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I see the world through a veil and on the other side all I see are fields strewn with the bones of the dead. Why does the veil show us the remnants of the dead among the earth? Why can’t we remove the veil? Yet that begs the question; if we are able to see without the veil in front of our eyes what would we hope to see? Would we still see a field strewn with the bones of the dead? It is these questions that ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ finds itself answering.
The plot of ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is fairly straightforward. It is often joked that the film is just one super long car chase for two hours. Like most jokes, this is an exaggeration that is rooted in some truths.
Most of the action of the film is centered around two car chases which are divided by the third act conflict. This leads into a choice and a reveal which recontextualises our heroes’ mission. However, the story is not about a car chase. The plot of the film shows us a car chase but the themes of the film tell us something completely different.
The story follows Furiosa escaping from the grasp of Immortan Joe, along with his wives. She frees them from his tyrannical and violent control. Together they try to reach the fabled Green Place where Furiosa grew up and where she believes they will be able to find salvation. The first car chase takes us up to the Green Place where it is revealed that the Green Place eventually became contaminated and was destroyed. All that remains now is a dead swamp.
The second car chase is when our heroes decide that they don’t need to run away anymore and they race back to Immortan Joe’s base — the Citadel — with a plan to oust him and take control. This is because they know that they can find water and life there.
‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is a film which is light on plot, but this doesn’t make it any less compelling or interesting. Being light on plot is not an inherently bad thing. The light plot is in service to the themes of the film. If we consider the plot the two car chases, we can…
