Wednesday, January 1, 2025

FURIOSA: A MAD MAX SAGA (2024)

 


Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 post-apocalyptic action film directed and produced by George Miller, who wrote the screenplay with Nico Lathouris. It is the fifth installment in Miller's Mad Max franchise, and the first not focused on series protagonist Max Rockatansky, instead acting as both a spinoff prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and an origin story for the Fury Road character Furiosa, portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne in the prequel. Set years before the events of Fury Road, the film follows the title character's life for over a decade, from her kidnapping by the forces of warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) to her ascension to the rank of Imperator. Tom Burke also stars as Praetorian Jack, a military commander who befriends Furiosa. Several Fury Road cast members return in supporting roles, including John Howard, Nathan Jones, and Angus Sampson reprising their characters. The film begins in what can be seen as a green paradise of a solarpunk future and quickly moves to the more traditional dieselpunk this series is known for[8].

Miller initially intended to shoot Furiosa back-to-back with Fury Road, but the former spent several years in development hell amidst salary disputes with Warner Bros. Pictures, Fury Road's distributor. Several crew members from Fury Road returned for Furiosa, including Lathouris, producer Doug Mitchell, composer Tom Holkenborg, costume designer Jenny Beavan, and editor Margaret Sixel (Miller's wife). Filming took place in Australia from June to October 2022.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga premiered at the 77th Cannes Film Festival on 15 May 2024. It was released theatrically in Australia on 23 May 2024 and in the United States the following day. The film received positive reviews from critics, received 15 nominations at the 14th AACTA Awards, including Best Film, and was named one of the Top Ten Films of 2024 by the National Board of Review. However, it became a box-office bomb, grossing $173.8 million against its budget of $168 million.[9]

Plot

Decades after the apocalypse, Australia is a radioactive wasteland and the Green Place of Many Mothers is one of the last remaining areas with fresh water and agriculture. Raiders uncover the Green Place while two children, Furiosa and Valkyrie, are picking peaches. Furiosa tries to sabotage their motorcycles, but the raiders capture her as a prize for their leader, Dementus of the Biker Horde.

Mary, Furiosa's mother, pursues them to the Horde's camp to rescue Furiosa, but Dementus tracks them down. Mary stays behind to buy Furiosa time to escape and gives her a peach pit to remember her by, but Furiosa refuses to leave Mary behind. Dementus forces Furiosa to watch her mother's crucifixion. Haunted by his own family's death, Dementus adopts Furiosa as his daughter, hoping she will lead him to the Green Place.

Sometime after, Dementus besieges the Citadel, another settlement with fresh water and agriculture. However, the Horde is repelled by the War Boys, the fanatical army of Citadel warlord Immortan Joe. Dementus uses a trojan horse strategy to capture Gastown, an oil refinery that supplies the Citadel with gasoline. At peace negotiations, Joe recognizes Dementus's authority over Gastown and increases its supplies of food and water in exchange for the Horde's physician and Furiosa, who has tattooed a star chart to the Green Place on her left arm to find her way home. Afterward, Joe imprisons Furiosa with his stable of "wives" inside a vault. After Joe's son, Rictus, shows an attraction towards her, Furiosa devises a plan to escape. One night, Rictus breaks Furiosa out of Joe's vault to rape her, but she slips from his grasp using a wig made from her own hair and disappears.

Disguised as a mute War Boy, Furiosa works her way up the ranks of Joe's men for over a decade. She helps build the War Rig, a heavily armed supply tanker that can withstand raider attacks in the lawless Wasteland. Furiosa plans to escape by hiding on the Rig when Joe sends his top driver, Praetorian Jack, on a supply run. Disillusioned by Dementus's callousness, his lieutenant, The Octoboss, goes rogue and launches an air assault on the Rig. His Mortifiers slaughter the Rig's entire crew and destroy Furiosa's hidden motorcycle, but Furiosa and Jack team up to defeat them. Furiosa tries to carjack the Rig and drive home, but Jack easily thwarts her. However, he recognizes her potential and offers to train her to escape if she helps him rebuild his crew.

Furiosa becomes Jack's second-in-command and is promoted to Praetorian. She and Jack develop a bond and resolve to escape together. They see an opportunity when Joe decides to attack Gastown, which Dementus has mismanaged to near-ruin. Joe orders Furiosa and Jack to collect weapons and ammunition from the Bullet Farm, an allied mining facility. However, Dementus, having already taken possession of the farm, ambushes them when they arrive. Furiosa and Jack barely escape, and Furiosa's left arm is injured and pinned to a overturned car. Dementus chases them down and has Jack dragged to death. Furiosa escapes her chains by severing her own injured arm, sacrificing her star map to escape. A lone man[a] watches from afar as Furiosa struggles back to the Citadel, where she and Joe's aide, The People Eater, form a strategy to avoid a trap planned by Dementus. Instead, Dementus is lured into a trap at the Citadel, and the War Boys crush the Horde. Having lost her path home, Furiosa shaves her head, builds a mechanical prosthetic in place of her severed arm, and pursues the fleeing Dementus.

