Warner Bros. Pictures

Warning : This clause contains spoilers forFuriosa : A Mad Max Saga(2024 ) .

There are n’t many modern legal action movies as universally acclaimed asMad Max : Fury Road . publish in 2015 , the fourth installment in author - director George Miller ’s sore Max enfranchisement is a surreal , petrol - soaked natural action movie of the high order . An orgiastic forward motion of intellect - boggling stunt , car chases , and explosions , it ’s action filmmaking at both its most graceful and crude . Now , nearly 10 years after that film hit theater , Miller has return withFuriosa : A demented Max Saga , his long - awaitedFury Roadprequel . Starring Anya Taylor - Joy and Chris Hemsworth , it tells the story of how Charlize Theron’sFury Roadscene - stealer transform from a kidnapped young little girl into the headway driver for a genitive , brutish warlord .

Anya Taylor-Joy shields herself from fire in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Warner Bros. Pictures

Expectations have been high ever sinceFuriosawas announced , but skepticism among die - surd unhinged Max lover begin to grow after the film ’s first house trailer was released . Put off by some of the on the face of it unfinished ocular effects featured throughout the teaser , some lover suddenly mat thrust to enquire whether or notFuriosawould truly be able-bodied to recapture the magic ofFury route . But few could have expect thatFuriosawould try out to throw off a dissimilar patch altogether . UnlikeFury Road , which relentlessly hits you over the head teacher until you ’re left daze and practically concussed , Furiosamesmerizes you .

Furiosa is a different kind of Mad Max movie

Both films declare oneself overwhelming experiences , but whereas one is attacking , the other is hypnotic . Across its 148 minutes , not a single one of which is wasted , Furiosatraps you in its own measured , careful rhythm , urinate you feel every step that its heroine takes on her journey across a cinematic wasteland that only seems to develop more hopeless and inexorable with every regaining trip Miller makes to it . compare the two now seems both rash and necessary .

Mad Max : Fury Roadis an engine - busting chase that kvetch into eminent gear after just a few seconds and does n’t ever arrive to a full stop until its credits cast . Furiosais , conversely , a slow Mar through Hell . It ’s a longer , slower blockbuster thanFury Road — one that so good choose its fourth dimension explore its heroine ’s   story that its ostensible maven , Anya Taylor - Joy , only shows up around the celluloid ’s midpoint . Visually and tonally , Furiosafeels like a natural elongation ofFury Road . In terms of its stride , length , and body structure , though , it ’s almost the over antonym of that film . It tosses out the skimpy style ofFury Road — a thriller that speaks only in brilliant , but concise shorthand — in favor of a more brooding , literary approaching that localise a threatening emphasis on the epic , mythological nature of Furiosa ’s personal , vengeance - fueled story of loss and buyback .

To enjoy Furiosa, you must do this one thing

Those who go intoFuriosaexpecting it to be as forever adrenaline - pumping and fast - step asFury Roadwill , in other Good Book , be disappoint . That does n’t , however , mean thatFuriosais itself a disappointing follow - up to its beloved parent moving picture . In certain representative , the prequel proves that it ’s subject of delivering set piece that are so throw out of kilter in their construction and jaw - dropping in their implementation that they could have well been have inFury Road . Its activity sequences are notFuriosa‘s biggest anteriority , though . The film ’s interests are more psychological and environmental because its narration is less about literally struggle for a dependable future and more about how hope is lost and keep animated in a world in which human hopelessness has transformed the very Earth .

Furiosafollows its titular protagonist as she loses her home , mother , identity , arm , and the only man she ’s ever been able-bodied to love ( Tom Burke ’s Praetorian Jack ) over the course of just 15 years . She come from a place of “ abundance , ” full of tree diagram , life , and hope , and finds herself trapped in one devoid of all of that . Along the room , Miller further fills outFury Road‘s desert barren . The picture show ’s baddie , a psychotic warlord bring up Dementus ( Hemsworth ) , tries to take over not only the Citadel , a fortress of vegetation , shade , and fresh water , but also its two neighboring communities , Gastown and the Bullet Farm , both of which are likewise define by their resources . When Dementus coif a coming together with the Citadel ’s drawing card , Immortan Joe ( Lachy Hulme ) , he does n’t demand money or deliver , but hebdomadal load of solid food and bullets in exchange for go on trade with his recently subdue Gastown .

InFuriosa‘s human beings , canonic necessities like food and piss are uncommon commodities to be fought over and control . As important as those resource are , though , the battle at the shopping centre ofFuriosaisn’t one for oil or bullet , but between hope and hopelessness . By pour down her female parent , steal her from her home , and then vote out Jack , Dementus repeatedly seek to take Furiosa ’s promise aside from her . Miller and co - writer Nico Lathouris make this explicit when Dementus captures Furiosa and Jack . “ Where were you snuff it , so full of hope ? ” he asks , before bellowing , “ There is no Bob Hope ! For you , for me , for any of us ! ” All the while , Furiosa carries with her a seed from the Green Place , given to her by her female parent just minutes before she buy the farm . The seed course becomes a symbol of promise — a belief that something new , beautiful , and worthwhile can still be grow even in a world as inhospitable as the one Furiosa has find herself in .

A road warrior’s origin story

Throughout the first half ofFuriosa , thing only happentoAnya Taylor - Joy ’s young warrior . A newcomer to the wasteland , it take Furiosa many years to become the kind of capable road warrior she is when she ’s introduced inFury route . With this in mind , it ’s deserving note thatFuriosa‘s first real , extendedFury Road - esque action sequence only comes after its biggest time saltation when its booster is given the chance to bear witness herself on Praetorian Jack ’s war articulated lorry . By the time ofFury route , Furiosa has already learned how to take control of her own life story — and it ’s her ingrained , personal horizontal surface of means that allows both her and a likewise capable Max ( Tom Hardy ) to communicate mostly through their explosive legal action in that film .

At the end ofFuriosa , she lastly achieves that office . She steals a fomite from Immortan Joe ’s Son and aptly carves her way through Dementus ’ few remaining foot soldier before catching up with her unsuspecting tormenter . As she beats him and demands that he return her former life history to her , Dementus contend that they ’re the same . “ You cringe out of a pitiless grave , deeper than Hell , ” he remark . “ Only one thing will do that for you . Not hope — hate . ” moment later on , he severalise her that they ’ll both do anything to “ wash away the testy disastrous sorrow , ” but while he insists that there ’s nothing she can do to poise the scales of her misery , Furiosa finds another way .

Hope over hate

She does n’t kill him . Instead , she traps him in the Citadel and turns him into a fruit - bear tree diagram . She plants a real come of hope in him and lets it grow . Five years afterward , it bears the fruit she needs to not only convince herself that there ’s a better life worth fight back for , but also Immortan Joe ’s seemingly doomed wives . WhenFuriosasubsequently ends with a montage of Joe ’s wife train to leave the Citadel , the journey they all take inFury Roadsomehow seems even richer and more desperate than before — and their triumph all the more hard - fought .

Furiosamay , therefore , not have been the prequel that manyFury Roadfans were have a bun in the oven , but it ’s one that more than earns its connections to that motion-picture show . It may not be as rip - roaring or outright thrilling asFury Road , but it ’s just as carefully and riotously made and even more emotionally compelling . It ’s a prequel comprised of unexpectedly bold , subversive determination , and it complementsFury Roadso well that , together , the two form a treble feature that is as satisfying as a with child novel . It ’s an epic in every sensory faculty of the Bible .

Furiosais now playing in theater nationwide . delirious Max : Fury Roadis available to stream on Max .