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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

  • ️Fri Dec 01 2023

All spoilers for Mad Max: Fury Road will be unmarked. You Have Been Warned.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Film)

"Whatever you have to do, however long it takes, promise me you'll find your way home. Furiosa. Give me this promise."

— Mary Jabassa

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a 2024 Australian-American post-apocalyptic Science Fiction film, the fifth installment in the Mad Max film series and a prequel to 2015's Mad Max: Fury Road. Series creator George Miller returns as director and writer once more (the script actually predated Fury Road by 14 years), with Nico Lathouris as co-writer. Tom Holkenborg returns for the soundtrack.

In the Wasteland of post-apocalyptic Australia, young Furiosa (Alyla Browne then Anya Taylor-Joy) is snatched from the Green Place of Many Mothers and into the hands of a biker horde led by the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Sweeping through the Wasteland, they come across the Citadel presided over by Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme). While the two tyrants, Dementus and Immortan Joe, war for dominance over the Wasteland's three resource-producing sites (the Citadel, Gas Town and the Bullet Farm), Furiosa faces many trials as she plots a way back home through the Wasteland.

The film was released May 23, 2024 in Australia and May 24, 2024 in North America and much of the world. Similarly to Fury Road, a Black & Chrome version was released, on August 13, 2024.

Previews: Trailer 1, Trailer 2

This is her odyssey…

  • Actionized Sequel: Inverted, as Furiosa is something you could call a "De-Actionized Prequel". While the film is certainly not action-free it's a much slower, more contemplative, character-focused film than the relentless vehicular chase of Fury Road.
  • Actor IS the Title Character: This TV promotional spot states that Chris Hemsworth is Dementus and Anya Taylor-Joy is Furiosa.
  • Affectionate Nickname: Dementus affectionately calls young Furiosa "Little D".
  • After-Action Patch-Up: After the tumultuous events at Gastown, where Furiosa is stabbed in the shoulder, we witness a calm and intimate scene as Praetorian Jack stitches her wound.
  • After the End: A given for the franchise, but the trailer gives an explicit mention that the collapse of society occurred 45 years previously.
  • The Alleged Car: Chumbucket offers Furiosa a broken-down husk of a vehicle which only has three of its wheels. It still works well enough to get her out to Joe's front line and find an upgrade, though.
  • All for Nothing: In a whole-plot sense, all of Mary and Furiosa's efforts to allow Furiosa to return to the Green Place are for nothing, as the Green Place will no longer exist when Furiosa reaches it in Fury Road.
  • Almost Kiss: Furiosa and Jack lean in for a Last Kiss when they're captured by Dementus after destroying the Bullet Farm but are yanked apart from one another by Dementus's gang, so the best they can do is a final Headbutt of Love and whispering "my Jack" and "my Fury" to each other.
  • Altar Diplomacy: Invoked; Dementus's group suggests giving Furiosa (whom they are pretending is his daughter) to Immortan Joe as a future Wife as a way to tie the two groups together. To his limited credit, Dementus shoots it down instantly.
  • Ambiguous Situation: Dementus' supposed incompetence has hints of being part of a larger strategy. The unrest at Gastown suggests poor management, but could also be either planned, or the result of purposeful disruption; either way, it (initially) worked very well in his favor, allowing him to filch extra supplies at no cost, conserving a supply of gas to fake burning Gastown and water to mask his approach to the Citadel, and drawing the Bullet Farmer from his Farm for an easier takeover. If Praetorian Jack and (especially) Furiosa weren't so absurdly badass it's very likely Dementus would have crippled and taken the whole triage.
  • And the Adventure Continues: The film ends with Furiosa sneaking the Wives aboard the War Rig, and the credits play in between footage from Fury Road.
  • Apocalypse How: Class 4. The beginning of the movie gives a better look at how much the nuclear apocalypse has ravaged the Earth with a global view of the planet, showing that not only is the entirety of Australia a desert wasteland, but so is every other continent, albeit to lesser degrees.
  • Arc Symbol: A lot of emphasis is given to hands and arms, given the Foregone Conclusion that Furiosa would lose her left arm. When cutting gas lines on the raiders who later kidnap her, some of the gasoline spills onto her arm. When assessed by the Dementus' doctor "Organic Mechanist" he pays extra attention to her hands. When working as a mute mechanic in the Citadel they would pay homage to Immortan Joe through raising their hands into the "sign of the V8" above their heads. When on the War Rig as an onboard mechanic, she gets into a number of positions that could have been dangerous to her arm. Lastly, she progressively tattooed on her left arm an approximation of star constellations that would direct her back to the Green Place. After her arm is crushed in a chase scene trying to escape Dementus he restrains her by that arm and forces her to watch as they drag Jack around in circles behind their cars. She manages to cut off that arm and escape, but resigns herself to service of the Citadel as she was in no shape to further search for the Green Place. That would come later.