After an extended chase, Furiosa subdues Dementus in the desert. She imprisons Dementus in the Citadel and uses his still-living body as fertilizer to grow a peach tree from her mother's pit. Joe promotes Furiosa to "Imperator" and gives her command of a new War Rig. She meets Joe's five breeder wives in the vault where Joe once held her prisoner and shows them a peach from the tree. The night before another supply run, the "Five Wives" hide in Furiosa's Rig.[b]

Cast

Additionally, the end credits are intercut with archive footage from Mad Max: Fury Road, in which Nicholas Hoult, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoë Kravitz, Riley Keough, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton appear as Nux, The Splendid Angharad, Toast the Knowing, Capable, The Dag, and Cheedo the Fragile, respectively; the latter five are also portrayed by stand-ins in silhouette during the film's final scene.[14]

Production

Pre-production

Director George Miller while filming Mad Max: Fury Road in 2012

Director George Miller and co-writer Nico Lathouris spent over fifteen years writing the script for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), and developed backstories for every character, particularly co-protagonist Imperator Furiosa.[33] Miller and Lathouris eventually wrote a Furiosa-centered screenplay, which actress Charlize Theron used as a reference for her performance in Fury Road.[34] According to Miller, Furiosa "probably" takes place after Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), but the Mad Max franchise has "no strict chronology".[35] The first trailer of the film, released on 30 November 2023, stated that Furiosa takes place "45 years after the collapse".[36]

In July 2010, Miller announced plans to shoot Fury Road back-to-back with a live-action prequel film entitled Mad Max: Furiosa, but, during pre-production, it was decided to only shoot Fury Road.[37] At one point, Miller and Lathouris hoped to turn the Furiosa screenplay into an anime film directed by Mahiro Maeda, who had previously worked on The Animatrix (2003), Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995–96), and Porco Rosso (1992).[38][39][40]

In May 2015, Miller stated that if Fury Road became successful, he would develop two more films.[41] In November 2017, Miller's production company filed a lawsuit against Warner Bros. over a Fury Road salary dispute, which delayed the production of any additional entries in the franchise.[42] In July 2019, Miller revealed that a Furiosa film was still being planned in addition to two Mad Max sequels.[43]

By March 2020, Miller and Warner Bros. settled their lawsuit and began casting the Furiosa prequel, which Miller intended to make after Three Thousand Years of Longing (2022). It was reported that the film would take place over a timeframe of fifteen years, depicting Furiosa's backstory of how she was displaced from her home and spent her life "trying to get back".[34]

Multiple Fury Road crew members agreed to return for the film, including composer Tom Holkenborg, costume designer Jenny Beavan, editor Margaret Sixel, makeup designer Lesley Vanderwalt, production designer Colin Gibson (no relation to original Mad Max star Mel Gibson), and sound mixer Ben Osmo; Beavan, Sixel, Vanderwalt, Gibson, and Osmo had all previously won Academy Awards for their work on Fury Road.[12][44][45][46] In 2020, Miller said that the semi-retired John Seale had agreed to return as cinematographer, but Seale retired after shooting Miller's Three Thousand Years of Longing, explaining that he wanted to spend more time with his grandchildren.[33][47] Simon Duggan took over as Furiosa's cinematographer.[48][49][50] "George was definitely looking to find an Australian cinematographer", Duggan recalled. "P.J. [Voeten] told him, 'Look, it's a no-brainer — just get Simon to come in and do it', and George trusted him. George knew the work I was doing and thought it was amazing, so when we first met, we just wanted to talk about the Australian industry, the people we knew and the experiences we had. And we knew that Fury Road was the starting point to the look and feel of what Furiosa was going to be — but only a starting point."[50]

Village Roadshow Pictures, which had co-financed Fury Road, was credited in initial marketing material for Furiosa, with its involvement also acknowledged by an official press kit related to the film and a press release by the Cannes Film Festival.[51][52][53] However, following its premiere, all mentions of the company were omitted from promotions and the film itself. In May 2024, a box office report by Deadline Hollywood stated that Warner Bros. "is all in on Furiosa" and financed the bulk of the film's budget without co-financiers, such as Village Roadshow, most likely the result of a content dispute related to Warner Bros.' simultaneous release strategy followed in 2021.[54][55][56] The online news site also reported that Domain Entertainment (a private equity fund that co-financed other Warner Bros. productions like Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom and Wonka in 2023) was listed in the opening credits after the Warner Bros. logo.[56][57]

Casting

A photograph of Anya Taylor-Joy
A photograph of Chris Hemsworth
A photograph of Tom Burke
A photograph of Lachy Hulme
Top: Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth
Bottom: Tom Burke and Lachy Hulme

Miller sought to cast a younger actress for the role in lieu of using de-aging technology for Theron, explaining that the technology still leaves "an uncanny valley" effect.[33] Theron admitted that the decision was "a little heartbreaking, for sure", but understood Miller's rationale.[58] In March 2020, during the COVID-19 lockdown in Australia, Miller auditioned several actresses over Skype for the Furiosa role.[59]

