Rewatchables Reference

• The first 30 minutes culminating in the sandstorm – the war boys come after Furiosa, we're introduced to the Doof Warrior, and it ends with cars pinwheeling into sand tornadoes. Jason says there was an audible exhalation in the theater.
• The return to the Citadel with the polecats – jumping from vehicle to vehicle. Sean and Jason both pick this.
• The bullet farmer pursuing the war rig stuck in the mud, chained to the tree – Sean was blown away on rewatch.
• Chris picks exploring the canyon – the first moment where Furiosa drops the pod. Pure visual filmmaking on a level only 10 or 11 people have ever mastered.
• Micah picks Max's first meeting with Furiosa – from waking up face down in the sand, trying to gnaw off Nux's hand, the wives yanking him around like a pit bull, to the fight with Furiosa. One of his favorite action sequences ever.

• The action sequences – only three years since release and still at the pinnacle of visual effects in movies. A dissertation on practical effects combined with digital post-production.
• Charlize Theron's performance as Furiosa – iconic action movie performance, a character we've never really seen before. She's really Mad Max in this movie.
• George Miller's thesis for the film: could he make a movie that's almost a continuous chase, where the audience apprehends story, character, and backstory purely through visuals?

• The Doof Warrior – Chris argues rock is dead, Slipknot-style new metal is dead, and the energy expenditure in a resource-depleted world is absurd. "They're literally drinking breast milk and dying... turn up the monitors?"
• Immortan Joe's plan is a bit unclear – why Marshal all the Citadel's forces for a wild goose chase when presumably other women could serve his purposes?

• Mel Gibson was the presumptive Max all the way until 2003, when he declined because he became fascinated by The Passion of the Christ.
• Heath Ledger was considered before his death in 2008.
• Sean doesn't love Tom Hardy's performance – half of it is dubbed, he has about five different voices, and George Miller and Charlize Theron reportedly hated working with him. Hardy had to make amends after the film's release.
• The hosts can't think of anyone they'd rather have seen play Max, though. Hardy gets the physicality right even if the voice work is inconsistent.

• The Doof Warrior, played by Australian musician iOTA (Sean Hape) – wearing a red pajama suit, playing a flaming double-neck guitar in a landscape of dust and brown. The guitar weighed 132 pounds and shot real gas-powered flames controlled by the whammy bar.
• Zoë Kravitz – this is kind of the flex performance that put her on the map.
• Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe – biblical phraseology and menacing presence.
• Nathan Jones as Rictus Erectus – really going for it with every line reading.

Riley Keough – granddaughter of Elvis Presley, not widely known before this. One year later she'd break out in The Girlfriend Experience TV show.

• Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones) – "I had a baby brother!" Perfect in every way.
• All the wives after Rosie Huntington-Whiteley's character dies – the direction was apparently just "act really sad."
• The Bullet Farmer running over one of the Vuvalini and making what can only be described as a strange orgasm face. Also: regularly just touching his nipples throughout his screen time.

• Fury Road was in development hell for many years – pre-production started as early as 1997. Attempts to shoot in 2001 and 2003 were delayed by 9/11 and the Iraq War.
• In 2007, after Happy Feet, Miller briefly considered making it as a computer-animated film before going with live action.
• Seven-month shoot finished in December 2012. 470 hours of footage. $250 million budget. Two-plus years to edit. Over 1,200 visual effects shots.
• The movie was shot in sequence – very unusual, especially for a film with sequences this complex.
• Cinematographer John Seale came out of retirement in his seventies at George Miller's request.
• Miller's two stipulations: cinematography as colorful as possible (to differentiate from typically bleak post-apocalyptic movies), and art direction as beautiful as possible.
• The original concept was for a black-and-white film, but producers talked him out of it.
• Eve Ensler (creator of The Vagina Monologues) was consulted to enhance the portrayal of female characters.
• IOTA (the Doof Warrior) would arrive at 6 AM, get strapped into the harness, and just noodle AC/DC songs to himself all day between takes.

• George Miller – Chris says Road Warrior is his best film, but Jason argues Fury Road is his Apex Mountain because the achievement of making this kind of movie in the CG era is almost unparalleled. Top five action film of all time.
• Charlize Theron – Sean says yes over Monster, over her Reitman collaborations. Chris disagrees, picking Monster. Debatable but Furiosa is an all-time action performance.
• Tom Hardy – complicated. This might be the best movie he's ever been in, but the hosts agree Warrior is his best performance. 'Inception' is also in the conversation.
• The Doof Warrior – easily his Apex Mountain.

• Michael K. Williams – Micah wants more people of color in the cast. No war boys of color. Would have loved to see him in there.
• Steve Buscemi as Immortan Joe – could work if he played it like his 'Fargo' character after getting shot in the face.

• Tom Hardy's voice is clearly dubbed in multiple scenes with different voices – "that's my head" at the beginning and "that's mine" when he sees his car are both clearly someone else's voice.
• If the Green Place were real, why would more people not know about it? It's only a hard night's drive away.
• Immortan Joe's plan – why does Legacy matter this much in a world with no verifiable recorded history?
• The movie doesn't use a consistent frame rate – it's sped up in many sequences, which makes some performances look cartoony (though it helps the pacing).

• Will there be a sequel? Charlize and Hardy are both signed up, but George Miller was in litigation with Warner Brothers and was 73 years old at the time of recording.
• Did Max leave the Citadel at the end? He shrinks into the crowd – is he going to wander the Wasteland again? The hosts compare him to Ethan from The Searchers – not ready for society.
• What is the best action movie of the decade? Nominees: Fury Road, 'Edge of Tomorrow', 'John Wick', The Raid movies, 'Mission: Impossible' Rogue Nation/Fallout, 'Skyfall'.

• Charlize Theron – unanimously. She's clearly the star, clearly the hero. An iconic action movie performance that will be in Oscar montages for 30 years.
• George Miller deserves mention as well – a singular achievement and a capper on a fascinating career.