  • Arc Welding: This film includes elements from both Fury Road and the 2015 Mad Max video game, bridging them both together.
  • Artificial Limbs: Furiosa tears off her own battered arm to escape Dementus following Jack's execution, and later adapts an artificial arm taken from one of the Citadel's machines to her stump.
  • Astronomic Zoom: The movie begins showing Australia from the Earth's orbit before we zoom in until we reach the Green Place where the opening scene unfolds.
  • Bad Boss: By the time Furiosa is old enough to participate in runs with the War Rig, Dementus has run Gas Town into disrepair. He comments to the Citadel convoy that their supplies are running low, the workers are getting unruly (with several of them being shown executed in public as they try to talk back to their guards), and Dementus ultimately steals the shipment of food before sending Jack, Furiosa and the convoy back with their tails between their legs to tell Joe that Dementus wants a new deal.
  • Bait-and-Switch: Chumbucket's boast of "I have a car" seems to be setting up a badass reveal of an Improbably Cool Car (just like he created in the video game), but it is in fact an Alleged Car, which is even missing a wheel.
  • Bait the Dog: In Dementus's very first scene, he's gentle with the captive Furiosa, telling her that she doesn't have to tell them anything at all (in contrast to his men, who've been trying to threaten her to tell them where she came from), has her taken to another tent to be cleaned up, and orders a couple of his men to make sure no one else in the horde tries to harm her. Then soon after, he captures her mother and literally forces the poor girl to watch them torture Mary to death by not allowing Furiosa to turn her head to look away, and just casually tastes her tears and has the History Man comment on their nutritional value while showing no compassion for her pain.
  • Bald Head of Toughness: Before the climactic battle, Furiosa shaves her head for a second time, bringing her closer to her appearance in Fury Road.
  • Big Badass Rig: A "shiny & chrome" prototype of the War Rig seen in Fury Road is built and used by the War Boys once the more classic kinds of rigs they previously used prove too vulnerable to ambushes such as those of Dementus's army, and Furiosa truly starts to rise in rank and notoriety in Immortan Joe's army when she successfully defends it along with Pratorian Jack. One of its most notable features is a wheel-shaped Epic Flail called "Bommy Knocker" on its rear.
  • Bittersweet Ending: Furiosa survives and eventually sets out to embark on her epic quest in Fury Road, but Praetorian Jack is dead, Furiosa doesn't get much satisfaction from whatever she inflicted upon Dementus, and in the interim she still has to serve Immortan Joe.
  • Black-and-Grey Morality: The movie is essentially a big conflict between a bunch of violent and amoral gangs and warlords. Furiosa and Jack aren't horrible people and are just trying to survive, but they do so by running shipments for warlords in order to get by. Meanwhile, we see that the peasants suffer at all three major strongholds. Furiosa makes a choice to be better at the end of the movie by helping Immortan Joe's wives escape, leading to the events of Fury Road.
  • Bloodier and Gorier: Much more violent than previous entries in the franchise (including Fury Road), with far more brutal kills and visible gore.
  • Body Horror: One of Immortan Joe's wives is seen giving birth to a mutated baby that has two torsos, each with their own set of legs.
  • Bookends:
    • The film begins and ends with Furiosa plucking fruit from a tree: first as a child in the Green Place, and then taking one from the tree that she grew out of Dementus' belly.
    • The first and last act begin with a lone woman pursuing a group of Dementus's men across the Wastelands, picking them off one at a time. In the first act this was Mary Jabassa trying to rescue Furiosa, in the last act it was Furiosa hunting down Dementus. Both of them also begin with the pursuer landing a shot on one of their targets, followed by another member of the group grabbing some binoculars and diving into the dunes.
  • Buffy Speak: Hard to tell with all the Future Slang, but when a member of Octoboss' gang refuses to accept an order from Dementus, the latter grumbles about him "questioning my bossority."
  • Building Is Welding: Lots of sparky welding is going on in the montage showing the staff preparing the truck
  • Bunny Ears Picture Prank: A promotional image◊ released for the film has George Miller doing this to Alyla Browne, who plays Furiosa as a child.
