Apparently Miller couldn't just walk away.
July 27, 2014 12:21 PM   Subscribe

After over a decade in development hell, George Miller's return to the Mad Max franchise, Mad Max: Fury Road, has emerged at San Diego Comic-Con with a teaser trailer.

Miller's description of the film:
"I wanted to tell a linear story–a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes. In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed."
posted by brundlefly (147 comments total) 23 users marked this as a favorite
 
All I care about on earth is Tom Hardy looking grimy and alluring.
posted by elizardbits at 12:26 PM on July 27, 2014 [14 favorites]


The cars that ate Duran Duran
posted by fallingbadgers at 12:27 PM on July 27, 2014 [8 favorites]


All I care about on earth is Tom Hardy looking grimy and alluring.

This.

This film is relevant to my interests.
posted by biscotti at 12:33 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


So in a future without gasoline, the straggling survivors of humanity chase each other around in cars? Isn't this kind of like starving people fighting with guns that shoot hot dogs? I don't know, it's the same premise as all the other movies, but somehow it strikes me as sillier than it did in the 80's.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 12:35 PM on July 27, 2014 [33 favorites]


I want to give presents to the editor who cut that trailer. I'm not sure the movie itself can compete with that.
posted by Lyn Never at 12:36 PM on July 27, 2014 [27 favorites]


Does Fury Road lead to a retirement home? Because that's an appropriate destination for this franchise.
posted by Pudhoho at 12:39 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


elizardbits: "All I care about on earth is Tom Hardy looking grimy and alluring."

In the same vein, a grimy, raccoon eyed Charlize Theron with a robot arm is very -- ahem -- interesting to me.
posted by brundlefly at 12:39 PM on July 27, 2014 [14 favorites]


YES and not just because of all the fanfic where she and Bucky Barnes are sexy frenemies.
posted by elizardbits at 12:40 PM on July 27, 2014 [13 favorites]


Miller calls the movie "a Western on wheels. Even if it's in the future, we have gone back the more elemental behaviors." After that description and a trailer full of proper car chases, practical effects, and realistic stunt work, I'm in the tank for this one. Bring on white line nightmare.
posted by Doktor Zed at 12:45 PM on July 27, 2014 [8 favorites]


It is a very impressive trailer. Great pacing and rhythm.
posted by biscotti at 12:50 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


I first read this as Mad Max: Furry Road. Not sure which would be better.
posted by ryoshu at 12:54 PM on July 27, 2014 [7 favorites]


Well, this is pretty much proof-

It doesn't matter what you do to Charlize Theron, you simply can't make her look bad.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:55 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


I'm imagining a day on set where all the masked bad guys talk to Tom Hardy in a sing-songy Sean Connery impersonation.
posted by AlonzoMosleyFBI at 12:57 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


I don't know, it's the same premise as all the other movies, but somehow it strikes me as sillier than it did in the 80's.



YOU KNOW THE LAW!

QUESTION THE PREMISE, YOU HAVE TO FIGHT DENIS!
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 12:58 PM on July 27, 2014 [14 favorites]


I look forward to this! Mad Max has such a particular place in my late 80's college debauchery. but I hope all those pretty girls in diaphanous dresses are given something to do other than be threatened with rape, cause that would very much make me not enjoy the movie
posted by crush-onastick at 1:04 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


There are people in the YouTube comments who are saying this looks like Waterworld but on dry land.
posted by brundlefly at 1:04 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


Yeah, the ultra violence is expected, but I really hope these new films are less rape-as-plot-mechanisim than the original trilogy.
posted by Faintdreams at 1:08 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


There are people in the YouTube comments who are saying this looks like Waterworld but on dry land.

As an unrepentant Mad Max fan I am guaranteed to watch this, but unfortunately there were some Waterworld hints in the trailer. The Mad Max movies (most of all the first one) worked by being comparatively minimal, probably originally from low budgets. More explosions, bigger crashes, and goofier effects does not make them better.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:09 PM on July 27, 2014 [6 favorites]


Oh, and here are some of the character names:

Imperator Furiosa (Theron)
Splendid
Nux
Toast
Capable
Rictus Erectus
Slit
Immortan Joe
The Dag
Desperate Women (a single woman, evidently)
Fragile
Hope
Coma-Doof Warrior
Miss Giddy

and, last but not least...

People Eater

I can't wait for this thing.
posted by brundlefly at 1:10 PM on July 27, 2014 [19 favorites]


This could potentially not suck.

Also it will be nice to remind an entire generation of millennial Anarchist crusties where their fashion sense originated.

Also I demand a Tina Turner cameo.
posted by MeanwhileBackAtTheRanch at 1:11 PM on July 27, 2014 [7 favorites]


Dip Flash: "As an unrepentant Mad Max fan I am guaranteed to watch this, but unfortunately there were some Waterworld hints in the trailer."

Bigger budget (and explosions) aside, I don't see how this takes anything aesthetically from Waterworld that Waterworld didn't take from the Mad Max films.
posted by brundlefly at 1:12 PM on July 27, 2014 [14 favorites]


Yeah, the ultra violence is expected, but I really hope these new films are less rape-as-plot-mechanisim than the original trilogy.

