Furiosa - A Mad Max Saga (2024)

Speaker 1: Hold your ears, folks. It's showtime people pay good money to see this movie. When they go out to a theater, they want cold sodas, hot popcorn and no monsters in the projection booth.

Speaker 2: Everyone pretend podcasting isn't boring. Turn it off.

Speaker 3: Give me this promise. Promise me, you'll find your way home.

Speaker 4: I know who and what you are. Furiosa.

Speaker 5: The question is, do you have it in you to make it epic?

Speaker 6: If so look at the darkest stood angels, she will bring an end upon us all and a start. You're already doing this. MIKE WHITE: Welcome to the projection booth and the Kulturecast. I'm your host, Mike.

Wait, joining me, of course, is the host of the Kulturecast. Mr Chris Dash. CHRIS STACHIW: You can call me Scroti. MIKE WHITE: Also along with us, it is the one and only father Malone, our brother from winding way media.com.

Father Malone. It's good to see you, sir. FATHER MALONE: Good to see you. You can, you can call me the history man.

I'll take that numb. MIKE WHITE: You don't have nearly enough tattoos, my friend. FATHER MALONE: I'm, I'm on my way getting that. MIKE WHITE: On this episode.

We are talking about Furiosa and Mad Max Saga. It is a 2024 Australian film. It's not really an Australian film, is it? CHRIS STACHIW: They know it's, oh, they fucking show you.

It's in Australia, bro. In the first. He's, hey, if you had any question, it's in fucking Australia. I'm gonna Google Maps your ass right in the first five seconds of the movie.

MIKE WHITE: That's true. That's true. I was hoping there would be like a universal opening. So, you know, like Water World, how the oceans take?

Just Zoom right into Australia. We're talking about the prequel to the fourth movie. So I guess this is the third and a half movie. So somewhere between Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Mad Max, Fury Road is Furiosa, a Mad Max Saga and stars our Gal Aa Taylor Joy as Furiosa and Chris Hemsworth as Dementus And yeah, I'm so excited to talk to you guys about this and I should say spoiler warning because we're going to be ruining this film and we'll probably talk about the endings of some of the other Mad Max films as well.

So I know Chris, you just did a whole series all about the Mad Max film so people can check those out where I did one big honk an episode a few years ago. You check that out as well. And yeah, spoilers all over the place with those episodes as well. CHRIS STACHIW: I imagine Father Malone pushed me to watch the first three Mad Max movies and then we also watched Fury Road.

So yeah, I am versed now and in terms of immediacy, these are all watched within the last two weeks. I will say probably because hey, movies are back before we talk about spoilers. Let's just go around the kind of room here and say would Furiosa be worth checking out in theaters or maybe wait or do you want to just wait a month for it to be on streaming? Because at this point, everything comes out a month into streaming.

I don't know why it may have something to do what they want to make money. I don't know. Father Malone. Worth checking out in theaters.

FATHER MALONE: Yeah, I want more of these so go pay the money and give it to the studio and let them know that we want to see more instead of just waiting around to see it on Netflix or something like why? MIKE WHITE: So said that they already announced the Blu Ray before the movie even hit theaters. So I'm like, really? Yes, 100%.

You have to see this in theaters because it is a spectacle. George Miller knows how to make spectacles and my God, what a spectacle this movie was. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, I would agree. I saw it in theaters.

I think it's worth checking out. I saw it in the same theater that I saw Fury Road in so many years ago actually because I still was living up here at the time. Yeah, Fury Road came out in 2015. Yeah.

Saw it in the same theater. Theater was a little nicer. This time. The seats actually reclined easier to take a nap if that's a thing you're into.

But I would agree. Definitely check it out in theaters. Mike. You and I were talking about this before we turn on the recording.

Father Malone. I will now pose to you the question how many people were in your showing when you went and saw it? And when did you go and see. FATHER MALONE: It early in the morning?

And not many? And then I saw it again at home, let's say. CHRIS STACHIW: Oh, let's say a, I also may have watched it at home as my money. FATHER MALONE: Yeah.

CHRIS STACHIW: You know what they say, you got my money the first time. FATHER MALONE: And I watched the shittiest copy you could ever fucking imagine. CHRIS STACHIW: So the ads were edited out on the version that I watched. Somebody grade those bars of the money dropping out of the sky.

Swat lights.com. MIKE WHITE: Everybody the bane of my existence. CHRIS STACHIW: What? We don't illegally watch anything.

What the fuck you can't prove it, prove it, prove it you can't. MIKE WHITE: I don't know how many people were in the theater when I saw it because I sit right in the middle. So I'm not sure how many people were behind us. But I, if I had to take a guess I'd say probably like 10 altogether.

I was telling Chris before we started recording that. I usually order my popcorn in advance just because I like to skip the line. There was no line to skip. Unfortunately, I just walked right up to the concessionaire and bought my popcorn that way and then walked into the theater which was totally empty when we got in there.

And then eventually there were a few other people that showed up. CHRIS STACHIW: Mike buys his popcorn through the app because he's a sophisticated. MIKE WHITE: That's right. CHRIS STACHIW: I eat my pop pink.

He's out one piece at a time. MIKE WHITE: It's that meme from the family guy. Why do you guys think you're better than me? CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, you got and you spray each piece of popcorn with butter too.

Yeah, there were two people in the theater when I saw it. It's unfortunate because I think we all agree this movie is worth seeing in theaters if not required to have seen in theaters at least once because when I walked out of this movie, maybe not entirely. I was like, oh, that felt like seeing Fury Road in terms of the spectacle on display, needing to be seen on a large screen. But I would go further than just a large screen with a very loud, powerful and bay subsystem and Dolby atmos definitely intensifies the experience of a movie like this.

Maybe not as much as Fury Road, but I think there's a reason behind that, but I think we could start talking about spoilers. Now, if you guys are interested. MIKE WHITE: Maybe first, I just want to warn people because if you do go see this at theaters, you might be like me and want to drive like Furiosa across those sand dunes towards the end. Like I really want to rev my car and go fucking crazy.

That's the danger of movies like this. But otherwise, yes, let's talk about the movie, let's talk about the prequel and how we get introduced to Furiosa and her whole family. The Viviani. Correct.

I've seen Fury Road so many times but some of the terms elude me there. CHRIS STACHIW: The Volve Lii, which I believe is a play on Volva. It's got to be right. It's George Miller.

So, yes, it is. FATHER MALONE: I would think so. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, George Miller doesn't do anything unintentionally. At least I don't think I agree.

FATHER MALONE: Scroti. CHRIS STACHIW: Thank you Erectus. The phallic imagery in these movies and the phallic names and just sexual names are the greatest. And that's we talked about it, Father Malone with was it three where it's like all the names of the characters are in the opening of the movie.

It'd be Beyond Thunderdome. They're just like you need to know these characters names and they're fucking insane. So we're just gonna tell you what they are. There you go.

FATHER MALONE: Remember Pig Killer and screw loose. They are very important. Exactly. MIKE WHITE: Yes.

CHRIS STACHIW: But so I will, I think just to get the discussion rolling. Speaking of Beyond Thunderdome. This movie has a lot in common with Beyond Thunderdome. Maybe in a way that some people who liked Fury Road a lot might not like, which I totally get.

But you know what I was here for it. I was here for it big time. I was here for it. Maybe even more so than if they had just re shredded.

Mad Max. Fury Road, which in a lot of ways, this ain't thankfully. MIKE WHITE: That I'm trying to figure out what you're talking about was it that there are little kids in this movie? CHRIS STACHIW: It's more the, it's more the machinations of the fan reaction, but also the machinations of the Wasteland is something that seems to be gone into more detail in this movie, which reminded me a lot of beyond the first half of Beyond Thunderdome.

