5 Reasons that Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) is the best thing ever!

If you like action movies then this is for you.  PERIOD.  Do not wait to see this at home.  See it on the biggest screen possible…it’s GORGEOUS and INTENSE.

With that said, there were a few things that really made this movie stand out–in addition to the size of the budget and explosions.  Here are 5 things I noticed that contribute to making Mad Max: Fury Road the best thing ever.

Folks, let’s just start by stating the obvious.  When in your life will you again have the chance to see a $150 million budgeted R-rated action movie?  Probably never.  So go see this in theaters while you still can.

1. BREEDERS.  Immortan Joe lives in a post-apocalyptic future and he has a harem of enslaved “breeders” he uses to produce children.  These young, fertile breeders comprise all of the women under Joe’s rule that do not appear malformed, scarred or ugly.  Funny, since Joe is one of the ugliest and oldest people in his entire Citadel.  Not only does he have a harem, but he protects their “you-know-whats” from other men with toothed chastity belts!  Good luck cracking that safe unscathed…unless, of course, you brought bolt cutters on your date.

By the way, the fact that Joe has this harem basically provides the entire plot!  No joke.  Charlize Theron decides to try and free Joe’s imprisoned reproductive sex slaves, flees with them, Joe gets every minion and every war machine he has to chase them down…and Max just kind of ends up in the middle of it.

At one point the girls even gang up on Max and try to kick his butt.

2. THE CULT OF VALHALLA’S STEERING WHEEL.  Our tyrant promises an afterlife in the paradise of Valhalla to convince his fanatical cultist-like tribal followers to become suicidal warriors.  At one point he promises to carry one of his “war boys” into Valhalla with his own two hands–and his war boy minion goes nuts!

Fury Road is an intensely action-gasmic spectacle.  The first 30 minutes bombarded the audience with an unmatched extreme action sequence (and an equally magnificent battle score) beginning with a post-apocalyptic high speed car chase, Max is captured by the tribal cultish goons and then escapes giving chase through a subterranean quasi-steampunk lair while still fettered and gagged while battling dozens of these minions while climbing and hanging from things and trudging through water, and then we get another tremendous mass vehicle chase/battle scene littered with explosions and speeding dilapidated car wrecking cartwheels and minions climbing all over these vehicles like ticks on mechanized apocalypse cattle…and then it all continues in a sandstorm with more bodies being flung from or even into the paths of raging war machines in the maelstrom.  This extended action sequence demonstrates the fanaticism of Immortan Joe’s war boys.

Let’s try to explain this fanatical chaos, shall we?  Look at what these war boys will do for their leader…
STEP #1: Get a crazy guy with a death wish to leap onto an enemy vehicle while holding spears with explosive heads.

Step #2: Land on target vehicle.

Step #3: Explode, along with target vehicle.

Step #4: “Wash, Rinse and Repeat” with an army of fanatics until all are dead or enemy is dispatched.

To prevent the war boys from valuing their lives too much, create a false idol–perhaps an altar made of steering wheels–and have them literally pray for a good death and a one-way ticket to Valhalla.

3. THE BANE FACTOR.  Okay, try to stay with me here…just kidding, this is actually a really simple, quick observation. Tom Hardy played Bane in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).  Back when that movie came out I was complaining that they didn’t get someone physically bigger to play Bane like the gigantic Nathan Jones (6’11” 390lbs; Troy).  Rictus (Nathan Jones) is the son of Joe, who is basically wearing a Bane mask…making him the Bane Father of the Apocalypse.  That’s a “triple bane.”  On an unrelated note, there was a crippled dwarf in the Citadel by the telescope…was this (in combination with Rictus) an indirect hint at Master Blaster?

4. CHARLIZE THERON HAS A MECHANICAL ARM!  Need I say more?  SIDEBAR: Max is not the hero!  As Max, Tom Hardy (Warrior, The Dark Knight Rises) is perhaps perfect, but his character is quite unexpectedly understated.  His lines are few (think Kurt Russell from Soldier) and he isn’t really the hero of this story.  Rather he is a reluctant sort-of nomad-turned-antihero who trusts no one and remains nameless through the majority of the film.  The real hero is Imperator Furiosa (daringly performed by Charlize Theron; Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman), a once-loyal servant with a mechanical arm who is defying Immortan Joe by fleeing his citadel with his enslaved harem of “breeders” (a group of young attractive women Joe uses to produce children).

Whether you’re holding a gun or raising your arms in peace/surrender, doing so with a mechanical arm always looks cooler.  And, by the way, it looks like a mechanical Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle hand!

5. THE CRAZY FLAMING GUITAR GUY. George Miller (Mad Max, Road Warrior, Mad Max Beyond the Thunderdome) hasn’t done very much recently—really only making children’s movies like two Happy Feet films and Babe: Pig in the Big City in the last 20 years. But after making happy-go-lucky bright-eyed, bushy-tailed kids flicks he has returned to Mad Max with a most fierce yet equally welcome assault on the senses. We have not 2 minutes of calm as we meet Max, his two-headed gecko snack, and his dusty Ford Falcon XB GT.  If that, along with $150 million in explosions wasn’t enough, he also gave us the Doof Warrior.  Doof is a blind guitarist wearing a red onesie who plays the battle hymn of Joe’s war boy army of the Citadel…and his double-necked guitar occasionally shoots flames.  Even better, his war machine has a stage made entirely out of speakers!!!!  This is totally nuts amaze-balls-tastic.

We go from this [ABOVE]…
to this [BELOW]….nice transition in turning the level of insanity from an 8 to an 11. LMAO

 I’m sure there’s an explanation out there for this guy with his flamethrowing guitar…I just haven’t a clue what it would be other than BECAUSE THAT WAS AWESOME!!!

JUST ONE MORE REASON…FAN THEORY:  There is a fan theory out there that the Max of this film is in fact a grown up Feral Kid, 30 years later.  This is absolutely not my idea.  I found it on Nerdist: https://nerdist.com/mad-max-fan-theory-will-make-you-want-to-see-fury-road-again/.  But some interesting points are made.  The argument is far from bulletproof, but since even George Miller claims that each movie is a stand alone story that takes place in no particular order, it makes it slightly more plausible.  The observations about his grunting, age and hesitation in revealing his own name are all at least a little convincing.

So who is this movie for? Anyone who likes action movies. Really, ANYONE who likes action movies.