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George Miller ’s “Mad Max” films didn’t just make Mel Gibson a star—they completely transformed post-apocalyptic entertainment with their visceral stunt work and singular vision of an increasingly desperate future. Three decades after the last film, the oft-maligned “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome,” Miller finally returns to this desolate landscape for the highly-anticipated “Mad Max: Fury Road,” recasting the title role in the grizzled visage of Tom Hardy and upping the stakes with promises of vehicular mayhem on a level commensurate with what modern CGI audiences have come to expect.

From its very first scenes, “Fury Road” vibrates with the energy of a veteran filmmaker working at the top of his game, pushing us forward without the cheap special effects or paper-thin characters that have so often defined the modern summer blockbuster. Miller hasn’t just returned with a new installment in a money-making franchise. The man who re-wrote the rules of the post-apocalyptic action genre has returned to show a generation of filmmakers how they’ve been stumbling in their attempts to follow in his footsteps.

“ Who was more crazy? Me, or everyone else? ” In “Mad Max: Fury Road,” Miller has pushed his Gilliam-esque vision of a world gone mad to its logical extreme. No longer are the people of Max Rockatansky’s world merely scavengers for oil or power; they have been transformed into creatures of circumstance, either left with one defining need or left without any semblance of reason. “Fury Road” is a violent film, but the violent acts in this world don’t feel like arbitrary action beats—they emerge from a complete lack of other options or a firm sense of straight-up insanity. Miller’s new vision of Max isn’t a warrior. Rather, he’s a man driven by the memories of past sins to do little more than survive. He walks with the ghosts of those he couldn’t save, and his traveling companions have pushed him to the brink of sanity.

While wandering at this edge, Max is kidnapped and transformed into a literal blood bag for a feral warrior named Nux ( Nicholas Hoult ), who serves the whims of his maniacal ruler, Immortan Joe ( Hugh Keays-Byrne , who also played the villain Toecutter in the original “Mad Max”). From the start, Miller gives you no time to “ease” into this world or the story he wants to tell. The frame rate is accelerated, the editing is hyperactive, the bad guy speaks through a mask that makes half his dialogue indecipherable (shades of Hardy’s Bane from “ The Dark Knight Rises ”), and the horrific visions of Miller’s twisted future come fast and furious. Immortan Joe is a barely-alive freak of nature, kept breathing by tubes connected to his face and served by similarly disfigured half-humans with definitive names like Rictus Erectus ( Nathan Jones ) and The People Eater ( John Howard ).

One of Joe’s most notable warriors is a powerful woman known as Imperator Furiosa ( Charlize Theron ), who, as the film opens, is leading a convoy from Immortan Joe’s citadel to the oil refinery Gastown when she deviates off course. It turns out that Furiosa has kidnapped Joe’s “breeders,” the women he keeps prisoner in an effort to create a male heir. She’s taking them to “the green place,” to safety . Of course, Joe sends his men after Furiosa—including Nux, to whom Max is still attached—and the rest of “Mad Max: Fury Road” consists of one long sustained chase across the unforgiving desert. With the exception of one centerpiece of dialogue, the film takes place almost entirely on the move, speeding, chasing, bouncing, and exploding across Miller’s scorched landscape.

As a reflection of more desperate times, Miller has updated the needs of his future world from commodities like oil to pure survival. Max has been reimagined as a fighting, driving machine, a man who “finds his own way,” moving forward in an attempt to outrun his ghosts. Nux is a brainwashed goon, a man-creature who believes that he will die and be reborn after sacrificing himself for a trip to Valhalla. Max eventually steps into the role of the action hero, but, in one of his most daring moves, Miller gives the weight of the narrative to Furiosa, a woman who holds on to the only thing that could possibly give her hope in this violent world—the next generation. Theron does arguably the best work of her career here, artfully conveying the drive in Furiosa’s soul in a way that fuels the entire film. She does more with a searing stare or clenched jaw than most actresses could with a page of dialogue. And one shouldn’t undervalue the empowerment message at the heart of this film—Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues” consulted with Miller on the script—which suggests that women, as the creators of new life, will, inherently, always be the gender that holds hardest onto hope for the future. Furiosa looks at the insanity of the male leadership around her and decides enough is enough. When one of Furiosa’s wards goes into labor and still defends herself and her yet-to-be-born child (after being shot no less), it’s hard not to see “Fury Road” as an answer to the macho nonsense that so often defines the action genre.

But none of that should remotely imply that the action here is lost in the message. The pacing, the sound design, the editing, the music (courtesy of Junkie XL and some of Joe’s freaks who play drums and electric guitars during the action), and even the emotional stakes are all so far above average that they make just about any other car-chase movie look like a quaint Sunday drive by comparison. The first chase in “Fury Road,” as Joe’s men catch up to Furiosa and her precious cargo, is one of the most remarkable action sequences in film history. And that’s really just a warm-up. It’s no exaggeration to say that, if you think something in “Fury Road” is the most breathtaking action stunt you’ve seen in years, you really need only wait a few minutes to see something better. This is a movie where you keep thinking that its reached its apex and then, inexplicably, that moment is left behind in the dust.

From the very beginning, Miller and his team do something that so many other filmmakers fail to do—they define the geography of their action. Rather than merely tossing the camera around in the vain hopes of creating tension, they constantly give the viewer overhead shots and clear physical dimensions of what’s happening and where we’re going. And then they blow it all up. There are dozens of crashes, explosions, and flying bodies in “Fury Road,” and yet the piece never gets repetitive, especially as the emotional stakes increase with each sequence. Miller knows when to let the pace coast when it needs to, which is rarely, and then he pushes the pedal down and plasters you to your seat.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is an action film about redemption and revolution. Never content to merely repeat what he’s done before (even the first three “Mad Max” have very distinct personalities), Miller has redefined his vision of the future yet again, vibrantly imagining a world in which men have become the pawns of insane leaders and women hold fiercely onto the last vestiges of hope. “Fury Road” would be remarkable enough as a pure technical accomplishment—a film that laughs in the face of blockbuster CGI orgies with some of the best editing and sound design the genre has ever seen—and yet Miller reaches for something greater than technical prowess. He holds aloft the action template that he created with “The Road Warrior” and argues that Hollywood shouldn’t have been copying it for the past three decades, they should have been building on it. “Fury Road” is a challenge to a whole generation of action filmmakers, urging them to follow its audacious path into the genre’s future and, like Miller, try their hardest to create something new.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

120 minutes

Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky

Charlize Theron as Furiosa

Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Splendid

Nicholas Hoult as Nux

Zoë Kravitz as Toast

Riley Keough as Capable

Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus

• George Miller
• Nick Lathouris

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Mad Max: Fury Road

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

How to describe the brutal and brilliant cinematic fireball that director George Miller hurls at us in Mad Max: Fury Road ? Try hell on wheels, given the vehicular obsession that drives the film. It’s been 30 years since Miller, 70, moved on from the Mad Max trilogy that starred Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, a road warrior seeking vengeance for his murdered family. The place? A dystopian wasteland ruled by bike gangs and outlaws of every sadistic stripe. In the years since, Miller – an Aussie ER-doctor-turned-filmmaker – has gone on to the family-friendly oasis of Babe: Pig in the City and the animated penguins of two Happy Feet musical hits.

Welcome back, George. We missed you in the land of the dark and twisted. The long-incubating Mad Max: Fury Road is an R-rated, rocket-
fueled romper-stomper, a nonstop chase epic powered by a reported $150 million budget and Miller’s indisputable visionary genius. One look at Max, and the kiddie fans of Happy Feet would be traumatized for life.

Does this ride down Fury Road always make sense? Not really. So what? Just go with it. The great Brit actor Tom Hardy steps in for Gibson as Max and does the role proud. As he tells us in voiceover, “My name is Max. My world is fire.” Gotcha, buddy. Haunted by visions of his lost child, Max is captured by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, who also played the villainous Toecutter in the first Mad Max ), a wacked-out warlord who controls his subjects by controlling their water supply. Joe’s elite soldiers, the inbred, head-shaved war boys, smear on white body paint, swill breast milk to counteract radiation and enjoy the fanatical fantasy of an erotic afterlife: “I live, I die. I live again!”

The plot really goes vroom when Joe’s trusted ally Furiosa ( Charlize Theron ), a warrior with a mechanical left arm, goes rogue and takes off in an armored truck with Joe’s five breeder wives, played by Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton and Riley Keough. (Keough is Elvis’ grandkid – how’s that for iconography?) In hot pursuit are the war boys, led by Nux (a terrific Nicholas Hoult). The boys lash Max to a speeding car while tapping his arm for a grisly blood transfusion.

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Review: You Don’t Just Watch Mad Max: Fury Road , You Rock Out to It

If you’ve relished the  Mad Max  series, your heart will leap in  Mad Max: Fury Road  the first time a “War Rig” made of leftover car and truck frames (human skulls affixed to the grille) or a turbo-charged, weaponized jeep swerves into the foreground and then suddenly roars off into the distance at a 45-degree angle while the camera continues on its scorching horizontal track. It’s a signature move by director George Miller, who gets scary-close (he’s fucking with us) and then says, “Eat my dust.”

That dust tastes damn good. The majority of sequels have no reason for being apart from sequel money , but watching this fourth Mad Max , I could sense after roughly .0001 seconds that the 70-year-old Aussie director has been revving his engines for a long, long time, itching to get back to the blacktop and deliver even wilder automotive mayhem. After all, his last two films, Happy Feet and Happy Feet 2 , centered on animated dancing penguins. He has some serious punk cred to restore.

As you no doubt know from all the buzz, most critics think Miller has his cred back and then some, and they’ve given him a hero’s welcome. That gives me happy feet. The man made Max Max , The Road Warrior , Lorenzo’s Oil , and especially Babe: Pig in the City , which is like Charlotte’s Web retold by Dickens. (As a sequel, a box-office megabomb, and a film starring a pig, it has never gotten its due.) And Mad Max: Fury Road is certainly a blast and a half: You don’t just watch it, you rock out to it. How satisfied you’ll be after all the “wow!”s and “whew!”s will depend on how fine you are with a film that starts in the middle of the story and is basically a long chase. I saw it twice and liked it vastly more the second time around, when I’d adjusted my expectations and had my bearings from the get-go. Then it became about digging the spectacle — not to mention the hilarious sexual politics.

This is not, it should be said, a “reboot.” It’s the same Mad Max, post-Thunderdome, though now played by Tom Hardy, Mel Gibson having been judged too old and, more important, too genuinely mad to continue in the series that launched him to stardom 36 years ago. “My world is fire and blood,” says Max in voice-over, standing on a cliff, at one with the poisoned, postapocalyptic wasteland, his face hidden by a swarm of filthy hair. He stomps a big boot down on a scurrying lizard, snatches it up, and shoves it in his mouth: crunch .

A blizzard of images evokes his inner life: bombs, bodies, the killing of his wife and child. The little girl calls to him in visions, which is strange because I remember his child being (a) a toddler and (b) a boy — but it was a long time and many bodies ago, and I might be wrong. Or maybe she’s not his child but a sort of emissary from the world of child spirits. Miller does a cool, stroboscopic fun-house effect with the little girl’s face — now flesh, now bone, now flesh again. Max wants like mad to be emotionally dead, numb to the carnage, but this moppet keeps jolting him back to life.

The prologue in which Max is chased, captured, tattooed, branded, and put in a cage by raiders from a towering citadel is stunningly well done — particularly if you see the film in 3-D, which Miller uses like a macabre ringmaster, chucking arrows, bones, and parts of cars and bodies at you. This citadel — known far and wide as “the Citadel” — is presided over by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a sickeningly disfigured tyrant who stands high above his sheeple, promising them immortal life in the corridors of Valhalla while taunting them for their dependence. (He makes them beg for water.) Actually, everyone in the Citadel is sickeningly disfigured, emaciated, or studded with tumors from living in a radioactive landscape. But Immortan Joe takes the uranium cake. His flesh is mottled and covered with … yecchy stuff. In a steel mask notable for its Neanderthal set of choppers, he looks like a walking shrunken head topped with a white fright wig.

This is all awesome, but I actually had a hard time getting past my awe and into the movie. Max isn’t just emotionally remote. He’s matted with dirt and kept in shadow. He’s chained to the front of a truck, everything below his eyes concealed by a steel face-cage. It’s mighty peculiar that here, as in The Dark Knight Rises , an actor with maybe the most fascinating visage in movies spends so much time behind a mask. You do get a lot from those eyes, which signal sadness and desperation. But the lips are where it’s at. They’re not just fashionably pillowy. They’re neo-Brando blubbery. They signal a swelling, an excess of emotion. They make you understand why the sounds that come out of his mouth are not always recognizable as English: What words could do justice to that much feeling? Casting Hardy as a man who shrouds his emotions and then covering his face is just … mad. Half an hour into Mad Max: Fury Road , I felt as if the nominal hero and I hadn’t been properly introduced.

There is, of course, another hero. Heroine. The story proper kicks off when Immortan Joe’s top raider — Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron with a shaved head and one steel arm — sets off on a mission in a ramshackle War Rig before suddenly changing course. Joe checks on his breeders, but they’re gone. He screams to Heaven and orders up his army. The chase is on!

Wait. Who is Furiosa? (She has barely said a word.) Who — or what — are the breeders? Who is the old woman shrieking at Immortan Joe? By now it’s clear that Miller’s strategy is to throw you into the tumultuous action and only later show you what’s at stake and why you should care. He thinks he’s cunningly withholding major details to keep you guessing, but there isn’t enough information to guess from before he, well, cuts to the chase. It’s backwards storytelling.

Call me bourgeois, but I like a little more context for my mayhem, which is why I was more involved the second time, when I knew Furiosa, knew the breeders, and knew a bit more about why Max was on the front of a truck connected by an IV line to a skinny, bald guy with a white face and blackened eye sockets — who looks on first (and second) glance exactly like the hundred other skinny bald guys with white faces and blackened eye sockets but turns out to be a major character called Nux (Nicholas Hoult).

Mad Max: Fury Road wakes up, dramatically speaking, when Max and Furiosa meet, with (rousingly staged) fisticuffs at first but soon with more affection. Slightly more, anyway. Both their hearts having been tanned into leather by tragedy, they’re wary of connection, and Furiosa isn’t too trusting of men to begin with. It’s an extraordinary performance by Theron, who barely emotes but whose hardness is broken by glints of guilt and grief. It’s a mighty moment when, given terrible news, she staggers towards a titanic sand dune — it rises from nowhere, but nothing less would be worthy of her — and sinks to her knees in despair. At time like that, you might wish the film had been called Mad Maxine and had followed her from the start.