I think the second half of Beyond Thunderdome is its own thing entirely. But it reminded me of let's take a moment and build out the world in a way that Beyond Thunderdome did and in a way that this movie does not, that Fury Road doesn't, but Fury Road doesn't stop. It gives you those moments in dialogue. But they father Malone talked about this on our Fury Road episode.

They seem like throwaway pieces of dialogue. They would be in other movies in this movie. They're not because in Fury Road, they don't have a lot of dialogue. This movie is replete with dialogue, plenty of the more the climax of this movie is a, is two characters talking to one another, which I think again is very different from if you went and saw Fury wrote and then just saw this, you would be like, oh different.

What are we talking about here? I think that again, I enjoy this movie a lot, but it does have a lot in common with the Mad Max movie that some people don't necessarily jive with as much as the others. FATHER MALONE: I've spent the past two days restraining myself from jumping into the fray on the internet and doing battle with those who have written this movie off. I don't get it.

I really think there come, there's a certain type of person who threw a blanket over their head at age 12 in 1984 and said this is it nothing better because there were people complaining about Fury Road is not a true bad Max movie. Never mind. Beyond Thunder Dump. So this 10 boy, they are frothing at the mouth over it.

And it's a shame because George Miller has been consistently building a world and each time it gets more in depth and more interesting and more explained. You mentioned that opening shot. I gasped when we got to see that we're resuming in on Australia and then we're resuming in on Central Australia. So we're pinning it down even more.

My God uses a lot of maps in this in this thing. A lot of geography in this one more than we've ever seen before and I know a lot of it is digital and whatever, but I don't care. I love this world. Yes.

Give me two or three dust storms. I just had a great time. Overall. Chris, you mentioned the ending.

I'm constantly harping on the fact that no matter how innovative a fucking action movie is, it always ends with two guys punching each other and who cares? CHRIS STACHIW: Often in color swap suits one's purple and one's yellow, one's yellow and one's red. I just named Ant Man and Black Panther. Pretty much what they do.

Exactly. Yeah. FATHER MALONE: And here, well, the other thing I've been saying on the, on all the other reviews of all the other Mad Max movies is one thing George Miller does really consistently is defy expectations. And here he gives us a two character dialogue scene.

It is, there's action in it and whatever, but it ain't a fistfight and then gives us every possible scenario at the end. Here's what did, do you want this one? Did you want that one? I have many endings and you're gonna complain about it, all of them.

But here, here are the possibilities, but here is actually how it, how it went down and how it went down is fucking beautiful and poetic. And Harkens right back to the opening scene. This movie begins with young Furiosa picking that fruit off of that tree. And that's, that's what we return to at the end.

I fucking love this movie, guys. CHRIS STACHIW: I won't say I loved it, but I enjoyed it immensely again. I've only seen it twice so it will take a while for me to probably get to that point. I will say though, in terms of it coming after Fury Road, which is so singularly one thing, but I'm not saying it's only one thing, but what it's trying to accomplish is do something that very few if any other films have ever done, which is make a chase movie, literally a chase movie.

Like there is two scenes of take a breath here. This movie is not engaged in that. And I think immediately it paints a target on itself by saying, oh if you're expecting Fury Road don't. And I appreciate that because like you said, Father Malone, the expectation defying is all George Miller has ever really done again.

I would like to point out to the people that are angry. This is the guy who directed and wrote Happy Feet one and two movies about goddamn dancing penguins. So if you're expecting him to just make Another Fury Road, do you know what he's been or do you even care or do you, like you said, Father Malone just wants to keep your head up your ass because that's what it feels like. It's like horror bros at this point.

Like why isn't Jason and Michael Myers killing people. And I was like, what the fuck you got like 12 movies of it already. Why do you need yet another one? Can someone do something different, please?

And even, and you know what? It's the guy who created Mad Max, let him do whatever the fuck he wants, it's his fucking franchise. He started his career with the first Mad Max movie. If you don't trust in the judgment of the creator of the series, then I don't know what to tell you, but George Miller is No George Lucas in a number of ways.

MIKE WHITE: Yeah, it's fantastic that he has been making these movies for so long and in so many different ways, like you talked about how Fury Road is one long chase. And I think that those pauses are the most important part of it. But then you get, that, that adrenaline rush when it comes to when they resume those chases. And it's very similar with the way that we have this, what is it?

Four chapters in this film? I think I'm five altogether. But then in each chapter, you have a pretty incredible action scene. So buckle in folks, you're gonna see some amazing shit in this.

The opening chase across the plains with those motorcycles and then back again or the, when they have the War rig. That's amazing where the attack on gas town, just all of these set pieces just there's they're wonderful. And I think maybe people are upset that it's not just, you know, pretending to be one long action scene that there are several action scenes. But there's also to your point, Chris, a lot of dialogue and a lot of back story of these people.

And it is to me, it's more told like a fairy tale really with the chapters. It feels like we are opening the book of Furiosa and reading all of these very important facets of her life. Each time we have a chapter, something major happens to her. CHRIS STACHIW: And this is again, Father Malone, we talked about this on every episode.

Other than the first one about Mad Max movie has a narrator once again leaning back into the, we're telling a story because some people tend to forget including our friends over red letter media that Fury Road is narrated by fucking Mad Max. That's who narrates that movie. He opens that movie with his narration. So every single one of these movies, other than the first one, which doesn't need narration is a story, a tale possibly being passed down.

Who knows if they even happen this way. On the last episode, we talked about the idea of stories being passed down. They tend to be exaggerated and embellished from time to time. Father Malone, you even talked about in the last episode that Fury Road may just be a retelling of Road Warrior from a different group of people who heard about it and are retelling it their way, which again, given the way that these movies are including this one, wouldn't put it past them because George Miller is crafting modern folklore.

That's what this is of the world he has created. He is now populating it with folklore tales. The same way ruling Jr Tolkien did with the silmarillion the same way this is the ring. But here's all the reasons why the ring is important and how the ring got to being in the hands of Frodo.

How's that same. FATHER MALONE: Feel to it? Let me double down on my theory that these are two different versions of the same story, both Road Warrior and Fury Road near the climax of this film, right? As right after she's lost everything.

Yet again, they cut to the cameo that everyone's heard about in the film, which is Mad Max appears in Furiosa and he's overlooking a bluff. Very similar to the one we see him in at the beginning of Fury Road and what he's eating from a dog can which is very Road, warrior time appropriate. So I maintain once again that Fury Road and the Road where are the same story told by different tribes in the Wasteland? MIKE WHITE: Interesting.

That would also if we're talking about folk tales and storytelling, that would also help explain the way some of the stuff where I was just like, this is a little weird. I want to just lop off the very end of Furiosa because I honestly don't think that she immediately took the brides on the War rig. There wasn't even another War rig that was ready. So we just have to say yes, that was later.

And then what it looks like at the end, the people either go to gas town and start to get some really bad gout and everything. His feet looked ok. In this one, we have to have the, apparently the death of Scroti unless SCT is just moved away, maybe went to Paris or something. I don't know.

But yeah, just like there are things that are inconsistent where if I was really super crazy and I am, I would be like super upset about this stuff. But then it's like, oh if it's a fairy tale, if it's a, just a story, it doesn't matter if these things don't add up 100% that we never saw Corpus Colossus. I was just like, ok, I would to see him again, but I'm not sure if that actor is even still alive. FATHER MALONE: Can I speak to the I agree with you that cutting scenes from Fury Road into the end of the credits of this movie was a mistake.

Like we don't need it. We know we should, we just, we're gonna go watch it again once we get home. But which I did, right. Of course.

