Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action film directed and produced by George Miller, who wrote the screenplay with Nico Lathouris. It is the fifth installment in the Mad Max franchise, and the first not focused on Max Rockatansky, instead a spinoff prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road and an origin story for Furiosa. Starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne as said character and set years before Fury Road, the film follows her life for over a decade, from her kidnapping by the forces of warlord Dementus to her ascension to the rank of Imperator. Tom Burke also stars as Praetorian Jack, a military commander who befriends Furiosa. Several Fury Road cast members return in supporting roles, including John Howard, Nathan Jones, and Angus Sampson reprising their characters. The film begins in what can be seen as a green paradise of a solarpunk future and quickly moves to the more traditional dieselpunk, which this franchise is known for.
Miller initially intended to shoot Furiosa back-to-back with Fury Road, but the former spent several years in development hell amidst salary disputes with Warner Bros. Pictures, Fury Roads distributor. Several crew members from Fury Road returned for Furiosa, including Lathouris, producer Doug Mitchell, composer Tom Holkenborg, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and editor Margaret Sixel. Filming took place in Australia from June to October 2022.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2024. It was released theatrically in Australia on 23 May 2024 and in the United States the following day. The film received highly positive reviews from critics and multiple award nominations. It was named one of the Top Ten Films of 2024 by the National Board of Review, but was a box-office bomb, grossing $174.4 million against its budget of $168 million.
Plot
Chapter 1: The Pole of Inaccessibility
Decades after the apocalypse, Australia is a radioactive wasteland and the Green Place of Many Mothers is one of the last remaining areas with fresh water and agriculture. Roobillies uncover the Green Place while two children, Furiosa and Valkyrie, are picking peaches. Furiosa tries to sabotage their motorcycles, but the Roobillies capture her as a prize for Dementus of the Biker Horde.Furiosa's mother Mary Jabassa pursues the Roobillies to the Horde's camp to rescue Furiosa, but Dementus tracks them down. Mary stays behind to buy Furiosa time to escape and gives her a peach pit to remember her by, but Furiosa refuses to leave Mary behind. Dementus forces Furiosa to watch her mother's crucifixion and torture at the hands of Dementus lieutenant The Octoboss. Haunted by his own family's death, Dementus adopts Furiosa as his daughter. She tattooed a star chart to the Green Place on her left arm to find her way home.
Chapter 2: Lessons from the Wasteland
Sometime after, Dementus besieges the Citadel, another settlement with fresh water and agriculture. However, the Horde is repelled by the War Boys, the fanatical army of Citadel warlord Immortan Joe. Dementus uses a Trojan Horse strategy to capture Gastown, an oil refinery that supplies the Citadel with gasoline. At peace negotiations, Joe recognizes Dementus's authority over Gastown and increases its supplies of food and water in exchange for the Horde's Organic Mechanic and Furiosa. Afterwards, Joe imprisons Furiosa with his stable of "wives" inside a vault. After Joe's son Rictus shows an attraction towards her, Furiosa devises a plan to escape. One night, Rictus breaks Furiosa out of Joe's vault to rape her, but she slips from his grasp using a wig made from her own hair and disappears. Disguised as a mute War Boy, Furiosa works her way up the ranks of Joe's men for over a decade.Chapter 3: The Stowaway
Furiosa helps build the War Rig, a heavily armed supply tanker that can withstand raider attacks in the lawless Wasteland. Furiosa plans to escape by hiding on the Rig when Joe sends his top driver, Praetorian Jack, on a supply run. Disillusioned by Dementus's callousness, The Octoboss goes rogue and launches an air assault on the Rig. His Mortifiers slaughter the Rig's entire crew and destroy Furiosa's hidden motorcycle, but Furiosa and Jack team up to defeat them. Furiosa tries to carjack the Rig and drive home, but Jack easily thwarts her. However, he recognizes her potential and offers to train her to escape if she helps him rebuild his crew.Chapter 4: Homeward
Furiosa becomes Jack's second-in-command and is promoted to Praetorian. She and Jack develop a bond and resolve to escape together. They see an opportunity when Joe decides to attack Gastown, which Dementus has mismanaged to near-ruin. Joe orders Furiosa and Jack to collect weapons and ammunition from the Bullet Farm, an allied mining facility. However, Dementus, having already taken possession of the farm, ambushes them when they arrive. Furiosa and Jack barely escape, and Furiosa's left arm is injured. Dementus chases them down and has Jack dragged to death. Furiosa escapes her chains by severing her own injured arm, sacrificing her star map.A lone man watches from afar as Furiosa struggles back to the Citadel, where she and Joe's aide The People Eater form a strategy to avoid a trap planned by Dementus. Instead, Dementus is lured into a trap at the Citadel, and the War Boys crush the Horde. Having lost her path home, Furiosa shaves her head and builds a mechanical prosthetic in place of her severed arm.