In October 2020, Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II were cast, although Abdul-Mateen later dropped out due to a scheduling conflict.[12][60] Miller chose Taylor-Joy after seeing her performance in an early cut of the film Last Night in Soho (2021) and auditioning her with the "Mad as Hell" monologue, quoted by the character Howard Beale (portrayed by Peter Finch) from Sidney Lumet's Network (1976).[61][62] Edgar Wright, the director of Last Night in Soho, told Miller to "do yourself a favor and grab the opportunity to work with her".[58] Miller felt that "there's a kind of timelessness to her, there's a mystery to her, and yet she's accessible".[40] Taylor-Joy received advice from Nicholas Hoult, who had previously portrayed Nux in Fury Road and worked alongside her in The Menu (2022).[63] According to Goran D. Kleut, who portrayed The Octoboss, Miller asks every actor who auditions with him to try out the "Mad as Hell" monologue.[22]

Hemsworth, an Australian, had grown up watching the Mad Max films.[30] In 2010, he had previously applied for the title role in Fury Road that eventually went to Tom Hardy. Hemsworth later explained that he was not a big enough star at the time to earn the role; his most notable role, Thor, had not yet debuted in the 2011 film of the same name.[30][64] To accurately portray resource scarcity in the wasteland, Hemsworth cut his calorie intake in half compared to when he prepares for a Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) film.[65] Describing and elaborating on his character's motivations, Hemsworth said: "He's a pretty horrible individual. Through the whole film we kept coming back to, 'This is evil, but what is the intention behind it?' It's not just sadistic insanity. There is a real purpose, the wheels are turning, he's plotting and planning and ten steps ahead of everyone else." Amid the character's harshness, Hemsworth imagines Dementus as something of a father figure to Furiosa, adding: "I think that's how he sees himself. I think there's a paternal quality and nature to the relationship in his eyes. [Furiosa] would, I'm sure, argue to her death the complete opposite."[66]

In 2021, Miller cast Alyla Browne as a young Furiosa; she had previously worked with Miller on Three Thousand Years of Longing. Miller said that she reminded him of a young Furiosa and that she impressed him while doing the splits on set.[67][68][69] Tom Burke joined the cast in the autumn of 2021 as Praetorian Jack, replacing Abdul-Mateen.[60] Burke said that while most of his scenes were shot sitting down in a truck, he had to spend long hours in the gym becoming "as lithe as possible", given that he might have to safely jump off the War Rig many times in a row until Miller got a take he was satisfied with.[70]

When principal photography commenced in June 2022, the producers disclosed that Nathan Jones and Angus Sampson were set to reprise their roles from Fury Road.[71] They additionally announced that Quaden Bayles, who worked on Three Thousand Years of Longing after a video about his mistreatment at school went viral, would appear in a minor role.[72] During the production, Miller agreed to cast Lachy Hulme, who was already playing the role of Rizzdale Pell, as a younger Immortan Joe, succeeding Fury Road's late Hugh Keays-Byrne, who died in 2020. Miller initially wanted to use a body double for Joe and record his lines in post-production with ADR, but Hulme convinced Miller that he could replicate Keays-Byrne's voice and eyes. "When you are working on a Dr. George Miller movie, there's no pressure on you because you're in an incredibly supportive environment", Hulme said. During pre-production, Hulme fell off a motorcycle while practicing for a scene as Rizzdale Pell. Afterward, Miller decided all the actor's bike riding would be performed by his stunt double, Chris Matheson.[17][73][74]

Filming

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was shot in the New South Wales towns of Hay (left) and Silverton (right),[75] the latter of which is often considered a ghost town, though it has a small population of 48 people; Silverton hosts a Mad Max 2 Museum[76]

Filming took place in Australia from May to October 2022; principal photography began on 1 June 2022.[48][77][78][79][80] Miller shot the film at various locations in New South Wales: Broken Hill/Silverton, Hay (the "Stowaway" action sequence), Kurnell (the Bullet Farm and the final confrontation between Furiosa and Dementus), Terrey Hills (the Green Place), Melrose Park (Gastown), and the Disney lot in Sydney (the Citadel).[81] The action sequence where the raiders ambush the War Rig took 78 days to shoot, where close to 200 stunt performers worked on it every day; the sequence became known during production as "Stowaway to Nowhere".[82][83]

Miller stated that Furiosa was an easier shoot than Fury Road, alluding to the latter's troubled production, and complimented Warner Bros.' new leadership for implementing an "approach to filmmaking [that was] much more collaborative than it was adversarial".[84] Burke said that Miller wanted a different kind of filming style from Fury Road, which used short takes and long cuts; he noted that Miller specifically wanted to shoot the scene where Dementus taunts Jack and Furiosa in one take.[70]

In lighting most of Furiosa's exterior shots, Duggan and gaffer Shaun Conway recognized that "nearly all of our story would be told during daytime, so everything relied on sunlight", Duggan said. "And because we were in mid-El Niño, the weather during the shoot was unpredictable, with pouring rains and winds up to 50 miles per hour. So, we added a lot of artificial light to create sunlight, which helped us create a harsh look that was quite different than what you'd expect."[50] To augment their locations' natural light, the filmmakers relied on a uniform approach, employing an array of six 18K HMI PARs at varying degrees of spot. "The six PARs were mounted to three heavy-duty telescopic handlers that were easily moveable and could withstand the conditions, and the lamps were protected from the rain", Duggan noted. "We found that the 18K array could cover almost half a football field and accommodated the size of most of our exterior-location sets. We could put the light wherever we wanted to; whenever the sun was coming in and out, we'd follow and match that direction."[50] He continued: "George told us we weren't going to wait for anything to light our sets, so we had to be prepared with one solution. And that meant we didn't have to stop shooting — we could just keep on going. Of course, we always oriented the sets, or our camera, to make use of sidelight or backlight from the actual sun, but the brute power of those PARs gave us all the light we needed."[50]