It’s a woman-centric movie. Furiosa is fleeing across the vast wasteland in search of a matriarchal oasis she calls the “green place of many mothers.” And those breeders turn out to be a pampered harem of willowy model types (one brown-haired, one white-blonde, one redhead, one tall and black-haired, one smaller and more racially exotic) tasked with bearing Immortan Joe healthy children. Why a group of women so skinny they look as if they’d pitch off the side of a runway from lack of food should be so evolutionarily desirable in a time of sickness and starvation is a mystery — but not really much of one given the high level of wowza on display. Maybe the best visual joke in the movie is when Max staggers out of the desert and beholds them for the first time, shimmering in the heat, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, and Riley Keough in skimpy, shorty, filmy dresses, hosing one another off in lyrical semi-slow motion.

Mad Max: Fury Road is actually full of brilliant visual jokes, its desert a mythic stage for a punk-rococo circus of freaks. Behold the great pile of steering wheels on which the bald warriors descend, each man bearing his own away with reverence, as if it’s Excalibur. There’s a little tree in the middle of the desert that looks like it’s waiting for Vladimir and Estragon. The sight of a half dozen or so bongo drummers on the back of a War Rig is a marvelous setup for the revelation of the masked, heavy-metal rocker guitarist tied to the front, his instrument belching flames at moments of peak bloodlust. (The authors of Dogme 95 would be pleased: Miller has incorporated his musicians into the action.) In the climactic, high-speed road battle, warriors on long poles bend in and out of the frame throwing bombs and snatching up women: It’s as if you’d smoked weed and started watching an old Western and suddenly the stagecoach turned into a truck full of supermodels and the charging Injuns vampire acrobats. The knowledge that the vampire acrobats are mostly real stuntmen moving really, really fast instead of 1s and 0s in a computer adds exponentially to the WTF quotient.

Miller clearly felt he needed to raise the stakes — to top himself — in Mad Max: Fury Road , and the road fury is, indeed, packed with multiple, crazy-funny variables. But at the end of the road I have to admit that I prefer the cleaner, sharper climax of The Road Warrior , which has no CGI whatsoever. You lose things in the clutter.

That said, Miller has a trick up his sleeve that he didn’t three decades ago: grannies on motorcycles. It turns out that what compelled him to make this fourth Mad Max was the notion of a nurturing, matriarchal society far removed from the grotesque sadism of male-warrior culture. The gorgeously weatherbeaten old women who roar out of the wasteland to greet Furiosa and Company tolerate Max and show some affection for Nux — the bald, mortally ill, white-painted War Boy who longed to die in battle but was so lovably clumsy that he wound up on the side of the girls. But these tough old birds don’t want or need men, those disease-carrying homicidal brats who turned a world that was once a garden into a nuclear wasteland. Also, the old ladies gaze on those cute little models as if it would be really nice to curl up with them under the stars.

It’s a wonderful joke that so-called men’s-rights groups have expressed outrage over Mad Max: Fury Road  — so wonderful that I’d suspect the studio of cooking up the controversy by itself if I didn’t know that such morons actually exist. In their eyes, Miller has committed an unforgivable sin by appropriating their cultural space to promote femi-Nazism. He has made a movie with more amazing motorcycles than a biker’s rally and more high-decibel mash-ups than a monster truck event: FUCKIN’ A, AWWRIGHT! He has stuffed it with every shape and size of gun imaginable: BOO-YAH! Then he made a bald chick and a bunch of grannies more potent than an armada of male giants with mighty pecs — who turn out under all the war paint to be squalling babies with disease-ridden pencil dicks. The final battle takes place in a narrow passage through a canyon that looks suspiciously like a stand-in for the gates of Thermopylae. That’s when it really hits you: The Lesbos have taken Sparta!

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‘mad max: fury road’: film review.

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron headline George Miller's reboot of his cult postapocalyptic franchise.

By Todd McCarthy

Todd McCarthy

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Thirty years after surviving Thunderdome, the reluctant warrior of modern movies’ first and most memorable postapocalyptic action-fantasy series is finally back and ready for more in Mad Max: Fury Road . George Miller has directed only five films in that time — three of which starred pigs and penguins — but it can safely be said that this madly entertaining new action extravaganza energetically kicks more ass, as well as all other parts of the anatomy, than any film ever made by a 70-year-old — and does so far more skillfully than those turned out by most young turks half his age.

Although the earlier entries were made before the target audience for this one was even born (its new leading man was just a baby when the first one was released), Mad Max has lingered in the zeitgeist through the years, and a fair portion of the international public that has just wound down from Furious 7 will be happy to suck in the fumes from this equally action-packed and infinitely superior film.

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One could plausibly observe that Fury Road is basically The Road Warrior on a new generation of steroids, and no doubt some critics will leave it at that; like the second and best film in the series, this one is mostly devoted to maniacal anarchic goons chasing Max and his small group of rebels across a scenically parched desert and leaving some spectacularly destroyed vehicles in their dust. The new film certainly boasts a higher percentage of flat-out amazing action than any of its predecessors, and that’s probably enough said for most of its potential audience.

Perhaps the long gestation period served it well. While very similar to its predecessors in almost every way, the film has devilishness in its details: the tribal-style makeup, the endlessly inventive vehicles and armaments, the wild costumes and facial adornments, radiantly scorched locations that resemble — and yet go beyond — the series’ previous wasteland evocations, and a society equally lawless but more entrenched than those seen in earlier films (one that is, in fact, presided over by the same imposing actor who played the chief bad guy in the original Mad Max in 1979).

And then there’s the new leading actor, Tom Hardy , who’s so ideal a replacement for Mel Gibson that one wouldn’t want to imagine anyone else having taken over the role. Rewatching the initial two installments today, it’s striking to see how little Max Rockatansky (whose name is uttered just once, in the first film) actually does during long stretches of them, and so it is here; at the outset he’s captured by soldiers of the Citadel and detained in a rocky hellhole where thousands of wailing captives perform slave labor while awaiting small rations of precious water dispensed by their tyrannical captor from his looming cliffside headquarters.

When the time comes to hit the road, Max, his face confined behind a trident-like mask, is strapped like a grille ornament on the front of a marauding car, a predicament he is not expected to survive. But emerge from it he does, of course, and slowly the man behind the victim emerges — first to exciting, then to ultimately touching effect in the final scene. It’s as if Hardy was cast for his brawn, but ultimately used for his soul.

Except for its mechanized details, the heavy chains, pulleys and steam-punk/heavy metal aspects of which lend a certain 19th century feel, the world on display here is straight out of dire early biblical times. Presiding over the Citadel is the fearsome Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the nasty Toecutter in Mad Max ), who has grotesque offspring, sports flowing gray locks and wears a toothsome facemask fed by large oxygen tubes. The slaves are covered in ashen white powder and live in a state of starvation and terror enforced by violent punks known as War Boys.

The story cooked up by Miller and co-screenwriters Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris is no more complex than this: Entrusted by Immortan Joe with driving the large War Rig truck across the desert to an oil-producing outpost, tough ruling-class babe Imperator Furiosa ( Charlize Theron , with close-cropped hair and raccoon eyes) instead diverts it across the desert with an illicit cargo — Immortan’s harem of breeding wives, who have memorable names such as Capable, Cheedo the Fragile and, best of all, Toast the Knowing. When first glimpsed, they look like a bunch of supermodels strewn across the desert for an exotic fashion shoot, although one of them, the Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, a real-life supermodel), is soon due to give birth.

The first two Max features ran barely 90 minutes, and it takes guts and real confidence to dare push a straight chase film with very little dialogue to two hours. But Miller has pulled it off by coming up with innumerable new elements to keep the action compelling: the pitiless mindset of a brutish society; bending poles sticking up from vehicles that allow marauders atop them to be lowered into enemy trucks for hand-to-hand combat; an insane heavy metal guitarist affixed to one of the Citadel’s rigs, whose raucous wailing and flame-throwing ability perfectly express this world’s extremity; and a central woman, missing one arm, who’s as tough-minded as any man but also retains a special link to a remote society of women she intends to find.

During the first extended, high-speed, jaw-dropping chase of Furiosa by the goon squad, which only ends when it’s engulfed by an enormous desert dust storm, Max remains frustrated by the chain linking him to his tormentors’ rig. But developing any trust with Furiosa takes considerably longer; she wants to kill him immediately and be done with it. They are, it would seem, potential soul mates, but the world they inhabit is not exactly conducive to developing trust, much less anything of a more amorous nature. Life is, in this world, not only cheap but almost assuredly very short.

If one wanted to map out a chronology of Max’s life and adventures, it would no longer make any sense in terms of the man’s age, nor does it matter at all. Miller recently absolved himself of any need to somehow explain the character’s newfound youthfulness by comparing him to James Bond; Max just goes on and on, with perennial access to rejuvenation via new actors.

The difference between this and Bond and many other such durable series is that it’s so palpably the product of one man’s imagination, a man who also possesses the skill, discipline and energy to put it all up on the screen so convincingly. Mad Max films are known for the moments when the cars’ superchargers are engaged for surges of speed, and it’s clear that Miller’s personal superchargers are in excellent working order. The colors are bold, the Namibia locations look like Arizona on steroids, virtually all the action looks real (thoughts of CGI only intrude with the massive dust clouds and certain personal and vehicular wipeouts), cinematographer John Seale’s cameras are everywhere they need to be to record the action maximally, and Junkie XL’s score hammers and soars. Second unit director and stunt coordinator Guy Norris clearly deserves major credit for delivering much of what’s most eye-popping onscreen, and the film never sits still for more than a moment or two.

Miller originally spoke of filming a sequel called Furiosa back-to-back with this one, so presumably he has material more or less ready to go, and Hardy has claimed he’s signed for three more installments. In other words, the world may not have heard the last of Mad Max.

Production company: Kennedy Miller Mitchell Productions Cast: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult , Hugh Keays-Byrne, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, John Howard, Richard Carter, iOTA, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Megan Gale, Melissa  Jaffer, Melita Jurisic, Gillian Jones, Joy Smithers Director: George Miller Screenwriters: George Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris Producers: George Miller, Doug Mitchell, PJ Voeten Executive producers: Iain Smth, Chris deFaria, Courtenay Valenti,  Graham Burke, Bruce Berman, Steve Mnuchin Director of photography: John Seale Production designer: Colin Gibson Costume designer: Jenny Beavan Editor: Margaret Sixel Music: Junkie XL Makeup/hair designer: Lesley Vanderwalt Second unit director/stunt coordinator: Guy Norris

Rated R, 120 minutes

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Mad Max: Fury Road Review

14 May 2015

120 minutes

Mad Max: Fury Road

Before venturing down Fury Road, George Miller’s wildly entertaining reincarnation of his post-apocalyptic Oz, it’s worth reacquainting yourself with his previous Mad Max films. Not necessarily because they are landmarks in the art of slamming vehicle into vehicle at extreme velocities, automotive carnage that has inspired everyone from James Cameron to Edgar Wright. Even the Mel Gibson-on-wires capers of the under-appreciated Beyond Thunderdome possess a giddy, violent power.

No, it’s worthwhile returning to Mad Max’s high-octane futurology to remind yourself that this is one bat-shit crazy franchise. All these goofy, psychotic tribes outfitted like thrash-metal gladiators battling over the last dregs of petrol in jerry-built hot-rods. The brand name refers not only to its tortured hero — it is a statement of intent. And now, with $150 million-plus change at his disposal and the devil’s gleam in his eye, Miller has surely achieved maximum madness.

Over the three decades since Beyond Thunderdome, the versatile Aussie hasn’t written a script so much as drawn-up battle plans. Like Mad Max 2, Fury Road is structured as one brilliantly sustained chase sequence in warped homage to Stagecoach. Over the varying terrain of this post-nuke Monument Valley, a heavily armoured tanker dubbed the War Rig, piloted by the unfortunate Max (Tom Hardy) and turncoat imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), staves off wave upon wave of hair-brained attacks from the War Boys, a local chapter of mutant wackos giving chase in a swarm of beefed-up chariots. It is not petrol that’s at stake, but a harem of five gorgeous if gobby brides stolen from beneath the nose of premier deviant Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Toecutter in Mad Max) — a bleach-skinned grotesque doing the majority of his raging via his eyeballs, given the oxygen mask clamped to his jaw like Bane’s maniac progeny.

Miller really gets into his tribal culture. The War Boys have concocted a proto-civilisation-cum-cult inside towering rock formations called the Citadel. Radiation has taken its toll: the speed freaks are as pale as zombies, hairless and slack-brained enough to buy Joe’s Viking-styled baloney about a Valhalla to come. There is a lot of chanting.

Again names double as character traits: Rictus Erectus, People Eater, Organic Mechanic, The Dag. Such a shame that Vin Diesel was already been taken. The baldies subdivide into Drivers, Spikers (spearmen) and the Polecats, who swing heart-stoppingly between muscle cars at the end of elongated poles (for real). Miller likes it gross: obese women are farmed for breast milk, and Max serves as a mobile blood bank for Nicholas Hoult’s Nux, a winningly hell-bent driver suffering from radioactive debilitation. In a fetching detail, the twin tumours bulging from his clavicle have been tattooed with smiley faces.

There may not be a Bruce Spence or Angry Anderson cameo, but Miller’s desert nightmare is unmistakable. Joe’s lair resembles a former thunderdome and he has Tina Turner’s hair. Less haunted than bombarded by prescribed visions of a dead daughter, Hardy’s Max cuts an even more enigmatic figure than Gibson’s muttering Robin Hood. On the rare occasion Hardy gets a line, he speaks in a weird, sub-woofer-deep monotone as if from beyond the grave.

Once Furiosa’s War Rig begins guzzling down the desert highway into the Wasteland, there is barely time to contemplate logic or motivation, or frankly the inclination. The film exists in a permanent state of crisis. Why has Furiosa rescued the brides? How has she smuggled them out? It doesn't matter: the wide shot of girls clad in bridal togs clinging to the underside of a tanker tells you they are illicit cargo. Why does Max get enlisted? He can’t help himself — he’s Max. The mutual reliance of Furiosa and Max is never declared: it’s that or they succumb to the meatheads.

The excellent Theron’s highly capable and aptly named heroine is the more engaging of the two leads. She’s more human, more desperate. The brides too make for a gaggle of amusingly grouchy individuals, determined not to be breeding stock. You could say there is a crackers feminist subtext at work — it's the women who are trying to set mankind back on track, the men who have mutant blood.

Inevitably the leanness of the early films has been lost, but without question Fury Road remains the work of a visionary. Miller has put all the money, all the perverse and poetic flights of his imagination, on the screen. The scope is more operatic, the attitude still punk rock. It’s almost as if a petrol-head David Lynch has been given license to despoil the homogenised blueprint of the modern blockbuster. Racing into a gigantic, surreal sandstorm, the pursuit is assaulted by forks of lightning, tornadoes and scarlet fireballs, an echo of the nuclear holocaust that has left the world mad.

Fury Road is a defiantly, at times deliriously, cinematic experience. Utilising 3,500 storyboards, 480 hours of raw footage, multiple frame rates, handhelds, swooping cranes, crash zooms, a blithe disregard for the personal safety of a garrison of stuntmen and the tangible bulk of real metal being hurled about at ridiculous speeds, he has created a symphony of destruction. I-Max will melt your brain.