And, but the thing is there is a passage of time there because from the time that this story ends where she joins up with the Citadel again, it has to be the length of the span of a life of a tree, right? That tree had to grow that big to grow fruit. So from then that, how many years later was it true? MIKE WHITE: Very good point.

CHRIS STACHIW: Probably like 1015 years, at least right enough for her to age to being Charlize Theron because that's the other thing like we see her age from a, but that's the other thing I think and II, I think we had maybe talked about it or I had maybe mentioned it to you, Father Malone. That one of the early things that I had heard about this movie was Anya Taylor Joy is only in like half of it and that is actually the case. Anya Taylor Joy is only in half of the movie and the child actor that plays young Furiosa Alyla Browne.

She's fantastic. She's as good as Anya Taylor Joy as she carries her part of the movie just as well as Anya Taylor Joy does. And I think does an even more interesting job because you're not expecting to spend half of the movie with a young child, teenage version of Furiosa. And she's just as interesting.

MIKE WHITE: Yeah. And luckily, even though Furiosa is living in the Wasteland, at least she ages a lot more gracefully than Obiwan Kenobi to go from Ewan mcgregor. To Alec Guinness in the span of 20 years. That's some rough living man.

But she stays, you know, pretty clean through those years and was pretty attractive. FATHER MALONE: Let me ask you, fellas. Did you, were you confused at the switch from when they went from Alyla Browne to Taylor Joy? Like a at a certain point?

I was like, wait, what? Oh, this is how you Taylor Joy now. MIKE WHITE: Yeah, I wasn't really confused. I think the of speaking of trees because when you said tree, I thought about the first tree that we used to see growing out of the side of the Citadel.

I was like, OK, time is passing. This is probably where we're going to see Anya Taylor Joy. CHRIS STACHIW: So they used CG I to make Alyla Browne look more and more like Anya Taylor Joy until the scene where they switch over. Which is again for me, it's like George Miller just thinks of everything you could have.

Just not, but they make her features look more and more until they just switch over to her. And Anya Taylor Joy in this movie, her interpretation of Furiosa is great. I think it's a good thing. This movie came out when it did.

I don't, it's not that I wouldn't have wanted to see Charlize Theron, but I think it's good that this movie took a while to come out. The problem though. I think with any Frel anything including this movie. Is given that we know where the characters end up.

We have to have our stakes readjusted and how we're going to watch this movie because we know Furiosa not only survives but goes on to have a complete other adventure. In another movie. The stakes are surrounding all the other periphery characters and the villain who this is. Chris Hemsworth is doing in this movie.

He's doing a lot. I like what he's doing. I could totally see someone watching this movie and going, ok, he's just, I don't know, he's being goofy. He seems to be, he's hamming it up like the fucking fake nose and everything.

It's like, man, I don't know, fake. MIKE WHITE: Teeth but real abs I believe. CHRIS STACHIW: Real Australian, real real. MIKE WHITE: No, that it ripped off so.

FATHER MALONE: Much nipple work in this movie. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, I should be on a shirt so much nipple work in this movie, Father Malone. FATHER MALONE: It became a bit disturbing. At a certain point.

I was listening to an Australian podcast. They were talking about Hemsworth accent in the movie and they said this accent doesn't really exist anymore. But during the seventies and eighties, it seemed like everyone was talking this way. MIKE WHITE: That's interesting.

CHRIS STACHIW: He seems like from a time and from a place, right? MIKE WHITE: 100%. Yeah. And I love that.

He's just this kind of little guy who's trying to get in with the big guys. He wants to be there with the bullet farmer. He wants to be there with the people leader. He thinks he's as tough as Morton Joe.

No, that's not how it goes. He's just such a little piss and he just keeps fucking everything up. I love when his people want to murder him. FATHER MALONE: Yeah, it's great.

Like the way of all tyrants. He's just that fucking pageantry host, cult leader basically. And he's speaking, what's funny is the subtext of the previous film, which is now the next film is about this power dynamic in the Wasteland about the haves and the have nots. And he basically plays on that and he calls down to the War boys.

Let's all be equals when he has no intention of being equal than anybody. He's just another fucking scumbag out in the Wasteland, but. CHRIS STACHIW: He's terrible at it. And that's what I love is that he's just the worst.

And I'm not like saying, oh he's terrible. He is terrible. He murders Furios mom, he murders Furios lover, but he's terrible. Like you both have already said, like his own, he can't control his own people, he can't keep his own shit together.

And by the end of the movie, he gets his entire group killed himself included because he's a fucking moron. And I don't think there are enough villains in movies like this that are just inept beyond belief, but we get to see it. We get to see that they're inept and their ineptitude ends up catching up with them at the end of the movie. Big, big time, obviously.

But yeah, he's super inept which I love. MIKE WHITE: I'm sure I'm not the first person to put this out there and it might be, can, it might not be, but the guy with the big horns that I love that book, it feels because at one point is, oh, you betrayed us. Does his group like break off and become those guys that are protecting the past that Furiosa goes through that are all on those like mopeds and shit. FATHER MALONE: Yeah, they were the rogue group and that sequence is fucking fantastic.

But I felt it was a missed opportunity to have this guy go up against Deus then like it made sense. Absolutely. Plot wise and character wise that they just became a marauding group that no longer wanted to have anything to do with Deis. But I just figured this guy would figure into the end a little bit.

MIKE WHITE: I wanted him to be part of that revenge that Furiosa gets like my, the enemy of my enemy is my friend type of thing. But yeah, I also love that. We get to see a Morton Joe's power. You know, you're talking about cult leaders.

It's so Conan the barbarian where he just calls up, pick out a War boy. All right, War boy attack this thing and he just jumps off. Witness me. It's great.

FATHER MALONE: Prequels tend to in my mind demystify the characters and the situations that we've come to love in this one, it really solidified them. I've really liked a Min Joe as a character in this one. Like not only in that scene you're describing is a pretty standard of Martin Joe. But the stuff when he's negotiating and saying, who's this girl?

Wait, who is this man? The organic mechanic? Ok. I'll deal with you because I want these things.

Like we got to see a charismatic side to him, which was unexpected. CHRIS STACHIW: And what I also appreciate is there because there was nothing in Fury Road. Really? We see him a handful of times.

There's room for that in this movie. They're just like, oh you, we didn't really do it last movie so we can here and it's not like you said, it just adds to the character doesn't really detract because there and there wasn't much to detract from. He was cool to look at in the last movie. But again, his presence was, it wasn't on screen constantly.

And I think that works here that we have so much room to expound upon everything else going on in the world. MIKE WHITE: I really thought that the guy who picked up the Morton Joe mantle did a really good job that his eye acting was spot on which his voice would have sounded a little bit more. I Morton Joe, but I think also the whole age thing plays into that too. Yeah, I thought that he did a really super job picking up and being in Morton Joe.

And I didn't realize because I want to say the bullet farmer is a different person as well. Same guy, same guy, ok? Because I thought they said they had to recast him. But, and then you come to a character, the, what is the imperator Jack?

This guy just fucking shows up in this movie and owns the movie for half an hour. Maybe this guy is, I've, I know that I've seen him on screen. I went and looked at his filmography. I'm like, OK, I've seen him around but the presence that he has in this movie, I'm just like, wow, this guy is like a young Mel Gipps.

Then he is owning all of these shots and I love that he's the mentor to Furiosa and then Furiosa eventually becomes better than him when he's got her riding the or driving the rig. FATHER MALONE: I love it. You mentioned that like the scent pieces in this movie, the fact that George Miller continues to make chase sequences and he innovates every single time. Like when those guys took to the air, I was like, ho how do you, how does this man keep doing this?

It's quite insane. Or that the sequence where Furiosa is escaping for the first time on the War rig where she meets Pretoria and Jack and becomes his underling. That whole sequence is fucking fantastic too. With the War boy.