Based only on the trailer, I would not hold my breath for that particular improvement.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:13 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


I know it's a desert movie. But please, for the love of what's left of my retinas, can we not acknowledge that teal and orange is now four years old?
posted by Devonian at 1:13 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


Who run budget town?
posted by shakespeherian at 1:18 PM on July 27, 2014 [13 favorites]


Yeah, since Waterworld is pretty much just Mad Max on water, this should remind people of Waterworld.
posted by VTX at 1:27 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


Wait, I want to know more about these guns that shoot hot dogs.
posted by elizardbits at 1:33 PM on July 27, 2014 [17 favorites]


Wait, I want to know more about these guns that shoot hot dogs.

They were designed by Freud.
posted by Dip Flash at 1:37 PM on July 27, 2014 [13 favorites]


I don't know, it's the same premise as all the other movies, but somehow it strikes me as sillier than it did in the 80's.

Yeah, well, you know... the 80s.
posted by shakespeherian at 1:37 PM on July 27, 2014


Can you legally modify them to shoot corn dogs?
posted by elizardbits at 1:40 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


i have so many questions
posted by elizardbits at 1:40 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


Sometimes a gun that shoots hot dogs is just a gun that shoots hot dogs.
posted by brundlefly at 1:41 PM on July 27, 2014 [14 favorites]


I don't know. I was hoping for more of an eighties feel and less of a CGI drenched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feel.
posted by octothorpe at 1:44 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Gah. Mad Max was sparse and punk, Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was punk with a budget but had some incredible driving and great caricatures, the series should have ended there. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was terrible.

George Miller has done some excellent work. I remain hopeful.
posted by vapidave at 1:45 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


So wait... is this an alternate version of Max's life, or is this set in between Mad Max and Mad Max 2, or what? Because he shouldn't be in the Interceptor if it's after MM2.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 1:47 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


Oh, and here are some of the character names...

Yes, very nice, but no match for THE AYATOLLAH OF ROCKNROLLA!
posted by Petersondub at 1:52 PM on July 27, 2014 [12 favorites]


ROU_Xenophobe: "So wait... is this an alternate version of Max's life, or is this set in between Mad Max and Mad Max 2, or what? Because he shouldn't be in the Interceptor if it's after MM2."

I read at some point that Miller has considered making Max a future myth. A figure whose story is told in different ways by different cultures. I don't know if that's the case or not, but continuity has never really been important here.
posted by brundlefly at 2:01 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


Can you legally modify them to shoot corn dogs?

If you are in America, you can buy nearly any type of gun you desire.

Corn dog muskets are available wherever fine firearms are sold.
posted by Pudhoho at 2:01 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Nota bene: The first two films were made in the 70's. Given the oil crises of the time and the Cold War, it was a very plausible scenario. The third one was made in the mid-eighties and it shows; however the first half of the third movie is a masterpiece.

I'm really looking forward to this reboot.
posted by Renoroc at 2:04 PM on July 27, 2014


Nota bene: The first two films were made in the 70's.

The second is from 1981 (released 1982 in most parts of the world), but close enough.
posted by effbot at 2:12 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


I don't know. I was hoping for more of an eighties feel and less of a CGI drenched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feel.

Yeah, Mad Max is all about the chase scenes. Doing them in a computer kinda misses the point.

(That said, what I saw in the trailer seemed extremely competently done -- I suspect there's a lot less CG there than you might think -- and not at all worthy of any comparisons to the execrable effects of Indiana Jones 4.)
posted by Sys Rq at 2:13 PM on July 27, 2014


I demand a Babe cameo. A violent, vengeful Babe.
posted by elgilito at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yeah, apparently the overwhelming majority of the action is practical stunt work. The storm scenes are obviously CG heavy, though.
posted by brundlefly at 2:14 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


Most people in the US saw the second one first since Mad Max didn't get much of a release here. That's why they renamed Mad Max II to The Road Warrior so that people didn't think it was a sequel.
posted by octothorpe at 2:15 PM on July 27, 2014


elgilito: "I demand a Babe cameo. A violent, vengeful Babe ."

Still not as disturbing as Babe 2: Pig in the City.
posted by brundlefly at 2:15 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


The storm scenes are obviously CG heavy, though.

I don't know, man.
posted by Sys Rq at 2:18 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


I was just discussing with a friend why the trailer left me empty. It looks like The Road Warrior except without the Australian element that made the original films so fun. Maybe I'm wrong. I hope I am. I hope this film will be as fun and memorable as the original films. But somehow without the Australian element whether is be the actors or the location, makes it seem less unpredictable somehow.
posted by cazoo at 2:19 PM on July 27, 2014


TEAL AND ORANGE II, THE SATURATING: EVEN TEALYORANGIER
posted by BungaDunga at 2:20 PM on July 27, 2014 [9 favorites]


I'm hopeful for this movie. I'll watch anything with Tom Hardy or Charlize Theron in, so both of them together is a guaranteed watch.

Given that fuel is short, why is Max not racing around in a modded Prius?
posted by arcticseal at 2:23 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


Or a Tesla that can only be recharged at heavily-contested windmills and solar installations?
posted by Ryvar at 2:26 PM on July 27, 2014 [8 favorites]


I don't know. I was hoping for more of an eighties feel and less of a CGI drenched Kingdom of the Crystal Skull feel.