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Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is the Best Action Movie of the Year

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Scorched red earth, leather-clad bikers, deranged metalheads and a stone-faced avenging protagonist of few words: These are the familiar hallmarks of George Miller ‘s relentlessly satisfying “Mad Max” universe, which remains captivating as ever in the Australian director’s long-awaited fourth entry, “Mad Max: Fury Road,” a kinetic tone poem in blockbuster clothing. 

It has been 30 years since the last anarchic outing, “Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome” — so long that the iconic role of bereaved cop-turned-drifter in a dead world can no longer belong to aging, disgraced Mel Gibson. But the muted, hulking Tom Hardy is a natural fit for taking Max into another round of energizing showdowns between various demented figures battling for superiority in a twisted, fast-paced arena imported from the earlier movies, but never this spectacularly realized. Like Max himself, Miller’s stripped-down approach to staging intense and involving action sequences stands alone.

Before all else, the movie’s familiarity marks a return to form. In the years since his previous “Max” outings, Miller has developed a peculiar filmography of mainstream works that smuggle mature themes into popular material that never demands it — most successfully with “Babe: Pig in the City” and the first “Happy Feet” — even if the sheer cinematic virtuosity of the “Mad Max” movies went latent. Judging by the constant forward momentum of “Fury Road,” Miller had a lot to get out of his system: The movie starts at a high velocity and barely ever slows down.

Max has come a long way since his family’s death in the initial 1979 entry turned him into a solitary drifter in this dreary milieu, but it doesn’t take long to pick up where we left off. In an opening chase scene, Max’s typically reliable Interceptor gets knocked around by a group of white-faced marauders that lock him up in the dungeon run by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a grill-masked lunatic who lords over his minions in a horrific desert outpost where the dictator hogs a water supply and locks up his women to breed his army of ghoulish followers. 

READ MORE: Watch: New Full-Length ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ Trailer is the Most Insane Thing You’ll Watch All Day

After he escapes from a debilitating position strapped to the hood of his vehicle by one of his demonic captors, Max teams up with a throng of female slaves led by the trenchant Furiosa (a bald, scowling Charlize Theron, intimidating for reasons beyond her character’s metallic arm) to escape Immortan Joe’s daunting advances from behind the wheels of souped-up monster truck.

Furiosa hopes to pawn off her supplies and find a legendary world of greenery she remembers from her youth, while forming a tentative alliance with Max that deepens as the pair survive a series of violent encounters. Unwilling to trust anyone, but committed to survival at all costs, their unruly chemistry is the closest thing to a tight bond in the series since Max’s early family days. But their toughness has nothing on maniacal foe Immortan Joe — whose appearance recalls, oddly enough, the muffled Bane character Hardy played in “The Dark Knight Returns.” However, Joe retains a far more menacing edge thanks to the sparsity of details surrounding his rule. Even as he’s protected by throngs of white-powered foot soldiers at every turn, Joe’s a terrifically effective super villain unafraid to get his hands dirty.

Miller brings a near-abstract quality to the proceedings that elevates from them from the specifics of the story. As Max and Furiosa speed through the desert with Joe and his team in hot pursuit, the procession moves through the barren environments as though traversing through grim sonnets.

Most dialogue is defined by concise declarations or punchy asides on par with the expressionistic despair of the scenery. The words “Who killed the world?” are scrawled on walls. Max’s inevitable pep talk with Furiosa finds him declaring “Hope is a mistake,” while the psychos chasing after him gear up for martyrdom they envision as “riding to Valhalla.” The sense of peril, culling from historical and mythological reference points, is at once poignant and fragmentary.

However, the main effective ingredient in “Fury Road” is its ongoing motion. The chases largely pivot on insane car-to-car acrobatics, narrow exchanges of gunfire and metal smashing together at ridiculously high speeds. Inspiring fear and giddy excitement in equal measures, “Fury Road” suggests the unruly collision of “Ben Hur” and a Road Runner cartoon.

Over the course of two hours, there are times when the pattern of tense shootouts and erratic outbursts strain from redundancy. Miller sometimes emphasizes the over-the-top zaniness to a distracting degree. (One recurring flourish, a lunatic guitarist on a moving platform blasting out distorted riffs alongside the action, feels too excessive for its own good.)

The vivid post-apocalyptic scenery pays homage to Miller’s homegrown tradition. In the years since the last movie, “Mad Max” has been welded into the DNA of modern action and sci-fi movies while inspiring countless imitators. But no matter these lofty expectations, Miller avoids taking the overwrought material for granted by pushing it beyond pure stylistic posturing.

There’s rich thematic material here that extends beyond the story’s immediate appeal: Long before Miller’s script closes with a quote by Albert Camus, it delivers a cautionary tale against the threat of global warming, depicts the greed and desperation surrounding natural resources, and celebrates the prospects of civilian uprising under ridiculously daunting conditions. Insert your metaphorical reading here.

“Sooner or later,” announces one rebellious slave, “someone pushes back.” The underlying thrill of “Fury Road” stems from watching those words come to life on several levels. “Mad Max” doesn’t just depict conflicts with evildoers in a tattered existence. It delivers a rare alternative to aggressively stupid action movies. At a time of great need, Max rides again.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” opens wide on May 15. It premieres at the Cannes Film Festival this week.

READ MORE: 5 Observations About the 2015 Cannes Film Festival Lineup

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Film Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

Even the 'Fast and Furious' movies look like Autopia test drives next to George Miller's powerhouse reimagining of his iconic 'Mad Max' franchise.

By Justin Chang

Justin Chang

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Thirty years have passed since our last visit to George Miller ’s sun-scorched post-apocalyptic wasteland, and yet “worth the wait” still seems a puny response to the two hours of ferocious, unfettered B-movie bliss offered by “ Mad Max: Fury Road .” The sort of exhilarating gonzo entertainment that makes even the nuttier “Fast and Furious” movies look like Autopia test drives, this expertly souped-up return to Max Rockatansky’s world of “fire and blood” finds Tom Hardy confidently donning Mel Gibson’s well-worn leather chaps. Still, the tersely magnetic British star turns out to be less of a revelation than his glowering co-lead, Charlize Theron , decisively claiming her place (with apologies to Tina Turner) as the most indelible female presence in this gas-guzzling, testosterone-fueled universe. It remains to be seen whether Theron will boost distaff turnout for Warner Bros.’ heavily marketed May 15 release, but either way, word-of-mouth excitement over the film’s beautifully brutal action sequences should lend it tremendous commercial velocity through the summer and beyond.

Miller may be better known of late for directing the (ostensibly) younger-skewing likes of “Babe: Pig in the City” (1998) and the two “Happy Feet” musicals, but for the many who have longed for him to return to his down-and-dirty Ozploitation roots, “Fury Road” will seem nothing less than the fulfillment of a dream — not least the writer-director’s own. To describe the production as long-gestating doesn’t do justice to the sheer litany of setbacks, delays, overhauls, recastings and budget inflations that have plagued the picture since Miller first envisioned it years ago, when it might still have been plausible for Gibson to reprise the role that made him a star. Suffice to say that for all the obstacles the writer-director and his collaborators endured in the interim, the finished film feels entirely of a piece with its three predecessors, never mind that the combined costs of the latter are dwarfed by “Fury Road’s” budget (reportedly well over $150 million).

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We are, admittedly, a long way from the lean, unnerving outback fable of “Mad Max” (1979), and an even longer way from the weirdly arresting, kid-friendly detours of “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” (1985). Vastly more complex on a technical scale but simpler on a conceptual one, “Fury Road” is, for all intents and purposes, a two-hour car chase interrupted by a brief stretch of anxious downtime, and realized with the sort of deranged grandiosity that confirms Miller’s franchise has entered its decadent phase. All the more remarkable, then, that the movie still manages to retain its focus, achieving at once a shrewd distillation and a ferocious acceleration of its predecessors’ sensibility. There is gargantuan excess here, to be sure — and no shortage of madness — but there is also an astonishing level of discipline.

Wisely, Miller and his co-writers (the comicbook artist Brendan McCarthy and original “Mad Max” actor Nico Lathouris) seem to have taken their cues from the spare yet sturdy narrative architecture of the series’ acknowledged high point, “Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior” (1981), whose influence can be felt even in the new film’s bare-bones prologue. Years after some unexplained cataclysm, the world has fallen into lawless disarray, as Hardy’s Max briefly explains while being pursued across a landscape of hot orange dunes and endless horizons (the Namibian desert stood in for Australia this time around). The chase soon ends with our hero captured, imprisoned and tortured in the Citadel, a desert stronghold ruled by a despotic warlord known as the Immortan (Hugh Keays-Byrne), who has enslaved what remains of the local populace by exercising miserly control over the water supply (inadvertently bearing out Keegan-Michael Key’s California-drought joke at the recent White House Correspondents’ Dinner).

Fans will remember (if not necessarily recognize) the Australian character actor Keays-Byrne as having played the Toecutter in the original “Mad Max,” and his appearance here suggests a hideous, heavy-set reincarnation of that earlier villain, complete with snaggle-toothed face mask and kinky breathing apparatus. His male soldiers, or “war boys,” show their respect for their leader by sharing his gloriously awful fashion sense — their torsos branded and bared, covered in white body paint, and blinged out with shrunken-head necklaces and other demonic accouterments. The film’s first half-hour alone is a marvel of freakshow aesthetics: Blood banks and breast pumps are among the Immortan’s more imaginative means of controlling and sustaining his people, while skulls figure prominently in Colin Gibson’s elaborately grotesque production design and Jenny Beavan’s richly imagined costumes, which are at once outlandish and pinpoint-precise.

Setting the plot in motion — and lending the film the swift, steady undercurrent of rage suggested by its title — are the five beautiful young women the Immortan has taken as his “wives” (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee and Courtney Eaton), whom he keeps locked away and forces to bear his children. Their defender and rescuer is Imperator Furiosa (Theron), a formidable warrior with a mechanical left arm, who is tasked with replenishing the Citadel’s fuel reserves at nearby Gastown; she seizes the opportunity to smuggle the women out of the stronghold in a massive armored truck. When the Immortan sends his war boys after them, with Max himself lashed (temporarily, at least) to the front of a minion’s car, the proceedings kick into high gear.

As evidenced by everything from the original “Mad Max” trilogy to “Babe: Pig in the City,” Miller is a wizardly orchestrator of onscreen mayhem, and in the two lengthy chase sequences that bookend “Fury Road,” he ascends to that rare level of action-movie nirvana where a filmmaker’s sheer exuberance in every detail becomes one with the audience’s pleasure. Everything we see here seems to have sprung fully formed from the same cheerfully demented imagination — whether it’s the cars that look like overgrown porcupines on wheels, the poles that catapult the war boys from one vehicle to the next, or the fiery windstorm that sets in mid-chase, making short work of some of the less well-armored participants. Adding yet another frisson of excitement (as well as a hint of anti-terrorist subtext) is the fact that the war boys aren’t just killers but fanatics, brainwashed into believing eternal paradise awaits them if they die in battle. This may explain their devil-may-care habit of crawling over and under their vehicles while they’re in motion, like kids navigating a jungle gym at 150 miles per hour.

Miller conjures a vibe somewhere between monster truck rally in hell and Burning Man death-metal concert — as signaled by the very funny inclusion of a rocker whose fire-breathing electric guitar seems to be at least one source of the pummeling, wall-to-wall score (by the Dutch musician Junkie XL, who recently scored “Run All Night” and “Divergent”). The magnificence of the below-the-line contributions can hardly be overstated, particularly the outrageously acrobatic fight choreography and the seamless visual-effects work, all lensed by d.p. John Seale in dynamic, enveloping widescreen images. If it sounds interminable — and for viewers not on the film’s specific wavelength, even a minute of this stuff will be hard to take — rest assured that Miller proves himself a maestro not only when he’s slamming huge metal objects together, but also when attending to such subtler matters as pacing and modulation (with the invaluable assistance of his editor and wife, Margaret Sixel).

Notably, our engagement doesn’t wane even when “Fury Road” downshifts into an interlude of tense, close-quarters intimacy, as Max, lone road warrior that he is, must reluctantly endure the company of Furiosa and her five comely refugees. The feminist undercurrents rippling through this movie are by turns sincere, calculated and teasingly tongue-in-cheek: Our first good glimpse of the wives, clad in skimpy white rags and gathered around a water spout, plays like a vision out of “Girls Gone Wild: Coed Car Wash.” Even when they join in the fight, it can be hard to tell where erotic fantasy ends and empowerment fantasy begins, which is very much in keeping with the film’s unapologetically grindhouse attitude. Yet if “Fury Road” doesn’t deliver as pure a hit of girl-power retribution as say, Quentin Tarantino’s “Death Proof,” it’s hard not to respect the dramatic stature with which Miller elevates his female characters; Huntington-Whiteley and Kravitz, in particular, embody the sort of quiet defiance that ensures these women, though victimized, are never reduced to mere victims.

“You know hope is a mistake,” Max warns Furiosa late in the game. But even as it plunges us back into a vividly familiar realm of nihilism and despair, “Mad Max: Fury Road” never feels even remotely cynical — or exploitative. There’s nothing but tenderness in the fiercely protective manner with which Furiosa and the five wives regard one another, or in the key supporting role of Nux (a wonderful Nicholas Hoult), an eagerly aggressive young war boy whose dramatic shift in perspective takes the story in an unexpectedly poignant, and romantic, direction. As for Max himself, he remains a thin, tenuous figure at best — less a fleshed-out character than an avatar of revenge and survival — which is precisely what has made him such a durably iconic creation over the years.

Mad Max 2.0 comes saddled with a slightly different tragic origin story, referenced in quick, hallucinatory memory blips involving a young girl (Coco Jack Gillies), but we accept Hardy in the role instinctively — aided by the cruel iron mask that obscures much of his face until the movie’s midpoint, but also by the actor’s taciturn charisma. Still, there’s no denying that Miller and his collaborators have subtly conspired to put our hero in the passenger seat of his own reboot, while deftly ceding the wheel to Theron’s Furiosa, and the characters’ rapport is as physically electrifying as it is emotionally charged. Tellingly, plans are reportedly in the works for a “Fury Road” sequel called “Mad Max: Furiosa,” raising the expectation — perhaps unreasonable, on the strength of Miller’s powerhouse movie — that this duo’s finest hour may yet be ahead of them.

Reviewed at Dolby Laboratories, Burbank, Calif., May 7, 2015. (In Cannes Film Festival — noncompeting.) MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 120 MIN.

