Furiosa Trailer Breakdown: Witness Anya Taylor-Joy And Chris Hemsworth At The Start Of The Fury Road
What a day. What a lovely day! It's been eight years since George Miller unleashed the masterpiece that is "Mad Max: Fury Road" upon the world. It remains one of the best movies ever made (as selected by /Film), a visual spectacle the likes of which Hollywood just doesn't make anymore. Everything from the score to the costuming, the cinematography, and the VFX worked together to create a symphony of wind and fury unlike any other.
Now, Miller is ready to return to the wasteland, because the first trailer for "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" is here to remind us that nobody does it like George Miller. The preview doesn't show much, but like the first trailer for "Fury Road," it gives us a look at the prequel's stunning visuals, the vast and colorful world of the wasteland, and the batsh** insane action that Miller made his cast go through — somehow not killing everyone.
We don't know a whole lot about the movie, but we do know some of the cast, and the official synopsis for "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" reads as follows:
"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."
While we wait for "Furiosa" to be released, let's obsessively break down every detail in the trailer.
A promise and a wish
The trailer begins with Anya-Taylor Joy's Furiosa, not yet an Imperator, walking across the wasteland as a voice-over talks about a promise Furiosa makes to find her way home, no matter how long it takes. The trailer explains the premise of the film in a very cool crawl, stating that "Furiosa" is set "45 years after the collapse" at a time when Furiosa was taken from her family.
We know that the journey home is not going to be easy, or short. It's the same journey she takes in "Fury Road," which doesn't exactly end the way Furiosa hoped. For one, the first shot of Fuuriosa in the trailer shows her as a young woman with long fair, no war paint, and both of her arms.
At a panel at Brazilian Comic-Con CCXP, George Miller talked about why he picked Taylor-Joy for the titular role (via Hollywood Handle). "I've never seen a film from her before and then when I saw [an early cut of 'Last Night in Soho'] I told Edgar Wright that she has such a powerful presence and she would be such a fantastic casting for this film," he explained.
Beyond Thunderdome
The trailer gives us our first look at Chris Hemsworth as the villainous Dementus, a warlord with a flair for flamboyance. What's more curious is that Dementus speaks into a microphone and prepares a bunch of drivers for ... something. Is this some kind of gladiatorial demolition derby? A dome of thunder, perhaps? Granted that the announcement is given right as we see a shot of a war rig, it is possible we'll get a battle of war rigs, which would simply be the coolest thing you can do on screen.
Speaking of war rigs, we see the return of everyone's favorite cult members, the War Boys! They still have their explosive spears and they still like to fly above cars by swinging on giant poles. Will we see a young Nux, the character Nicholas Hault played in "Fury Road?" Unlikely, but maybe the film will give us a bit more of how these guzzoline-addicted, V8-worshipping lads work.
Immortan vs Warlord
Welcome back, Immortan Joe! Since it's now clear Chris Hemsworth is definitely not playing the younger version of Hugh Keays-Byrne's fantastic villain, we still don't know who plays Joe in "Furiosa." Maybe it's Tom Burke under the mask? We'll find out soon enough.
One thing we know from the synopsis is that young Furiosa will be trapped in a "war for dominance" between Immortan Joe and Warlord Dementus. The "Fury Road" comics released by DC show how the veteran of the Oil Wars became a warlord and eventually took over The Citadel. It seems "Furiosa" may explore at least some of that, with a major conflict between surviving towns in the wasteland. Now, we do know from "Fury Road" that Joe literally owns Furiosa, so the odds aren't good for Warlord Dementus.
Granted, the trailer doesn't really tease a war movie, so it's unlikely this will be that prominent in the plot, at least not in a traditional "war for dominance" way. But we can expect some tense confrontations from Joe and Dementus.
The Green Place of Many Mothers
Now, this is a surprise — kind of. It's not every day you get to see lush greenery in a "Mad Max" movie given the, you know, apocalypse of it all. We know what this is, of course. It is the Green Place that Furiosa was so desperately searching for in "Fury Road," the place she is from and where she was kidnapped. Given how many women are in the shot, they are likely The Vuvalini (or The Many Mothers), and they are in trouble. It is quite possible this is the moment Furiosa is taken from her home, not to return until the "green" of the Green Place is long gone.
Curiously, we also get a shot of Furiosa hugging a man in a jacket quite similar to that of Max Rockatansky, which Furiosa wears throughout most of the trailer. We don't know who this is. It could be a brother, a lover, or someone Furiosa just comes across in her travels that helps her out, but it's clear he makes an impact on her.
The trailer also shows another big location, a massive city with several smoking chimneys. This seems to be Gas Town, which we heard about in "Fury Road" but didn't actually get to see. A different shot with a rain of bullets being melted indicates we may also get to see the Bullet Farm. This would expand the world of the wasteland and give us a more complete and comprehensive look at the world outside the Citadel that "Fury Town" simply alluded to.
Enter the Warlord
This is our best look yet at Chris Hemsworth as the villainous Warlord Dementus. One of the things that makes the "Mad Max" universe so unique and influential after all these decades is the intricate, recognizable, and memorable character designs that populate the wasteland. Villains like Immortan Joe, Bullet Farmer, or Lord Humungus aren't easily forgotten, and neither — it seems — is Dementus.
Hemsworth looks like he's a Jim Carrey villain, in a good way. He lives up to his name with the big goggles, long beard, and mustache that echo Dr. Robotnik in the "Sonic the Hedgehog" movies. The stuffed animal Dementus carries around, especially, all make him fit right in with the wild people that dominate the wasteland.
During a panel at CCXP (via Hollywood Handle), Chris Hemsworth talked about playing Dementus (whom he described as a "disturbed individual"). "I loved it," he said. "I don't know if that says anything about me, but I've always been the hero, and now you break the rules is something very good and different."
What's more, Dementus is not alone. We see him ride into battle (on a chariot like he was in ancient Rome) with a group of warriors that includes what may very well be this movie's answer to Coma-Doof Warrior. I'm talking about the guy in the demon goat suit, riding a bike with a fan on its back. It is the kind of bizarre visual that makes the characters of the "Mad Max" franchise so memorable and cool.
Not yet an Imperator
Here she is, Furiosa as we know and love her — missing an arm but sporting a cool mechanical appendage, short hair, and war paint. Curiously, she is also sporting the Immortan Joe symbol on her belt, teasing a change of sides (willingly or not) at some point in the movie. Is Dementus that bad that she'd side with Joe? Does she have a say in the matter? We'll find out soon. But before we get there, there are a lot of cool shots of Furiosa involved in some kind of attack — both on a war rig and on some fortress. This is the birth of a legend, of the Imperator feared and admired by all in The Citadel.
Now, one curious thing about "Furiosa" is that it specifies its place in the timeline as being 45 years after the apocalypse. This doesn't seem to line up with the collapse we know from the first "Mad Max" as we saw it happen on screen. The likely answer is that it just doesn't matter. George Miller plays as fast and loose with continuity as the "Fast & Furious" franchise.
One theory is that Mad Max isn't as much an actual person as he is a folk hero of the wasteland. Each movie is just a story about this fictional character that people tell each other at campfires, detailing their encounters with him and how he helped save people. Perhaps Furiosa is about to become such a legend ... or maybe she will encounter some guy in a jacket who never says a word but helps out on his way to his next adventure.
"Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" opens in theaters on May 24, 2024.