It’s safe to say that with each new piece of footage we see, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road seems more and more exciting. All of the trailers and previews we’ve seen so far suggest that the movie will be an insane action epic of massive proportions, and many of the set pieces look literally jaw-dropping. It’s got to the point where every piece of the film we see makes us more excited than the last – and that’s most definitely true for the footage that just played during the special Warner Bros. presentation at this year’s WonderCon.
Described as beginning at the tail-end of a 20-minute chase sequence that opens the movie, the sequence shown kicked off with Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) suddenly waking up in the middle of a desert and rising out of windblown sand that has covered him. As he stands, we see not only that he has a cage-like mask around his face, but that he is also connected to a very long, strong chain. Lifting the links out of the sand, he traces it back to the wreckage of a car, and we see that he is linked to the wrist of Nux (Nicholas Hoult), a bald, scarred freaky-looking dude who is completely knocked out after what appears to be a rather devastating crash.
Trying to find a way to free himself, at first Max fumbles with the locks around Nux’s wrist, but gets extremely frustrated as he can’t get loose. He notices a sawed-off shotgun resting on the ground, and lines it up so that he can shoot off the wrist of his unconscious mate – but when Max pulls the trigger, it merely fizzles and fails. In a last desperate attempt, our hero actually starts to try and chew his way free, but this doesn’t last long as he then notices that there are cars driving his way in the distance.
The scene then cuts to a giant tanker, where we see Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) using her one hand to knock tons and tons of sand out of vents in the vehicle. It is at this time that Max arrives on the scene, carrying the unconscious Nux, a car door, and the malfunctioning shotgun. As Max comes around from behind the back of the tanker, he finds that Furiosa isn’t alone, and is instead joined by a group of beautiful blonde women – who are using a hose connected to the truck to both drink and bathe. Max makes his presence known by throwing Nux off of his back, and the women all look startled to see that our hero is pointing a gun at him (well, except for Furiosa, who stares coldly at Max and holds a knife in her hand). One of the women, Splendid (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) declares that they are "not going back." The water from the hose continues to splatter on the ground, and it is at this time that Max utters his first line of the movie: "Water."
Splendid begins to approach him with the hose, and as she walks towards him we see that she is pregnant. While still holding the gun on her, Max grabs the hose violently and blasts it directly into his face, trying to suck up every last drop. After finishing, he then nods to another girl who is carrying a huge pair of bolt cutters, silently suggesting that she come help him detatch remove the chain connecting him to the still knocked out Nux. As she approaches, she begins to whisper what almost sounds like a poem, seeing a cadre of vehicles out in the distance (the same seen earlier). Max ignores her and, while keeping his gun on Splendid, has her try to cut through his chain. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work – but Furiosa sees this moment as an opportunity, and leaps at our hero, tackling him to the ground.
With her opponent temporarily fazed, Furiosa grabs Max’s shotgun and aims it at his face, but it once again fizzles as she pulls the trigger. Max uses this moment to once again get the upper hand, but from behind him the other girls begin to pull on his chain – pulling him backwards. Furiosa takes this moment to grab a wrench and begins to swing wildly at the outsider, but he is able to grab the car door and defend himself before she is able to make contact. Nux, naturally, is being dragged around through all of this, and in all of the commotion wakes up. He pulls the chain tight, and winds up tripping Furiosa as she is just about to attack Max. She stumbles, but makes her way over to the tanker, where she busts open some kind of clay thing on the side and reveals a hidden pistol. Nux tackles her before she can get the gun, allowing Max the time to grab it. She then attacks Max against the side of the truck, and, before he can shoot, she ejects the loaded clip and it hits the sand below. She is then able to get control of the weapon in Max’s hand, and while she’s able to fire the round that is still in the gun, it misses her target’s head by mere inches.
Seeing the clip on the ground, Nux leaps and grabs it, and in the meantime Max gets slammed with the water hose, but almost instantaneously after is able to pin Furiosa to the ground. Still holding the pistol, he motions towards Nux, who sticks the clip in the gun. Max then fires off four shots in the sand next to the woman’s head, and just at that tense moment the screen cuts to black.
As a fan of the franchise, I’ve been anticipating the release of Mad Max: Fury Road for years now, but this footage made me feel as though I need to see the full thing tomorrow. The energy, tension and edge to the material was so amazing that it practically made me shake with excitement while watching it, and what’s even more impressive is that this scene was described as a moment where everything in the movie takes a minute to slow down. If that’s the case, then the movie could easily wind up becoming one of the most action-packed and brilliant spectacles that we see on the big screen in 2015.
Fortunately, our wait for this epic film is almost over, as Mad Max: Fury Road will be arriving in theaters on May 15th.
