What is the story of the film, post-credits scene, references, and the question: does Max appear?
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
George Miller has already said in several interviews that the story of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was already ready before Fury Road and that he had already shown the character's entire journey to Charlize Theron. The actress insisted that she wanted to be back in the role when the director portrayed her on the big screen, but he stated that a younger actress should play Furiosa, as the story has followed her since she was a child. In this way, the new film takes us to discover something that we only saw mentioned briefly in the previous one: Furiosa's past.
Beware of spoilers for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga below!!
Furiosa is a prequel to Fury Road
Furiosa's story begins more than 15 years before Fury Road and we see the character very young, still a girl, living in Vale Verde. That's where she plans to run away with Immortan Joe's women in the previous film. An oasis in the middle of the post-apocalyptic desert.
The Young Woman is captured when members of one of the Wasteland gangs appear there. Furiosa's mother pursues the kidnappers, but when she finds her daughter with Dementus's (Chris Hemsworth) gang, she ends up captured and killed in front of the young woman. Furiosa starts to live with the group and witness the atrocities committed by Dementus's gang, while he searches for the place of "abundance" where she came from. On the way they meet one of the War Boys, who thinks he has died and is in Valhalla. He talks about the place he came from, abundant in water and green, and takes them to the Citadel commanded by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme).
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
Furiosa and the Citadel from Mad Max: Fury Road
George Miller starts to present all the elements mentioned in the Fury Road mission, such as Gastown and the Bullet Farm. When Dementus dominates the large fuel factory - in a scene that is a clear reference to Mad Max: The Hunt Continues - he meets with Immortan Joe and, in exchange for control of Gastown, hands over the young Furiosa (Alyla Browne) and the Organic Mechanic (Angus Sampson) to the Citadel leader. It's worth remembering that the Mechanic is also in the previous film and he is the one who delivers Angharad's (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) baby.
Furiosa is placed inside the vault of Immortan Joe's wives, learning about their daily lives and the suffering they go through, becoming pregnant by the villain and being discarded or having their breast milk exploited, depending on how the child is born. It is Furiosa's first contact with that environment that, in the future, she will serve as a liberator.
How Furiosa loses her arm
Furiosa escapes from the safe and grows up in hiding as if she were a boy until, now in the form of Anya Taylor-Joy, she becomes part of the group that will build Immortan Joe's War Machine, the big truck that we see her steal in Fury Road. In fact, the first version of it is more chrome and with new surprises. It is while trying to escape during War Machine's first mission that Furiosa meets Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), a kind of Road Warrior, just like Max was in the past - and this is visible in the type of clothes he wears, characteristic of police officers in the first Mad Max. Jack comes from a military family who knew Immortan Joe before the Fall when he was still Colonel Joe Moore.
Jack and Furiosa start to create a friendship, which the film suggests could be even greater than that. Jack goes to help Furiosa in a new escape attempt during a mission at Bala Farm, but they end up being ambushed by Dementus. In Fury Road, Furiosa tells one of Immortan Joe's wives that she has already tried to carry out that mission of escaping the Citadel several times and here we learn how she failed each time. Furiosa and Jack are captured by Dementus and shortly before she seriously injures one of his arms. While the villain tortures Jack for a long time and kills him, Furiosa, trapped by his injured arm, cuts off his limb and manages to escape to the Citadel.
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| Image Credit: Warner Bros. Pictures |
Does Max appear in Furiosa?
The serious injury to her arm almost costs Furiosa her life and she falls in the desert a few kilometers from Immortan Joe's territory. That's where George Miller brings his original protagonist for a brief but very important moment. Max is at the top of a hill, next to his Ford Falcon XB, when he sees Furiosa falling into the desert. We don't see Max's face in detail, as the camera is positioned from above, but he is played by Jacob Tomuri, Tom Hardy's stunt double. The scene cuts to Furiosa already in the Citadel, being looked after by an elderly woman who lives underground. In other words, Max Rockatansky saved Furiosa, leaving her in the Citadel. This explains the looks and attitude of the two in Fury Road as if they had already seen each other before. It's a brilliant addition of the character to the new film and makes perfect sense in the sequel.
Furiosa x Dementus
After returning to Immortan Joe's command and pointing out Dementus' plan, Furiosa finally gains her mechanical arm and sets out for ultimate revenge against the man who killed her mother. A war breaks out between the Citadel clan, their allies, and the followers of Dementus. Another of the wars of men. "There has always been a war in the world", says the narrator before citing several of humanity's conflicts.
Furiosa manages to have her final clash with Dementus and George Miller subverts expectations by exchanging a possible epic action scene for a cold and calculated capture. Dementus questions Furiosa if she is capable of “making it epic”, demonstrating her megalomaniac side of living in that finished world, something demonstrated in her clothes, motorcycle, and attitudes throughout the film. Furiosa, in turn, despite having the drive and fury of its name, can still be more meticulous. "Remember me?" she says in direct reference to the moment she says the same phrase and kills Immortan Joe in Fury Road.
Furiosa ready for Fury Road
The narrator jokes that rumors tell of several fates for Dementus. George Miller shows us that the peach seed that Furiosa carries throughout the entire film finally found a purpose: to create a fruitful tree, from the only remnant she still has of her origin, in symbiosis and as a life sentence for that who took everything from her. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ends hours before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road. From the tree that Furiosa plants, when the first peach ripens, she uses the fruit to deliver to Immortan Joe's young wives and then takes them out of the vault and hides them in the new War Machine, so that she can finally escape from there.
Does Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga have a post-credits scene?
No. The film ends with the beginning of Furiosa's mission in Fury Road and during the credits, footage from the previous film is shown, showing that Furiosa finally managed to accomplish her objective.