Taylor-Joy praised Miller's commitment to safety on set,[85] but said that working on the film was, nonetheless, a challenging experience. With just 30-odd spoken lines of dialogue, she would go "months" on the film's set without speaking a single word on camera: "I've never been more alone than making that movie ... I don't want to go too deep into it, but everything that I thought was going to be easy was hard." When asked what proved more difficult than she expected on the Furiosa set, the actress said: "Next question, sorry. Talk to me in 20 years."[86] In a later interview, responding to a question regarding how she was "able to portray the nuance and complexity of Furiosa without much dialogue", Taylor-Joy explained: "[The character] was just immediately there. The second that I read the first script, even though the script changed quite a bit by the time we got to filming, I had her essence very deeply embedded within me. I was also supremely protective. I think I fought more for this character than I had fought for any other character. George had such a specific vision for what he wanted her to be and I just felt like it was my responsibility to fight for any moment where you could see a little bit of her rage come out."[87] Sharing her most memorable note given by Miller throughout the filming process, she said: "[George] wanted [Furiosa] to be incredibly stoic. And I felt like my contribution was that I've always felt like you need to see the humanity behind that, if you want people to fully invest in a character. George encourages you to be in almost like a university-type setting where every choice you have to justify – and you don't justify it once. You justify it thousands of times if it's going to make it in the movie. It was really great training for me not only as an actor but also as somebody that hopes to direct one day. Your conviction has to be unwavering if you want something to make it into one of his movies."[87]

Hemsworth arrived on set nursing a back injury, but said that he was excited to work on Furiosa because playing Dementus allowed him to get "out of that typecast space of the muscly action guy and ... play a character with complications and darkness". He explained that "suffering without a purpose is awful", but "suffering with purpose can be rejuvenating and replenishing".[88] Burke said that Miller was willing to collaborate with his actors to structure Furiosa and Jack's relationship, explaining that while Miller wanted a romance, Burke felt the characters should "push romance to the side until they believe they are riding off to a safer place".[89]

While promoting the film, the actors disclosed several ideas that Miller considered or even shot but ultimately cut. Taylor-Joy said that Miller shot but ultimately deleted a scene where Furiosa cuts off Dementus's tongue, an act which is mentioned but not shown in the theatrical version.[90] Burke said that Miller vetoed the idea of a training montage where Jack teaches Furiosa about road war because it was too much of a cliché.[89]

Post-production

"Hylas and the Nymphs" (1896), a painting by John William Waterhouse
Haunted by his memories of a better past, Dementus vandalizes a copy of J. W. Waterhouse's painting Hylas and the Nymphs (1896) after conquering Gastown; Miller used the painting's verdant, watery setting to contrast with the burned-out desert landscapes of Furiosa.[91]

Fury Road's VFX supervisor Andrew Jackson returned for Furiosa. His home studio DNEG worked with Framestore, Metaphysic.ai, Rising Sun Pictures, and slatevfx.[92][93][94][95] He had received an Academy Award nomination for Fury Road and subsequently won the Oscar for Tenet (2020).[96] Jackson said that Furiosa "leans much more heavily [than Fury Road] on visual effects" and that Miller "completely embraced the idea that CG is the way to go to build worlds and do whatever we need to do in post".[97]

In addition to traditional CGI work, such as augmenting backdrops and stitching together the work of multiple stuntmen who shot their scenes separately for safety reasons, Jackson used VFX to heighten certain action scenes, such as the "Stowaway" action sequence, where VFX animated The Octoboss's demise and the final chase sequence, where a CGI version of Furiosa's (otherwise practical) car was used to animate "things just far too dangerous to be doing with a real car, like side-swiping motorbikes".[98][99][100] VFX helped "generat[e] a feeling of movement" by making background elements move faster and animating flying equipment like The Octoboss's rippling black parachute.[97]

As Furiosa ages from a child to a young woman over the course of the film, Miller and Jackson hired Rising Sun Pictures to use machine learning (a non-generative form of artificial intelligence) to blend Taylor-Joy's and Browne's faces together.[97] Taylor-Joy said that Miller "wanted the transition ... to be seamless". She spent two days shooting with Rising Sun so that they could map her facial expressions. By her estimate, at the start of the film, about 35% of Browne's face was modified to look like her own, a figure that increased to 80% during Browne's final scenes in the Citadel.[95] Additionally, in Taylor-Joy's early scenes in the Citadel, her eyes were partially modified to look more like Browne's.[97] Taylor-Joy stressed that the actors' union went on strike in part to demand better regulation of AI tools and that Miller's use of AI was consensual.[95] Metaphysic.ai performed a similar function for the Bullet Farmer, blending Lee Perry's facial features with those of the late Richard Carter, who portrayed the Bullet Farmer in Fury Road.[97]