Oh my God. MIKE WHITE: Just the way that they're hanging under those trucks and everything. And I know I'm glad that they didn't say there's no CG in this movie. Everything's practical.

I'm glad they're not trying to stand on that hill anymore because there's a ton of CG going on throughout this. But it looked so terrifying them under that rig and just the way that the people are passing under and when the one guy is about to drop, but he gives her the tube, go ahead, fix the car. We need engine number two. It's so important that they keep this thing going and going at ridiculous speeds.

CHRIS STACHIW: You can't, we alluded to Mad Max not being in the movie other than the one shot which take it or leave it. I doesn't add, doesn't detract. I've seen some people be like, oh, I don't need it. Oh, it's perfect like it's I would concede.

We have Mad Max three different ways. In this movie. We have Deis who's a shadow, Mad Max, we have Furiosa who's effectively just another character similar to Mad Max driven by revenge. And then we have Praetorian Jack who is again Mad Max adjacent in terms of what he's doing, who he is, how he vibes.

Furiosa and Mad Max don't get along. Pra tore and Jack and Furiosa actually get along. And I think maybe for the first time since Mad Max, we actually have somewhat of a not romance, but casual thing going on, I don't think at any point I'm like, oh, he's gonna make it to the final frame of the movie like that. There's no way.

But it's nice to see that because it's something that's been a little unseen in these movies and mentioning the thing about the hang gliders when that happened in that scene, I gave out an audible holy shit in the movie theater because I was like, OK, they're, they're flying things in this universe because here's the thing, we hadn't seen them since. What? Beyond Thunderdome? There weren't any in Fury Road at all.

MIKE WHITE: No, they were using the poll instead, which were an innovation for that movie. And I'm glad they didn't have to rely on that for this one. CHRIS STACHIW: But it's oh, there are people that have flying things in this universe. I forgot about that.

Look still. No Bruce Spence in this goddamn movie. We know he's still alive. What the fuck missed opportunity.

But I had forgotten since even watching Beyond Thunderdome. That's oh yeah, there are people that can fly. So when those people took to the air, it was like, oh holy shit. Ok?

But to your point, Father Malone always innovating all ways, innovate. FATHER MALONE: And here's the thing about the cameo that Max gives us that we only get it. We get to see him observing her collapsing in the desert, right? And then we just fade out and then the next thing is her point of view being wakened by these healing women outside the Citadel.

Did Max take her there? Maybe? Who knows? Or did he just get back in his car and drive in the other direction?

Either is valid? CHRIS STACHIW: Max would do either. He has a propensity for both. MIKE WHITE: Theoretically, I did enjoy the moment when she almost got dragged into the underground of the Citadel and that when she wakes up in the underground of the Citadel with all those maggots.

And I was just like, oh, that's cool. They're eating the necrotic tissue. FATHER MALONE: Ok? When she almost got pulled in initially that I was horrified.

I was like, when, then she got out, I was like, oh my God, thank God. He didn't make us go down there. And I keep thinking that throughout the movie, like you'd mentioned that fantastic opening sequence with her mom when Mary Jo Bassa gets overwhelmed, like the these guys dog pile on her and then we cut away to Furiosa. I went, thank God, we're not gonna have to see the results of that.

And then the very next scene is she's crucified, hanging over a flame. I was like, oh, come on, man. CHRIS STACHIW: It's, it, I don't, it's not that I don't remember, but I feel like this is the most graphic of the Mad Max movies, right? I felt like it was, yeah.

Look at Morton Joe's face gets ripped off at the end of Fury Road, but you don't even really see it. There's a shot you see it get ripped off, but then we don't have a shot lingering on the nose, less jawless face. We just see Zoe Kravitz looking at it, but he's walked by the side of the car. This, this movie, I think, pretty brutal in terms of the violence.

But I think it, I think it necessitates it. And as far as putting Furiosa on the righteous path, you really need to see how fucked up the Wasteland is and how far Demento is willing to go to try to prove a point or to try to strike fear into people when he's completely inept, which is the case. MIKE WHITE: I also like the way that he evolves as a character, especially when he gets the flare gun with the red powder and he hit, you know, he shoots it in front of him and he gets the red all over him. And then he seems to adopt that as his look like the red got onto his white parachute cape that he would do and then kind of it's derby as well.

And then he's got the red and the beard and he puts the red into Furiosa hair to make them seem like they're related. I really like how he keeps like adding to his look throughout this whole thing and it'll have like little trinkets and things and also just like the way that the vest is covering. But you can see his fucked up nipples after he gets those ripped off in that horrific scene. So with this spike going through that fucking guy's head.

Yeah, there is a lot more gore in this one. I remember back in the Road Warrior when Bruce Spence is watching, I think it's not wes but somebody else with a crossbow shoots somebody and you cut away to him and his eye opening and it's, you get that, you get the reaction instead of the violence. This one is all about the violence. FATHER MALONE: Yeah.

In the very first Mad Max, when Goose is revealed, he's not. It's just Max recoiling in horror and none of the films up until now had a lead character dragged until he was unconscious behind the car and then three giant hounds tear him apart while he's still being dragged. It was I wanted to get up and leave the theater at that point for hours, for hours, hours and hours. Oh my God.

MIKE WHITE: They dissolve a lot the way that, George Miller uses that like slightly sped up footage like he did that a lot in the opening of Fury Road when Max is running away from the War boys and in this, when dement is there and all of this tribe is going around and around, which reminded me of the some of the shenanigans of humongous as people would get up to in Road Warrior. But yeah, just if you can see that slight sped up thing. And I'm like, OK, this works. It's, it would be cheesy in somebody else's hands.

CHRIS STACHIW: I think I will say because we haven't mentioned it. My favorite character in the movie is the War boy with the fucking arrow through his head. He just thinks he's in Valhalla already, which is really the greatest idea in the history of this franchise is all right. So we have characters being promised somewhere and this guy thinks he's dead.

All right. Roll with that. And man, what a specific choice but it pays off because he's steals the show in those scenes that he's in early, I guess. It's like about what, half, about halfway through the movie.

FATHER MALONE: Yeah. No, I love that guy. And what a quirk that led them to there wandering War boy who thinks he's already dead. MIKE WHITE: All these like little character roles.

I mean, he talked about the truth teller guy, the guy who looks a little like, Mick Fleetwood with one eye and that big fright wig. There's so many side characters that are just as entertaining. It just again to your point of world building, giving us all of these people to think about and to see all of their quirks rather than it just being Deis and Furiosa and maybe three other characters. No, you get dozens of characters in this and even like the little guy who is on the first War rig who wants to start up that machine, which was really fucking cool.

That guy is just like such a dis distinct choice of an actor. I thought it was fantastic. CHRIS STACHIW: I we have a lot of the same actors. Nathan Jones is back as Rictus Erectus.

Angus Samson is back, Josh Hellman who played NX like Buddy and Fury Road is back playing Scrotum. And what's interesting though, George Miller for whatever reason has been dragging it recently, Scroti was in the video game. So technically, this is now all part of the video, the video game is part of this now, right? Father Malone, right?

FATHER MALONE: Like that video game is based, I think almost entirely on this script because this script, what Miller said that he wrote, they wrote Fury Road and then they were like, we need to figure out where Furiosa is from. So then they wrote this and they went, what was Max doing for the year before? And then they wrote another script as he had unproduced to figure out what led Max to Fury Road and evidently, like they, Warner Brothers was gonna do nothing with the video game until Fury Road became a huge success.

And then they put it out. So what we get in both Fury Road and this movie, if you play those, that game, you're gonna get a lot of both. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah. And it, and it's part and parcel of this.