• Production: A Warner Bros. release, presented in association with Village Roadshow Pictures, of a Kennedy Miller Mitchell production. Produced by Doug Mitchell, George Miller, P.J. Voeten. Executive producers, Iain Smith, Chris DeFaria, Courtenay Valenti, Graham Burke, Bruce Berman, Steve Mnuchin.
• Crew: Directed by George Miller. Screenplay, Miller, Brendan McCarthy, Nico Lathouris. Camera (color, Arri Alexa HD, Panavision widescreen), John Seale; editor, Margaret Sixel; music, Tom Holkenborg aka Junkie XL; production designer, Colin Gibson; supervising art director, Richard Hobbs; art directors, Shira Hockman, Janni Van Staden, Marko Anttonen; set decorator, Lisa Thompson; costume designer, Jenny Beavan; sound (Dolby Atmos), Ben Osmo; supervising sound editors, Mark Mangini, Scott Hecker; sound designer, David White; re-recording mixers, Chris Jenkins, Gregg Rudloff; visual effects supervisor, Andrew Jackson; visual effects producer, Holly Radcliffe; visual effects, Iloura; supervising stunt coordinator, Guy Norris; stunt coordinators, Glenn Suter, Lawrence Woodward, Steve Griffin, Tyrone Stevenson; fight coordinator, Richard Norton; 3D conversion, Stereo D; second unit director, Norris; second unit camera, David Burr; casting, Ronna Kress, Nikki Barrett.
• With: Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Josh Helman, Nathan Jones, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, Courtney Eaton, John Howard, Richard Carter, Iota, Angus Sampson, Jennifer Hagan, Coco Jack Gillies.

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Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road,’ Still Angry After All These Years

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Anatomy of a Scene | ‘Mad Max Fury Road’

George miller narrates a sequence from his film featuring tom hardy, charlize theron and nicholas hoult..

By A.O. Scott

• May 14, 2015

Desolate, post-apocalyptic landscapes, zombie-ridden or not, are perennial popular tourist destinations for 21st-century moviegoers and couch potatoes. “Mad Max: Fury Road” is like a visit to a World Heritage site. Some of us — old enough to remember when nuclear Armageddon had not yet given way to climate change as the main source of existential anxiety — harbor a special fondness for the young Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, the grieving, aggrieved former cop who motored across the Australian desert in “Mad Max,” “The Road Warrior” and “Beyond Thunderdome.”

“Fury Road,” directed, like the others, by George Miller , is sort of a sequel, and also what we’re now supposed to call a reboot. In any case, it doesn’t traffic in the kind of half-jokey, half-sentimental self-consciousness that characterizes so much franchise entertainment these days. Unlike, say, “Avengers: Age of Ultron,” “Fury Road” does not usher you into a bright corporate universe where everything has been branded to within an inch of its life. The branding you witness here reminds you of the cruel etymology of the word, as a death’s-head insignia — the mark of a tyrannical C.E.O. known as Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne) — is scorched into the flesh of people destined to live as property.

Movie Review: ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

The times critic a. o. scott reviews “mad max: fury road.”.

One of these, a designated “blood bag” kept alive to transfuse one of Joe’s “war boys,” is Max himself, played without a wasted word or gesture but with plenty of expressive grunts and snorts by Tom Hardy . Max, a Bogartian loner impelled by conscience to stick his (admirably thick) neck out for somebody, is really more sidekick than hero. The chief warrior on this road is Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a rebel with a buzz cut, a prosthetic arm, a thousand-mile stare and a supremely righteous cause. Joe, whose empire runs on slave labor, keeps a harem of women for breeding. Furiosa has five of them (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton and Abbey Lee) hidden in her tanker truck, and she’s running a kind of underground railroad operation in the guise of a trading mission. Joe wants his property back, and sets out in pursuit with a battalion of war boys, a heavy-metal guitarist and a fleet of customized retro-futuristic vehicles.

Let’s back up for a moment. This “Mad Max” unfolds in fast, hectic, relentlessly linear motion. It starts quietly, with Max standing on a dusty outcropping, casually snacking on a two-headed gecko as he sketches the relevant background in voice-over. When things started going bad — when the world collapsed in a welter of greed, violence and stupidity — he failed to protect his wife and daughter. Their memory both haunts and grounds him, making him able, even in the worst circumstances, to recognize decency in himself and others.

And then the fights and chases commence . The whine and chug of souped-up engines, the whoosh of flames and the squeal of twisting metal — all the tried-and-true idioms of action filmmaking to make your heart beat faster. Speed and efficiency are of the essence, leavened with nasty biker wit and a blunt distaste for authority.

The first “Mad Max,” released in the United States in 1980 (with a soundtrack that dubbed the thick Australian accents), was a no-money Down Under cult-exploitation movie. “The Road Warrior” (1981) was a little fancier, but it still had the snarl and velocity of a punk-rock club show. “Beyond Thunderdome” (1985) was arena rock by comparison, but Mr. Miller — whose résumé also includes “ The Witches of Eastwick ,” “Babe: Pig in the City” and both “Happy Feet” cartoon-penguin movies — has always stayed true to his scrappy, pragmatic roots. At 70, he has a master craftsman’s intuitive sense of proportion and a visual artisan’s mistrust of extraneous verbiage.

The script, which Mr. Miller wrote with Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris, has been whittled almost clean of expository dialogue and touchy-feely bushwa. A cut or a pan can explain or express much more than words. When “Fury Road” reaches for emotional grandeur it relies on the faces of its cast — Ms. Theron could be a silent-movie heroine, despite the noise that surrounds her — and on Junkie XL’s superb, full-throated score. When it wants to crack jokes, the movie reaches for quick, profane sight gags or elaborate feats of Newtonian improbability.

Nearly all of which unfold in real physical space. It’s worth paying a few more dollars for 3-D: That newfangled format brings out the virtuosity of Mr. Miller’s old-school approach. The themes of vengeance and solidarity, the wide-open spaces and the kinetic, ground-level movement mark “Fury Road” as a western, and the filmmakers pay tribute to such masters of the genre as John Ford, Budd Boetticher and, not least, Chuck Jones , whose Road Runner cartoons are models of ingenuity and rigor.

Like Mr. Jones’s universe, Mr. Miller’s world has its rules. Viewers raised on the more baroque, digitally enabled forms of blockbuster spectacle are likely to admire the relative simplicity of “Fury Road,” while aficionados of the traditional slam-bang methods will revel in its coherence. Even in the most chaotic fights and collisions, everything makes sense. This is not a matter of realism — come on, now — but of imaginative discipline. And Mr. Miller demonstrates that great action filmmaking is not only a matter of physics but of ethics as well. There is cause and effect; there are choices and consequences.

There is also enormous pleasure in watching those consequences play out, and in encountering surprises along the way. Not twists — the plot moves from Point A to Point B and back again, ending up pretty much where you knew it would — but kinks and swerves, tricks of perspective and playful reversals of expectation. A sweet, almost wordless romance blossoms between a hapless war boy (Nicholas Hoult) and one of Joe’s brides, as she and her comrades evolve from eye candy into a feminist guerrilla force. They are joined by a band of older women called the Vuvalini, who along with Furiosa, decide to give Immortan Joe’s patriarchy a taste of its own medicine.

It’s all great fun, and quite rousing as well — a large-scale genre movie that is at once unpretentious and unafraid to bring home a message. Way back in the “Thunderdome” days, Tina Turner sang, “ We don’t need another hero .” That’s more true than ever, especially during summer movie season. And “Mad Max: Fury Road,” like its namesake both humble and indomitable, isn’t about heroism in the conventional, superpowered sense. It’s about revolution.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). A ruthless critique of everything existing.

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Mad Max: Fury Road review

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron lead the charge across a post-apocalyptic desert in Mad Max: Fury Road. Here's why you should watch it...

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You’d be forgiven for thinking that Mad Max – and the director who created him, George Miller – might have mellowed with age. Not a bit of it.

In the late 1970s, Miller trudged off into the remote outskirts of Melbourne with a film crew, a bunch of old cars and a then-unknown Mel Gibson, and came back with a ramshackle, raw sci-fi revenge movie that felt like the cinematic equivalent of punk rock. Decades later, Miller’s back with Mad Max: Fury Road , a film that feels like both a continuation of the original and its two sequels – Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981) and Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985) – and a modern revitalisation of their characters and ideas.

If the first Mad Max was a rough, three-minute punk single, Fury Road is the deafening 12-minute remaster.

Tom Hardy replaces Mel Gibson as the new Max Rockatansky, a loner driving through a post-apocalyptic desert in a rumbling V8 muscle car. Already bearing the psychological scars of his lost wife and child (a nod to the events of the first film), Max’s day worsens when he’s captured by the raving acolytes of King Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), a despotic ruler who keeps his subjects in their place by controlling the water supply (or “Aqua-Cola” as he calls it).

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Meanwhile, shaven-headed driver Furiosa (Charlize Theron) has made off across the desert with King Joe’s “five wives” stashed in the belly of her modified oil-tanker. Before long, Max has formed an uneasy partnership with Furiosa, and the group work together to escape King Joe’s pursuing army of War Boys.

What’s refreshing about Fury Road is its lack of exposition. Where most filmmakers might be tempted to provide long back-stories for Furiosa or Max, or explain where they’ve come from or what their motivations are, Miller (who co-writes as well as directs) stages Fury Road as one almost unbroken chase scene.

You know how characters in comic books will often have story-furthering chats while running to the next action scene or engaging in fights? That’s what Fury Road does: it drops in bits of story with the odd line of dialogue or a stolen glance. The result’s a film that is both constantly on the move yet – and this is the really tricky bit to get right – still manages to sketch in the characters well enough that you care about their fate.

It’s Miller’s attention to visual detail – aided by John Seale’s stunning cinematography – that makes Fury Road’ s future setting feel so vital, even when those details are whistling by at 90 miles per hour. In an era where we’ve come to assume that everything we’re seeing has been built in a computer, Fury Road ‘s citadels full of strange, painted faces and rusting machinery seem absolutely real.

You can feel the sand-blasted wear on every vehicle, whether it’s a spiky car akin to the one in Peter Weir’s The Cars That Ate Paris  or a huge truck with a cackling guitar player suspended from the front. Miller’s future world of scarcity and mania has all the twisted strength of a Hogarth engraving: even as society collapses in on itself, a handful of warlords make their final grasp for power, bolstered by the unthinking devotion of their car-obsessed foot soldiers.

Then there are the action sequences – and what action sequences they are. Exploding in a riot of colour, fire and dirt, they have an elemental, operatic quality unlike anything you’ve seen in a multiplex. The $150m budget has largely been spent on building and crashing real vehicles, with a smattering of CGI work to finish off the shots; the resulting action scenes therefore recall the grit of Mad Max 2 and expand on them in a way that wouldn’t have been possible in the 1980s. There are moments in Fury Road left your humble reviewer agog.

Somehow, Max and Furiosa still cut through all the shock and awe. Hardy’s an effective replacement for Mel Gibson as a very different kind of Max; one who communicates largely through grunts and gruff utterances, yet always with a glimmer of humanity behind his eyes. Likewise Theron as Furiosa; amidst all the chaos, her performance is lean and affecting, and possibly among her best in years. Nicholas Hoult, who at first seems to have been given a thankless role as a War Boy named Nux, soon comes into his own as a memorable sidekick.

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There’s much more to be written about the things bubbling below the surface in Fury Road. The story of Furiosa – who surely deserves an instant place in the pantheon of great sci-fi heroines – and her liberated group of “prized breeders” will likely become the stuff of dissertations and essays. Repeat viewings are sure to reveal more hidden details that are so easily missed in the heat of the moment. But even taken as a straightforward, even retro road-going action movie, Fury Road remains unmissable.

At a time when expensive summer movies seem increasingly formulaic, Mad Max: Fury Road tears up the rulebook. It feels like Miller going for broke – holding nothing back for a sequel, but instead throwing every ounce of creativity and imagination into one compact slab of sound and movement.

Concise where most action movies are complicated, sharp and violent where most are tame and bloodless, Mad Max: Fury Road is a brutal, breathtaking work of pop art.

Mad Max: Fury Road is out in UK cinemas on the 14th May.

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Everything We Know

Furiosa: a mad max saga : release date, trailer, cast & more, watch the brand new trailer and read our breakdown of the story, the characters, the cast, the people behind the film, and more..

TAGGED AS: Action , movies

Witness Furiosa , the highly anticipated prequel to the Best Picture nominated action masterpiece Mad Max: Fury Road . The Anya Taylor-Joy -led film, which will be the fifth movie in director George Miller’ s Mad Max franchise, is revving up its engines and preparing to premiere into the wasteland that is the 2024 box office. Here’s everything we know about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , including the cast, the crew, the plot, and a new trailer.

When Will  Furiosa Be Released?

(Photo by ©Warner Bros. Pictures)

Following the critical and commercial success of Fury Road , Miller and Warner Bros., the studio behind the film, pursued possible sequels and prequels. Furiosa , which was announced in 2020, was originally supposed to be released on June 23, 2023, which obviously didn’t happen. Warner Bros. announced in the fall of 2021 that the premiere had been pushed back to Furiosa’ s current opening date of May 24, 2024, which is Memorial Day weekend. It will open against The Garfield Movie , starring Chris Pratt, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes .

There are reports , however, that Furiosa might premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, which would make sense, as Fury Road premiered at the iconic festival to much acclaim. Cannes kicks off on May 14, 2024.

Who Is Behind Furiosa ?

(Photo by Laurent KOFFEL/Getty Images)

George Miller , the genius filmmaker behind all four previous movies in the Mad Max franchise (and also Babe: Pig in the City ) returns for Furiosa . In addition to directing the film, he also co-wrote the screenplay with Nick Lathouris , who co-wrote Fury Road .

Margaret Sixel , Miller’s wife and film editor who won a well-deserved Oscar for her work on Fury Road , returns as well. Other members of the Fury Road crew are back for Furiosa , too, including production designer Colin Gibson , sound mixer Ben Osmo , makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt , and costume designer Jenny Beavan . Junkie XL , who composed the music for Fury Road , is also scoring Furiosa .

Who Are the Stars, and Who Do They Play?

In Mad Max: Fury Road , Charlize Theron played the rebelling war rig driver Imperator Furiosa, a tough-as-nails woman who allied with Tom Hardy’ s “Mad Max” Rockatansky as they attempted to free five of the tyrannical Immortan Joe’s “wives” from his captivity. Neither Theron nor Hardy returns for Furiosa , which is a prequel that shows how Furiosa first came into Immortan Joe’s sphere, well before she ever met Max.

Anya Taylor-Joy , star of films like The Witch , The Menu , and the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit , was cast in the title role in October of 2020. She plays a younger version of the character, a young woman who was kidnapped from her home and thrust into the middle of a dystopian war over gas and resources. The movie will reveal how Furiosa lost her arm.

Alyla Browne , a child actress who played a young version of the main character ( Tilda Swinton ) in Miller’s last movie, Three-Thousand Years of Longing , plays an even younger version of Taylor-Joy’s Furiosa in this film.

(Photo by Jasin Boland/©Warner Bros. Pictures)

Chris Hemsworth , Marvel’s Thor himself, co-stars as one of the main villains — presumably the warlord Dementus. (Hemsworth is Australian, meaning he’ll fit right into the Outback setting.)