Impact on the Australian film industry

According to the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), Furiosa was the most expensive film in Australian history, with a budget of AU$333.2 million.[40] Over 3,000 people worked on the film, including some ex-convicts who were hired as supporting artists.[40][101] In addition, to take advantage of Australian tax credits for VFX work, DNEG opened a Sydney branch to spearhead special effects work on Furiosa; it estimated that the office, once fully staffed, would employ up to 500 VFX artists.[102]

The film was awarded extensive government subsidies, including a filming incentive from the New South Wales government and various "offsets from the federal government".[40] Miller said that government support "made [shooting in Australia] possible".[103] Queensland University of Technology professor Amanda Lotz estimated that Screen NSW contributed AU$50 million in direct subsidies to Furiosa's budget.[104] Furthermore, the federal government offers all qualifying films a tax rebate equivalent to 40% of the amount of money the production spends in Australia.[105] Lotz estimated this federal rebate at AU$133 million (40% of AU$333.2 million),[104] and NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said that she hoped Furiosa would contribute AU$350 million to the Australian economy.[103] Although a May 2024 ABC report estimated the size of the NSW filming incentive as AU$175 million (over half the film's reported budget), the ABC subsequently amended its report to remove that estimate.[40] Other reports suggested that the AU$175 million figure applies to the total size of the NSW subsidy fund (spread out over five years) and not to Furiosa specifically.[103]

Furiosa's VFX artists allowed production to keep shooting in Australia even though the weather in New South Wales was not ideal for a desert-based film.[98] By contrast, Miller had to move the Fury Road shoot from Australia to Namibia because rain caused wildflowers to grow in the Australian desert, which would not have happened in a post-apocalyptic wasteland.[106] According to Framestore, during the opening chase sequence where Mary tracks Furiosa's kidnappers through a series of sand dunes, "we ended up pretty much having to replace all of the ground".[98] Colourist Eric Whipp, who also worked on Fury Road, said that because the desert scenes needed to look like Namibia and "there was a huge mix of sunny and cloudy days" during the shoot, "a lot of the backgrounds in this film are full CG".[107]

Music

Main article: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (soundtrack)

Fury Road composer Tom Holkenborg (also known as Junkie XL) returned to score Furiosa, as his third collaboration with Miller after Fury Road and Three Thousand Years of Longing.[108] Holkenborg moved to Sydney to pen the score and also helped prepare the final mix.[108][109] He explained that because Furiosa was a character-driven film, the film's score had to be character-driven as well: "Musically, everything was being told from a first-person perspective, which is being her [Furiosa], how she, watches the world around her, The Wasteland, its cruelties."[109]

Holkenborg added that Miller wanted a "way, way more subtle score" for Furiosa than Fury Road,[108] the latter of which was "just massive action over 48 hours" and an "over-the-top rock opera".[110] In particular, Miller vetoed reusing the song "Brothers in Arms" from Fury Road (which plays when Max and Furiosa help each other escape the Rock Rider canyon) during the Bullet Farm action sequence because he wanted to focus the audience's attention on the fact that Furiosa was willing to sacrifice her best chance at finding the Green Place to save Jack's life, and directed Holkenborg to use Fury Road's musical motifs for the Green Place instead.[110] Miller explained that the Bullet Farm sequence needed to be "kind of a love story in the middle of an action scene". He wanted to show that "through their actions, [Furiosa and Jack] actually are prepared to give of themselves entirely to the other".[111]

Furthermore, Holkenborg "used AI to make deep fake voices from another voice", explaining: "What if the source sound was a drum rhythm, and what if the destination sound was an electric guitar? But the software doesn't know what to make of it. So it gave us a happy accident that we used throughout the score".[112] Warner Bros. in-house record label WaterTower Music released the official soundtrack album on 17 May 2024.[113]

Marketing

On 29 November 2023, the Warner Bros. booth at CCXP featured a first-look image of Taylor-Joy's Furiosa.[114] The following day, the teaser trailer of the film was released.[51] On 19 March 2024, the official trailer debuted.[115] At CinemaCon, Warner Bros. screened extended footage of the film on 9 April; Miller, Taylor-Joy, and Hemsworth appeared together for the first time in public to promote the film.[116]

Running about five minutes, the extended preview shown at CinemaCon revealed that the film would be split into three distinct chapters ("Her Odyssey Begins", "A Warrior Awakens", and "A Ride Into Vengeance").[117] The final film actually features a total of five chapters: "The Pole of Inaccessibility", "Lessons from the Wasteland", "The Stowaway", "Homeward", and "Beyond Vengeance".[118]

A trio of first-look images from the film were released exclusively by Total Film on 19 April.[119] On 16 May, an extended sneak peek[i] was released by Odeon Cinemas and was released on YouTube the following day.[120]

Release

Anya Taylor-Joy leaving the "Furiosa" press conference at the 2024 Cannes Film Festival
Taylor-Joy in Cannes the day following the film's premiere in May 2024

Theatrical

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga had its world premiere at the 77th Cannes Film Festival, screening out-of-competition, on 15 May 2024.[121] The film was released theatrically in Australia and India on 23 May 2024, and in the United States on 24 May 2024.[122] It was originally scheduled to be released on 23 June 2023, but was delayed to May 2024.[122][123][124] The film opened in China on 7 June 2024, becoming the first Mad Max film to be theatrically released there.[125][126][127]