  • But for Me, It Was Tuesday: In the climax, when Furiosa confronts him about killing her mother and stealing her childhood 15 years before, Dementus's response basically says that really doesn't narrow it down. He only realizes who she is after she grabs his stuffed bear.
  • The Caligula: Dementus has no problem killing his men or treating using one as a Bulletproof Human Shield. He also tends to swing between Faux Affably Evil and murderously angry. He is a brilliant strategist and has grand visions of ruling the entire wasteland, but has no idea how to rule after ending his nomadic lifestyle. After taking over Gas Town, he runs it into the ground, with many noting he's completely out of control and isn't nearly as competent as its former ruler (ironically and by comparison, the War Rig's visit to the Bullet Farm in the previous scene goes swimmingly, with all the trades accounted for and the workers at least seemingly happy). The Bullet Farm is destroyed by Furiosa and Praetorian Jack the same day Dementus conquers it.
  • Call-Back: When Dementus and his horde rock up to the Citadel, they rev their engines continously like an orchestra, a herald announces Dementus, then the warlord himself addresses the inhabitants via loudspeaker offering 'reasonable' terms in exchange for what he wants. A similar situation played out with Lord Humungous and his vermin in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior when Humungous tried to 'negotiate' with Pappagallo and the Refinery settlers.
  • Call-Forward:
    • The tagline "Remember her" alludes to Furiosa's Pre-Mortem One-Liner ("Remember me?!") before she killed Immortan Joe in Fury Road and she repeats the line to a defeated Dementus in the last act of this film.
    • In the first act, Furiosa's mother posts up at a narrow gap so she can slow down Dementus' forces. Team Furiosa uses a similar tactic, with more effectiveness, in the climax of Fury Road.
    • When first brought to Dementus's camp, Furiosa jams an arrow tied to a wire into her biker captor's tires while the wire wraps around his neck and slices it open. She will later use a similar tactic in Fury Road to rip Immortan Joe's face off.
    • Furiosa and Praetorian Jack plot to steal the War Rig and escape to find the Green Place; years later, Furiosa puts this plan into motion when she defects from the Citadel and brings the Five Wives with her.
    • A souped-up hot rod 1934 Chevrolet Master Coupe 5 similar to the one driven by Nux in Fury Road is driven by Furiosa until it's destroyed as she and Praetorian Jack try to escape Dementus, only to be captured. Years later, Nux will use his to try to catch Furiosa, only for it to be destroyed and him captured by Furiosa and Max.
    • Dementus pretends to set Gas Town on fire in order to draw out Immortan Joe's forces, so he can capture the Citadel while Joe's war boys are outside. Joe sees through the latter, ambushes Dementus and destroys his army. In Fury Road, Max uses the same trick — realizing Joe has emptied out the Citadel in order to pursue the missing Wives, they charge back through their lines in order to seize the Citadel while it is exposed.
  • The Cameo:
    • In the prologue at the Green Place, we see a young Valkyrie appearing alongside the young Furiosa.
    • Chumbucket from Mad Max appears briefly to help Furiosa.
    • We also get a silent cameo of Mad Max Rockatansky himself next to his V8, watching Furiosa walk through the desert. It's also a Small Role, Big Impact appearance, as he implicitly saves Furiosa and returns her to the Citadel while she's unconscious.
    • During the montage of the 40-Day War between Immortan Joe's and Dementus's forces, the flamethrower guitar-wielding Doof Warrior briefly returns in all his insanely awesome glory.
  • Cannibal Larder: A variant is kept by the Wretched of the Citadel: an underground den of corpses and wounded used to nourish maggots, which are scraped off to be used as food.
  • Canon Immigrant: Scabrous Scrotus from the Mad Max video game and Fury Road prequel comics appears as a prominent character in this movie. Chumbucket from the same game also makes a brief appearance, but is only identified by name in the credits. Gas Town is also modeled after its appearance in that game.
  • The Centerpiece Spectacular: All of the major action sequences happen during the second, third, and fourth acts. The final act is entirely about Furiosa's personal quest for vengeance, with the epic war between Immortan Joe and Dementus happening almost entirely offscreen. The real climax is a completely one-sided "fight" between Furiosa and Dementus where she realizes that beating him is a hollow victory.
  • Central Theme: Growth.
    • Immortan Joe has created a stable society in the wasteland, but it's extremely rigid and near-literally stratified. He's obsessed with creating healthy progeny to carry on his legacy, instead of doing something like becoming a renowned and generous king, or simply working with his kids' flaws.