Chapter 5: Beyond Vengeance
Furiosa pursues the fleeing Dementus. After an extended chase, Furiosa subdues Dementus in the desert. She imprisons Dementus in the Citadel and uses his still-living body as fertilizer to grow a peach tree from her mother's pit. Joe promotes Furiosa to "Imperator" and gives her command of a new War Rig.She meets Joe's five breeder wives in the vault where Joe once held her prisoner and shows them a peach from the tree. The night before another supply run, the "Five Wives" hide in Furiosa's Rig.
Cast
The first three are credited in the opening credits:- Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa, a woman who was taken from the Green Place as a kid and works her way up the ranks of the Citadel. Taylor-Joy wore two different wigs over her natural hair.
- * Alyla Browne as child and teen Furiosa. Browne wore fake feet for scenes in the Wasteland and wore different wigs over her natural hair.
- * Archive footage of Charlize Theron as the older Furiosa from Mad Max: Fury Road is used during the final scene and end credits
- Chris Hemsworth as Dementus, the deranged warlord leader of the Biker Horde who abducted Furiosa, and eventual ruler of Gastown
- * Sean Renfrey as the Echo Man, a possible fate of Dementus where he was used as a fertilizer for Furiosa's peach tree
- Tom Burke as Praetorian Jack, the commander of the Citadel's first War Rig
- George Shevtsov as The History Man, an expert in pre-apocalyptic history, science, and technology who serves Dementus. He serves as the film's narrator
- Lachy Hulme as:
- * Immortan Joe, the warlord leader of the Citadel and enemy of the Biker Horde
- ** Archive footage of Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe from Mad Max: Fury Road is used during the end credits
- * Rizzdale Pell, Dementus' lieutenant
- John Howard as The People Eater, Immortan Joe's advisor and military strategist and the future ruler of Gastown in Mad Max: Fury Road
- Angus Sampson as The Organic Mechanic, Dementus' personal physician that Immortan Joe claims in a deal with Dementus
- Charlee Fraser as Mary Jabassa, Furiosa's mother and a top member of the Vuvalini
- Elsa Pataky as:
- * The Vulalini General, the second-in-command of Mary and member of the Vuvalini
- * Mr. Norton, a deformed survivor who joins the Biker Horde
- Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus, Immortan Joe's muscular but dimwitted son
- Josh Helman as Scrotus, Immortan Joe's psychologically unstable son
- David Field as Toe Jam, a member of the nomadic Roobillies biker gang that's loyal to Dementus who was responsible for capturing Furiosa
- Rahel Romahn as Vulture, a member of the nomadic Roobillies biker gang that is later killed by Mary who steals some of his clothes in order to get into Dementus' camp
- David Collins as Smeg, Dementus's henchman, dance proclaimer, and messenger of the Biker Horde
- Goran D. Kleut as The Octoboss, the leader of the Mortifiers biker gang who begins the film as Dementus's temporary ally
- CJ Bloomfield as Big Jilly, a member of Dementus' Biker Horde
- Matuse as Fang, Dementus's henchman
- Ian Roberts as Mr. Harley, a member of Dementus' Biker Horde
- Guy Spence as Mr. Davidson, a member of Dementus' Biker Horde
- Rob Jones as Squint, a member of Dementus' Biker Horde
- Clarence Ryan as Black Thumb, Praetorian Jack's mechanic on the War Rig
- Tim Burns as Hungry Eyes, a member of Dementus' Biker Horde
- Tim Rogers as Snapper, a member of Dementus' Biker Horde who is killed by Mary
- Florence Mezzara as Sad Eyes, a member of Dementus' biker horde who tended to Furiosa before Mary's arrival
- Quaden Bayles as War Pup, a young War Boy on board the War Rig during Jack's supply run
- Peter Stephens as the Guardian of Gastown, the brother of Immortan Joe who is later captured by Dementus and killed by a bomb during Dementus' meeting with Immortan Joe
- Sean Millis as a Lone War Boy, a War Boy who later took part in the Forty Day Wasteland War against the Biker Horde
- Lee Perry as The Bullet Farmer, ruler of the Bullet Farm and the Citadel's arms supplier
- * Archive footage of Richard Carter as The Bullet Farmer from Mad Max: Fury Road is used during the end credits
- Daniel Webber as War Boy
;The Green Place
- Dylan Adonis as Valkyrie, a member of the Vulvalini who is Furiosa's childhood friend
- * Archive footage of Megan Gale as an older Valkyrie from Mad Max: Fury Road is used during the end credits.
