Before talk of apocalyptic disasters and the downfall of civilization was a common talking point we heard on the news every other day, Mad Max: Fury Road released in 2015 to critical acclaim. The film, directed by George Miller, is a continuation of Miller’s Mad Max trilogy of films released in the 1970s and ‘80s after decades of development hell. The final product reflects this, as it is indicative of a filmmaker who took his time to master his craft and perfect his masterpiece. It has been referred to by many critics as “one of the greatest action movies of all-time”. But does it live up to the hype 9 years later? Let’s fasten our seatbelts and find out.

The film stars Tom Hardy as the titular Max Rockatansky, as he helps Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa transport a group of oppressed women who are escaping the grasp of the warlord Immortan Joe, played by Hugh Keays-Byrne. Hardy does an effective job at playing Max, serving as an audience surrogate character who we are supposed to see the world through the eyes of. However, the true star of the film is Charlize Theron, who serves as the emotional core of the story. The way that Theron is able to portray the strength of a character who has gone through hell and back, while also knowing when to express vulnerability makes her performance engaging, interesting, and impossible to not root for. The supporting cast is also strong, with Hugh Keays-Byrne effectively playing a truly menacing villain in Immortan Joe and Nicholas Hoult succeeding at finding a balance between comic relief and tragic redemption with his character, Nux. Everyone is giving the performance of their life here, which is in no small part a result of being directed by someone like George Miller, who knows exactly how to get great performances out of his actors.

From beginning to end, Fury Road takes its audience on a rollercoaster of emotion and spectacle. Only slowing down occasionally for character development scenes when absolutely necessary, the film is perfectly paced and doesn’t waste a single second of its 2-hour runtime. The cinematography is stunning, with every shot being shown purposefully, displaying images that are framed beautifully with colors that truly pop. These shots are edited together masterfully in such a way that they are always keeping the story moving ahead and make sense chronologically. This leaves no room for confusion like many modern action movies do when they get too messy to follow with too many things happening on screen. This leads to action sequences that are not only engaging, but quite easy to follow and feel 100% real. This is in no small part to Miller’s commitment to filling the frame with as many practical effects as possible, and not relying heavily on CGI like so many action franchises do now. The action is tied together perfectly with an immersive score composed by Junkie XL, knowing exactly when to emphasize the emotional peaks and valleys that occur throughout the story. From a filmmaking standpoint, the movie is a technical achievement and lacks any glaring flaws that are common to the typical action blockbuster, with the most-likely complaint for viewers just being that it is a film that might not be their cup of tea.

Despite the film’s success and Miller’s interest in creating a follow-up, it wouldn’t be a Mad Max film if development hell didn’t rear its ugly head. After 9 long years, we can rejoice that the next film in the franchise has been announced. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is slated to release in May 2024, and is likely to be the most-anticipated film of the year for many. It is a prequel to Fury Road set several years earlier, depicting Furiosa’s backstory, recasting her as Anya Taylor-Joy and co-starring Chris Hemsworth as a character named Warlord Dementus. It appears to be the first Mad Max film that does not feature the titular Max, and is the first attempt to take the franchise in a brand new direction in its 45-year timespan. This is a welcome change, as the last film served as a nice conclusion to Max’s character and opened up Furiosa to being a fascinating character worth further exploration.

While it is hard to say if the new film will be a big enough hit to keep the franchise going even further beyond it (as George Miller himself is almost 80 years old), it is likely to still do quite well. This is because Fury Road reinvigorated a lot of the enthusiasm for the property that had died off in previous decades. The best we can hope for is a film that continues the legacy of the previous films and showcases Miller’s mastery of his craft. This is still likely, as the long wait time between films shows that he took his time making something he is proud of, and there’s no reason to think an 80-year-old man can’t deliver on such a feat if he knocked it out of the park less than a decade prior. In the meantime, all we can do is wait for the day that we get to see Furiosa once again on screen in all her glory, and what a lovely day that will be.