Home media

In May 2024, on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Miller confirmed that the film would be receiving a black-and-white treatment, similar to what he did for Fury Road (referred to as the "Black & Chrome" edition) in 2016, expressing his interest in black-and-white as a format for film.[128]

The film was released on VOD and digital platforms on 24 June.[129] Following its digital release, it was reported that Furiosa led the home viewing charts. The film came in at #1 on the iTunes VOD chart for 1 July and held the same position on the Fandango at Home chart[j] for the week of 24–30 June.[130][131][132]

It was released on 4K UHD, Blu-ray, and DVD on 13 August.[133][134][135] Special features include the hour-long behind-the-scenes documentary "Highway to Valhalla: In Pursuit of Furiosa", which interweaves concept art, set footage and interviews with cast and crew, providing an overview of the project from conception to post-production, while shorter featurettes delve into Furiosa and Dementus, and Taylor-Joy's and Hemsworth's performances. An extended breakdown of the "Stowaway" action sequence is also included. The disc is rounded out by a featurette on the film's vehicular designs and their construction.[136] The same day, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Black & Chrome Edition was released simultaneously on 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray and digital streaming, and is also featured in the "Mad Max 5-Film 4K Collector's Edition", which was released on 24 September.[137][138][139][140] The film became available for streaming on Max on 16 August.[141]

Reception

Box office

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga grossed $67.5 million in the United States and Canada, and $105.3 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $172.8 million.[6][7] The film's box-office performance has been deemed a failure. Critics and film pundits noted that the franchise's limited appeal in general and prequels, in particular, contributed to poor box-office performance.[142][143][144][145] Variety reported that industry insiders estimated that Furiosa needed to gross $350–375 million to turn a profit and that it would end up losing $75–95 million for the studio and its co-funders. However, a Warner Bros. spokesperson claimed that the film had a lower break-even point.[146] As much as half of the film's budget was covered by the NSW and Australian federal governments.[40]

Performance

In the United States, Furiosa's $32.3 million gross in its four-day opening weekend was described as "disappointing"; industry analysts had projected $40 million.[147][148] Of that $32.3 million, the film earned $10.4 million on its first Friday,[149] including an estimated $3.5 million from Thursday night previews, the latter of which was similar to the $3.7 million made by Fury Road.[150][151] Although Furiosa was the highest-grossing film during the Memorial Day weekend, beating The Garfield Movie and Sight,[148] that weekend had the lowest total box-office receipts since 1995, and Furiosa was the lowest-grossing film to finish in first over Memorial Day since Casper ($22 million before inflation adjustment; also released in 1995).[56][147][148][152]

Furiosa's $10.8 million second weekend (a 59% drop from the opening weekend, excluding Memorial Day itself) was also considered a disappointment, as The Garfield Movie dropped only 42% and won the weekend; for comparison, Fury Road had a 46% drop in its second weekend.[153][154][155] As a whole, ticket sales for that weekend were down 65% from 2023.[156] Domestic receipts fell an additional 61% in the third weekend, when Furiosa was pre-scheduled to surrender its premium large format screens, which are typically booked months in advance, to the premiere weekend of Bad Boys: Ride or Die.[157][158][159] Furiosa's domestic box-office relied heavily on PLF screens.[56]

Internationally, Furiosa grossed $33.3 million in the first three days,[160] industry analysts had projected $40–45 million.[161] A week prior, the film had opened at number one in Australia, earning AUD$3.33 million.[162] During its second weekend, Furiosa performed relatively better in international markets, grossing $21 million, which Deadline Hollywood called "a good 38% drop ... but coming off a low base".[163] The film premiered in Japan on 31 May 2024, one week behind the United States, and became the first non-Japanese film of 2024 to debut at number one.[164] Reported by Variety, it also held the number one spot in China on its first day (7 June), over the country's Dragon Boat Festival holiday weekend, but its $3.58 million take in its first three-day weekend left it outside the top five.[127] However, The Hollywood Reporter reported that the film opened in sixth place with $3.7 million as a batch of local releases dominated ticket sales; Chinese ticketing app Maoyan forecasted Furiosa to finish its run with about $7.5 million.[165]

Analysis

Industry analysts identified a variety of reasons for Furiosa's opening weekend, which was considered weak in light of what film consultant David A. Gross called "outstanding reviews and a good audience score".[166] The opening weekend was not entirely unexpected; in April 2024, Deadline Hollywood reported that "some" sources were expecting Furiosa to compete neck-and-neck with The Garfield Movie.[167] However, following Furiosa's disappointing second weekend, an anonymous studio executive told a reporter that "it's mind-numbing that Furiosa hasn't grossed $50 million domestically."[168] Gross and The Hollywood Reporter's Pamela McClintock wrote that Furiosa was hurt by the industry-wide disruption to the film production schedule caused by the 2023 Hollywood labor disputes, a position that (according to The New York Times) the film studios had been pushing for several months.[169] According to Gross: "Moviegoing thrives on momentum and rhythm: one strong movie after another bringing fans to the multiplex once or more per month. Right now, the schedule is thin."[168][170]