“He’s a complicated individual. He’s a very violent, insane, brutal person that is born from the Wasteland,” Hemsworth said of his character during an appearance at the Brazilian Comic-Con CCXP in late November. “He has been birthed into a space where it’s kill or be killed. He’s learned to rule with an iron fist. There’s a charisma to him and it’s a very manipulative charisma.”

Tom Burke , who played Orson Welles in Netflix’s Mank , also stars, and he’s rumored to play the leader of one of the rival factions vying for power in the wasteland — perhaps the younger Immortan Joe, seen in the trailer having a face-off with Hemsworth’s character? (There has been no official confirmation of who either Burke or Hemsworth is playing, making their character names conjecture at this point.)

Burke replaced Aquaman star Yahya Abdul-Mateen II in the film after he had to drop out due to scheduling issues.

Nathan Jones and Angus Sampson are set to reprise their roles from Fury Road , where they played Rictus Erectus and The Organic Mechanic, respectively. Quaden Bayles , an 11-year-old boy with dwarfism whom Miller cast in a small part in Three Thousand Years of Longing , appears in Furiosa as well.

What Is the Story?

Here is the official plot synopsis for the film:

“As the world fell, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and falls into the hands of a great Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by The Immortan Joe. While the two Tyrants war for dominance, Furiosa must survive many trials as she puts together the means to find her way home.”

This being a Mad Max movie, presumably those trials will involve some of the sickest, most jaw-dropping vehicular stunts you’ve ever seen, and they’re all (mostly!) practical filmmaking. The first trailer does seem to feature a lot of CGI, but it’s possible the effects are not totally finalized.

What Do We Know from the Trailer?

Basically, nothing from the making of Furiosa leaked, so very few details are known about the movie at this point. (That’s perhaps an upside to filming in the middle of nowhere in Australia’s outback and then having a series of strikes prevent anybody from doing any promotion.)

The first trailer and promotional stills made their debut at the biggest Brazilian Comic-Con, CCXP, on Thursday, November 30. The trailer doesn’t reveal too much of the plot, but shows a young Furiosa after she’s been kidnapped from her home, eventually growing up and becoming a capable warrior as Hemsworth’s character squares off with Immortan Joe.

The CCXP trailer also revealed the new subtitle for the film, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga .

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opens in theaters on May 24, 2024.

Thumbnail image by ©Warner Bros. Pictures

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• DVD & Streaming

Mad Max: Fury Road

• Action/Adventure , Drama , Sci-Fi/Fantasy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• May 15, 2015
• Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky; Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa; Nicholas Hoult as Nux; Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe

Home Release Date

• September 1, 2015
• George Miller

Distributor

• Warner Bros.

Movie Review

Water. Gas. Blood.

Those are the currencies in Mad Max’s world—liquid assets, if you will. Water and gas are rare wonders in this dry, dusty dystopia—the elements that keep its people alive and their vehicles moving. Blood is cheaper and easier to come by; of value only to the person to whom it belongs, and sometimes not even him. But there are those who crave the blood, who treat it like a narcotic biofuel.

Immortan Joe built his empire on these three commodities. He hoards the water inside his stone citadel. Sometimes he’ll open the floodgates and allow it to gush from the rocks, where his serfs below can lap it up. He relies on raids for his gasoline, sending out war parties in their makeshift machines to pillage and steal precious fuel. The blood is for his War Boys, white-bleached zealots who form his army’s spine. They love the stuff, and so Immortan Joe keeps them happy with a steady supply.

Yes, Immortan Joe is a rich, rich man. He owns everything of value in this picked-over world, including the women. He keeps several “breeders” in his citadel, for both his amusement and his legacy. There’s nothing he’d like more than to have a bevy of Immortan Joe Jr.’s all set to inherit his broken kingdom.

So when one of his most trusted generals, Imperator Furiosa, absconds with the women and speeds into the desert driving one of Joe’s most intimidating war machines, the Immortan one takes issue. He sends his army out to retrieve his stolen goods, with he himself taking the lead. His War Boys are thrilled: They pick up their steering wheels, strap a few living “blood bags” to the front of their vehicles and settle in for a few hours of glorious carnage.

But one blood bag—Max—plans on being more than a hood ornament today.

Positive Elements

Mad Max: Fury Road is as bleak as all get-out. But if you dig into the dust of this flick, you’ll find that it’s actually (just like its predecessors) about hope. Sure, the world’s been shattered, but maybe, somewhere, there’s a little glue to piece some of it back together.

First piece: The idea that people are not property, no matter what Immortan Joe says. “We are not things!” Joe’s wives insist. Furioso believes that to be true, and so she rescues them and promises to take them to a “green place of many mothers.” It’s a risky mission. She admits that she’s looking for redemption—a way, perhaps, to make up for all the nasty things she’s done in Joe’s employ. And, frankly, she’s more a consistent hero here than the titular one.

See, Max starts off a little crazy. He says that the stress of this broken world distilled his motivations to one very simple instinct: “survive.” But as he spends more time with Furioso and her truckload of beautiful stowaways, he begins acting more self-sacrificially. He risks his life for them and, when given a chance to go his own way, continues on with them—helping them to see what they all hope is a more promising future.

Their example seems to rub off on their cargo. During the course of this adventure, Joe’s “breeders” become more than pretty, objectified playthings. They become helpmates, sometimes putting themselves in harm’s way for the benefit of others. They also stress the value of all life, even the lives of their enemies, begging Max and Furioso to not kill needlessly.

A War Boy named Nux has a change of heart, too: After he falls out of Joe’s good graces, he finds a new purpose with Max and Furioso.

Spiritual Elements

Immortan Joe styles himself as a sort of savior-god. “It is from my hand that you will rise from the ashes of this world!” he thunders to his serfs before bestowing upon them his “gift” of water. He promises his War Boys that if they fight and die well for him, he will meet them in Valhalla (the violent Norse heaven), perhaps leading them through the gates himself.

The War Boys believe his shtick: When Joe casts a glance in Nux’s direction, the pale rider sounds like an 8-year-old boy who got a real Iron Man suit for Christmas. They go to their deaths with zealous glee, coating their mouths with chrome spray so they’ll look their shiny best when they arrive in the afterlife. They seem to pray before a pile of steering wheels.

The good guys are not so superstitious. When one of Joe’s ex-wives prays, another woman asks her, “To who?” “Anyone that’s listening,” she responds.

Sexual Content

The women taken captive by Joe are referred to as both “wives” and “breeders,” and he regularly calls them his “property.” They are indeed his sexual slaves, and he forces them to always dress provocatively. Cloth or leather covers critical areas, but legs, shoulders and midriffs are frequently bared, and sometimes those bits of critical cloth aren’t very thick. Each woman initially wears what looks to be a fearsome, teeth-lined chastity belt. (They remove them at the earliest opportunity.)

Joe also keeps a number of heavy, well-endowed women on hand for their breast milk. We see their breasts and the devices used to milk them. (Characters both drink and wash their faces in the milk.) Max, Furioso and the rest happen upon a naked woman in a crane-like tower, begging to be released. (We see her from the side and rear.)

Violent Content

Mad Max: Fury Road is, essentially, a two-hour car chase through the wastelands of Armageddon. It stops only reluctantly for the occasional breather. And the violence it proffers is sporadically extreme.

A good chunk of someone’s face is ripped away at one point, with the camera giving us glimpses of the resulting gore and blood. Max is shot through the hand by a crossbow bolt. Chained to an unconscious War Boy, he tries to shoot the guy’s hand off (but the shotgun doesn’t work). People hang upside down from Joe’s citadel ceiling, providing blood for the War Boys. Some of the bodies don’t look like they’re still all there—a suggestion, perhaps, that they’re being slowly eaten, too. (There’s no indication that many of these folks are alive.)

War Boys are analogous to today’s suicide bombers, and they consider it a point of honor to die in battle. As such, we see one warrior leap onto a flaming porcupine of a car to blow the thing up. Another fills his own vehicle with gas, planning to smash into a massive war machine, Kamikaze style. People are shot, slashed, stabbed, choked, run over, die in cataclysmic explosions and are thrown around by storms. One man is smashed repeatedly by a piece of machinery.

Lots of the combatants here are women, including (of course) Furioso. That means that much of this violence is perpetrated by or against them. Furioso and Max themselves tangle, hitting, kicking and trying to strangle each other.

We see Max remove a hook from his neck. When someone’s lung begins to collapse, Max stabs her in the side to help her breathe, then transfuses his own blood into her (via a pain-inducing makeshift IV) so she’ll survive. He stomps on a lizard and seems to eat it while it’s still squirming.

Joe demands that a dying pregnant woman’s child be cut from her body. It is (offscreen). When the baby also dies, we see its body carelessly discarded like refuse. (The umbilical cord becomes a plaything.)

Crude or Profane Language

What with all the explosions and such, there’s not a lot of room for dialogue in Fury Road . And what there is is often muffled by the cacophony of kabooms. But we still hear characters utter one instance each of the words “b-llocks” and “f-g,” and perhaps a full-blown f-word as well.

Drug and Alcohol Content

As mentioned, the War Boys seem to treat blood as a kind of narcotic. One such warrior is eager to take a half-crazed Max out on the warpath with him (they’re connected via a chain and a thin tube), believing that Max’s madness will make him super-aggressive, too.

Other Negative Elements

Several people are burdened with horrific infirmities, including bulbous bumps and boils and grotesquely swollen ankles. People spit in others’ faces. Max occasionally “sees” frightening flashes of his dead daughter as a wraith or skeletonized specter.

Mel Gibson may no longer be Mad Max, the mantel now having fallen to big, glowering Tom Hardy. But even though the defining star of the series has long since driven out of the frame, Fury Road may well be the most Mad Maxian of all the movies. All of the series’ elements are supersized here. Crazy vehicles? Crazier. Creepy, theatrically dressed villains? Creepier, more theatrically dressed. Bloody action? Bloodier.

Director George Miller takes what fans loved about the now-classic series and blows it up like a supersized balloon, and the results have triggered a litany of glowing reviews. One such write-up, published on southcoasttoday.com , declared that “ Mad Max: Fury Road will leave your inner 12-year-old giggling with glee.”

Now, hold on there one minute, bub. Isn’t Fury Road rated R? When you set it up beside Avengers: Age of Ultron , doesn’t it look a wee bit like Saw on wheels? Should we really be saying that Fury Road is made for tweens, inner or not?

Look, there’s no question Fury Road has its merits, including that thread of hope I mentioned earlier. And for an R-rated movie, it is actually more restrained than it could’ve been. But we should not lose sight of the brutal fact that this movie caters to our childish affection for frenetic activity and explosions with some very disturbing content in tow. The world of Mad Max, for all the ludicrous dystopian license it takes, is a world that’s designed to haunt and shock. If the movie’s endgame is to show us 10 minutes of humanity in an inhuman world, let’s not forget that 110 minutes is filled with some terrible inhumanity indeed.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Review: ‘Mad Max’ kicks a post-apocalyptic extravaganza into overdrive

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“Mad Max: Fury Road” will leave you speechless, which couldn’t be more appropriate. Words are not really the point when it comes to dealing with this barn-burner of a post-apocalyptic extravaganza in which sizzling, unsettling images are the order of the day.

As directed by George Miller in a reanimation of the “Mad Max/Road Warrior” franchise he began in 1979, “Fury Road” is so action intensive and non-dialogue dependent that it began not with a proper script but with about 3,500 storyboard panels detailing an endless string of adrenalized events in a bleak and savage future world where water is king but chaos rules.

Costarring the protean Tom Hardy (re-creating the Max Rockatansky character originated by Mel Gibson) and a shaved-headed Charlize Theron, “Fury Road” is essentially one nonstop, two-hour chase with the bad guys in constant hot and heavy pursuit of the few good folks left in this scary, derelict and deviant world. If you think that doesn’t sound involving, you haven’t been paying attention.

The idea, explains Miller (credited as screenwriter with comic artist Brendan McCarthy and dramaturg Nico Lathouris) was inspired by “Alfred Hitchcock’s notion about making films that can be watched anywhere in the world without subtitles. ... They take you to a place outside yourself, and you come out the other end having had an experience.” Just so.

Working with Oscar-winning cinematographer John Seale (who came out of retirement to do this), Miller decided that as much of “Fury Road” as possible would be shot without digital effects. With the help of new tools like the Edge Arm system, a camera crane that extends more than 20 feet and handles a full range of motion, Miller kept multiple physical stunts running at the same time (Guy Norris was the accomplished second unit director and stunt coordinator) and ended up shooting an estimated 480 hours of adrenalized footage.

Dealing with all of this was Miller’s longtime collaborator, nonpareil editor Margaret Sixel, who manages the neat trick of neither lingering too long on any shot or rushing through the inevitably hectic proceedings. Her cutting shows you just what you want to see exactly when you want to see it, and it’s hard to imagine “Fury Road” without her expert guidance.

The film’s other heroes are production designer Colin Gibson and his team, who came up with an entire derelict and grotesque civilization (with visible tumors and growths chalked up to a poisoned environment) that has been created with unparalleled imagination, specificity and craziness. Few films immerse us as completely in their universe as “Fury Road” does, to often disconcerting effect.

The center of “Fury Road’s” world is the Citadel, a massive fortress built around a complex system for pumping scarce water out of the ground, distributed on a random basis to hordes of the dispossessed who cluster around like the masses in a Sebastian Salgado gold-mining photograph.

Running this particular show is the aging but all-evil all-the-time warlord Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne, the villain in the original “Mad Max”). With his face only partly visible behind a disturbing, intimidating mask, Immortan Joe has created an entire mythology around himself and his psychotic army of War Boys, who dream of going to an eternal reward in Valhalla if they die in glorious combat in his service.

As played by Hardy, Max is a man of very few words, most of them uttered in an initial voice-over. “My name is Max, my world is fire and blood,” he says, telling us as well that he is “someone who flees from both the living and the dead,” haunted by images of the daughter he could not save as he tries to survive in this most bestial world.

“Fury Road” begins with Max imprisoned and enslaved at the Citadel. An overzealous War Boy named Nux (an effective Nicholas Hoult) uses Max as what’s called a blood bag, a continuous human blood transfusion system that enables the contaminated Nux to stay alive.

One of Immortan Joe’s top lieutenants at the Citadel is Imperator Furiosa (Theron), a sullen, ferocious individual with an elaborate prosthetic arm. Furiosa kicks the plot into gear by ostensibly heading out for supplies in a War Rig, a massive 78-foot 18-wheel truck.

In reality, Furiosa, fed up with life under the Immortan, is making a break for it and taking with her the leader’s prize possessions. Those would be his five wives, including Toast the Knowing (Zoe Kravitz), the Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) and Capable (Riley Keough), all clothed in diaphanous white cloth like the pulp-fiction archetypes they are.

