Mostly for my own reference, Iâve been sorting out the internal chronology of the movie (since weâve already had plenty of speculation about the pre-movie timeline) â and I came across a few unexpected things.
Day X: Max is captured and brought to the Citadel
unknown amount of time as a bloodbag – probably at least a month
Day 1: Furiosa leaves the Citadel
Judging by the shadows, Furiosa appears to drive away in the late morning:
A Nonexhaustive List of Interesting (slash-emotionally-devastating) moments Iâve noticed about the Five/Sisters/Wives, plus a few notes for War Rig Family generally:
(read! reblog! disagree with my interpretations! add your own!)
âIf you are telling a story with fully realized characters, in a fully realized universe, with honesty and a clarity of intent this sharpâŚof course coincidences of resonant story telling are going to happen.  Theyâre going to happen all over the place.  The important thing isnât whether or not the director intended each and every one of them – the important thing is that they are a symptom of, evidence of, a mercilessly honest story set in an internally consistent universe, populated by realistically complex characters.â
The chorus of swear words (led by John Seale), that erupted when someone pointed out that the edge-arm crane had been mounted on the *wrong* Land Rover, finally subsided. Tom had never even heard some of the obscenities before, he wasnât sure if they originated from Australia, South Africa, or New Zealand â it was hard to tell with this crew.
âYou should have the car George. Tom can get to location in the Rig with everyone else.â Charlize commented â always the one to offer an opinion when others decided silence was safer.
The first evening driving back, Tom tried to join in with the group dynamic. Heâd missed the mental space a solitary drive used to allow him each morning, but this shootâŚyou just had to adapt. As they bumped over the dusty terrain, the rumbling of the truck was accompanied by the quiet click of knitting needles from Zoe, Riley, Abbey, Nick, and Courtney.
Tom started another attempt at the strange useless craft that was allegedly relaxing. (It made no sense, he could buy a whole scarf from Marks & Sparks for less than the price of a ball of wool.)
âYou dropped a  stitch.â Charlize never took her eyes off the road.
âFucking didnât.â Tom argued, looking at the small patch of loops in his paws.
âIf you say soâŚâ Charlize smirked, and then muttered something that was probably an insult in Afrikaans because (as she put it) if youâre going to be obnoxious, you might as well go all out.
Tom ignored the hole that appeared in the next role.
âCharlize can teach you how to pick the stitch up next row if you want.â Courtney offered helpfully.
Tomâs head bent lower. ââs fine!â
The next few kilometres were blissfully silent. That is, until the truck lurched over a particularly large bump with a pained groan.
Charlize rapidly switched down gears. âBit rough for the next stretch, sorry.â Her face suggested she wasnât *that* sorry.
Tom looked down in despair at the dozen or so loops that had slid off one of his needles during the Rigâs unscheduled flight. He started to gingerly put them back, trying not to pull out the last row of stitches.
âYou twisted one.â
Tom just glared at her. Again, she hadnât taken her eyes off the âroadâ in front of them.
âYeah you have,â confirmed Nick, tall enough to peer over Tomâs shoulder, accomplished enough to still be knitting without even looking. âThatâs okay, I can show you how to untwist it when you reach it next row.â
Tom ignored him, clutching his knitting closer to his chest like it was a puppy that someone had been rude enough to point out had lopsided ears. âI can do it myself.â
Charlize tugged down the beanie that covered her shorn hair. Nick had made it for her. It was perfect â of course it fucking was! âItâs your knitting.â
Clearly she actually meant âItâs your life.â
Tom had never been so relieved to see the lights of Swakopmund come into view.
Fortunately George was still lingering in the yard, Tom walked up to him.
âWe need to take the Land Rover on alternate days George.â
âOh?â George looked up at him mildly.
âSheâs a fucking nightmare!â Specifying which âsheâ Tom meant wasnât necessary.
Back in his room, Tom shoved the tangle of needles and yarn into the back of a drawer. He fished out a bag of embroidery thread in its place. Bracelets â he was good at bracelets.
I pray to all skies and gods and v8 engines that somehow, the above-mentioned parties find this post.
NOOOOOOOOOO! *4th wall* *4th wall* *4th wall* *breathes into paper bag* Slightly snarky rpf loosely based on theoretically true events is a sub-specialty. ButâŚ*head desk*
dad max: fury mom (road trip au)Â – âi will turn this war rig around i swear to godâ
You know what tho I have to talk about this because Iâd mentioned this in a text post but itâs so much more obvious in a gif how this is the first time that Furiosa and Max is grouped together instead of Furiosa and the Wives. There was that first moment of recognition when they looked at each other during the Buzzard fight, then that first moments of respect during the chain fight and the kill switches and her getting on the Rig.
But look at that second gif where theyâre both yelling at the âkids in the backâ, Iâm fairly sure that this is their first two-shot opposite the wives struggling against Nux. And their complete and coordinated exasperation at the situation and understanding.
Drift compatible af.
First two-shot! I love it when you point things like this out.  The non-looped line of Max yelling, âGet off him!â reinforces your concept of the corner they are turning here as well. Â
(I assume they did not loop Maxâs line as a decision to keep the focus on the thematically important dialog of Nux & the wives, rather than cloud the intent of the scene by also making this moment about Max being derailed from any increased level of threat by the chaos. Â His expression tells that story juuust fine – no line of dialog was needed. Â Once again, very nice job letting the visuals tell one aspect of the story, and the audio tell the other.)