Despite being a female-fronted action film, Furiosa's opening weekend viewership skewed heavily male (72%) and young (55% of viewers were between ages 18–34).[56] TheWrap's Jeremy Fuster speculated that one of the reasons for the "awful" underperformance was because the film is not a four-quadrant tentpole, writing: "Furiosa wasn't ever expected to be a Fast & Furious or Disney remake-level moneymaker for theaters, skewing more towards male audiences and to longtime Mad Max fans."[152] Forbes' Paul Tassi praised Hemsworth and Taylor-Joy's performances, but questioned whether Furiosa commanded the same kind of brand recognition as a traditional IP-led tentpole feature, given that it was "a prequel spin-off of a side character in Fury Road who is not even being played by the same actress this time".[171] After Bad Boys: Ride or Die debuted above expectations, box-office analyst Scott Mendelson tweeted that "sequels soar, prequels stumble, and 'originals' struggle, just like nearly every other summer".[172]

Furiosa's domestic grosses disproportionately came from premium large format screenings (PLFs) like IMAX and Dolby Cinema, which command higher ticket prices than screenings in regular theatres, and (according to Warner Bros. executives) may appeal more to diehard fans.[173] In its opening weekend, 54% of Furiosa's domestic gross came from PLFs, compared to 48% for Oppenheimer, 44% for Dune: Part Two, 42% for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and 37% for Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.[56][173][174] Conversely, Screen Rant's Kate Bove suggested that Hollywood studios' eagerness to push content onto their own streaming services had encouraged everyday filmgoers to put off watching Furiosa in theatres on the assumption that Warner Bros. would "quickly transition" Furiosa to Max. She added that high budgets for tentpole features were "rais[ing] the bar for box office success".[175]

Several critics and filmmakers urged audiences to watch the film without being put off by its weak box-office results. Vulture's Bilge Ebiri, who praised Miller for taking "a big franchise sequel and turn[ing] it into something strange, sublime, and potentially off-putting", urged analysts to focus on long-term performance and to give Furiosa time to grab a foothold in the marketplace, rather than write off the film based on its opening weekend.[176][177] Ebiri also pointed to the 2023 cultural phenomenon of "Barbenheimer" (Barbie and Oppenheimer), which accumulated 75% of its total grosses after the opening weekend due to strong word of mouth.[177] Director Wes Ball, whose film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes had moved up its release date to avoid directly competing with Furiosa,[178] encouraged people to go and watch the film on the big screen on Twitter by tweeting: "Like the movie or not, creative swings like this don't come around often. When they do, try to enjoy the ambition of it all in a great theater ... Furiosa was made because Fury Road was beloved, not because it was a box office hit."[179]

Critical response

On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 90% of 416 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's consensus reads: "Retroactively enriching Fury Road with greater emotional heft if not quite matching it in propulsive throttle, Furiosa is another glorious swerve in mastermind George Miller's breathless race towards cinematic Valhalla."[180] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 79 out of 100, based on 64 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[181] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale, the same as Fury Road, while those polled by PostTrak gave the film an average of 4 1/2 stars out of 5, with 70% saying they would definitely recommend it.[56][182]

Writing for RogerEbert.com, Robert Daniels awarded the film 4 out of 4 stars, and called it "one of the best prequels ever made". He praised the action sequences, performances, and storyline.[183] Pete Hammond of Deadline Hollywood viewed the film as possessing "the best screenplay of any Mad Max film".[184] The Guardian's Peter Bradshaw called Taylor-Joy "an overwhelmingly convincing action heroine".[185] Writing for Empire, John Nugent awarded the film 5 out of 5 stars, and described Taylor-Joy as "phenomenal", finding the "right balance of steeliness and fractured humanity that Theron instilled".[186] Jada Yuan from The Washington Post thought that Hemsworth had "created one of the all-time-great screen villains"[187] and Jake Wilson of The Sydney Morning Herald saw him "steal[ing] the show".[188]

In a critical review, Owen Gleiberman of Variety perceived Furiosa as "franchise overkill" and as filled with "pretension".[189] Nicholas Barber of BBC also disliked some aspects of the film, giving it 3 out of 5 stars. He viewed the plot as meandering and as draining, writing: "You soon reach the point where you're sick of sand, sick of explosions, sick of off-puttingly sadistic violence."[190] Stephanie Zacharek's review in Time similarly criticised the film as "a slog that's working hard to persuade us we're having a good time".[191] John McDonald of the Australian Financial Review opined that part of the film's "failure may be attributed to the writing, but also to Hemsworth's woodenness as an actor".[192]

In July 2024, Theron confirmed she had seen the film, stating: "It's amazing, it's a beautiful film." When asked if she had talked to Taylor-Joy at all throughout the process or since its release, Theron said: "No, we've really been trying to connect. It's been one of those – we can actually make a comedy out of it. We keep running into each other and in places when we don't have time to really talk to each other, so we're constantly like, 'Oh my god, OK, let's get together!' And then life takes over. But it will happen when it's right."[193]

By year's end, critic Matt Zoller Seitz of RogerEbert.com named Furiosa as the best film of 2024,[194] having called it "a triumph from George Miller" despite its imperfections and "a film in the tradition of other late-career masterpieces by great directors, clearly less interested in recycling the same established templates yet again, and revisiting familiar themes and situations that were once presented more straightforwardly with a more ambivalent or complicated attitude."[195]