Now, I didn't know because we talked about it on the Fury Road episode. We were like, oh, you should check it out now. It's, it almost becomes not neces necessity. There's parts of that part of this movie kind of traffics.

And so it feels more important than it did when it came out almost 10 years ago. MIKE WHITE: I haven't played the game, but I wanna say, I heard that the guy who gives you that shitty car towards the end is a character from the game and I love how she steals Scroti car. That car is fucking amazing. Just the design of that.

And I, that we've got the whole idea of the, all of the ways that people are adapting technology to what they need. So you have the different flying machines or the different things like even using a exercise bike to as a wet stone type of thing. But we didn't get all those double decker cars that we get in Fury Road. And I was glad that we didn't get that.

It feels like that was more of an advancement. So it's the opposite of George Lucas where you make everything that's really old, look gorgeous and beautiful and the stuff that's new. Look absolutely shitty. CHRIS STACHIW: And I think it also because we're seeing different groups of people in the Wasteland this time.

It's really like motorcycle people, right? Which is a, again, return to Mad Max one. Really? Again, this is about a motorcycle gang, which Chris Hemsworth is the leader of and I've gotta say the design of his motorcycle chariot is, oh my God, it is pretty fucking great.

Like I'd never seen that before and hats off to George Miller because now it's makes perfect sense to motorcycles with and on the back. Ok. Makes sense perfect. Of course George.

MIKE WHITE: Miller, he took that from the stuff that was going on in Australia in the seventies where it was the motorcycle cops putting on shows and they made a chariot. So I saw this video, I think it was from Vanity Fair where he's holding up pictures of this guy on a motorcycle chariot. And he was like, yeah, this was the inspiration right here. And yeah, I had never seen anything like that either and it is so cool when he's going across the Wasteland with his cape blowing and his fucking cheer.

It's ridiculous. FATHER MALONE: He has Miller. He just keeps making these villains who are fucking fascinating and even as a nap in whatever as Demento is, there's a real character in there just like a Morton Joe's got to be a real character in there just like auntie entity, just like every fucking villain. He manages to come up with something interesting and a good counterpoint to the hero as opposed to, as you said, Chris, like the Marvel films where it's just one guy dressed in blue and one guy dressed in green.

CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, I oh God I can't, I would deign to say, oh George Miller should be hired by Marvel to do something, but they would never let him do what he wanted because he's too much DC. Couldn't even get a fucking wrangle on him. So, yeah, I don't see it happening but we look, I have been watching a lot of movies recently by people like George Miller who have a very specific movie and they're making a specific thing and that's what they're doing. And it's refreshing because I'm not gonna say like movies are dead.

But talking about at the beginning of this episode, there people aren't going to the theaters anymore. There are plenty of reasons for that. One of them is constantly being bombarded with the same shit over and over again to the point where it all just becomes noise and there's no one thing I can point out and say this is a thing. This is one of the few movies I've seen in theaters in where I'm like, this is a thing worth seeing in theaters.

You don't need to wait for streaming because shit Kong versus Godzilla was out a month ago in theaters and it's already on streaming. Fall guy, not even out a month in theaters and it's already on streaming. There goes the sequel opportunities for that movie. So many things don't need to be seen in theaters.

This does and I wish it had come out before the pandemic in a way. So it could have been enjoyed the way it probably deserved to be enjoyed because things coming out in theaters now just aren't being enjoyed the way that they used to, unfortunately. But to your point, Father Malone and help keep waiting George Miller for him to make whatever it is next because he takes his time and it shows everything is well thought out. Everything is, has a purpose and serves a purpose and has a place and need in the world.

It's not just being put there because it looks cool. That's why Furiosa has that mask. Like Max did that muzzle, the muzzle returns even but not in, remember the muzzle from Fury Road, she's just wearing it. They don't hang a lantern on things like so many other things do.

Remember the interceptor. Everybody here's 20 shots of it so that you can gaze longingly at this thing you've missed for 20 years. There's none of that in this movie. FATHER MALONE: Thankfully, once again, as far as defying expectations, this whole movie seems to be leading towards this huge fucking War Martin Snow and Demus.

And instead we get a montage and I was at first, I was like, wait, what are you doing now? And then, but then I should have trusted him because he pays it off in a whole different way. We don't need to see another War boy battle on with a War rig versus de menus. And his guys on motorcycles.

We've seen that a bunch already in this film. CHRIS STACHIW: It's not part of Furiosa story. MIKE WHITE: Run at each other like the five armies from the hot. CHRIS STACHIW: But remember how good that was?

MIKE WHITE: Oh yeah, it's a bunch of CG things just smashing into other CG things. CHRIS STACHIW: Why are we getting more of that? FATHER MALONE: Some of the CG in this movie is quite dodgy and there are plenty of shots where I was like, oh why did you do that? But his adherence to it in this allows a lot more freedom with the camera, like going into the automobiles and pulling out and when we're in there like zooming in and out of it's pretty fucking great, man.

CHRIS STACHIW: Are you talking about the end of the movie where they keep zooming in on a very angry Chris Hemsworth at the wheel of his car? Because those shots are, I want to make that my banner on Facebook. Just angry Chris Hemsworth is grabbing the wheel because it's amazing. It's G I but I don't care.

I love when they just come out and go back in and come, it's like, all right, fine. Sure. At this point, I don't care, I'll follow you. I will follow you over the cliff.

George Miller. As long as it's an entertaining cliff. MIKE WHITE: Yeah, I even saw that genie movie that he did in the interim. So that's how much of a George Miller fan.

I am. FATHER MALONE: I like that movie. MIKE WHITE: Yeah, it was pretty nice. FATHER MALONE: Right.

I'm sure it was a dream come true for him after Road. And it was just two people talking mainly for 90 minutes. MIKE WHITE: With tons and tons of GCG, but very effective to the story. CHRIS STACHIW: I still haven't seen it but I want to, it's on my long list of things to watch.

MIKE WHITE: Saw it at the theater and it was gorgeous to look at. So hopefully it holds up on the small screen. I know the Fury Road does I watch that motherfucker all the time still works. FATHER MALONE: Every one of these movies works is a stand-alone film.

That's an aspect of the whole filmography that doesn't get praise enough. I don't, you don't, you can show any one of these movies to anybody at any time and they'll get it and they don't need any of the guns. CHRIS STACHIW: I think this might be the first one though. That's a again like you're, I don't, yeah.

No, you don't have to see Fury Road before this. You have to see it after. FATHER MALONE: It would be, it enriches your experience of this movie. But this is a story of your is.

So you get the whole deal. CHRIS STACHIW: It recontextualized it. You might even say theoretically, you could be like this might be the one you start with. Even at this point, I would actually advocate to watch this before Fury Road.

Now, you're right, Father Mo watch this first then watch Fury Road. You'll be like fucking the fuck up at the end of this movie and then Fury Road will be like a shot into your fucking veins. Just give me more, man. Can you imagine being that person 10 years from now that watches this then?

That and hasn't seen either, man. I wanna be that person. Holy shit. We know how good Fury Road is.

Like someone 10 years from now will be like they're discovering something to be like, oh my God. Have you seen Fury Road? It's like, yeah, that movie came out 20 years ago, 30 years ago. At this point.

FATHER MALONE: I hope that person has at least one more. Mad Max that we haven't seen yet to take. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, and that's the question. So they talk about the 40 day War and they threw out and I've seen it.

Mad Max, the Wasteland being a thing that's maybe coming next. I think in all reality, there should be one more, right? Just because George Miller is. George Miller is not getting any younger.

And frankly, at this point, he's 79 years old and unless they're going to change the way the movies are made, that means George Miller is going to be 80 plus in the Namibian Desert shooting a movie. So maybe he's just Australian and built different. That's probably the case. But can you imagine an 85 year old George Miller making 1/6 Mad Max movie in the desert.