+1. I'm getting old, but these long CGI action sequences (like this entire trailer) make me check out. When everything on the screen is constantly moving, exploding, billowing, screeching, and squirming, it just becomes so much visual noise. Really unpleasant, total sensory overload, and hard to make an emotional connection with the action because that one character you're supposed to identify with is now buried in visual effects.

Worse, this kind of scene has cemented itself as something that big-budget action movies must have, in the same way that they used to have car chases. The Star Wars prequels did it first, and then Transformers took it to a new level, and now it even shows up in places like the latest Hobbit movie. Gah.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 2:31 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


So the insane concept art that was leaked last April (on eBay, of all places) was the real deal (see the pole scene at 2:11).
posted by elgilito at 2:31 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


> Yeah, well, you know... the 80s.

Just wait 'til you hear what the young adults of 2040 think of your clothing, technology, and tastes in entertainment.
posted by ardgedee at 2:32 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


MM2 was on TV the other day, and first I was all 'woo hoo'!! Hadn't seen it in awhile so was kinda stoked.

Gotta say though, for me, the movie really really didn't age well. All that fresh road paint, and pretty terrible music score and and... :( = sad panda me.

Who knows what the new one will be like, but experience does not make me optimistic.
posted by edgeways at 2:33 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


Well, the thing with gas and other liquid combustible fuels is that they require an astonishingly low-tech infrastructure to maintain. It's true that the apocolypse's future-desert has plentiful sunlight and wind, but there's kind of no way to guard or maintain the enormous complexes those sources require. The vehicles, as well, require replacement parts made to exacting specifications. A carburetor can be fabricated by a dude with scrap metal, some bricks and a hole in the ground for a smelter, and the patience to make a clay mold and file something smooth. So the idea is that after the collapse of society, a few people are using cobbled together old-tech vehicles to monopolize the final stockpiles of an easy to use fuel to gain an insurmountable (if short term) advantage over everyone else.

Diesel, of course, can run off of biologically sourced fuels.

Similar thing with ammo. It's tough to make new ammo, but there are ENORMOUS stockpiles and very mechanically simple firearms you can lay your hands on.
posted by kavasa at 2:37 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Wait, I want to know more about these guns that shoot hot dogs.

New trailer.

(I don't know why I knew that existed. Now I kind of feel bad about myself.)
posted by Sing Or Swim at 2:49 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


I have no idea who you people are who're complaining about Mad Max. Also - George Miller has made a whole bunch of fantastic movies and very few bad ones. Also also - there isn't much CGI here. Most of what you're seeing is practical.

(I'm not happy about the whole "oh sorry Namibia we destroyed your desert ecology oops" part, but everything else is yum-tastic.)
posted by incessant at 2:52 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


kavasa: "Well, the thing with gas and other liquid combustible fuels is that they require an astonishingly low-tech infrastructure to maintain. It's true that the apocolypse's future-desert has plentiful sunlight and wind, but there's kind of no way to guard or maintain the enormous complexes those sources require. "

Wind is way easier than gas. Lots of wire around to repurpose or ready to roll generators in stuff like treadmills. You can wind the rotors and stators by hand. And bushings can be of the babbit variety. And once you have the generator a turbine can be built with plastic pipe and assorted hardware.

Plus when you get it wrong nothing explodes.
posted by Mitheral at 2:54 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


Mitheral: "Plus when you get it wrong nothing explodes."

I think we have our answer for why people don't use it in these movies.
posted by brundlefly at 2:56 PM on July 27, 2014 [6 favorites]


Also also - there isn't much CGI here. Most of what you're seeing is practical.

I don't really care how it was made, just that it looks like every crappy action movie made in the last decade with too much camera movement and too many edits.
posted by octothorpe at 3:06 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Man, that evokes some feelings of despair.

I hope this is good, but I'm always a sucker for post-apocalyptic-end-of-the-world-NOW-what-do-we-do type movies.

One of my earliest memories of being introduced to more adult movie fare was catching Mad Max on broadcast TV one summer afternoon. It was the scene where Max handcuffs the guy to the car, lights the lighter by the gasoline, and gives him the opportunity to saw his foot off to get free. He walks away, and you hear the explosion in the background. I didn't even know movies could be like that. It blew my ten year old mind.
posted by SpacemanStix at 3:07 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


it looks like every crappy action movie made in the last decade with too much camera movement and too many edits.

So, your objection to this Mad Max movie is that it looks like a Mad Max movie?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:10 PM on July 27, 2014 [6 favorites]


Miller calls the movie "a Western on wheels."

So it's Stagecoach?
posted by shakespeherian at 3:12 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


ok but would the army have kielbasa cannons
posted by elizardbits at 3:17 PM on July 27, 2014 [6 favorites]


Sys Rq: "So, your objection to this Mad Max movie is that it looks like a Mad Max movie?"

This is the Mad Max that I remember. This new crap looks nothing like that.
posted by octothorpe at 3:22 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


WHAT A PUNY PLAN. BUT I HAVE AN HONORABLE COMPROMISE: JUST WALK AWAY.
posted by adipocere at 3:24 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


More explosions, bigger crashes, and goofier effects does not make them better.

