a vision of a child he failed to save,[15][16] Max catches up with the group and convinces them to return to the Citadel, since they know the now-undefended Citadel has ample water and crops and they do not know what lies beyond the salt flat. Joe intercepts them, and the two groups battle in the desert. Five Vuvalini are killed, Toast is captured, and Furiosa is severely wounded. Joe overtakes the Rig as they approach the canyon. While Max fights Joe's son and enforcer, Rictus, Furiosa boards Joe's truck to rescue Toast, who distracts Joe, allowing Furiosa to kill him. The remnants of the group drive Joe's truck back to the Citadel, while Nux sacrifices himself by wrecking the Rig to block the canyon behind them, killing Rictus. Max willingly transfuses his blood to Furiosa, saving her life.
Back at the Citadel, the people rejoice upon learning of Joe's death. As Max's companions are lifted to Joe's cliffside fortress, Max exchanges a glance with Furiosa before disappearing into the crowd.
Mad Max: Fury Road had a lengthy gestation period. In 1987, George Miller had the idea of making a Mad Max instalment that was "almost a continuous chase".[18] He got an idea for the plot in 1998 when he was walking across a street in Los Angeles, and about a year later, while travelling from Los Angeles to Australia, a story in which "violent marauders were fighting, not for oil or for material goods, but for human beings" coalesced.[citation needed] Miller said he worked with five storyboard artists to design the film in storyboard form before writing the screenplay, producing about 3,500 panels, which is almost the same as the number of shots as in the finished film, as he wanted the film to be almost a continuous chase, with relatively little dialogue, and to have the visuals come first.[19] The screenplay was written with Nico Lathouris and cult British comic creator Brendan McCarthy, who also designed many of the new characters and vehicles.[20]
The film entered pre-production at 20th Century Fox in the early 2000s and was set to star Mel Gibson, who had portrayed Max Rockatansky in the first three films in the series, with Sigourney Weaver contemplated for the female co-lead which would later become Imperator Furiosa, suggested by Gibson himself after they had worked together in Peter Weir's The Year of Living Dangerously, and Miller agreed on the idea. However, production was indefinitely postponed after the September 11 attacks in 2001 caused "the American dollar [to collapse] against the Australian dollar, and our budget ballooned",[21] as Miller has said in several interviews since the film was released in 2015,[11][22] or due to security concerns and tightened travel and shipping restrictions during the lead up to the Iraq War caused issues with the proposed Namibian shoot, as had been reported previously.[23][24][25] In either event, Miller said he then "had to commit to Happy Feet because we had the digital facility booked to do it", and by the time he got back to work on the Mad Max project four years later, Gibson "had all that turbulence in his life."[21] Both Miller and Gibson himself said the passage of time had made Gibson's age a factor, since the film "wasn't about an old road warrior."[21]
In 2006, Miller said he was thinking about making Fury Road without Gibson.[23][26] He confirmed his intention to make another Mad Max film in 2007 and stated that he thought Gibson was focused on his own films and was also "too old" to play the part.[27][28] On 5 March 2009, it was announced that an R-rated animated feature film inspired by Japanese anime, but adapted for Western audiences, was in pre-production that would be taking much of the plot from Fury Road and would not feature Gibson's voice.[29] Miller was also developing an action-adventure tie-in video game based on the fourth film with God of War II designer Cory Barlog. Both projects were expected to take two to two-and-a-half years and, according to Miller, would be released in 2011 or 2012.[29] The animated Fury Road was going to be produced by Dr D Studios, a digital art studio founded in 2008 by Miller and Doug Mitchell.[29]
In July 2010, Miller announced plans to shoot two Mad Max films back-to-back, entitled Mad Max: Fury Road and Mad Max: Furiosa.[36] Weta Digital was involved with the film when it was scheduled for a 2012 release.[37] The company was to handle visual effects, conceptual designs, speciality make-up effects, and costume designs until production was postponed from its November 2010 start date.[38] After unexpected heavy rains caused wildflowers to grow in the desert around Broken Hill, filming was moved from Broken Hill back to Namibia in November 2011.[39] Other potential locations scouted included the Atacama Desert in Chile, Chott el Djerid in Tunisia, and Azerbaijan.[40]
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