- Anna Adams and Peter Sammak as the Vuvalini
- Shea Adams as Cannibal, a full-masked member of the Roobillies who is the first to be killed by Mary
- Josh Randall as Savage, a goggled and mouth-masked member of the Roobillies who is the second to be killed by Mary and has his motorcycle confiscated by her
- Karl Van Moorsel as Hacker, a cap-wearing and mouth-masked member of the Roobillies who is the third to be killed by Mary
- Dawn Clingberg as Corpse Minder, an old lady and member of the Wretched who keeps corpses for her maggots
- Richard Norton as the Prime Imperator, a high-ranking lieutenant of the War Boys
- Stephen Amadasun as the Shotgun Praetorian, a high-ranking member of the War Boys
- Nick Annas as the First Pick War Boy, a War Boy who was thought to have been picked by Smeg
- Ripley Voeten as the Chosen War Boy, a War Boy who was picked by Smeg
- Matt Van Leeve as Mortiflyer Matt, a member of Dementus' biker horde and The Octoboss' Mortiflyers who was instructed to disguise himself as a War Boy
- Shane Dundas as a Gastown Gate Watchman
- Jamie Cluff and Adam Thompson as the Gastown Gate Openers
- Shyan Tonga as the Gastown Rioter, an unnamed worker in Gastown
- Nellie Collins as a Winchman of the Citadel's main platform
- Adam Washbourne, James Corcoran, Sasha Vitanovic, Tige Sixel Miller as Watch Tower Praetorian Guards
- Justice Jones as Praetorian Pup, a War Boy who serves out food during Dementus' meeting with Immortan Joe
- Maleeka Gasbarri as one of Immortan Joe's "wives" who gives birth to a baby with a conjoined body
- Keza Ishimwe and Nat Buchanan as two of Immortan Joe's "wives"
- Jacob Tomuri as The Dogman, a worker at the Citadel
- Mark Wales as Brake Man, a mechanic at the Citadel
- Bryan Probets as Chumbucket, a hunchbacked auto mechanic at the Citadel
- Danny Lim as High Master Black Thumb, a mechanic at the Citadel
- Darcy Brice as Pissboy, a War Boy maintenance worker
- Chudier Gatwech as a Wretched Man recruit who helps build the War Rig
- Spencer Connelly as Rakka the Brakkish, a War Boy who helps build the War Rig
- Ben Smith-Petersen as Ace War Boy, a War Boy on the War Rig who is killed by a grenade thrown by a Mortiflyer.
- Toby Fuller as Lookout War Boy, a War Boy who is the lookout on the War Rig and sacrifices himself to take on the Mortifiers' Mortiflyers
- Jayden Irving as Witness War Boy, a War Boy on the War Rig who sacrifices himself to take on the Mortifiers' Mortiflyers.
- Karl Van Moorsel as a Mortiflyer bomb setter who attacks the War Rig and is killed by Pissboy
- Jon Iles as a Senior War Boy at the Bullet Farm who tells Pretorian Jack that Dementus is running Gastown into the ground
- Harrison Norris as Hazz the Valiant, a War Boy who becomes the new driver of the War Rig and is killed by the Biker Horde
- Ash Hodgkinson as Valiant Lancer, a War Boy on the War Rig who was killed by the biker horde.
- Jacob Tomuri as Max Rockatansky, a loner living in his V8 Interceptor who witnesses Furiosa escape from the biker horde. He later helps Furiosa and the "Five Wives" defeat Immortan Joe and his army, and claim control of the Citadel in Mad Max: Fury Road. Tomuri served as Tom Hardy's stunt double during the filming of Fury Road.
- * Archive footage of Hardy as Max from Mad Max: Fury Road is used during the end credits