    • By contrast, Dementus is extremely image-obsessed, and good at stealing other people's things (including ideas) and destroying things. But for all his pretensions, he's very, very bad at actually maintaining anything. And he certainly can't grow past the loss of his family. Heck, even joining his tribe is done via a small-scale There Can Only Be One.
    • Furiosa's first scene in the film is literally her picking a fruit off a tree in a "land of abundance". She holds onto the peach seed as a symbol of her homeland and her desire to return, but changes and adapts to survive in various environments. One time-skip is signified by a random branch growing. And at the end of the film, she realizes she needs to grow past pain, or become like Dementus, and plants a tree in his still-living body to symbolize it.
    • Praetorian Jack started as someone just doing his job, but decided to give Furiosa a chance, and grew to care for her, just as she grew to care for him. She also made him hope for something more than survival.
  • Character Aged with the Actor: Weirdly inverted. The film came out nine years after Fury Road and takes place twenty years prior but recurring characters are played by the same actors (not de-aged in any way), making it feel like they are older in the prequel. While with characters like Immortan Joe and the People Eater you could argue that harsh life has already aged them, it's especially noticeable with characters like Rictus or Organic Mechanic who were around their late 30s in Fury Road and should be in their teens or early twenties here... but look exactly the same, as if they were in some kind of stasis between this movie and Fury Road.
  • Character Shilling: When Praetorian Jack gets introduced, a bystander remarks that he has the most successful runs on the Fury Road.
  • Chariot Pulled by Cats: One of Dementus's preferred vehicles is a chariot pulled by motorcycles, looking like a Roman emperor. It's a flashy vehicle that simultaneously demonstrates his power (the same way Immortan Joe's Gigahorse conveys he has two of everything in a world where most people don't even have one, Dementus has three motorcycles all to himself), serves as a visual shorthand for how society has regressed After the End, and it looks cool as hell.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • Subverted; early on in the film, Furiosa uses The History Man's lesson on tattooing and her own knowledge of the Green Place to tattoo a map on her arm, which she subsequently hides from Dementus, Joe and his forces for years. She makes plans with Praetorian Jack to escape the Citadel and travel to the Green Place, but ultimately has her arm mangled, is forced to amputate it to escape from Dementus, and loses the exact knowledge of where she came from, fueling part of the plot of Fury Road (traveling through the Green Place without realizing it has become a swamp).
    • The seed which Mary Jabassa gives to Furiosa is (seemingly) hidden until the very end of the film, where presuming Dementus' final fate is true, she forced Dementus to become a "living tree", with the seed growing out of his abdomen in a secluded part of the Citadel.
    • In the background of Dementus' temporary camp in the beginning of the film, there's a giant octopus kite billowing in wind. It isn't until much later that we find out its purpose; the Octoboss uses it as an intimidating parachute for leading his brigade of flying biker pirates.
  • Citadel City:
    • The Citadel, naturally. Dementus finds out it's not as easy as he thought it would be to conquer, given how even if his horde could scale the walls, they'd be facing hundreds of War Boys fanatically devoted to Immortan Joe, plus they'd have no water.
    • The Bullet Farm has some walls and fortifications, but seems to rely mainly on its main export being, well, bullets to deter attackers. Gas Town is also heavily fortified, being surrounded by a moat with one bridge and a heavy gate.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture:
    • Furiosa's mother, Mary, is slowly tortured to death by crucifixion over a fire in order to learn where she came from. She never breaks.
    • Furiosa's close friend/possible love Jack is also tortured to death by being dragged behind a motorcycle for hours while also being eaten alive by Dementus's dogs. In his case, it's just for the sake of forcing Furiosa to watch his Cruel and Unusual Death. And Furiosa is hanged by her broken arm to a crane throughout all of this, which is certainly painful.
  • Conscience Makes You Go Back: As the situation in Gastown becomes increasingly dire, Jack insists that Furiosa escape to safety, sending her on her way. However, driven by a strong sense of loyalty and concern, Furiosa pauses after a short distance, her conscience compelling her to turn back. She returns to Gastown, determined to stand by Jack's side and assist him in the fight.
  • Continuity Nod:
    • Many scenes and shots are visual call-forwards to similar scenes in Fury Road, particularly Furiosa's Bash Brothers interactions with Jack on the War Rig. Things like Jack shooting pursuers out the window with a pistol while Furiosa drives or handing her the sniper rifle feel like they are meant as something Max will come to remind her of when he does things the exact same way. The opening narration / exposition also uses voice clips and footage directly from Fury Road's opening minutes.
