I went to see Mad Max Fury Road yesterday for the third time. I tried to pay attention to details this time instead of merely enjoying the adrenaline ride, but it was no less enjoyable.
– At the beginning, when Max is pursued and attacked by a group of War Boys, they are way more interested in his car than him. There’s a group of them gathered around the car, examining it, and Max manages to crawl a few paces away before one of them comes over to put a booted foot on his back and a gun to his head.
– I felt a bit sorry for the War Boy who was acting as Furiosa’s second-in-command. Seemed like a good soldier. Though he was more a War Middle-Aged Man than a Boy. I’m wondering now how Furiosa had planned to get rid of her War Boys.
– When we first see Nux, he’s sitting on a bench carved out of the rock in that cavern – and it struck me: that’s their infirmary. Even “running on empty” they don’t get anything close to a real bed or even cot. Poor War Babies.
– Slit just ignores Nux and walks right past him when Nux asks what’s going on. I like the War Boy I’ve dubbed Exposition!War Boy who tells Nux what’s happening. He’s so dramatic and talkative.
– So when that War Boy apparently named “Morsov” gets hit by two bolts from a crossbow, Nux is one of the War Boys urging him to get up. When he does get up and perform that badass dive onto the Buzzard car with explosive-tipped lances in each hand, Nux and the others cheer him and shout “Witness him.” Except Slit. Slit is the one jerk who says, “Mediocre, Morsov.”
– Nux is such a pathetic puppy desperate for attention. I almost get a case of secondhand embarrassment from the way he calls to Immortan Joe and his shock and awe when Joe briefly glances at him. Of course Slit is there to harsh his squee by insisting that Joe was really “looking at your blood bag” and “scanning the horizon.”
– Slit is a dick. Unfortunately I have a soft spot for jerks, so this means I like him. There was no almost about it when he displayed his own pathetic need for Immortan Joe’s approval. “I got his boot. I got the blood bag’s boot. Take me.” I did get secondhand embarrassment.
– When Nux decides to pursue the rig into the sandstorm, the way he puts up the car windows and coolly closes the sun roof after looking directly at poor Max (who is understandably frantic, being trapped outside the car and unable to even jump off because he’s still chained to Nux) is very amusing to me because I am a sadist.
– Max growling “That’s my jacket” and tearing it off Nux, who just laughs and says, “You can ask for more than a jacket.” I love it more every time I see it.
– And of course it’s bittersweet to hear Nux saying he wants to drive the war rig. That’s the greatest reward he can think of asking for. I wonder how the wives felt listening to him talk to Max about being rewarded (for returning them to slavery).
– Nux tells Joe he’ll “pike her(Furiosa) in the spine and keep her alive for you.” Yikes. Interesting that Joe declines the offer to have Furiosa captured alive for torture though.
– The sun is setting as Capable volunteers to go keep watch in the back of the rig and encounters Nux. I would love to know what she was thinking as she sees him and why she lies down beside him. She seems almost fascinated by him, with the way she reaches out to touch his lips.
– In the next scene, it’s fully dark and Capable is sitting in the middle of the other wives, with a troubled look on her face. Presumably she’s thinking about how she’s going to keep hiding the War Boy from the others or perhaps wondering why she hasn’t told Furiosa about him being on the rig.
– Then the rig is stuck in the mud and they’re trying to get it out, and when it does get out, Furiosa and Max stare at each other and realize neither of them is driving. And with Capable assuring them that Nux “wanted to help” and Nux kissing her on the cheek after she cuts the chain, well, it really makes me wonder what exactly happened between the two of them. Whatever it was, I love it.
– I love the understated, unspoken way the movie made it clear that Max was not simply a Hero, but a good person as well. That boot he brought back for Nux along with the ammo and steering wheel they needed. He didn’t need to do that. Just the fact that he thought about it showed he was a good, thoughtful guy. Considering that Nux had used him as an unwilling blood donor and strapped him to the hood of a car during a high speed chase, it would have been understandable if he’d just went “fuck that guy.” But him bringing the boot back for Nux, man, that truly shows depth of character and innate goodness.
Oh, dear God, I just realized it’s two hours later. I just spent two hours writing this and I only covered the first half of the movie and it’s mostly about Nux in one way or another. Help me.