Yeah, that's the, yeah, that's the problem. FATHER MALONE: Like HB Aleki, he's gonna die on set. MIKE WHITE: He's gonna be wearing those tiny little glasses with the thick lenses and thick frames and George. CHRIS STACHIW: Right.

Right. Oh, he's dead. Oh, never mind. All movie continues.

Yeah. MIKE WHITE: Lunch, everyone. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah. Oh, look, I think they're, it needs to be one more.

But I guess the question becomes, what is that movie? FATHER MALONE: Evidently it's the year that leads up to Fury Road for Max, which is again, defy expectations. Here's the weirdest trilogy of all time. Here's one movie and then two movies that lead up to that movie.

Yeah. MIKE WHITE: Here you go with Fury Road where Mad Max is having flashbacks is something we've never seen that Aboriginal guy, the little girl who wasn't his little kid who are these people? I love that. We don't know.

And it just adds to that richness of that movie. And you know what if he goes back and shows me that story? I'm not gonna be like, why are you doing this to me? I'm gonna enjoy the fuck out of it.

CHRIS STACHIW: Honestly. That's probably the starting place. It makes sense because we talked about it on Fury Road. Who is that child that asks for that?

That gets Max essentially the memory of them to turn around. FATHER MALONE: Oh, yeah, that, that, that's the one we didn't talk about Chris. She keeps putting her hand to her head and then at one point, Max does that and it saves his life. So now the ghosts become a little bit more than just figments of his imagination.

They're somehow premonition, I think. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah. To your point, that's probably the best way to go. That would be weird to have Fury Road.

Fury Road is so singular. Having everything be around it leading up to it. FATHER MALONE: Yeah. I'm fine with it.

MIKE WHITE: I don't see that Marvel did the same thing at some point. I'm sure that there are movies that are basically prequels to the Avengers that are coming out now. But yeah, this is, I really can't think of anybody else that's doing anything like this other than George Miller and. CHRIS STACHIW: Has been doing it his entire career.

He's going to probably end his career with a Mad Max movie and he's the only one. Right. MIKE WHITE: Wait what or a Babe movie? I hope he's due for a third one.

CHRIS STACHIW: Or Happy Feet. Three is, there's not a third Happy Feet movie. He'll make those three movies and then he'll make the final Mad Max movie. FATHER MALONE: Let's get him back to the Twilight Zone.

Yeah. CHRIS STACHIW: Once more. Yeah. And that's the thing.

What's crazy is he's the only one who's directed Mad Max movie. There's no other franchise that even that has this many movies that have been directed and created by one person are there. MIKE WHITE: I know. Not like he gave the mantle over to some resilient director who had a couple, hot horror films.

CHRIS STACHIW: Wow. Are you talking about something specifically or a, or a Russian director with a lot of interesting looking films or? MIKE WHITE: He was just digging a swipe at the guy who does the evil thing movies now. And he's from Alvarez.

Is he from Brazil. CHRIS STACHIW: With a name like Alvarez? I don't know. MIKE WHITE: I don't know.

CHRIS STACHIW: Might be, might be Spanish. He's great. I think he's great, I think, but to your point, I don't know how a Mad Max movie would play if it wasn't directed by George Miller. I think somebody would, it would be exactly what we're expecting, which is what George Miller is not interested in doing.

He defies expectations. Somebody else would just lean on him. I like Ghostbusters afterlife. MIKE WHITE: I love that.

There was a whole movement in the eighties and probably into the nineties too where it was all those knock off from Italy of basically Road Warrior. Little bit of escape from. No. Yeah, those types of things.

And then what comes out this and is sitting right next to Furiosa when I'm looking at F Movies. Org Road Wars Max Fury starring Vernon Wells. But you've got that tie in from Mad Max Two. And then, yeah, it's got the whole artwork that looks exactly like the Mad Max series.

So they're still cranking them out, man. There are still people that want to make the Road Warrior that never will God. CHRIS STACHIW: What's the name of that studio that used to make all those like Foe Busters Asylum and that's what it is like came up and said the Asylum, there's only some of us among us who know the truth of Slot lights.net. If, if something like this can't get people in the theaters.

I don't know what will really like a big budget car chase movie that necessitates a big screen. Like people aren't going to come out for this. The movie industry is struggling. We know that it's obvious that's why things come out on streaming a month after they're in the theaters because people just haven't come around to seeing things in theaters.

Do. I wish this would be the thing that got more people in the theaters. Sure. Is it going to be clearly, unfortunately, not the money that this movie has made is not the movie, it was the money it was expecting to make, unfortunately, which seems like a fucking shame because that's not a reflection on the quality of the movie at all.

Frankly, it means nothing as far as I'm concerned. I it's more of an indication of society, not the film itself. FATHER MALONE: It's not like movies don't succeed and then become cult films afterwards or find their audience. It just a case of that.

The unfortunate thing is there was so much money involved and it puts the future of the series in jeopardy, but that the future of the series was always in jeopardy. CHRIS STACHIW: Every time it took so long to even have Fury Road made. Like Fury Road came out in 2015. It is 2024.

This is a rather short period of time between films given the period of time between Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road, which was like, what, 15 years, something like. MIKE WHITE: That, that it felt like more than that because I remember watching Beyond Thunderdome when I was still in high school. FATHER MALONE: I think it was 187. CHRIS STACHIW: Oh, more than that.

Yeah, that's, it's crazy at the end of the day though, like even this movie's existence was bandied about for years after Fury Road came out. I am surprised we got to see this movie that this movie did come out. FATHER MALONE: There was a lawsuit in there, right? That sort of slowed the process of it because I think they were all ready to go.

And then he said, hey, Warner Brothers, where's My Fury Road Money? MIKE WHITE: See, that's the interesting thing that there's such creative accounting where people can have the number one. You know what? Ii, I love the stories, James Cameron and just like, oh yeah, here's how much I actually made off of Titanic when the studios made this much money.

Ok? CHRIS STACHIW: You gotta get creative with your accounting. That movie lost money guys. What are you talking about?

It's a line item. That girl, we lost money on that movie. It never came out, we lost money. On it though.

I swear. Speaking of fucking Warner Brothers, Jesus H. MIKE WHITE: Christ makes it even more remarkable that we got to see this movie. Just the lead right off of a hard drive.

CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, exactly. Sorry, you don't get to see this movie that people spent time, money and effort on. Fuck you. Yeah.

But hey, look at the end of the day, I hope that we get something beyond this. I hope that it does something different than even this movie has. I don't know what that is. Maybe it has nothing to do with Mad Max or Fury.

So I can't imagine that's going to be the case. It be. Maybe it's an, I don't even think it needs to be a Mad Max movie at this point. Isn't Ma Mad Max is not necessarily important to the story unless I don't know.

I actually, I think it is a good, a good spot to ask the question because I think we talked a little bit about it at the end of Fury Road. If you were to pick where this went, where would you want it to go? FATHER MALONE: I want more Mad Max. CHRIS STACHIW: The character, you mean?

FATHER MALONE: Yeah, I'm totally comfortable with any of these characters. They're all so rich. These worlds are so fantastic. He wants to start a new and tell us what's going on the coast of Australia and pick a hero for that region.

I'm totally cool with it really. I want more. Mad Max. We got one Tom Hardy move.

Give me at least one more. CHRIS STACHIW: Oh, like an actual proper Mad Max. Tom Hardy as Mad Max. FATHER MALONE: Yeah, because he's a minor character in this particular saga, but I wanna know his story.

CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah, I, yeah. What about you, Mike White? MIKE WHITE: I'm right there with Father Malone. Yeah, that's what I'd like to see.