At least it's not a puny plan.
posted by Sand at 3:24 PM on July 27, 2014


ok but would the army have kielbasa cannons

Of course, along with chain guns that fire hot links.
posted by Pudhoho at 3:25 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


I've got some friends at SDCC this weekend. I'm a geek (hell, I spent 8 hours playing Netrunner last night after spending the better part of a week organizing the event) but when I see Comic Con photos, they just seem to me, like, well, I like Scotch, too, but I don't want to spend a weekend in a hot-tub full of it.
posted by Navelgazer at 3:30 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


This new crap looks nothing like that.

Are you kidding? Or do you mean because that one had a dog in it?
posted by Sys Rq at 3:31 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


"Music by Junkie XL"?
posted by sleeping bear at 3:35 PM on July 27, 2014


Oh wow. I didn't know there was a new one coming out. I missed that somehow. Road Warrior is one of THE movies of my early teens. Not because I loved it the best. I liked it well enough but because of this family I regularly babysat for. They would stay out really late. They also had a their own VCR which was pretty cool for that time. They had two movies. One I can't remember and Road Warrior.

It became routine. Around midnight when there were no shows on that I like in would go the Road Warrior. I would spend the movie, trying to stay awake but dozing in and out most nights, so I have some really addled memories of watching it. At one time I counted and I've seen it close to 50 times.

I haven't seen it for years. I should look it up. I bet it will take me right back to those years. Though this time I think I'll watch it stoned. I have the feeling that it won't be that far off the what many of those viewings felt like.

Oh and Tom Hardy! Yum. Mel Gibson kinda icks me out now so it could be nice to give Max another persona.
posted by Jalliah at 3:42 PM on July 27, 2014


I liked the original best -- things were obviously going to hell but it was believable that people still had automobiles and stuff.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 3:42 PM on July 27, 2014


What were they tattooing on him, his character sheet?
posted by fleacircus at 4:02 PM on July 27, 2014 [10 favorites]


While I have fond memories of the Mel Gibson Mad Max of yesteryear, I feel that George Miller and Tom Hardy can pull this off nicely. Also, if you're miffed that the Comic-Con (and there's a big fat hint right effing there) trailer is WHOO EXPLOSIONS PORTENTS CHARLIZE AND TOM LOOKING TOUGH AND GRUFF AND OH NOES PRETTY GIRLS IN DISTRESS, I have a feeling you're unfamiliar with what makes buzz at SDCC.
posted by Kitteh at 4:02 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


So in a future without gasoline, the straggling survivors of humanity chase each other around in cars? Isn't this kind of like starving people fighting with guns that shoot hot dogs?

Great metaphor for the present day, right? We know that our way of life is gonna destroy our civilization, but here we are, fighting to the death for an unpaid internship at the hot dog gun factory. Metaphorically speaking.
posted by No-sword at 4:06 PM on July 27, 2014 [12 favorites]


I'll give Miller a lot of latitude here -- it's his own franchise, and the first two, in particular, were bravura filmmaking (and very influential). I'm not going to quibble terribly much about the concept except that it's sufficiently plausible; the real idea here is, yes, the mythological mode and an updating of classic Westerns mixed with the car movie craze that began in the late 60s. The originals came replete with Mel Gibson™, who back then was quite the luminous man-god (if you've never seen Gallipoli....), so it's possible that without one of the era's greatest on-screen presences this won't work quite as well, but I think the trailer shows that there's something there. MM:BT did falter in showing far too much of the surrounding civilization, such as it was, including Bartertown, rather than getting on with the epic chase sequence you came to see.

I think Road Warrior was the best. The first one was more problematic because there was still too much civilization around; the second one spawned straight into the mythology. I also like the whole actual plot within the plot as opposed to the cruder (rapey-er) ideas in the first.
posted by dhartung at 4:07 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


Music by Junkie XL?

Makes sense. JXL has been producing and collaborating on big epic Hollywood soundtracks for years now. He worked with Hans Zimmer on The Dark Knight and Man of Steel soundtracks which were pretty damn good if your into big boomy film scores (I most definitely is).

I'd take his involvement as an excellent sign.
posted by BlackBox at 4:08 PM on July 27, 2014


My favorite part in the trailer is where Hardy looks like Indiana Jones, and now I want that to happen.
posted by fleacircus at 4:08 PM on July 27, 2014


In the Road Warrior world, being able to burn gas in car chases perhaps shows that you are high status and alpha male-y and powerful enough to have gas to waste. Or that you are sticking it to the liberals, also, I guess.
posted by thelonius at 4:16 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


I'm getting old, but these long CGI action sequences (like this entire trailer) make me check out
While it remains to be seen if the trailer reflects the editing style of the movie, Miller very deliberately limited the CG to background and used practical effects and live stunts for the action sequences:

"Well, we made a big, big point to go old-school with “Fury Road.” There are moments of green screen mainly for some landscape, but this is not a green screen movie. We crashed a lot of cars; every stunt was done, if not by the cast then by some very fine stunt men; and it was shot on a real location. I’ve had enough experience with CG to know that you can’t really get some of that immersive material authentic in a way. Cumulatively, it’s appreciated by an audience. It feels more real."
posted by Doktor Zed at 4:38 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


I liked Hardy in Bronson, but I haven't liked him in anything he's done since. I think he's incredibly over rated. But I trust George Miller.
posted by Catblack at 4:41 PM on July 27, 2014


So wait... is this an alternate version of Max's life, or is this set in between Mad Max and Mad Max 2, or what?