Can we also talk, briefly, about what Charlize Theron is doing with her right hand in the bottom gif?Â
The designers for Furiosaâs prosthetic arm said that the character had things like motors from model airplanes and some basic pneumatic systems and dials and switches in her prosthetic arm so the character could dial up the power on that arm when she needed it.
Pretty sure in that last gif the actor is playing the character dialing the power back down after having grabbed Nux. And I think thatâs rad as hell.
Oh wow, I think youâre right. Never noticed that before.
headcanon that the center of each target tattooed on the Bullet Farm Imperator is a gunshot scar
headcanon that the harness the guy on the right is wearing is the one that Max took and is seen with during the salt flats scene :o
DUDE. you might be right!! It had the same little length of tubing on the shoulder and all
No, that is the same fucking vest. I am about 99% sure of it. Given how this movie works, Max isnât going to just pop up with a random vest the costuming department had that they liked. Itâs going to follow and be from somewhereâvisual storytelling and all. And dude there was on the Peacemaker, it makes perfect sense. I hadnât noticed this yet alksdjfkldsfjkl
Also, some behind the scenes stuff Iâve read does support the idea that the Bullet Farm fighters have bullet scarification where the Citadel warboys have engine parts.
Yes, I saw Fury Road for a 6th time last night. I donât think I have seen any movie this many times. Iâm serious. This is listerally the most times Iâve seen any movie ever. Iâm not even worried about the ticket-takers recognizing me anymore.
And now itâs time forâŚ.Obsessive Minutiae! (notâŚ
I love this so much. A worthy addition to a growing genre of commentary I didnât realize I needed but is now my favorite thing. A few specific comments:
The tattoo the Organic Mechanic puts on the bloodbags is upside down when theyâre standing up. That way itâs right side up when theyâre hanging upside down. This was probably obvious to everyone but me.
Obvious in hindsight, but a cool thing Iâd overlooked. Makes sense, and brings home what an awful existence Max has to look forward to. Theyâd probably keep blood bags alive, rather than draining them all at once, wouldnât they? At least for a universal donor? Iâd think the cost of capturing ferals would be greater than the cost of keeping them alive long enough for them to replenish their blood supply so they could donate again. On the other hand, maybe a free-range feralâs blood is more sought-after than the kind you get from a caged captive. And especially with Nux in such a hurry, maybe they would choose to treat the blood bag as a single-use disposable item. Ugh.
There is a tiny warpup standing by the âaltar of wheelsââand said tiny warpup imitates Slitâs V8 salute omg (look quick!)
Iâd noticed him sitting there, but not the V8 salute he does (at the end, right?). So cool!
Has anyone identified the badges and stuff (thatâs a circuit board up near the top; please let it be from a Nokia phone) Joe has on his armor? Iâd love to know about them.
The one I keep noticing is the ribbon with â500â hanging from it. Maybe a reference to a car race? We North American types have the Indianapolis and Daytona 500s, for example.
None of the three of them [Joe, Rictus, and Corpus] can breathe. Look: theyâre all three hooked up to breathing apparatuses. Joeâs is the most elaborate, but they all three have tubes at their noses. Seriously.
I did notice that (also, Miss Giddy has an oxygen mask during the pursuit). At first I assumed that was a sign of their being messed up by the toxic environment. But since learning more about the Dome being a sealed environment with filtered air, I think it might be the case that the breathing gear on high-status individuals is meant as protection against the toxic air of the Wasteland. Not that supplemental oxygen would protect you from airborne dust⌠It emphasizes the desperation of the wives, and of Joeâs desire to get them back quickly and unharmed: They may be doing significant damage to their chances for healthy reproduction the longer they stay out.
Totally swear that Nux calls the Ace something else? Grue? Or am I mishearing âcrewâ or âyouâ or âmoveâ?
Yeah, âcrewâ was what I was leaning toward there. Itâs possible Nux either doesnât know the members of the War Rig crew well enough to call out Ace by name, or just hasnât had time to identify him in all the excitement. Not sure.
Check out the carrier truck during the second chase of the war-rig: the buzzard cars are on the carrier truck, along with all the other wrecked cars. It had been full of warboys, now itâs full of spoils and scavenging. Waste nothing. We can rebuild them.
Iâd totally missed that. And with the body count, probably a lot fewer war boys to ferry at that point, too. I can imagine a whole secondary war boy culture of reserves, traveling on the (slower) carrier, hoping for their chance to move up and take a position on a pursuit vehicle, or even (unimaginable glory!) on the War Rig, the Doof Wagon, or the Gigahorse.
Speaking of the Doof Wagon, I have to mention something that bugged me when I was listening to all the Mad Max movie-review podcasts I could find: People who say, âOMG the flamethrower guitar guy was the BEST, but of course itâs over-the-top ridiculous and makes no sense.â
Excuse you; it makes perfect sense. They donât have radio. Joe needs to issue commands, and like with the fife-and-drum and bugle calls of previous eras, the amplified music of the Doof Wagon serves as coded signals to the troops. You can see that in the scene when Joe is pulling back the pursuit because of the sand storm; the Imperator on the Gigahorse signals and shouts, and Coma has switched to playing different, down-tempo chords as the war party slows down.