The Immortan, of course, is determined to get his wives back, and he calls on allies with names like the People Eater and the Bullet Farmer. Which is how a staggeringly eclectic flotilla of motorized attack vehicles join in the chase, including one carrying the Doof Warrior (Australian singer-songwriter iOTA), a red-clad fury who plays a double-necked electric guitar (which doubles as a flame thrower) to inspire the troops.

Set like a human hood ornament on the front of Nux’s vehicle, Max is thrust into the heart of the action whether he wants to be or not. It is not long before things transpire to make him and Furiosa wary allies, and the chase goes into overdrive.

Hardy, the villainous Bane in “The Dark Knight Rises,” is especially good at these feral roles, and Theron is his match here. The real star of “Mad Max: Fury Road,” however, is filmmaker Miller, who dreamed the mighty dream that is this film for more than a decade before being able to bring it to life. It has been worth the wait.

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------------

‘Mad Max: Fury Road’

MPAA rating: R, for intense violence and disturbing images

Running time: 2 hours

Playing: In general release

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max. The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max. The origin story of renegade warrior Furiosa before her encounter and teamup with Mad Max.

• George Miller
• Nick Lathouris
• Anya Taylor-Joy
• Chris Hemsworth
• Charlee Fraser
• 1 Critic review

• Dr. Dementus

• The Organic Mechanic

• Rictus Erectus

• Young Furiosa

• Immortan Joe …

• Pregnant Wife #2

• Warboy Recruit

• The Octoboss

• Pregnant Wife #1

• Treadmill Rat
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• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia Scheduled to be filmed in New South Wales in Australia. All Mad Max movies have been filmed in Australia, with the exception of Fury Road, when record rain falls transformed the normally arid desert areas into lush green growth areas.

Monologue : 45 years after the collapse, a young Furiosa is taken from her family. She will devote the rest of her life to finding her way home. This is her odyssey.

• Connections Featured in The Project: Episode dated 1 December 2023 (2023)

New and Upcoming Sci-fi & Fantasy

• When will Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga be released? Powered by Alexa
• Who is Chris Hemsworth playing?
• May 24, 2024 (United States)
• Furiosa: Câu Chuyện Từ Max Điên
• Melrose Park, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
• Warner Bros.
• Kennedy Miller Mitchell
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $168,000,000 (estimated)

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Common sense media reviewers.

Outlandish post-apocalyptic action is brutal; has sexism.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Evil threatens to overwhelm good, and justice feel

Max is a decent role model, if you can overlook th

All characters are White, as are the director, wri

Extreme, over-the-top violence is slightly tempere

Two instances of nude male butts. Nude female brea

Language includes one "f--k" and two instances of

Max enjoys a small glass of beer at home. Characte

Parents need to know that Mad Max, the first movie in the Mad Max franchise, stars a then-unknown (Mel Gibson) as a leather-clad police officer who takes down a violent motorcycle gang in a dystopian Australia. It's a celebration and an onslaught of intense violence, including car chases, guns, and…

Positive Messages

Evil threatens to overwhelm good, and justice feels like a pipe dream in a future where resources are scarce and law enforcement has lost funding. Standing up to crime and injustice is dangerous, sometimes fatal, but necessary to protect strangers and loved ones alike.

Positive Role Models

Max is a decent role model, if you can overlook the fact that his job requires high-speed chases, guns, and a great deal of violence. At home, he's very loving with his wife and child, and when things get tough, his first thought is to protect them. Unfortunately, without his family, he becomes just as sadistic and violent as the criminals he was pursuing. Other members of law enforcement are less admirable: For every cop who puts himself in harm's way to help someone, there's an on-duty cop spying on two people having sex. It's a bleak world, and they're portrayed as doing what they can, while they can.

Diverse Representations

All characters are White, as are the director, writers, and producer. Young female characters are portrayed as sex objects with few (if any) lines. The hero's wife has a reasonable amount of screen time and is smart at identifying and escaping from threats, but she's also sexualized when she's doing this (wearing a bikini, beach cover-up, oversized men's shirt with no pants, etc.). A woman's death is used as motivation for the hero.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Extreme, over-the-top violence is slightly tempered by several scenes of Max's blissful home life. But the violent sequences include many explosive crashes, chases, guns, severed limbs, bloody wounds, and mangled corpses. A toddler is nearly run over by speeding cars. A man is tied to a motorcycle and dragged through town. A couple is attacked and pulled from their vehicle; rape is implied, though not shown. The woman is found by police alive but chained up and traumatized. A supporting character is burned alive inside a car -- viewers see his distress beforehand and his severely burnt hand after. A woman is stalked, threatened, and run over by motorcycles (no gore or close-up shots of body). Pet dog is killed off-screen; his mangled body is shown. In what looks like a failed attempt at a stunt, a moving motorcycle actually smacks a man in the head. Hero's violent revenge spree is portrayed as morally justified.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Two instances of nude male butts. Nude female breast and butt in profile. A naked couple has sex, watched from a distance through the filter of a rifle scope. A married couple kisses and cuddles while the husband is either shirtless or draped with a towel. A young couple wakes up in the backseat of a car, half-dressed (sensitive parts covered). They're attacked, and rape is implied (see "Violence & Scariness" section). Villains undress a store mannequin then pretend to make love to it.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Language includes one "f--k" and two instances of "s--t." Also, "a--hole," "bitch," "bastard," "hell," and derogatory Australian slang "scag." "God," "Christ," and "Jesus Christ" are used as exclamations. The hero doesn't swear.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Max enjoys a small glass of beer at home. Characters are briefly seen smoking and drinking in a cabaret.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Mad Max, the first movie in the Mad Max franchise , stars a then-unknown ( Mel Gibson ) as a leather-clad police officer who takes down a violent motorcycle gang in a dystopian Australia. It's a celebration and an onslaught of intense violence, including car chases, guns, and dismemberment, though not a huge amount of blood and gore. The hero, Mad Max (Gibson) is a loving husband and father, but he's outnumbered by evil, sadistic people in this more or less hopeless vision of the future. Characters are raped or burned alive, and there's a strong theme of revenge. There's brief nudity, and sexual content is implied or shown from afar. Language includes at least one use each of "f--k" and "s--t," plus "a--hole," "bitch," and more. Some characters drink briefly and smoke in a bar. The film falls very short on diversity and has subpar, sexualized portrayals of women. It was followed by two sequels, The Road Warrior and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome, and rebooted in 2015 with Mad Max: Fury Road . To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

• Parents say (7)
• Kids say (28)

Based on 7 parent reviews

Mad Max is a lot of violence and crashes

What's the story.

In MAD MAX, a deranged criminal called "Nightrider" (Vincent Gil) steals a cop car and leads several futuristic law enforcement agents on a high-speed chase through rural Australia. He's finally brought down by top cop Max ( Mel Gibson ). Nightrider's death enrages his gang of sadistic motorcycle riders, led by Toecutter ( Hugh Keays-Byrne ), who vow revenge against Max. Max takes his wife ( Joanne Samuel ) and young son (Brendan Heath) to hide on the coast, but the villainous gang pursues them. Max will have to face them if he wants peace for his family.

Is It Any Good?

This memorable, groundbreaking low-budget exploitation hit established a certain set of rules for action movies and inspired many sequels and knock-offs. But today, Mad Max is perhaps more interesting historically than it is aesthetically. Certain sequences still dazzle, and director George Miller 's close-to-the-street cinematography captures the thrill of speed in a highly effective way. But the film doesn't really establish the rules of its post-apocalyptic future, and it's too uneven in tone; the scenes of cartoonish violence are a lot more interesting than the idyllic home life images of Max and his family.

It's the least of the original trilogy; the sequel, The Road Warrior , is darker and more streamlined, with a more sustained atmosphere, and the third film, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , is more imaginative and fantasy-based.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the over-the-top violence in Mad Max . How does the movie try to justify the violence used by Max and the other members of Main Force Patrol? How did the use of violence affect Max?

If you've seen any of the other Mad Max movies, how do they compare to this original? What elements of the original Mad Max do you see in Mad Max: Fury Road ? How has the franchise evolved over time?

Are there any acts of kindness in the film? How are they received?

How do the car chases in this movie compare to car chases in more modern movies, like in the Fast & Furious franchise ? Do you prefer realistic car chases, like in Mad Max, using real cars with professional stunt drivers, or more fantastical car chases enhanced with computer-generated effects?

Why do you think the filmmakers chose to include sexual content? Did it serve a narrative purpose?

Movie Details

• In theaters : May 9, 1979
• On DVD or streaming : December 4, 2007
• Cast : Hugh Keays-Byrne , Joanne Samuel , Mel Gibson
• Director : George Miller
• Studio : MGM/UA
• Genre : Action/Adventure
• Run time : 93 minutes
• MPAA rating : R
• MPAA explanation : violence, language, and brief nudity
• Last updated : March 31, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Everything we learned about Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga from new CinemaCon sneak peek

George Miller wowed audiences with five minutes of footage from his “Mad Max: Fury Road” prequel.

Furiosa is back — and the road ahead of her looks tough.

At Warner Bros.’ presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, director George Miller and stars   Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth introduced five minutes of new footage from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , the upcoming prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road .

The extended sneak peek began with a single car cutting across the wasteland as a narrator threatens, “If you find him, he's mine." Enemies kidnap a young Furiosa from her mother, who chases after her while holding a rifle in an eerily similar fashion to Charlize Theron in Fury Road . A voice echoes, “Protect the Green Place” — the mythic oasis that plays a key role in Fury Road , which we actually see glimpses of in this footage.

Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

From there, the villain Dementus (Hemsworth) demands to find the Green Place. Furiosa’s mother bursts onto the scene to save her, but the titular heroine must watch helplessly as Dementus essentially crucifies her mom. "Promise me you'll find your way home,” Furiosa’s mother says desperately. “Plant this seed. Protect the Green Place."

We then see Furiosa locked up in a similar manner to Max (Tom Hardy) in the opening of Fury Road as Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme) negotiates with Dementus to take her for himself to prevent a war. Several scenes of Furiosa training alongside War Boys as she grows up follow.

Later, Furiosa meets Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), with whom she appears to have a romantic connection. Jack seeks to help Furiosa in her quest to find the Green Place and return home. Toward the end of the footage, Furiosa cuts off her hair, saying, "My mother, my childhood — I want them back.”

Warner Bros. Pictures/YouTube

At the end of the footage, a character (presumably Dementus) says, “This is the history of the wasteland whispered to me by Furiosa herself. The question is, do you have it in you to make it epic?" Someone refers to the titular heroine as “the darkest of angels,” and the footage concludes.

Before premiering the footage, Miller explained to the audience that Furiosa initially materialized as he was building the world and lore of Fury Road . “In order to tell the story in Fury Road , we had to know everything that happened,” he said. “[That] story was told in three days, this story is told in 10-13 years.

“We wrote the backstories for everybody for Furiosa for all those years, and then also for Mad Max in the years before,” he continued. “When Fury Road had enough traction, we thought, ‘Oh we gotta do Furiosa . And here we are — just finished last week.”

Warner Bros./ Youtube

Taylor-Joy also expressed her enthusiasm for the project. “The way that Charlize portrayed her — I never imagined I would have this opportunity,” she said. “It's unlike any experience you will ever have... George is fully running and completely in control of three full units. Absolutely everything you see on screen has been painted by George.

“Anya needed to be someone who you could spend all those months in the wasteland with — someone who is really resolute, very disciplined, and very, very smart,” Miller said of the actress. “If the apocalypse came, she is one of the people I'd like to hang out with.”

Hemsworth also briefly broke down his character. “A twisted cruel character on one hand, but in order for him to lead this horde of bikers across the wasteland and inspire them… there needed to be an element of charisma,” he said. “We wanted to interweave elements of charm and wit and humor, but there had to be a spontaneity to it… the way he moved, the way, he spoke was about manipulation, but also grabbing groups of people and saying, ‘I know what your problems are and have the answers to them.’”

“We'd had the script for a long time and I couldn't really think of an actor to do it,” Miller said of Dementus. “It is an unusual character... I knew of Chris, and we somehow met and we talked, and in that conversation, which was very far-reaching and multi-leveled, I thought ‘God, this guy's got basically a lot of dimensions to him.’”

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga hits theaters May 24.

Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly 's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more.

Related content:

• Witness her! Furiosa trailer reveals Anya Taylor-Joy in Mad Max prequel
• Mad Max prequel Furiosa promises 'great Biker Horde' and a young Immortan Joe
• George Miller breaks down all the head-shaving, lore-filled, epic moments in new Furiosa trailer

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Mad Max Reviews

Mad Max is the work of a director with a strong vision starting out on a career that would ultimately impress.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Oct 10, 2023

It's a tough little piece, just a little grimy, full of ambiance (love the crumbling sign over "Hall of Justice") and attitude and occasionally sparked by an inspired flourish.

Full Review | May 6, 2023

George Miller's influential, hyperkinetic debut.

Full Review | Original Score: B+ | Dec 1, 2022

Although unoriginal and hindered by the lower trappings of its basic subject matter, Mad Max elevated itself by having something to say, and doing it in a way that was fulfilling both technically and dramatically.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jun 21, 2022

As a filmmaker, George Miller keeps cliche at bay through his attention to detail even as he hews to revenge-thriller archetype...

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Feb 27, 2022

If you haven't seen writer-director George Miller's Mad Max in quite some time, then it's very likely you're not even remembering it right.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Nov 27, 2020

The scene transitions and attention to continuity aren't the most scrutinized, but the editing and framing of action sequences never betray the age of the film.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Sep 6, 2020

There's something about Mad Max...that's allowed it to stand the test of time, not only as a work of art in and of itself, but also as a name and brand that commands cultural currency thirty years since the character's last appearance.

Full Review | Nov 9, 2018

If punk is a sensibility as well as an adjective, Mad Max is a punk movie. Its Australian setting enhances it, authenticating its futuristic aura.

Full Review | Apr 27, 2018

It may not be my personal favourite genre, but what a showcase of creativity and grit.

Full Review | Sep 15, 2017

While it may not be as slick as Miller's other films featuring Gibson's iconic anti-hero, Mad Max still remains a timeless classic and one of the more remarkable films of its (or any) time.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 6, 2016

A solid and entertaining spectacle, filled with brilliantly staged action scenes and made all the more fascinating for its oracular indication of the age of bold movie science fiction that was to follow.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Oct 4, 2015

An action masterpiece...

Full Review | Jun 17, 2015

No imitation can compete with the grindhouse jaggedness of Miller's original pursuit

Full Review | May 17, 2015

Its perhaps unjustified narrative shortcuts hardly seem to be much worth complaining about in the middle of its flawless action sequences.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | May 17, 2015

Manages not to waste a single frame of film even as it wastes countless motorcycles, trailers, automobiles and other vehicles across the bad roads of rural Australia.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/4 | May 15, 2015

[The] film has been consigned to the grind houses, where audiences are responding as Miller wants them to. From there Mad Max will find its way to the film schools and revival houses, where its tough-gutted intelligence may be appreciated.

Full Review | May 11, 2015

Suffers from a case of terminal fatigue.

