As much as it pains me to admit this, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was one of the 2024 movies I missed on the big screen, a decision I’ve regretted the past few months. However, George Miller’s prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road recently joined the list of best movies streaming on Max, and I wasted no time getting back to the Wasteland. While I expected to fall in love with Anya Taylor-Joy’s titular heroine and Chris Hemsworth’s Dementus (both happened, by the way), I was blown away by how much the film fleshed out Gas Town and the Bullet Farm.
Those two fortresses, which were visited briefly in 2015’s Fury Road, were major factors in the latest addition to the Mad Max franchise and were at the core of some of Furiosa’s most badass moments. Come with me as I break down Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, and how they not only fit into the film’s story, but raised the stakes and made the Wasteland feel like a living, breathing world.
Gas Town And The Bullet Farm Were Two Of The Most Interesting Locations In Mad Max: Fury Road
Though we only briefly saw Gas Town in Mad Max: Fury Road, and the Bullet Farm was only mentioned and never shown, they were two of the most interesting locations in the Oscar-winning action flick. Both fortresses, which were crucial parts of the Wasteland economy and survival alongside the Citadel, had a layer of mystique that made them places I wanted to further explore. Yeah, we saw more of Gas Town in the impressive 2015 Mad Max video game, but that’s not considered part of the canon.
These heavily fortified factories that specialize in one resource– fuel at Gas Town, ammo at the Bullet Farm – helped with the world-building of the Mad Max franchise and added an odd sense of realism despite Fury Road being a violent post-apocalyptic movie that seems detached from what we consider normal life.
The Fortresses Were Presented Less As Destinations And More Like Living Places In Furiosa
When I was watching Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, I couldn’t get enough of how George Miller and company managed to turn what could have been two destinations to serve the purposes of the plot into locations that felt like living breathing characters.
Gas Town, with its moat of oil, massive towers and a refinery running day and night to turn crude resources into the fuel keeping the whole Wasteland in operation, was a sight to behold. The workers and inhabitants of this smoke-filled and caustic fortress looked and acted differently than those in the Citadel, and this decision further expanded the Wasteland.
While the Bullet Farm was already taken over by Dementus by the time we spent a lot of time there, it looked vastly different than Immortan Joe’s castle in the sky. The vast mining facility, with its smokestacks, seemingly endless supply of bullets and all kinds of destruction, felt like a manufacturing operation you’d see in the real world, just more twisted and deadly.
We Also Learned So Much About The Relationship Shared By Immortan Joe, The Bullet Farmer And The People Eater
I don’t know if we’ll ever get another Mad Max movie after Furiosa performed so poorly at the box office, but the exhilarating and intense prequel had a tremendous amount of worldbuilding throughout its two-and-a-half-hour runtime. This is especially true when it comes to the relationship shared by the terrifying Immortan Joe, the Bullet Farmer and the People Eater, the latter of whom became the new leader of Gas Town by the time everything was over and done with.
The three heads of the beast that is the Wasteland economy in Mad Max: Fury Road all had time to shine in the prequel, and through multiple conversations and actions, we were shown how the oftentimes contentious partnership worked. The scenes where the three planned their arrangements, and later war, with Dementus were especially insightful and made the whole Wasteland seem more fleshed out and realized.
Some Of Furiosa's Biggest Set Pieces Took Place In Gas Town And The Bullet Farm
Though Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the best action movies of all time, all but one or two of its most iconic sequences take place on the Wasteland highway. Furiosa, on the other hand, had incredible and massive action scenes in a variety of locations, including Gas Town and the Bullet Farm. I remember watching the Furiosa trailer months before the film’s release and getting excited about a shot of Dementus desperately hanging onto a platform while tons of unused bullets poured over him like a black powder waterfall.
The invasion of Gas Town early on in the movie is a top-notch action sequence with George Miller’s signature shots and taste for intensity, and one that sets up a lot of the rest of the movie. The site of Dementus’ biker horde speeding through the inhospitable landscape to take control of the walled-off factory is absolutely wild. The ambush of the Bullet Farm is honestly one of the best sequences I’ve seen all year and perhaps this decade.
Adding Importance To Gas Town And The Bullet Farm Made Some Of Fury Road's Iconic Scenes Even Better
Not only did George Miller’s choice to better flesh out Gas Town and the Bullet Farm help make Furiosa a fun and exciting action spectacle, but it also made several sequences from Mad Max: Fury Road even better since we had a greater context for their operations and power-players, like the Bullet Farmer. Speaking of which…
I have always been obsessed with the Bullet Farmer’s “I am the scales of justice, conductor of the choir of death” scene in Fury Road, but now I have an even greater appreciation for it after learning more about the character and everything he has lost. He’s still a madman, but I can now see how years of trying to build something up, losing it, building it back again and then losing it once more can really mess with someone’s head.
I Would Honestly Watch A Mad Max TV Show Just About The Wasteland Economy
If Warner Bros. and George Miller were ever to get together and make a Mad Max TV show, I would honestly be okay if it dealt with nothing more than the economy of the Wasteland. Seriously, I’m like a week out from watching Furiosa, and all I can think about is the trade structure put in place between the Citadel, Gas Town and the Bullet Farm. Hell, you could give me a fake historical documentary about it and I’d be fine. I’m that invested in this element of the story.
If we could spend even more time in Gas Town and the Bullet Farm between the events of Furiosa and Fury Road, Miller and company could show how the fortresses were rebuilt and brought back to their former glory, and it would be awesome.
All in all, Furiosa is one of those prequels that comes through with just the right amount of fan service and a tremendous amount of world-building. If you want to check it out (or the rest of the Mad Max franchise), you can do so with a Max subscription.