It's set between the first two movies.
posted by spaltavian at 4:44 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


Then I withdraw my pre-emptive Comic Book Guy objections.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 4:53 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


I am giddy like a feral wild boy playing with a music box after seeing that trailer.
posted by KingEdRa at 4:56 PM on July 27, 2014 [7 favorites]


In the Road Warrior world, being able to burn gas in car chases perhaps shows that you are high status and alpha male-y and powerful enough to have gas to waste. Or that you are sticking it to the liberals, also, I guess.

Mad Max: Rolling Coal
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:56 PM on July 27, 2014 [7 favorites]


The second is from 1981 (released 1982 in most parts of the world), but close enough.

Righto!
posted by Renoroc at 5:06 PM on July 27, 2014


crushonastick : "I look forward to this! Mad Max has such a particular place in my late 80's college debauchery. but I hope all those pretty girls in diaphanous dresses are given something to do other than be threatened with rape, cause that would very much make me not enjoy the movie"

I agree with you 100%. 1000%. I really can't just "suspend disbelief" or whatever with that particular plot point in movies. I'm not really that into ultraviolence anymore, either, because it reminds me too much of cruelty in the real world.

My reading of the film trailer leads me to believe that I had better skip this movie (even though I've seen the entire trilogy thus far), though. I imagine those diaphanous dress girls are either to be abused or eaten, neither of which will do anything for my enjoyment of the movie.
posted by Slothrop at 5:16 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


As a car nut, though, I think it would be funny if at the end of the film, after all of the giant cars and trucks are crashed, a new crew would roll up in WRXs, Evos, Quattros and Countrymen (reigning Dakar champs!) and just outmaneuvered everyone else. I really don't think solid rear axle, overpowered muscle cars would be useful in desert clashes.
posted by Slothrop at 5:20 PM on July 27, 2014 [8 favorites]


I imagine those diaphanous dress girls are either to be abused or eaten, neither of which will do anything for my enjoyment of the movie.

I'm certain something like that is probably going on, which is a tired trope. It also looks to me like it's going to be a table-turning scenario, and we'll see some major butt-kicking retaliation. And they aren't alone, as it looks like Max is also going to be on the receiving end of some unpleasant stuff before he also goes a bit apocalyptically apoplectic (I just wanted to say that).
posted by SpacemanStix at 5:34 PM on July 27, 2014


If this was Borderlands 3, I'd preorder the heck out of it.
posted by taterpie at 5:35 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


So the insane concept art that was leaked last April (on eBay, of all places) was the real deal (see the pole scene at 2:11).

Those are for Rob Zombie's Dune.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 5:41 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Looks dusty.
posted by turbid dahlia at 6:06 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


So in a future without gasoline, the straggling survivors of humanity chase each other around in cars

Isn't that basically the present?

I'm excited for this picture. I want to see the trailer in the big screen, but at least on my phone it looks like primarily practical effects, or that the CG is directed to look like events that actually happened and were filmed, which is better than so many contemporary action movies can say.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:10 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


"It's set between the first two movies."

I saw a lot of "quotes" in the trailer referencing the second movie in the franchise so I looked because I was curious. And, well, no. Mad Max: Fury Road takes place shortly after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

http://madmax.wikia.com/wiki/Mad_Max:_Fury_Road
posted by vapidave at 6:42 PM on July 27, 2014


ok but would the army have kielbasa cannons

We don't need another gyro...
posted by hal9k at 6:48 PM on July 27, 2014 [17 favorites]


It wouldn't have to be so much about the scarcity of gasoline so much as the lack of a distribution infrastructure.

It would make sense that there are precious few places that can still refine gasoline and likely sell it at high cost. So it's more about protecting your own stash and making sure that you have enough to last you until you can buy/scavenge/steal more. Not so much about using up the last of the global supply.
posted by VTX at 7:06 PM on July 27, 2014


We don't need another gyro...

Wokka... Wokka... Wokka...
posted by Sys Rq at 7:18 PM on July 27, 2014


I'm in. I got all jazzed up watching that. Although I agree that the helpless maidens in filmy gowns trope is annoying and frustrating. At least Charlize seems like she isn't gonna take any shit. I forgot how much I liked the Mad Max world, most of the remake/continuation stuff just bugs me and diminishes my enjoyment of the originals, but this could be good. Dredd* was pretty fresh, so it's possible.


*not technically a remake, more like a posthumous medal of honor or apology, since Judge Dredd was an intolerable insult.
posted by Divine_Wino at 7:39 PM on July 27, 2014


That. Looks. Cool!

And as for the gasoline... There's nothing rational about it. The world is dead and most of the surviving humans have gone insane. It's all out war for the scraps and dribbles of what once once abundant.
posted by Kevin Street at 7:46 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


Oh, and here are some of the character names...

Yes, very nice, but no match for THE AYATOLLAH OF ROCKNROLLA!



