We saw the blisteringly intense Mad Max: Fury Road trailer, and now we've broken it down for you piece-by-piece. Let's see what we can find hidden in every frame.
As we hear staticky reports on the radio about wars over water and gasoline, Max gazes out on the desolate landscape, steps on an innocent, two-headed lizard, and intones: "My name is Max. My world is fire and blood."
Let's take a gander at Max's gear. Some kind of tube (for water reclamation, stillsuit style?), plus a really cheap set of headphones around his nomad hood.
Now Max is being chased across the desert by bad guys, who are shooting off smoke bombs. This is an example of how beautifully color is being used in this movie — the bleak landscape looks incredible and vibrant.
Oh shit — the bad guys with their characteristic spear-topped car have got Max. That's his car flipping over.
Now it's time for the bad guys to degrade Max. They'll start with the boot to the back trick.
Meanwhile, somewhere with blue light, Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa senses danger. She's sitting on top of her giant truck, known as the War Rig.
Back in "let's degrade Max" world, the bad guys have some kind of creepy medical facility, barely glimpsed here, that seems to have at least one child in it.
In the same facility we just saw, they're tattooing Max. Let's get a closer look.Gross and creepy.
"O-Negative Universal Donor"? We can also see "good eyes," "genitals intact," "multiple scars," and "heals fast." This is what made me think it was a medical facility — it seems as if they're labeling him for organ harvesting, or maybe slavery. They also list "hi octane" and "road warrior," though, so they could be listing his criminal offenses. Or it could just be crazypants freakout stuff. Hopefully we'll find out in the movie.
Max is pretty upset about it.
See those tiny cars racing into that haboob to end all haboobs? Holy freaking crap. Seriously, that dust storm looks amazing. You go, VFX team. Seriously.
Here come the bad guys, heading into the storm.
Furiosa's artificial hand peeks out of her window. She's getting ready to kick ass.
Further Max humiliation: Tom Hardy is forced to wear his Bane mask again. That's chief evil henchman Nux behind him, driving the car.
Back in the blue light place, Furiosa is rescuing a woman from something.
Here is a little subplot that really intrigues me. The bad guys have some kind of industrial-diesel skull temple.
Back to the action. A woman is trying to escape from the bad guy caravan.
Meet Immortan Joe, leader of the bad guys, who wears a skull mask. My guess is that his choice of face gear is somehow related to the skull worshippers earlier.
In a battle between Nux's guys and a car covered in spines, guess who won? Well, given that spiney car is exploding, I'd say Nux's guys.
These are "The Wives," refugees from Immortan Joe's gang. Their names are Toast, Capable, Splendid, the Dag and Fragile. We can guess what Joe wants to do with them. Furiosa wants to rescue them and teach them to shoot motorcycles out of midair.
Let's take a closer look at Furiosa's bitchen DiY diesel arm. I love that she's got a wrench stuck in there. Why not just turn your arm into a large-scale leatherman if you can?
Another beautiful shot of Joe's cavalry, racing and looking like degenerate punks.
Whoa! Now there's a face.
Attack!
This is what happens when the cavalry drives straight into that haboob we saw earlier. Go ahead and click to enlarge. It's absolutely gorgeous (again, VFX people, good job). You can see a midair explosion trailing a bunch of bad guys into the sandy air.
This is Australian model Megan Gale. Apparently her role in the film is really small, but she's shooting things and I like that.
Now we're back to Max's humiliation time. What's happening here? Why is he in the water with the skinhead guys? Is he being baptised into skull worship?
I dunno, but now he's jamming sharp things into the skinhead's skull.
Furiosa approves.
Max gives the thumbs-up.
In blue light world, diesel machine gun messiah guy is doing this.
This is the start of a great sequence, where we see how Joe's gang fights from their cars, using those long poles to attack the War Rig.
And they manage to steal one of the Wives.
Furiosia is pissed.
Really pissed.
Another one of the Wives — lost!
Max is shooting at...
This guy. Not Joe, based on the lack of hair. Could it be bad guy Rictus Erectus?
Did I mention all the motorcycle stunts in this movie? There are a ton of them. Just don't try to jump onto the War Rig.
Really, don't try it.
Hey, guys, what happened to that creep on the motorcycle?
Those are pieces of him, ground to a pulp under the War Rig.
"Hey," Furiosa asks, "What's your name?" But before he can say "Scrunchyface Poutylip," the title MAD MAX FURY ROAD looms onscreen. My engines are revved.