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient(s) Result Ref.
AACTA Awards 7 February 2025 Best Film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Pending [196]
Best Direction in Film George Miller Pending
Best Lead Actress in Film Anya Taylor-Joy Pending
Best Supporting Actor in Film Chris Hemsworth Pending
Best Supporting Actress in Film Alyla Browne Pending
Best Screenplay in Film George Miller and Nico Lathouris Pending
Best Casting in Film Nikki Barrett Pending
Best Cinematography in Film Simon Duggan Pending
Best Costume Design in Film Jenny Beavan Pending
Best Editing in Film Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel Pending
Best Hair and Makeup in Film Lesley Vanderwalt, Larry Van Duynhoven, Matteo Silvi, and Luca Vannella Pending
Best Original Score in Film Tom Holkenborg Pending
Best Production Design in Film Colin Gibson and Katie Sharrock Pending
Best Sound in Film Rob Mackenzie, Ben Osmo, James Ashton, Yulia Akerholt, Jessica Meier, and Tom Holkenborg Pending
Best Visual Effects or Animation Andrew Jackson, Jason Bath, Guido Wolter, Rachel Copp, and Andy Williams (Rising Sun Pictures) Pending
Astra Film and Astra Creative Arts Awards 8 December 2024 Best Action or Science Fiction Feature Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Nominated [197]
8 December 2024 Best Costume Design Jenny Beavan Nominated
Best Makeup and Hairstyling Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Nominated
Best Sound Nominated
Best Stunts Nominated
Best Stunt Coordinator Guy Norris Nominated
Best Visual Effects Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Nominated
Astra Midseason Movie Awards 3 July 2024 Best Picture Nominated [198]
[199]
Best Director George Miller Nominated
Best Actress Anya Taylor-Joy Runner-up
Best Supporting Actor Chris Hemsworth Nominated
Best Stunts Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Runner-up
Austin Film Critics Association 6 January 2025 Best Stunt Work Pending [200]
Australian Directors' Guild Awards 22 November 2024 Best Direction of a Feature Film
(Budget $1.5 M or over) 		George Miller Won[k] [201]
Golden Trailer Awards 30 May 2024 Best Action Poster One Sheet
(WORKS ADV) 		Nominated [202]
[203]
Best Fantasy/Adventure "Home" (X/AV) Nominated
Summer 2024 Blockbuster Trailer Trailer Park Group Nominated
Hollywood Music in Media Awards 20 November 2024 Best Original Score – Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film Tom Holkenborg Nominated [204]
Hollywood Professional Association Awards 7 November 2024 Outstanding Color Grading – Live Action Theatrical Feature Eric Whipp (Alter Ego) Nominated [205]
[206]
Outstanding Editing – Theatrical Feature Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel Nominated
Location Managers Guild International Awards 24 August 2024 Outstanding Locations in a Period Feature Film Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Nominated [207]
[208]
National Board of Review 4 December 2024 Top Ten Films Honored [209]
[210]
Outstanding Achievement in Stunt Artistry Honored
Saturn Awards 2 February 2025 Best Science Fiction Film Pending [211]
Best Actress in a Film Anya Taylor-Joy Pending
Best Film Editing Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel Pending
Seattle Film Critics Society 16 December 2024 Best Picture Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Pending [212]
Best Supporting Actor Chris Hemsworth Pending
Best Cinematography Simon Duggan Pending
Best Costume Design Jenny Beavan Pending
Best Editing Eliot Knapman and Margaret Sixel Pending
Best Production Design Colin Gibson and Katie Sharrock Pending
Best Visual Effects Andrew Jackson and Dan Bethell Pending
Best Action Choreography Tim Wong (Stunt Coordinator) / Richard Norton (Fight Choreographer) Pending
Best Youth Performance Alyla Browne Pending
Villain of the Year Dementus
(as portrayed by Chris Hemsworth) 		Pending
Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association 8 December 2024 Best Stunts Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga Nominated [213]
Best Youth Performance Alyla Browne Nominated

Possible future prequel

Main article: Mad Max: The Wasteland

In the days after the film's disappointing opening weekend, pundits suggested that it had lowered the chances that Warner Bros. would greenlight Mad Max: The Wasteland,[214][215] a second Fury Road prequel focusing on Max Rockatansky that Miller had teased for years.[216] At that time (May 2024), The Hollywood Reporter reported that The Wasteland was not yet in development.[214][215] Miller had previously clarified that The Wasteland's source material (lore and other background material written in preparation for Fury Road) had not yet been adapted into a screenplay.[217] He also said that he was "waiting to see the reception on Furiosa" before taking more concrete steps to develop The Wasteland into a feature film.[218] Several weeks after the release of Furiosa, Hardy (who was promoting The Bikeriders at the time) said "I don't think it's happening" in an interview, either talking about his involvement in the film or the film itself.[219] In October 2024, while promoting Venom: The Last Dance, Hardy was further asked about whether he'll reprise his role for an additional Mad Max film, responding: "No, I haven't been told anything about it yet, but obviously I'd love to do that ... George already has a script called The Wasteland, which is like quite specific, so I'm aware of that. It depends on whether they're making it."[220]


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