[Max's] his weapon is a souped-up auto, which sets up chase scenes that make The Dukes of Hazzard seem like a hayride -- a feat director George Miller engineered with a meager $1 million budget. Dramatically, however, the film is inconsistent.

Less pretentious and more gripping than the overrated sequel, The Road Warrior, but viciously violent and awfully shallow.

Mad Max Timeline Explained: Where Does Furiosa Fit?

The Mad Max franchise has produced four films so far. But where does the new movie, Furiosa, fit in the timeline?

• Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is set to be released on May 24, 2024, and serves as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road .
• The timeline for the Mad Max franchise is complicated; Fury Road takes place around 2050, while Furiosa is set 15 years prior.
• Despite the confusion, George Miller confirms that Furiosa occurs 15 years before Fury Road , focusing on Furiosa's backstory.

Mad Max is an electrifying saga that has spawned four feature films thus far, three of which were released in the 1980s, and the most recent one, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) , is considered a soft reboot. Because of this sudden development in the franchise, many fans are unsure where Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will fit into the story's overall structure.

Furiosa , starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth, is set to be released on May 24, 2024, which is just on the horizon. With the release date nearing, many Mad Max saga fans are keen on revisiting the franchise, but Furiosa is far from a proper sequel. As a result, fans are bombarding the internet with questions about the film's timeline and whether it serves as a sequel or prequel to the previous installments.

Fear not—despite a 30-year reboot, Furiosa still has its own designated place in the franchise. While it may not have an obvious connection to the original trilogy, it nevertheless fits effectively within Mad Max: Fury Road 's timeline. So, without further ado, here's a detailed breakdown of the Mad Max timeline and Furiosa 's place amid its convoluted narrative.

Mad Max Timeline Explained: How Each Film Established Connections to Sequels

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a tough nut to crack when it comes to determining its timeframe within the franchise, but Mad Max: Fury Road makes it plausible. As we know, the original Mad Max film, released in 1979, is set in the mid-1980s . It was deciphered from the fact that a piece of graffiti in the movie shows the date December 1984, leading fans to reach the said conclusion. Following Max's vengeance for hunting down the gang members who brutally murdered his wife and child, we've seen what remains of civilization crumble as oil production declines substantially.

Since Mad Max 2: The Road takes place about three years after the previous film, the timeline jumps to the late 1980s. As Max drives his interceptor through the Australian wasteland in search of gasoline, he eventually joins a tribe of good people, but the film emphasizes that the new world belongs to the strong and ruthless. Moving on to the third film in the series, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome is set about 15 years after the second film, placing the timeline in the early 2000s. This is evident in the movie when an aircraft crashes near the tribe where Max lives, and Captain Walker leaves the place to seek help in 1999.

11 Things You Didn’t Know About the Mad Max Franchise

Given the film's events, which take place a few years after the incident, experts believe Beyond Thunderdome depicts the events of the post-apocalyptic world in the early 2000s. Thus far, the timeline has been relatively straightforward to grasp, but Mad Max: Fury Road complicates matters significantly because the film takes place around 2050, according to a few references made in the comics. Given that Max is the film's main protagonist, his existence defies logic, but fans have a few theories.

The characters of Max, portrayed by Mel Gibson and Tom Hardy, are vastly different, and the events that happened in Mad Max are regarded as myths by the people who appear in Fury Road . Ultimately, it is established that Mad Max: Fury Road takes place around 2050, but where does Furiosa fall into the timeline?

Furiosa Is Set 15 Years Before Mad Max: Fury Road

Furiosa: a mad max saga.

It has already been established that Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga will serve as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road , following the story of Imperator Furiosa, who appeared alongside Max Rockantansky in the last film. According to Warner Bros, the official premise of Furiosa reads as follows:

As the world falls, young Furiosa is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a Biker Horde led by the Warlord Dementus. While the two Tyrants war for dominance over the Citadel, Furiosa survives many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.

In Mad Max: Fury Road , after arriving in Green Place, which has now become uninhabitable, Furiosa, played by Charlize Theron, is recognized by a woman who claims she is one of their own and was kidnapped as a child. The age difference between Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlize Theron is 20 years; hence, assuming Furiosa takes place 15-20 years before Fury Road is the most reasonable option for the timeline.

The trailer states that the events of Furiosa take place 45 years after "the Collapse," which corresponds to the original trilogy when considering Furiosa to take place around 2030. Still, given that it is a direct prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road , it's essential to consider how it ties to it. This is where the problem arises, as Mad Max: Fury Road signifies that the world's collapse occurred 33 years ago, as shown by a tattoo on Max's arm.

The 10 Best Dystopian Action Movies of All Time

According to Fury Road , society collapsed in 2013, whereas it actually happened in the mid-1980s in the original trilogy. In fact, George Miller, the creator of the Mad Max saga, has remarked that he is not overly concerned about the timeline because his vision of the new Mad Max productions goes beyond what the newly released comics are attempting to achieve. In addition, he told comicbook.com :

This story happens 15 years directly before Mad Max: Fury Road, and it runs straight into it, and Max is lurking around somewhere in this story, but it's really the story of Furiosa and how she got to be. A lot of the film will be familiar, and a lot of it's new, which we haven't seen before.

In a nutshell, when Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa are combined with the original trilogy, the timeline of the entire franchise becomes more confusing, but if we look at them separately, Furiosa should take place about 15 or so years before Mad Max: Fury Road , according to George Miller, and because Furiosa's younger version appears to be 15 years old in the new film. To make things easier, here's a table with the timelines for each movie in the Mad Max saga:

Mad Max: Fury Road is streaming on Apple TV and is available to rent on Google Play. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is heading to theaters on May 24, 2024.

Screen Rant

Why mad max 1979's movie reviews are so positive.

Decades after Mad Max's original release, the film remains a dystopian action classic. Here's why George Miller's franchise-starter has endured.

Directed by George Miller, Max Max  has endured the test of time and remains a universally-beloved film. The dystopian classic doesn't have the most complex of plots, and wasn't entirely well-received upon its initial 1979 release, but spectacular road sequences and a dynamic central performance have sustained its popularity over the years.

Mad Max stars a young Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, a Main Force Patrol officer who tracks down baddies and outlaw bikers. He drives a customized Pursuit Special, and wears a slick leather uniform. He's a punk rock version of the proverbial Man In Black - someone who plays by his own rules, and whose life is marred by tragedy. Mad Max is full of  iconic quotes , along with violent sequences that may be unwatchable for some viewers. Miller's film becomes even more by shocking by the final act, as Max embarks on a vendetta of revenge against the men who attacked his family.

Related:  Mad Max Movies Ranked From Worst To Best

Mad Max currently holds a 90 percent Tomatometer score on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 61 reviews. The audience score is slightly lower at 70 percent, based on over 140,000 ratings. Overall, critics seems to appreciate the dystopian vibe, and how the filmmaking underlines the inherent danger of this particular world. Fans may argue that in order to fully appreciate Mad Max , one must accept all the ugly violence that it contains. It's this sense of brutalism that allows for some of the film's most jaw-dropping moments, which in turn benefit the overall arc of the main character. As a whole, Mad Max offers a memorable cinematic experience, much like Miller's 2015 revisiting of the story in Mad Max: Fury Road . Here are some of the more glowing reviews.

The Boston Globe :

"If punk is a sensibility as well as an adjective, Mad Max is a punk movie. Its Australian setting enhances it, authenticating its futuristic aura."

"Stunts themselves would be nothing without a filmmaker behind the camera and George Miller, a doctor and film buff making his first feature, shows he knows what cinema is all about."

'There's something about Mad Max... that's allowed it to stand the test of time, not only as a work of art in and of itself, but also as a name and brand that commands cultural currency thirty years since the character's last appearance."

TIME Magazine :

"[The] film has been consigned to the grind houses, where audiences are responding as Miller wants them to. From there Mad Max will find its way to the film schools and revival houses, where its tough-gutted intelligence may be appreciated."

Antagony & Ecstasy :

"Its perhaps unjustified narrative shortcuts hardly seem to be much worth complaining about in the middle of its flawless action sequences."

Mad Max  may indeed be popular all over the world, but critics have consistently pointed out many of the obvious flaws. The major complaint is that Miller's story is rather basic, which fans may argue is indeed the point for accessibility purposes. Critics have rightfully called out the violence, too, even if it is central to Miller's overall vision. Some of the imagery is quite gruesome, but the camera often implies a graphic visual without actually showing it (like Alfred Hitchcock's iconic shower scene in Psycho ). Here is some of the more negative critical feedback that  Mad Max has received.

The New York Times :

"Mad Max is ugly and incoherent, and aimed, probably accurately, at the most uncritical of moviegoers."

The Blu Spot :

"While Mad Max has been hailed as a classic by some, it becomes plain to see that that reputation is not entirely deserved thanks to a bare-bones plot that doesn't even fill 90 minutes and a sluggish pace that will leave viewers struggling to stay awake."

People Magazine :

"[Max's] his weapon is a souped-up auto, which sets up chase scenes that make The Dukes of Hazzard seem like a hayride -- a feat director George Miller engineered with a meager $1 million budget. Dramatically, however, the film is inconsistent."

The Spectator :

"Suffers from a case of terminal fatigue."

There are certainly some valid criticisms of  Mad Max , but critics and movie fans alike still seem to love it after all these years. And given the overwhelming love for Mad Max: Fury Road, we clearly haven't seen the last of this world yet.

More:  How Mel Gibson’s Mad Max Connects To Tom Hardy’s In Fury Road

10 Best Movies Like Mortal Engines

• The post-apocalyptic steampunk film "Mortal Engines" bombed at the box office but had a praised cast and intriguing story.
• Similar films like "Valerian," "City of Ember," and "Blade Runner 2049" also faced box-office challenges.
• "Oblivion," "The Chronicles Of Riddick," "Mad Max: Fury Road," and others contain similar themes to "Mortal Engines."

Mortal Engines chronicles a very unique tale, making it difficult to find films, but, thankfully, numerous post-apocalyptic, steampunk, and fantasy movies have been made over the years. The 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk film, directed by Christian Rivers and written by Fran Walsh, Philippa Boyens, and Peter Jackson, depicts a world set more than a thousand years in the future where cities have become motorized on wheels and try to destroy one another following the Sixty Minute War. Although it is based on Philip Reeve's 2001 novel of the same name, Mortal Engines contains several changes from the book .

The cast of Mortal Engines includes:

• Hera Hilmar as Hester Shaw
• Robert Sheehan as Tom Natsworthy
• Hugo Weaving as Thaddeus Valentine
• Jihae Kim as Anna Fang
• Ronan Raftery as Bevis Pod
• Leila George as Katherine Valentine
• Patrick Malahide as Magnus Crome
• Stephen Lang as Shrike.

Although Mortal Engines bombed at the box office — it grossed around $83.7 million against a budget of $100–150 million — and was a critical failure, audiences rated it a little better and praised the cast for their performances. The 2018 film didn't feature multiple big names (except for Hugo Weaving, and even then, he's no Tom Cruise), so it's understandable why some weren't drawn to see it in theaters. Movies often succeed by having big stars attached to a project, which is why many projects similar to Mortal Engines performed better at the box office (while others had similar receptions).

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Directed by luc besson.

Director Luc Besson

Release Date July 21, 2017

Writers Luc Besson

Cast Cara Delevingne, Rutger Hauer, Dane DeHaan, John Goodman, Clive Owen, Ethan Hawke, Kris Wu, Rihanna, Sam Spruell

Rating PG-13

Runtime 2h 17m

Genres Sci-Fi, Action, Adventure

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets features the same futuristic tone as Mortal Engines , and both movies contain evil entities that threaten humanity and mobilized cities. The 2017 space opera film, directed and written by Luc Besson, is based on Dargaud's Valérian and Laureline , a French science fiction comics series, written by Pierre Christin and illustrated by Jean-Claude Mézières . So, like Mortal Engines , Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is an adaption.

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the most expensive independent film ever made, as director and screenwriter Luc Besson personally funded the project.

Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne lead the cast of Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets as Valerian and Laureline, respectively. The duo are soldiers for the United Human Federation, which rules over the galaxy, but they run into trouble while on a mission. Unfortunately, Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets has one more similarity to Mortal Engines — the 2017 space opera was also a box office bomb since it grossed $225 million worldwide against a budget of around $223 million.

Valerian & The City Of A Thousand Planets: 10 Backstage Facts You Never Knew About The Film

Directed by joseph kosinski.

Director Joseph Kosinski

Release Date April 19, 2013

Writers Karl Gajdusek, Michael Arndt, Joseph Kosinski

Cast Andrea Riseborough, Morgan Freeman, Tom Cruise, Zoe Bell, Olga Kurylenko, Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, Melissa Leo

Runtime 124minute

Genres Sci-Fi, Action

Oblivion , directed by Joseph Kosinski and written by Karl Gajdusek and Michael deBruyn, is another post-apocalyptic movie that centers around Earth, which has been demolished after an alien war, in 2077. The 2013 action-adventure film has some star power as its leading man is Tom Cruise, who plays Jack Harper, a technician who repairs drones on Earth, and some other big names in the Oblivion cast are Morgan Freeman and Melissa Leo.

Oblivion ultimately grossed $286 million worldwide against a budget of $120 million during its theatrical run in 2013.

Like Mortal Engines , Oblivion is a movie based on comics, as its source material is director Joseph Kosinski's unpublished graphic novel of the same name. Unfortunately, there are no plans for an Oblivion sequel with Tom Cruise . However, many fans hope that will change after the success of Cruise's Top Gun: Maverick , and only time will tell if the actor is inspired to continue the science fiction story.

The Chronicles Of Riddick

Directed by david twohy, the chronicles of riddick.

Director David Twohy

Release Date June 11, 2004

Writers David Twohy

Cast Colm Feore, Karl Urban, Judi Dench, Vin Diesel, Thandie Newton

Runtime 119 minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action, Adventure

The Chronicles of Riddick is the perfect movie to watch after Mortal Engines as its science fiction elements are similar to the ones featured in the 2018 film. The 2004 movie was directed and written by David Twohy and serves as the second installment in the Riddick film series , following Pitch Black (which Twohy also directed) in 2000 and succeeded by Riddick in 2013. Ken and Jim Wheat initially created the franchise, which has grown to include video games, comics, books, and more.

Vin Diesel is expected to reprise his role as Riddick in a fourth Riddick movie entitled Riddick 4: Furya , while David Twohy will return to direct and write it.

The Chronicles of Riddick is about a fugitive named Richard B. Riddick, played by Vin Diesel, who is on the run from bounty hunters. However, Riddick is also tasked with saving humanity from the Necromongers, an army that aims to rule over the galaxy. Aside from Diesel, some of the other members of the cast of The Chronicles of Riddick include Colm Feore as the Lord Marshal, Keith David as Abu "Imam" al-Walid, Alexa Davalos as Jack/Kyra, Karl Urban as Commander Vaako, Thandiwe Newton (credited as Thandie Newton) as Dame Vaako, and Judi Dench as Aereon.

