Mad Max: Fury Road is a film that came out in 2015, directed by George Miller, starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy. It was nominated for 10 Oscars (including Best Picture and Best Director), and of these won six. It was also the best action film in a year that saw blockbuster releases such as Jurassic World, Avengers: Age of Ultron, Star Wars and Mission Impossible. Filled with extraordinary practical effects, stunning visuals and brilliantly choreographed action, this film was and is like no other, completely blowing the "mediocre" Fast and Furious's and Avengers' out of the water in terms of action. Though admittedly thin on plot, this film remains to be one of my favourites of all time, and the motorcycle chase scene is without a doubt one of the best action-based sequences ever.
*This post will contain minor spoilers for Mad Max: Fury Road. If you are a fan of action movies, I would highly recommend you watch it!*
The scene picks up as the villainous Immortan Joe and his goons catch up with Max and Furiosa who are reluctantly working together for now. After an attempt to bargain with a group of bandits goes south, the unlikely pair have to work together to ward them off, fleeing from two other war parties at the same time.
The sequence is a great example of the use of practical stunts in the film; the visual of the motorcycles jumping over the enormous truck whilst dropping explosives on them is impressive, and the large plumes of sand around the truck gives the sequence a strangely beautiful appearance, just like the rest of the film. The cinematography and stunts coupled with perfect editing (leading to an Oscar win in the category) makes for an incredibly cinematic action sequence. The absence of the widely over used "shaky-cam" and confusing quick cuts means that everything that is happening is easy to follow, something that can't be said for the majority of modern action films
Junkie XL's magnificent score is one of my favourites of all time. I especially love how the detonation of the explosives and the gun shots are 'timed' to the beat of the music (something that I also enjoyed in last year's Baby Driver) and the use of the score makes the whole scene twice as tense, exhilarating and euphoric. At the very beginning, the absence of music as Furiosa tries to reason with the biking bandits is suddenly broken as the glorious beat of Junkie XL's music kicks in. If you want to listen to this score on the soundtrack, it's called 'Brothers in Arms'.
However, it isn't just meaningless action: this is the pivotal point in the film where Furiosa and Max begin to trust each other. The significant look between the two as Max hands her the gun, and also their epic teamwork as they begin taking down attacker after attacker is testament to a building partnership. Mere minutes ago these characters were fighting and now they are working together like a well oiled machine (pun unintended). It's a classic example of 'show don't tell' filmmaking where the audience can see the development rather than just being told that they're suddenly friends. This film may not have a conventional story, but the characters still develop through the film, and moments like these make for ingenious, subtle story-telling devices.
I could (and do!) watch this scene over and over again; my favourite kind of movie moments are ones where there are great characters, visuals and incredible music. The film has other great scenes as well- the back and forth hand-to-hand fight scene involving a chained Max and Nux and Max's first escape attempt are equally as incredible, but the motorcycle chase scene is one of my favourite and most memorable movie moments of all time.
Thanks for reading this article; please do check out my other posts about my favourite film scenes which can be found below.
I do not own any of the images or videos used in this article; all images are from IMDb.