I really liked so much of what Tom Hardy was doing. Just those little things like that little thumbs up thing that he gives before one of the brides bites it or the whole that's bait thing. Just those little movements that he was doing, even when he's talking about going back through the Wasteland and he's using his hands in all these interesting ways. I really like what he was doing with that character and I'd really like to see him explore that some more.

And again, I don't care if it's not true to the first three movies because the first three movies really weren't true to the first three movies. They went radical direction. So please Tom Hardy continue to take me in a new direction. I am there with you, sir.

CHRIS STACHIW: And I think, and we talked a little bit about this on the Fury Road episode, but I think it bears repeating. I have also come around a lot on Tom Hardy in the subsequent decade since Fury Road came out because again, right around that time was the bane times of Tom Hardy, which for a lot of us was not, it was, it wasn't necessarily the first introduction, but it's definitely the biggest introduction for a lot of people. And that, yeah, his character of Mad Max, I'd like to spend more time with him because it's an interpretation that is different and sadder than Mel Gibson's, which I think is interesting because we never really Mad Max as Mel Gibson is a cipher and Tom Hardy doesn't seem as much of a cipher.

He's clearly more and he lets those haunted things get to him, which is an interesting aspect of the character that, yeah, I'm with you guys. If we got that cool Tom Hardy at this point, big enough, massive enough star that it's you want to be the lead and actually lead the whole thing. I can't imagine he would say no. As long as that's the thing, I wasn't aware that him and Charlize they're on didn't get along.

MIKE WHITE: Apparently I haven't listened to that audio book about the making of the whole wint. But yeah, I didn't know that either. I just started hearing those stories this week. I guess it's because of the new movie coming out.

CHRIS STACHIW: Kudos to George Miller for keeping that for keeping it. Apparently great films don't necessarily come out of the leads. Fucking hating one another. FATHER MALONE: So, yeah, but those characters were tense anyway, worked for the movie, right.

CHRIS STACHIW: That was the thing I read. It was like. FATHER MALONE: Maybe at a tough time in the Namibian Desert making a fucking masterpiece with George Miller. CHRIS STACHIW: That was the thing I read.

It was like, maybe Tom Hardy was just method acting, the relationship with her too. And it was like. FATHER MALONE: Here he was, I'm sure it was 100% instigation on his part. CHRIS STACHIW: Tom Hardy.

He's a method actor. We know that he's maybe not as method as Jared Leto. And I'm not saying yeah. Right.

We don't all need to have condoms sent to us by our cot stars for fuck's sake. But I would watch another Tom Hardy. I would watch a Tom Hardy Mad Max movie because we really haven't had. FATHER MALONE: We deserve one.

MIKE WHITE: At least that is a question when it comes to these movies and maybe a good place to stop. But when it comes to Fury Road, I think it's Furiosa movie when it comes to Furiosa. Is it her movie or is it somebody else's movie? FATHER MALONE: Oh, no, I think it's Furiosa.

It's her tale beginning to end. We get a lot of interesting side missions or we certainly get more of the, what's going on as far as who holds power in this universe. But it's like the previous Max trilogy. It's about that person winding their way through it.

CHRIS STACHIW: I would say if Mad Max, Fury Road is a Furiosa movie with Mad Max in it, I would say Yeah, Furiosa is a Furiosa movie. But I think Chris Hemsworth is in this movie a lot as well. And you could make a case. I might even make the case that it is a shared movie because their paths inter weave in and out of the movie so much.

There is a stretch of film where he's not in it and it doesn't necessarily drag but his presence is missed. But at the same time, he is also, I could see in a less aptly handled version of this movie, how he could be fucking grading and obnoxious to the point of he's not only distracting, but he's actively causing me to dislike this movie in a way that sometimes characters that are big, the way his character is big can get in the way for some people. I look at something like the fifth element with Chris Chris Tucker.

He in that movie gets in the way of my enjoyment of that movie and I know that and I can admit it, he's such a big character and he's so specific. But in, I see the same thing with Chris Hemsworth, like you might find him to be objectionably obnoxious and ridiculous with the fake nose and the really put on accent. But I think he's great and I think it's not as much his movie as Furiosa, but he is a big part of this movie and there is a reason he is on the poster as big as he is with her because he's behind her. On the one sheer he's, his presence is made very clear on that poster.

MIKE WHITE: He's her joker. You made me, I made you type of thing because yeah, he's there from the beginning. He's the one that murders her mother. He's the one that takes her in and carts her around all over the place.

It's almost a fatherly relationship when he claims that he's her father. Like you could make a case. He's been watching over you all this time like he do. Yes, exactly.

CHRIS STACHIW: He's, he's, again, he's, this is his, I think one of the best things I've seen Chris Hemsworth. He's really great in this movie. And I think it's a, like you mentioned, Father Malone, he is a fully realized villain in a way that George Miller seems to really excel at which is giving us someone who's bizarre and then really expounding on the bizarreness and giving us more to it. Not just so many cult of cool things that we're used to like a Boba Fett who everybody glommed on to him for 20 years.

And it's like he just looks cool. Lord humungous, looked cool in Road Warrior. But there was also something to him. He opens that box with the gun and there's all that stuff in the box.

So you get a sense of where characters coming from, or at least you can jump to some conclusions and fill in the blanks yourself. And that's George Miller. I think the success of him is he treats the audience not like fucking morons, which is, he's never treated the audience like morons. I don't think at least in the things that I've seen that he's done and that is something we should not be taking for granted in this day and age where the audience is treated like fucking idiots more or less all the time.

The idea of presenting the audience something without telling them. But showing them in the filmic language of imagery is not something that most directors are doing anymore. At least not in studio in the studio system. This is a goddamn studio film which is the probably the craziest part is that this is a studio film being made like this just like Fury Road, a studio film being made this way.

You gotta be in 2024 when everybody is so cynical about the way films are made and they can still make something like this still ekes through the cracks of the Marvel green screen. Everything on ac G I set. Come on. MIKE WHITE: Oh God.

Can you imagine like all of these things being done against green screen just getting the behind the scenes of every single War boy fighting in front of a green screen. Oh That would just tear my heart out to see something like that like. CHRIS STACHIW: House of the dragon. Like we have this really great set.

Yeah, it looks great. But don't show me behind the scenes because it's just a bunch of people standing on like some pieces of rock. It's, this is not compelling by any stretch of the imagination. FATHER MALONE: CG stuff that he employs here I think is, it just adds to the overall experience.

Something specifically when Pretoria and Jack and Furio are making their run for it after the, that fucking fantastic ambush at Bullet Town. It was a gas, oh, it was Bullet Town. It was Bullet Town. MIKE WHITE: Yeah.

Yeah, I think I must spoke earlier and I called the gas town. FATHER MALONE: We get two, we get to go on both of them in this movie, don't we? Which again, just the world building of it all. I just love every one of the environments we go into.

There's a sequence where, where Furiosa basically gets promoted to the garage that takes place in the Citadel during a dust storm and it's all empty and scary and wild. It's, it's unlike any scene in Fury Road, like it is quiet and yet still menacing and just, I don't know, I'm gushing about the movie just I felt transported every time George Miller wanted to give us a new place that we were in that place and the amount of CG did not bother me at all. And the scene I was talking about when, where they're driving away where they skirt around this basically mountain of sand that Deis just goes right over.

But watching them, when the, when their way around in that environment, when they're driving over there's canyons that they can fall into. I'm sure that's all CG. I didn't care, just add it to the goddamn movie. I don't know what people's hang up is MC.

CHRIS STACHIW: U stuff, man. I don't know what people want anymore. I don't get it if this isn't entertaining for you. What the fuck do you want?

