Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has debuted at the Cannes Film Festival, receiving a nearly eight-minute standing ovation.
It wasn’t just the film that impressed audiences, Anya Taylor-Joy dominated the red carpet wearing a sparkling strapless champagne grown featuring a corseted bodice from Dior.
Furiosa creator George Miller revealed Taylor-Joy only has 30 lines of dialogue in the entire film because he wanted action to do the talking and said that movies are best enjoyed at “high speed”.
Taylor-Joy, who wasn’t put off by the lack of dialogue, said: “We’d do takes where he’d be like, ‘Do it again with your mouth closed'. He has a thing about my mouth. He thinks when my mouth is open, I look too young. This is the wasteland and any empathy is punished by death – any kindness, really. It all made sense to me. I think the restrictions that were placed on me by George did create a radiation off the character, because she is being suppressed continuously throughout the film.”
This is Miller’s fifth Mad Max film, with Mad Max 2 and Fury Road being hailed as two of the greatest action films of all time.
But what other Mad Max films are there?
We look at each of Miller's dystopian action movies in order of release date, starting with the first three instalments, which were released more than 30 years ago and ending with the prequel this year.
Mad Max (1979)
The first film in George Miller's Mad Max franchise was released in 1979, with Mel Gibson giving a breakthrough performance in the title role.
It was filmed outside Melbourne and set in the Australian outback, and follows the protagonists as they travel through a barren, dystopian wasteland, complete with perilous stunts and combat scenes. The plot follows Gibson's character Mad Max as he seeks vengeance on a vicious motorcycle gang and the film examines how society breaks down after a catastrophe.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
In 1981, Miller released Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, carrying on the action-packed plot.
Miller had a more ambitious approach to the second Mad Max movie since he had a bigger budget, which allowed him to incorporate a massive stunt featuring a 12-wheel truck turning over. It was overwhelmingly well received by reviewers and rocked the box office, doubling the previous film's earnings.
Together with his dependable dog, Max traverses the desolate wasteland of a fallen civilisation after his family is brutally murdered. They go searching for food and fuel. For the promise of gas, he volunteers to assist some survivors he stumbles across who are living in an oil refinery and need defending against Lord Humungus, the motorcycle monarch.
Max Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
The third entry in the developing series, also referred to as Mad Max 3, takes place in a post-apocalyptic setting. The movie stars Tina Turner alongside Gibson as Aunty Entity. Max finds himself banished and without resources after vanquishing Lord Humungus and his group of vicious motorcyclists. This forces him to journey to a distant market town governed by the despotic Aunty Entity. There, he must endure a savage test in the Thunderdome before being banished once more and arriving in the safe haven of a group of abandoned survivors.
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
After 30 years, Mad Max: Fury Road, the fourth instalment in the series, marks Miller's return to the franchise.
Gibson is replaced as the main character by Tom Hardy, who plays the fierce Max Rockstansky, a lone survivor.
He is swept up along with a group of survivors who are led by Furiosa (Charlize Theron), an elite Imperator, as they escape across the Wasteland in a war vehicle. They are fleeing the Citadel, which is ruled by Hugh Keays-Byrne's Immortan Joe, who has stolen something priceless.
The Warlord gathers all his gangs and launches a vicious pursuit of the rebels in the ensuing high-stakes Road War.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)
After more than 40 years since the start of the narrative, Miller is back with a new movie and a new lead character. The solo action adventure Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth delves into the past of the formidable heroine from Mad Max: Fury Road.Amidst the collapse of civilisation, Furiosa, a little girl, is abducted from the Green Place of Many Mothers and ends up in the clutches of a formidable Biker Horde headed by the Warlord Dementus. As they sweep throughout the Wasteland, they stumble upon Immortan Joe's Citadel. As Furiosa pieces together the means to return home, she must overcome numerous obstacles while the two tyrants struggle for supremacy.