To be fair, "Ayatollah of Rocknrolla" is more of an honorary title than it is a proper name.




As a car nut, though, I think it would be funny if at the end of the film, after all of the giant cars and trucks are crashed, a new crew would roll up in WRXs, Evos, Quattros and Countrymen (reigning Dakar champs!)


IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE ARE ONLY TOYOTA HILUXES.


(Hiluces?)
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:24 PM on July 27, 2014 [4 favorites]


Max Beyond Thunderdome was terrible.

Also that Citizen Kane whoo boy crapola and I'm just going to name great films and declare them terrible because that's a thing now.
posted by maxsparber at 8:40 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


Citizen Kane would have benefited from an appearance by Master Blaster, now that you mention it.
posted by shakespeherian at 8:45 PM on July 27, 2014 [7 favorites]


Those are for Rob Zombie's Dune.



I would watch this.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 8:46 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


For true cognitive dissonance, realize that George Miller also directed the Babe movies. Just throwing that out there.

First of all, that wasn't a teaser trailer. A teaser trailer would've been that first shot, and when he stamped on the two-headed lizard it cuts to black an then the title. That was a trailer trailer, and a damn good one. In fact, it's probably too much rather than too little.

Mad Max wasn't really an action movie; it was a product of the brooding existential films that came out of the 70s. It's a film of its time. The Road Warrior was good, I think, but I honestly can't really remember that much of it, other than that kid with the killer boomerang and the long-ass chase at the end. I think I may be the only person on the planet that liked--really liked--Beyond Thunderdome. I saw it at the right age, in my early teens, when I wasn't as discriminating, I suppose. Great energy and photography in that film--it's the least gritty and best looking of the trilogy.

Anyhoo, this looks quite good, I want to see it. I am assuming it's a reboot, or...? Does Mel Gibson have a cameo, or is he still too toxic?
posted by zardoz at 8:50 PM on July 27, 2014 [2 favorites]


I think I may be the only person on the planet that liked--really liked--Beyond Thunderdome.

Nope, I really like it too.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:55 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


Mad Max: Fury Road takes place shortly after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Urge to comicbookguy: rising. I look forward to Miller's retconning of Max having the Interceptor.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:59 PM on July 27, 2014


qxntpqbbbqxl: “I'm getting old, but these long CGI action sequences (like this entire trailer) make me check out. When everything on the screen is constantly moving, exploding, billowing, screeching, and squirming, it just becomes so much visual noise.”
Don't forget adding a hand-held camera effect as the cherry on top. So tired of every action sequence being filmed in Zapruder-vision.
posted by ob1quixote at 9:12 PM on July 27, 2014


My hopes are raised up and then dashed in the first 30 seconds of the trailer. It should be obvious that the star of any Mad Max movie can only be an XB Falcon hardtop. If you're going to bring the Interceptor back it had better be getting top billing..
posted by N-stoff at 9:58 PM on July 27, 2014


"Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls....dying time's here"

I don't see the problem with the third movie. Bartertown, Auntie, Masterblaster, all such great creations. I suppose some have a problem with the kids but their little world was so fully realized that I didn't mind them.

Pigkiller: [whimpering, in pain] What happened to two...? (my wife quotes this anytime someone says count to three)
posted by Ber at 10:49 PM on July 27, 2014 [3 favorites]


I think some folks object to this trailer due to a conflation of CGI and grading. They see a film that's been shot digitally and graded for a certain look, (pioneered in mainstream cinema by O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU), and to their eye this means it's CGI. If this trailer was graded to have the look of 80's film stock I wonder what the reaction could be. It's arguable that it would have a more visceral outlook as folks seem trained now to think the saturated colors and high dynamic range of modern graded films means things are 'shopped.

+ if you haven't seen BEYOND THUNDERDOME since it came out give it another go. It's a brilliant adventure film full of wit, humour, nimble ideas; great cinematography by Dean Semler, beautiful score by Maurice Jaarre, etc. The problem so many people had with it at the time was that it was not ROAD WARRIOR 2. In that sense this series up to this point has been like the ALIEN pictures = each film having a distinctive look and tone dependent on the theme of the picture.

FURY looks like ROAD WARRIOR 2 though.
posted by jettloe at 11:21 PM on July 27, 2014 [5 favorites]


The problem with Thunderdome is the train chase, which plays like (and lets face it, is) a really lazy rehash. After all the great stuff that leads up to it, it's the moviegoing equivalent of listening to a balloon deflate.
posted by Lazlo Nibble at 11:24 PM on July 27, 2014 [1 favorite]


He probably just found another interceptor somewhere

I mean it's clear that someplace still functions, that helicopter dude got his teeth fixed up between sequels
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 12:18 AM on July 28, 2014


It was probably the last of the V8 interceptors in the same way that there can only be one Highlander. That is to say, not.

It is remarkable the extent to which the 1980s was based on the design of Blade Runner and Mad Max 2. And a little later on we got Brazil as well.
posted by Grangousier at 12:52 AM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


jettloe: "I think some folks object to this trailer due to a conflation of CGI and grading."