I genuinely, this movie is entertaining up and down. Yes, it's a little slower than Fury Road. But also if you've never seen Fury Road, this movie is still jam packed with action, but Fury Road is such its own thing that if again, the worst thing about this movie is that Fury Road existed before it, that's it. Like in so many cases of the Godfather one and then the Godfather two.

Look, the Godfather two for many people is as good of a movie as Godfather one. I think this movie is as good of a movie and Fury Road in anyways. But Fury Road is so singular in what it's trying to do. It's hard if not impossible to do that again.

Also, why would anyone do that again? MIKE WHITE: That's what I'm curious about. They didn't do Furiosa before Fury Road. Would they have done that?

Or would people have just rejected the movie out of hand? Because it was a female led action film? Which seems like box office poison or what is that? What's happening right now?

We talked about how few people were in the theater. Is it just a general malaise or people are rushing out to see fucking Garfield? And if, and all these horseshit movies. CHRIS STACHIW: Well, now you just attacked Chris Pratt voicing a cat.

How dare you, our actual cinema living actor. He's a legend of voice acting. MIKE WHITE: Chris Pratt, he's, he's such a good actor. He doesn't even like lasagna.

CHRIS STACHIW: Wow. He's never even played Super Mario brothers. He didn't even know it was a video game until his child told him about it while he was filming the movie. Oh, wait, that was Bob Hoskins.

I don't know what people want anymore. I don't II I may have said this when we were talking Ma Mad Max on one of the other episodes, Father Malone. But I don't think people that are younger than me go to these. I think people consume content differently now.

And I think that it's hard to hold people's attention span and that's not me, me being cynical. It's me just looking at the way content is consumed and mass TikTok is not that long for a reason. It's the dopamine rush of being able to watch 100 different things in five minutes because you're just, just flipping through them. I get it.

Look, I'm still the guy who will watch a seven hour video on YouTube explaining a movie or going in depth on a movie, I will watch that, but I can't speak for everybody and I can't speak for anybody even being bothered to sit through a two hour movie, let alone a 90 minute movie without fucking around on their phone, fucking off to do something else. And look, that's the benefit of having access to everything on our phones and TV. S is we can do that, but also it has in general diminished the movie going experience at large and that's been going on since before the pandemic.

It will continue in perpetuum because we now can watch fucking Citizen Kane on our iphones. Ok? Like when that movie came out, people didn't think they'd be able to see it at home, let alone on their phones while they're taking a shit at work. So I just think that the industry will never catch up to the way people want to watch things because the industry likes to make money and it's hard to make money the way people are consuming things.

MIKE WHITE: Now, I remember when you told me that you hadn't seen Citizen Kane, but now I'm so glad that I can picture how you watched it. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah. Yeah. I actually watched it in 32nd increments on TikTok.

That's what I did and YouTube show. Yes. Yeah. It's clearly Mankowitz wrote that script and was like, I can't wait for someone to watch it in 45 2nd clips.

They'll really get what I was going for. MIKE WHITE: Just wait till that cockatoo comes up. God. CHRIS STACHIW: Anything else we want to talk about with Furiosa?

Kick it to you first, Mike. Final thoughts on Furiosa. A Mad Max. MIKE WHITE: So I was a little on the fence when I saw this yesterday.

I have to tell you or sorry, two days ago. And I'm glad that I had time to think about it and sit with it and just, I went through and I watched 23 and four and sat with five some more. And yeah, you've heard on this conversation? I'm pretty sold on five now, so I'm right there with you as far as I really am a furious.

CHRIS STACHIW: So I guess the thing, we didn't get to ask Mike before I asked Father Mo, are you, have you changed your opinion on Thunderdome or do you still hate it? MIKE WHITE: Actually, I was really happy watching it yesterday because, or two days ago yesterday because I left right before the kid part and then I went downstairs and did some laundry. So I saw the movie that I wanted to see. I didn't really need to see anything else after that.

FATHER MALONE: That's, that's unfair. I'm a big fan of that movie, so. MIKE WHITE: I'm a big fan of half of that movie. FATHER MALONE: I'm, you know what?

Ultimately, I'm a big fan of each of the Mad Max movies. I think they're all of a piece. They're all they connect and they don't simultaneously and I think they are equal adventures depending on where you feel like spending time with Max or lack thereof. There's something for everybody in the series.

Final thoughts in Furiosa, Father Malone, a worthy successor slash prequel. I as a rule just can't fucking stand prequels. And was when he, when they announced that they were immediately doing this after Fury Road, I was like, really? Do we need to go there?

I'm glad we went there again. Expectation defying George Miller just keeps knocking it out of the park no matter what he does in this universe as far as I'm concerned. And I again saw this movie twice very happily and I'm gonna watch it again and I would suggest everyone go see it in the theater if you can just to vote with your bucks so we can continue this Wasteland. CHRIS STACHIW: Yeah.

No, I echo both of y'all I think for me, it's Fury Road is obviously so its own thing. But I think this is its own thing as well and it mixes and matches things that we've seen but in a different and unique way and add some things to the story that I think are needed, which is a pivot to another character, a pivot to a female character, a pivot to a genuinely interesting and well acted female character across both films, both interpretations and like you both have already alluded to George Miller is one of the few directors who I kind of trust whatever he does, period.

And I think that has evidence to back it up looking at his filmography. I have more or less seen everything but that film from 2022 and all those movies are fanta are varying degrees of fantastic or at least interesting. And that includes Babe Pig in the City, which is nothing like Babe, which he did not direct, Babe, everybody. He only wrote and produced not bad, but I don't know, I'm not, that wasn't in reference to you.

It's in reference to most people on the internet just going. The guy who directed Babe and no, the guy who directed the Crazy Babe movie where he's in the City and there's Babe Pig in the City is a talk about subversive and subverting expectations. Yeah, for that to be a sequel to the James Cromwell Sheep Herding movie. It's pretty crazy.

But similarly to this, for this to be a sequel to Fury Road and it just being like, nope, we're not gonna up the ante, we're gonna pull back a little bit and do something a little different but still have what you were expecting in there and it's still work and be just as compelling, I think. Yeah. George Miller is a Seminole filmmaker and when he is gone, the world would be a lesser place for it. But until then I hope he wants to work until he's 90 in the desert because that's what he's looking at and that's what I'm hoping.

Yeah, that's, that's my final thoughts on Mad Max. So, until the three of us do something again, cross over, who knows? Maybe another big movie coming out this summer. Where can people find you in the things that you work on?

Father Malone? FATHER MALONE: I would head over to Weirding Way Media.com where I have a few shows on there, like dark destinations. It's a radio drama, I write and produce or midnight viewing, the horror anthology podcast co-host you two fellas or midnight viewing anthologies attack where co-host Antonio Lepore and I take a look at anthologies of every genre in media. What about you, Mike White?

MIKE WHITE: Pretty much the same thing other than all those shows. But yeah, come on over to we me d.com, we're going to hear me shoot off my mouth about all kinds of things including Colombo and Barney Miller and a lot else. And how about you, Chris? CHRIS STACHIW: I would say the same thing Weirding Way Media, all things, but one thing which is ranking on Bond, which can be found on yours and my patreons respectively.

That's patreon.com/culture casts or projection booth. And if you're a fan of action movies, you probably wanna hear what we have to say about James Bond, one of the action franchises. So Mike White and I along with our friend Richard Adam and soon Father Malone will be joining us. To sit down and about James Bond once a month and we're still at the very early days of James Bond.

So you have plenty of time to get in and not feel like you missed too much. So, yeah, those are the places you can find me as well. MIKE WHITE: Thank you so much guys. It's been great talking with you and be sure like Chris said to come on over to our patreons and make a donation because every donation made helps the projection booth take over the world.