So I’ve seen Fury Road like three times now and I had some time to think.
Furiosa is a lot more badass than even we seem to realize. I’m not even talking about all the ass we see her kick during the movie. I’m talking about all the ass she must have kicked before the movie.
So Imorten Joe has built this whole hypermasculine suicide death cult of Warboys who are all male to a T. He keeps a harem of “breeders” and has other lactating women working as milk factories. Clearly not someone who thinks women have any place near combat.
But Furiosa is one of his Imperators. It’s never explicitly stated, but there’s no way Imperator is not a military title, probably like a general or some such. I mean, it comes from the old word for Emperor.
Given the whole Warboy culture, it makes sense that the Imperators must be the best fighters of the lot, and of the bunch, Furiosa must be the very best. She would have to be, to have the title both as a woman and missing an arm.
I can’t get over this. Furiosa kicks so much ass, the super sexist Tyrant respects and fears her enough to put her in charge of the army over all his other soldiers.
And clearly the Warboys feel the same. When Furiosa first goes off road, one of them asks if there’s been a change of plans. When she says “heading east” the guy doesn’t even blink, he just passes the info down the line. The Warboys are clearly used to taking orders from Furiosa and respect her enough that they don’t question her.
When the Warboys back at the Citadel are gearing up and Nux asks what happened, one of the Warboys tells him Furiosa has gone rogue. You can tell from the way he says her name and the look on both their faces that this freaks them out.
I can almost hear Nux thinking “oh god, why her?”
And Imorten doesn’t just go after her himself, he calls EVERY LAST WARBOY HE HAS, not to mention everyone from Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, which is why the Citadel is undefended and our heroes can do their crazy plan.
Because Imorten literally sent every soldier he had to take down this one woman.
“This is not in the movie: this is stuff that we talked about, backstory about how she ended up with no arm and that she was discarded. She couldn’t breed, and that was all that she was good for. She was stolen from this place, this green place that she’s trying to go back to. But she was stolen from that place and kind of embedded in this world for one thing, and when she couldn’t deliver on that one thing, she was discarded—and she didn’t die. And instead… she hid out with those war pups in the world of mechanics, and they almost forgot she was a woman because she grew up like them. So there was no threat. It was like, “If you become us, then you’re not a threat.””
Okay so. Buckle up, kids. It’s time for Furiosa feels.
Here’s the thing.
I am what’s called a fetal amputee. Fancy way for saying I was born with a missing limb. I’ve written about this on here before, but it’s been a long time and I’ve gained a lot of new followers recently (hai guyz) so it might be news to some of you.
This is me.
This is Charlize Theron as Furiosa.
I finally wound up going to see this movie Monday night after work, by myself, cause I was too thirsty for it and couldn’t wait for my friends to be available. Everyone was out of town this weekend for various reasons, so I figured I’d just wait for someone to go with, but then Facebook started talking about how amazing it was and I just couldn’t put it off any longer. So that’s how I ended up in a theater last night, completely by myself – not another soul in the room, sobbing my eyes out.
Because you guys. I am turning 30 years old next week. I’ve been a fan of action film my entire life. And I have NEVER seen a physically disabled, kickass, female lead character in a Hollywood movie EVER – not once, until yesterday.
“The relationship between Max and Furiosa is a thing of beauty, and occupies a category all its own in the history of cinematic pairings.
The dialogue is as sparse as water or greenery in Miller’s ravaged wasteland — but, though we’re never told, we understand that Hardy’s Max isn’t so much mad as hurting. So is Theron’s character, and each offers the other something that will always be too scarce in this world — compassion.” (X)