Yeah. I love love love this trailer, but it does look graded to hell and back. It looks good, but it does look very "now" in that regard, and I think that may be throwing people off.
posted by brundlefly at 2:19 AM on July 28, 2014


I find the debate over the presence of the Interceptor in this film confusing - I didn't see that car for one frame in the trailer. The last time we saw the Interceptor on screen, Max was pulling up outside St George's Hospital before taking a few badly-needed weeks off work with the intent of drawing flies and growing a beard.

The black-on-black hardtop is a Pursuit Special; its unauthorized use by a Main Force Officer was designated as a potential Code Red alert.
posted by MarchHare at 3:34 AM on July 28, 2014 [4 favorites]


I think some folks object to this trailer due to a conflation of CGI and grading.

It's the grading, the fake looking sand storm, the music, that slow motion -> speed up thing, the clangy sound effects, the editing, etc. It all adds up to make it look like a movie of today, not 1982. If I didn't know better, I'd think it was Zak Snyder's Road Warrior, not George Millers.
posted by octothorpe at 4:51 AM on July 28, 2014


I liked Beyond Thunderdome because it showed "civilization," such as it was, coming back a little in the form of Bartertown after the anarchy that was the Road Warrior (although the pacing of Old World-Nothing-New World in the trilogy is a little...off), but the kids' sequence does slow down the movie a lot.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 5:23 AM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


vapidave: And, well, no. Mad Max: Fury Road takes place shortly after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome.

Is there a source from Miller? Wikipedia is still saying it's before Road Warrior.

Mad Max 4: Fury Road: The original Pursuit Special will appear in the upcoming Mad Max: Fury Road film, set to be released in 2015. Since it was confirmed that the film takes place before Road Warrior, it will bear more resemblance to the Pursuit Special from the original film, rather than the one from Road Warrior, and it will be featured and used in almost all the stunts during the whole film, unlike its predecessors. There was also a rumor that the car would be stripped of paint or repainted silver, but this has been denied.

Apparently Miller is being purposely vague.
posted by spaltavian at 5:57 AM on July 28, 2014


Also I demand a Tina Turner cameo.

We do not live in a world with sufficient justice to produce this outcome. I do so love Mad Max:Beyond Thunderdome. Tina Turner in a chainmail dress? Sign me up.
posted by DWRoelands at 6:00 AM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Mad Men: Fury Road? Wow, things quickly get out of hand in the second half of season 7. I liked the part where they were tattooing the list of accounts on Pete's body.
posted by oulipian at 6:39 AM on July 28, 2014 [6 favorites]


I didn't get the same thrill from this trailer that I got from the movies 30 years ago—but that's to be expected, I guess. I was 30 years younger then.

I was just discussing with a friend why the trailer left me empty. It looks like The Road Warrior except without the Australian element that made the original films so fun.

Though the director has (understandably) resisted any such comparisons, 2014's The Rover gets my vote for "best new Mad Max film." The characters there live in a similar Australia of bitter bleakness and hopeless violence, but it's on a scale human enough that I could be moved by the story instead of just admiring the explosions.

I love Thunderdome, actually, and if the last quarter or so wasn't such a hash, it might even be my favorite.
posted by octobersurprise at 6:43 AM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


I wonder how much of the quick cut stuff is the product of this being, after all, a trailer. I believe that part of the reason so many movies rely on quick cut action so much is because that ground has been pioneered by trailers ("EXPLOSION CUT EXPLOSION CUT SMOLDERING GLANCE CUT EXPLOSION CUT" Wow! That movie looks great!!). But it is exhausting and incomprehensible at length, so only works briefly, as in a trailer, or a specific set piece.

Also, nit-pickingly, I don't think that is a teaser. It's all here. For me a teaser shouldn't reveal much about the actual move, it should just lay a bit of groundwork. This one, coming in cold before (I think) Spider-Man II, was a great example. Boy did that fire me (and everyone in the packed theater I was in) up for HULK. Oh, what woe would befall us, we had no idea.
posted by dirtdirt at 6:45 AM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


The black-on-black hardtop is a Pursuit Special; its unauthorized use by a Main Force Officer was designated as a potential Code Red alert.
posted by MarchHare


I was prepared to disagree in spirit -- I mean, as far as I can tell you were written out of the movie before Charlie got hurt bad in the throat -- because of the scene where Max is introduced to his ride. I'd have sworn that, whatever the paperwork says be damned, the mechanic calls it the last of the v-8 intercepts. But no -- he just calls it the last of the v-8s, while it's the civilian mechanic in Mad Max 2 that calls it the last of the v-8 intercepts.

Now I will go into the penalty box and think about what I have done, and I will feel shame.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 8:17 AM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE FAR FUTURE, THERE ARE ONLY TOYOTA HILUXES.

I think you mean the grim darkness of the recent past.

In the future apocalyptic wasteland there will only be Toyota trucks, Ford Crown Victorias, and Honda Civics.
posted by billyfleetwood at 9:37 AM on July 28, 2014


Rictus Erectus...

Is this sponsored by viagra??
posted by CIA Tunes at 10:30 AM on July 28, 2014


Part of what I enjoyed about the Mad Max movies was the near complete absence of guns. In Road Warrior, there are 2- his shotgun and Lord Humungus' pistol in the beautiful box with the bullets each laid out, etc. People were using arrows, crossbows, melee weapons, molotov cocktails and flamethrowers. It forced the action to be closer and the deaths hit harder.