City Of Ember

Directed by gil kenan, city of ember.

Director Gil Kenan

Release Date October 7, 2008

Cast B.J. Hogg, David Ryall, Bill Murray, Ian McElhinney, Tim Robbins, Harry Treadaway

Runtime 95 minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Family, Adventure, Fantasy

The 2008 science fiction fantasy adventure film City of Ember is based on Jeanne DuPrau's 2003 novel of the same name, similar to how comics inspired Mortal Engines . The movie chronicles an underground city (Ember) that has run on a massive generator for 200 years. However, the generation starts to lose power, so two characters — Lina Mayfleet, played by Saoirse Ronan, and Doon Harrow, played by Harry Treadaway — have to find a way to save Ember. The movie's visuals are striking enough to pull audiences in, while the all-star cast gives great performances.

Tom Hanks' production company — Playtone — produced City of Ember .

Gil Kenan directed City of Ember in his live-action directorial debut, while Caroline Thompson wrote the script. The 2008 fantasy adventure film received mixed reviews from critics, and unfortunately, it was a box office bomb like Mortal Engines . The movie only grossed $17.9 million worldwide against a budget of $55 million, meaning that a City of Ember sequel is unlikely to happen .

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Director Martin Scorsese

Release Date November 22, 2011

Writers Brian Selznick, John Logan

Cast Asa Butterfield, Emily Mortimer, Ben Kingsley, Sacha Baron Cohen, Ray Winstone, Jude Law, Christopher Lee, Chloe Grace Moretz

Runtime 126 minutes

Genres Family, Drama, Mystery, Documentary, Adventure

Martin Scorsese's Hugo certainly isn't the renowned filmmaker's most talked-about movie, but it was critically successful following its premiere in 2011 and contains a thrilling story set in 1930s Paris. The action-adventure film takes place in the past instead of in the future like Mortal Engines . However, its engrossing adventure (which entails a young boy trying to solve a mystery revolving around an automaton) is worth watching if one liked the 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk movie.

Hugo is based on Brian Selznick's 2007 novel The Invention of Hugo Cabret , and while Scorsese's movie was a box office disappointment (it earned $185 million against a budget of $150 million), it was a critical success. The 2011 action-adventure film received 11 nominations at the 84th Academy Awards and ultimately won five Oscars — for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, Best Sound Editing, Best Sound Mixing, and Best Visual Effects.

Mortal Engines Review: Peter Jackson's Mad Max is Surprisingly Bland

Mad max: fury road, directed by george miller.

Director George Miller

Release Date May 14, 2015

Writers Nick Lathouris, Brendan McCarthy, George Miller

Cast Nicholas Hoult, Abbey Lee, Hugh Keays-Byrne, Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Zoe Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Courtney Eaton

Runtime 120 Minutes

Genres Thriller, Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Franchise(s) Mad Max

Mad Max: Fury Road certainly has a more rugged feel to it than Mortal Engines but both are set in a post-apocalyptic world where the struggle for power dominates the story. The 2015 post-apocalyptic action film, directed by George Miller and written by Miller, Brendan McCarthy, and Nico Lathouris, is the fourth installment in the Mad Max movie series , after Mad Max in 1979, Mad Max 2 in 1981, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985.

The fifth installment in the Mad Max film series, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , premieres on May 24, 2024, and is described as both a prequel and a spin-off to Mad Max: Fury Road .

The Mad Max franchise was revived 30 years after the release of the third film because Miller decided to follow through with his plans for another sequel after it spent years in development hell and faced numerous other obstacles. It was a fantastic decision on Miller's part since Mad Max: Fury Road is considered the best movie in the franchise . The 2015 film was a critical and box office success as it grossed $380.4 million against an estimated budget of around $150 million. Mad Max: Fury Road also won six Oscars at the 88th Academy Awards.

Blade Runner 2049

Directed by denis villeneuve.

Director Denis Villeneuve

Release Date October 6, 2017

Writers Hampton Fancher, Michael Green

Cast Lennie James, David Dastmalchian, Robin Wright, Jared Leto, Carla Juri, Barkhad Abdi, Hiam Abbass, Dave Bautista, Harrison Ford, Ryan Gosling, Sylvia Hoeks, Mackenzie Davis, Ana De Armas

Genres Sci-Fi, Drama, Mystery, Action

prequel(s) Blade Runner

To be honest, either Blade Runner or Blade Runner 2049 are perfect movies to watch after Mortal Engines , but the more recent film aligns a little bit better with the themes of the 2018 post-apocalyptic steampunk movie. The sequel to the classic 1982 science fiction film debuted in 2017. It featured the return of Harrison Ford as Rick Deckard and the introduction of Ryan Gosling as K. Blade Runner 2049 , directed by Denis Villeneuve, is more associated with cyberpunk than steampunk. However, the two genres are close enough that those who enjoyed Mortal Engines would like Blade Runner 2049 .

Blade Runner 2099 , a television series set in the Blade Runner universe, is in development for Amazon Prime Video.

The 2017 epic neo-noir science fiction film revolves around a new blade runner for the Los Angeles Police Department (Gosling's character) who discovers a game-changing secret that could send the world into disarray. As a result, K sets out to find Rick Deckard, a former blade runner who no one has seen in 30 years. Unfortunately, Blade Runner 2049 was a box office bomb like Mortal Engines , despite receiving positive reviews. The movie earned $267.5 million against a budget of around $150–185 million.

Alita: Battle Angel

Directed by robert rodriguez.

Director Robert Rodriguez

Release Date February 14, 2019

Writers Laeta Kalogridis, Yukito Kishiro, James Cameron

Cast Jackie Earle Haley, Lana Condor, Eiza Gonzalez, Mahershala Ali, Rosa Salazar, Christoph Waltz

Rating pg-13

Runtime 122minutes

Genres Sci-Fi, Romance, Thriller, Action, Adventure

While Alita: Battle Angel is considered cyberpunk (like Blade Runner 2049 ) instead of steampunk like Mortal Engines , the two films still have a lot in common. Both Alita: Battle Angel and Mortal Engines revolve around a young protagonist tasked with uncovering their destiny while surrounded by the obstacles of a post-apocalyptic world. The 2019 cyberpunk action film, directed by Robert Rodriguez and written by James Cameron and Laeta Kalogridis, chronicles the journey of a cyborg named Alita who wakes up in a new body with no memory of what happened to her.

Unlike Mortal Engines , Alita: Battle Angel was a box office success , having grossed $405 million against a budget of around $150-200 million. However, it received mixed reviews from critics, who claimed that the futuristic action in the movie was superb but the story was comparatively lacking to the grand scale of its world. Nevertheless, an Alita: Battle Angel sequel is in development.

Ready Player One

Directed by steven spielberg.

Director Steven Spielberg

Release Date March 29, 2018

Writers Eric Eason, Zak Penn, Ernest Cline

Cast Ben Mendelsohn, Tye Sheridan, Simon Pegg, Lena Waithe, Ralph Ineson, Mckenna Grace, T.J. Miller, Olivia Cooke, Mark Rylance, Letitia Wright, Hannah John-Kamen

Runtime 2h 20m

Genres Sci-Fi, Thriller, Action

Given the movie's achievements and Spielberg's name being attached to the project, a sequel to Ready Player One is in development.

Steven Spielberg's Ready Player One is based on Ernest Cline's 2011 book of the same name and is set in 2045, a future where most of humanity utilizes a virtual reality program (OASIS) as an escape from the stresses of the real world. Tye Sheridan, one of the many talented actors in the superb cast of Ready Player One , plays Wade Watts, a teenager who seeks to win ownership of the OASIS before someone evil can get their hands on it. So, like Mortal Engines , the fate of humanity is at stake in the 2018 science fiction action film.

Ready Player One surprisingly received positive reviews and was a box office success as it grossed $607 million against a $155-175 million budget. It also earned a Best Visual Effects nod at the 91st Academy Awards. Of course, given the movie's achievements and Spielberg's name being attached to the project, a sequel to Ready Player One is in development. Spielberg will (at least) serve as a producer on the upcoming film.

Spielberg's Ready Player One's Sequel Update Is A Huge Relief (But Doesn't Solve The Biggest Problem)

The maze runner, directed by wes ball.

Director Wes Ball

Release Date September 19, 2014

Writers Grant Pierce Myers, Noah Oppenheim, T.S. Nowlin

Cast Dylan O'Brien, Patricia Clarkson, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, Rosa Salazar, Nathalie Emmanuel, Ki Hong Lee, Kaya Scodelario, Katherine McNamara, Giancarlo Esposito, Aidan Gillen

Runtime 113 Minutes

Franchise(s) The Maze Runner

The final film most like Mortal Engines is The Maze Runner , also developed from printed source material. The 2014 dystopian science fiction movie, directed by Wes Ball and written by Noah Oppenheim, Grant Pierce Myers, and T.S. Nowlin, is based on James Dashner's book series of the same name. The film revolves around Thomas, a teenager who wakes up in the "Glade" with no recollection of who he is. The "Glade" contains other boys (and only one girl named Teresa). Their mission is to escape, but a complex maze surrounding them is their only way out.

Given the first film's success, two sequels ( Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials and Maze Runner: The Death Cure ) based on Dashner's novels were released. The cast of The Maze Runner mostly stayed the same throughout all three movies, with Dylan O'Brien at the center. The Maze Runner takes many twists and turns (pun intended), just like Mortal Engines , and the two films certainly share differences, but both are set in a dystopian world where one tyrannical entity rules.

The Maze Runner and Mortal Engines are available to stream on Netflix.

Warner Bros. Pictures at CinemaCon 2024: Everything Announced and Revealed

Joker: folie à deux, furiosa: a mad max saga, beetlejuice beetlejuice, and much more..

CinemaCon 2024 has officially kicked off and many of the big movie studios are in Las Vegas ready to show off what the future holds for each of them. We here at IGN are in attendance and will be breaking down all the big news from the biggest presentations.

We must sadly share, however, that not everything is released to the public right away after a presentation, do we will do our best to describe as much as we can so you can learn more about your favorite upcoming films!

Warner Bros. Pictures' presentation was the first we attended and was highlighted by Joker: Folie à Deux, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, and Beetlejuice Beetlejuice. We also got a new look at Kevin Costner's Horizon and M. Night Shyamalan's Trap.

Check out all the big news from Warner Bros. Pictures' CinemaCon panel below and be sure to stay tuned for more coverage as the week continues. And be sure to let us know what your favorite reveal was at CinemaCon!

Joker: Folie à Deux First Trailer Unites Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck With Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn

As we mentioned, not everything shown at CinemaCon is released to the public. Luckily for DC fans, the first trailer for Joker: Folie à Deux was and it is already taking the internet by storm.

In the footage, we see parts of Joaquin Phoenix's Arthur Fleck and Lady Gaga's Harley Quinn relationship. What is perhaps most striking is how it appears to switch from what could be described as their romantic delusions to a grimmer reality. It also looks to confirm a big change in Harley Quinn's story in that she will now be a patient at Arkham Asylum rather than a psychiatrist.

Director Todd Phillips took the stage to discuss the film and confirmed that while the sequel is not a full musical, music will be an "essential element." It also apparently won't "veer" too much from the original film and that Arthur Fleck has always had "music in him."

Joker: Folie à Deux will hit theaters on October 4, 2024.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Footage Shows Anya Taylor-Joy on a Mission

The above trailer is not from CinemaCon.

Those in attendance at Warner Bros. Pictures' CinemaCon panel were treated to an extended sneak peek at Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. The few moments on display showcased the early life story of Anya Taylor-Joy's Furiosa and her arduous journey to avenge her mom and lost childhood. We also saw some of this story in the most recent trailer for Furiosa.

Director George Miller also stopped by CinemaCon and said Furiosa will take place over a span of 16-18 years of backstory and Taylor-Joy shared that this is "the story of one woman's committment to impossible hope."

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga rides into theaters on May 24, 2024.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice Is Almost Back After 36 Years of Waiting

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice took center stage at Warner Bros.' presentation and we were shown new footage of the sequel in action alongside previous clips from the trailer. We get good looks at Keaton's Beetlejuice, the Deetzes - Winona Ryder's Lydia, Catherine O'Hara's Delia, and Jenna Ortega's Astrid - and even Willem Dafoe's character. Lydia also seemingly confirms the film will deal with the dead and the living trying to co-exist.

Keaton has seen the film two times now and says it is "really f***** good" and that Ortega is "just perfect" in the movie and got what they were going for right away.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice opens in theaters on September 6, 2024.

Mickey 17 Trailer Shows the Many Lives of Robert Pattinson's Mickey

The first trailer for Mickey 17 was shown at Warner Bros.' panel and showed how Robert Pattinson's Mickey is an "expendable" asset who can be reprinted whenever he dies. The film is based on Edward Ashton's Mickey 7, but director Bong Joon-ho of Parasite fame changed the title to Mickey 17 because he kills Pattinson's character 10 more times than the book did.

The footage featured Pattinson acting against himself multiple times in this futuristic sci-fi world and Bong-ho knew he could play all these different versions of Mickey because he has a "crazy thing in his eyes." We also got to see Mark Ruffalo's dictator character, his wife who is played by Toni Collette, Mickey's girlfriend who is played by Naomi Ackie, and Steven Yeun, who will be playing Mickey's "strange buddy."

Mickey 17, which really is the story of a "simple man who ends up saving the world," will be released in theaters on January 31, 2025.

Horizon: An American Saga Gets a Breathtaking First Look

Footage from Horizon: An American Saga, the two-part Western epic that stars and is directed, produced, and co-written by Kevin Costner, was revealed at CinemaCon and what was shown was a breathtaking sizzle reel of sorts from the films that tell a story set in the Civil War expansion and settlement of the American West.

Costner said to the audience that he first tried to make these films back in 1988 and then in 2012 and he's so happy he now finally gets to get them across the finish line. However, his full plan for Horizon involves four movies that tell more of the story.

He also discussed how this film will explore the "promise" of America that was earned by people who claimed it for their own by being tough and resilient. However, that came at the expense of those already here. He also wants music to be an important focus for this epic and he even went to Scotland to get 92 musicians to work on the score.

Horizon: An American Saga Part 1 is set to arrive in theaters on June 28, 2024, and the second part will be released on August 16, 2024.

M. Night Shyamalan's Trap Looks to Send Audiences to a Concert Gone Wrong

M. Night Shyamalan's next film is called Trap and he told us that his daughter Saleka, who is a musician, helped him form the idea for the project. As for what the movie is about, Trap looks to tell a story of an immersive experience like a concert that turns into a thriller.

When the concert begins and the singer Lady Raven (played by Saleka!) comes on stage, something terrible happens and you come to find out this has all been a trap to capture a wanted serial killer who is played by Josh Hartnett.

Trap will be released in theaters on August 9, 2024.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected] .

Adam Bankhurst is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on X/Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on TikTok.

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