It seems to me that George Miller agrees with the fan belief that the Mad Max films are a series of tales rather than a chronology or anything like that, because there are some huge discontinuities, and I am fairly sure that is intentional. You may dispute this, but you will have to come up with some convoluted explanations for at least some of these points:
Some of the big ones:
- “Shiny” and “chrome” are never said once in Furiosa.
- One of Immortan Joe’s sons is different in each film, although Rictus is in both. There is no mention of a third brother in either film.
- There is a history woman in Fury Road and not a history man
- In Fury Road, the false-nosed man is the head of Gastown and not very interested in helping Immortan Joe even though he does it out of fealty.
- In Fury Road, the titular road is implied to be the road to The Green Place. In Furiosa, it’s the road from The Citadel to Gastown.
- In Fury Road, Max had clearly never seen The Citadel before until he ran out of the cave and saw where he was. In Furiosa, he is within view of it in his Interceptor.
- There’s no suggestion that Gastown and The Bullet Farm had their own horde of drivers in Fury Road.
- Furiosa is told by her mother in Furiosa to use the stars to get back to The Green Place, but in Fury Road, she just goes east. And during the day.
- In Furiosa, the Warboys worship at the pile of steering wheels. In Fury Road, they take the wheels for their cars one by one and choosing which wheel is a ritual thing.
The biggest one, though, is that Furiosa ends where Fury Road begins, at least that’s what the film seems to show, but Gastown and The Bullet Farm are rebuilt and restaffed enough that runs are possible again, and Immortan Joe’s army is much bigger and more powerful.
I’m not complaining at all, I think it’s fascinating. The idea of a film universe as folklore rather than “fact.”
Incidentally, neither film ever explains why Furiosa has an American accent.
The end scene of Furiosa definitely has a large time jump. There was enough time for a tree to grow over Dementus. Which at a minimum is a few years. I would consider that to be enough time to rebuild gas town and bullet farm. Not to mention the implied time jump based on the her age difference. I think all the other minor discrepancies play into the idea that tales passed down by oral recollection will result in changes. The movie even implied that with the narrator talking about the different version of how people recall Furiosa killing Dementus.
I take all of it to mean that the major plot points are events that happened but the details, actions scenes, etc can be embellishments of each story teller.
She didn’t have to be there for the tree to grow. And we don’t even know if that happened because even the history man said it was just one story.
True she didn’t have to be there but we were shown her picking the first fruit from the tree and then it cuts to the escape with the wives. Regardless of the tree though, the age difference explains the necessary time jump from Furiosa killing/catching Dementus to Furiosa making the Fury Road run.
Furiosa is told by her mother in Furiosa to use the stars to get back to The Green Place, but in Fury Road, she just goes east. And during the day.
The Sun is a star. Checkmate.
I mean, going back to Beyond Thunderdome, the whole notion of storytelling and oral tradition was huge.
“CAPTAIN WALKER!!!
MRS. WALKER!!!”
It’s in the movie. At the very end:
Narrator: And so began the journey north to safety, to our place in the sun. Among us we found a new leader - the man who came from the sky… the Gyro-Captain. And just as Pappagallo had planned, we traveled far beyond the reach of men on machines. The juice, the precious juice, was hidden in the vehicles.
[camera on Feral Kid]
Narrator: As for me, I grew to manhood, and in the fullness of time, I became the leader… the Chief of the Great Northern Tribe.
[camera on Max, pulling away from him]
Narrator: And the Road Warrior? That was the last we ever saw of him. He lives now… only in my memories.
The discontinuity is good, although the major close ties between the movies mean that I hope we never see another movie where the Citadel plays a major role. For as much discontinuity as there was, there was also so much close connection that I don’t want more material to flesh it out, especially if it starts getting out of George Miller’s hands because I don’t trust other writers not to make things more literally and cinematic universe style.
For the folk tale aspect, the ending of Furisoa heavily leans into it with a sort of chose your own adventure ending, and the “true” ending being so absolutely insane that it has to be a folk tale.
I do wish the beginning of Furisoa had played up unreliability of the details regarding the green place, only because what we saw on screen was a bit preposterous if taken totally literally, and would have gone down easier with some vasoline on the storytelling lens.
"Shiny” and “chrome” are never said once in Furiosa.
I didn’t notice that - I’ll keep that in mind when I get it on disc!
There’s no suggestion that Gastown and The Bullet Farm had their own horde of drivers in Fury Road.
Isnt that half the plot of Fury Road - Immortan Joe’s warboys AND the gastown/bullet farm convoy all hunting Max and Furiosa
All in all I really did like Furiosa since it didnt detract anything that made Fury Road great