This looks great and maybe this is just the way the trailer was cut, but it seems to be missing a sense of scale that was in the second.
posted by Hactar at 10:35 AM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Did I see Patton Oswalt strapped to a fender in one of those shots?
posted by entropicamericana at 10:35 AM on July 28, 2014 [2 favorites]


Kinda getting tired of post-apocalypse stories, especially the reinforcers of bad behavior post-apocalyupse stories. And I say this as someone who use to love that shit... Now, it just feels like so much "hey! here's another way I imagine people would fuck themselves over. Amiright!"
posted by edgeways at 11:32 AM on July 28, 2014


It looks like The Road Warrior except without the Australian element that made the original films so fun.

Fwiw, it was apparently filmed in Namibia, after huge rainstorms made their Australian desert locations unusable -- everything ended up nice and green, covered with vegetation.

Also, all film reporting I've seen this far says zero green screen and very little CGI, instead using computer-assisted practical effects like edge camera rigs, etc.
posted by effbot at 11:35 AM on July 28, 2014


I paused the trailer and the tattoo looks like a product label. It has a bunch of stuff on it, but most disturbing (to me) is the text "O Negative - Universal Donor". Eeep.
posted by domo at 11:42 AM on July 28, 2014


I'll just leave this here (instrumental version of We Don't Need Another Hero, with all that glorious saxamaphone starting at 3:26).
posted by schoolgirl report at 12:29 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not really buying Theron as a wasteland kingpin. They should have gotten Linda Hamilton.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 12:36 PM on July 28, 2014


The entire Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome soundtrack is on Spotify!

http://open.spotify.com/album/0OlS44HhWFmAlNDY3DnQKD
posted by DWRoelands at 12:47 PM on July 28, 2014 [3 favorites]


I'm surprised at all the love Thunderdome is getting. I thought it was pretty boring and missing almost everything that made the previous movies good. It was cinematographically dull. Max was a passive nothing of a hero, a pawn being sold as a bishop because maybe it might make a diagonal capture some day. It was the Return of the Jedi or Temple of Doom of the franchise—a kiddified rehash. And holy hell, that song.
posted by fleacircus at 1:03 PM on July 28, 2014


Yeah, I remember a lot of sad disappointment when Thunderdome came out. I haven't seen it since then but I remember it being kind of a bloated mess and toned way down to get that PG rating.
posted by octothorpe at 1:21 PM on July 28, 2014


I paused the trailer and the tattoo looks like a product label. It has a bunch of stuff on it, but most disturbing (to me) is the text "O Negative - Universal Donor". Eeep.

Oh, it gets way more disturbing than that: (io9 link)

Good eyes. Genitals intact.
posted by Kevin Street at 1:27 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Not really buying Theron as a wasteland kingpin. They should have gotten Linda Hamilton.

Lori Petty.
posted by Sys Rq at 1:37 PM on July 28, 2014


Lori Petty

"My name's Max Rockatansky!"

"Who cares!"
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 1:57 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


ROU_Xenophobe: That first film in particular full of little throwaway worldbuilding details, especially the ones hidden away in the radio announcements. I recently put forth the argument that - all things being equal - Mad Max was probably set no earlier than 1991, as that was the introductory year for Ford's 4.6L modular DOHC V8. I didn't see how - even allowing for an off-the-books budget from the minister's office - Barry or the other mechanics could have re-engineered the pushrod 351 Windsor to work with twin overhead cams, although pushing that iron block to 750hp (I'm assuming a 20% drivetrain loss here) is certainly possible. The "phase IV heads" must be from some kind of "stage 1/2/3"-style upgrade, though. The cylinder heads from the stillborn 1971 XA GTHO Phase IV won't bolt up to the modular aluminium block.

I will admit I may think about that movie more than might be considered seemly for a grown man...
posted by MarchHare at 2:49 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


I can't believe that no one is commenting on the fact that this is obviously a world run by Targaryens.

I mean, he said the words. And there was a platinum blonde girl there for some reason.

Maybe it's a SoIaF prequel.
posted by flaterik at 3:46 PM on July 28, 2014 [1 favorite]


Maybe it's a SoIaF prequel.

I like this theory.
posted by homunculus at 1:24 AM on July 29, 2014


As long as it explains how we get to Solar Babies..
posted by running order squabble fest at 4:13 AM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


I didn't see how - even allowing for an off-the-books budget from the minister's office - Barry or the other mechanics could have re-engineered the pushrod 351 Windsor to work with twin overhead cams

Easy. They pulled the heads from a 64 GT40 indy engine that was in the government impound after being seized from auto smugglers trying get a stolen car into the country.
posted by Mitheral at 8:37 AM on July 29, 2014 [1 favorite]


It definitely needs a cameo from Mel Gibson as "Sugar Tits"...
posted by biscotti at 3:07 PM on July 29, 2014


That's an explanation I'm far happier with, Mitheral!
posted by MarchHare at 3:37 PM on July 29, 2014




I am crushing your heads!

Thank God it's not just me! What is that gesture? Is it performing a small/far away calculation?
posted by running order squabble fest at 5:49 AM on July 31, 2014


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