There are some films no one forgets watching for the first time: Jaws, Star Wars, Citizen Kane. 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road is an inarguable addition to that list. A lunatic symphony conducted with euphoric precision, Fury Road didn't just raise the bar for vehicular carnage – it set the standard so high, even a careening Pole Cat couldn't hope to clear it. Speaking in 2017, Steven Soderbergh put the achievement of director George Miller and his creative team best: ‘I don't understand how they're not still shooting that film and I don't understand how hundreds of people aren't dead.’
A similarly awestruck Chris Hemsworth can still recall the details of watching Fury Road for the first time. ‘I remember, I was at the Electric Cinema on Portobello Road,’ the action veteran tells Total Film over Zoom, smile widening. ‘I'd been in the industry for a number of years at that point and it was becoming harder and harder to be surprised. I came out, called my agent, and said, “I have to work with George Miller in any way, shape, or form.”’
Anya Taylor-Joy, the 28-year-old star with the unenviable task of stepping into Charlize Theron's skull-crusher boots as Furiosa, was filming the sci-fi horror film Morgan in Belfast when Miller's action opus smashed into cinemas. ‘As a cast bonding experience, we all went to see Fury Road,’ says Taylor-Joy, in LA for Oscars weekend as we speak. ‘I was riveted. And when it finished, I remember having the feeling of: “That is one of the best films I've ever seen.”’
Two things are universally known about : it kicks ass to an unprecedented level, and it was absolute hell to make. The road to reviving Mad Max – dormant for three decades following 1985's – was so long and arduous that during development Miller and co-writer Nick Lathouris didn't just write , they dreamed up two further entries. A sequel, , would continue Max Rockatansky's peripatetic journey across the ecologically ravaged Earth, while a prequel, , would recount the's most important new addition.
