It may be Max Rockatansky’s name on the marquee, but the Mad Max saga has been steadily moving away from the Road Warrior. That pivot began subtly, with 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road and the introduction of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Max (Tom Hardy) was essentially along for the ride as Furiosa launched a daring betrayal against the Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). Fury Road follows her quest to return to her childhood home, the Green Place of Many Mothers, and Furiosa doubles down on the significance of that realm.
The 2024 film is a prequel of epic proportions, tracing the 15 years of Furiosa’s life leading up to Fury Road. Alongside the latter, it feels like Furiosa’s story is finally complete... and more relevant to the franchise than ever. Though Furiosa is just one part of the Mad Max franchise, it’s expanded and contextualized the world in a way no other installment has. Director George Miller refocuses the timeline on one of the franchise’s most beloved characters. Furiosa’s final moments only drive that point home, pulling the spotlight even further from Max and revealing a new hero to rally behind. Spoilers ahead!
Furiosa’s ending, explained
Like Fury Road, Furiosa’s premise is a simple one. Our heroine spends years fighting to return home, but more importantly, trying to survive the Wasteland. Across those 15 years, she becomes the steward of a peach seed from the Green Place, which turns into a symbol of sorts for her childhood innocence and hope.
Furiosa tries time and again to find her way back to the Green Place, and her second foiled attempt might be the most devastating. After allying with the strapping Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke), the would-be lovebirds are ambushed by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth), the power-crazed steward of Gas Town and the man that’s responsible for a lifetime of suffering for Furiosa. A violent altercation with Dementus’ gang sees Furiosa losing an arm — and the map to the Green Place tattooed on her skin — along with Jack, which only stokes her desire for vengeance.
Before launching her final attempt to get back home, Furiosa decides to face Dementus once and for all. She corners him in the desert and tortures him a bit, but ultimately realizes that the villain has already won. In her efforts to survive, she’s become a shell of her former self, a specter haunting the Wasteland. Hope has become a dangerous luxury, but Furiosa realizes that it’s the only way to truly stay alive in this mad world.
The darkest of angels
Furiosa does end up offing Dementus, though not in a way that feels very climactic. In true epic fashion, the end of this story is eventually dramatized in myth; our narrator even suggests that Furiosa kept Dementus alive and somehow used his body as soil for her nascent peach tree. It’s a powerful metaphor for the hope she’s kept alive all these years, especially as Furiosa catches up to Fury Road.
The prequel ends right where Fury Road begins, retracing Furiosa’s escape from the Citadel with the wives of Immortan Joe. Even the credits serve as a highlight reel for some of Fury Road’s best moments, including Furiosa’s reunion with the survivors of the Green Place. It retroactively makes the 2015 film feel more like the coda to Furiosa’s odyssey; it might even make her the true hero of the duology.
It’s worth noting that Miller hasn’t completely abandoned Max after Furiosa: the director wants to film a prequel for him as well, one that traces his life in the year leading up to Fury Road. He’s still one of the heroes of the franchise, but there’s a sense that he’s passed the baton to Furiosa. If a sequel to Fury Road ever manifests, its most compelling task will be in continuing Furiosa’s story, especially after the destruction of the Wasteland. Furiosa and Fury Road could inform the first two halves of a Furiosa-centric trilogy, cementing the character as the new focus of the Mad Max saga.