    • One shot shows an enemy with a sawn-off shotgun approaching the camera, similar to a shot in Mad Max.
    • It's heavily implied Praetorian Jack's parents were alive at the time of Mad Max, when the world was just beginning to fall apart — they remember society back then and wanted to make a difference, just like Max at the time. Max also had a family then, and Praetorian Jack's old enough to be the same age as Max's kid, had they survived being run over by Toecutter. Similarly, Jack is dressed like a MFP cop, with the implication his parents being part of the government handed him the uniform.
    • "Road war" is what Jack (and then Furiosa) specializes in, and the concept is introduced after an assault on a tanker similar to the climax of the second film.
    • Just like the Lord Humungous, Dementus has an insane hypeman referred to as a "Smeg", which also references one of Humungous's gangs being the "Smegma Crazies".
    • During Max's brief cameo, he's shown eating messily from a can of food he has next to his Pursuit Special, just like he did in the beginning of Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior.
  • Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Dementus is initially presented as a rising Immortan Joe-like figure, gathering multiple gangs together under one group. After meeting with Joe, it becomes evident Dementus lacks a true leadership quality and all his efforts to consolidate teams and resources is stalling his inevitable collapse. As much a horrible despot as Joe was, he was able to maintain an oasis and somewhat functional society in the wasteland through developing a cult of personality, whereas most of the gangs Dementus recruits eventually leave him due to poor leadership. He starts the film with a couple dozen in his crew, grows to several hundred before being able to forcibly take Gas Town and hold it for a decade, but the 40 Day Wasteland Battle reduces him to only his most recognizable cohorts as Furiosa chases him down.
  • Cosy Catastrophe: The Green Place of Many Mothers looks more like a paradise than the post-apocalyptic hellscape of the outer wasteland. Its citizens include healthy children, old men, and obese women, showing that life is at least relatively safe and plentiful...for now at least.
  • Crossing the Desert: Dementus's scouts crossed a roadless desert on bikes to reach the Green Place, and Furiosa's mother Mary does the same the other way to reach Dementus' camp and get her back.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: Several of note:
    • Furiosa's mother is crucified by Dementus's lackeys and tortured to death by repeated stabs to the groin and abdomen while being burned near an open fire.
    • Praetorian Jack is chained up and dragged in circles until sundown while Dementus' dogs attempt to eat him.
    • Dementus himself is made to be the living soil for a peach tree growing out of his crotch, planted by Furiosa.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Dementus attempts to take the Citadel by trying to convince the War Boys to throw their leaders off the balcony as he would be the better option. Joe and the People Eater don't even bother watching the battle as the high position, crane system and indoctrinated War Boys send Dementus running for his life.
    • The Great Offscreen War between the forces of Immortan and Dementus in the climax seem to be this in Immortan's favor. While it seems to set him up to lose quite a lot of his War Boys between this film and Fury Road (where he has nowhere near 1,000 on hand), the aftermath of the battle shows piles of Dementus's followers, with the man himself having only a small band of five left to follow him as he flees.
    • Furiosa's final confrontation with Dementus isn't exactly a fight, but she's in complete control of it from start to finish. While he's unconscious from flipping over in the sandstorm, she stabs his canteen to empty it so he has no water to survive with, removes the front wheel of his bike so he can't escape, and empties his gun so he can't shoot her. Then, when he tries running away from her, she pursues him in her car... and stays an exact distance away from him, even reversing when he switches to running after her, to keep him from getting any engagement with her whatsoever until he throws away his gun and surrenders. Finally, when Dementus tries a last-ditch lunge for the knife in her boot... she's already removed the blade, leaving him holding only a hilt, and he's entirely at her mercy afterward.
  • Darkest Hour: The heroes' worst fears materialize as Dementus finally catches up to them in the wastelands. The situation quickly spirals out of control: Jack is shot in the shoulder, leaving him incapacitated and in agony. Simultaneously, Furiosa's left arm is brutally crushed, and their vehicle is sent careening, ultimately overturning in a cloud of dust and debris.
  • Dead Guy on Display: After Dementus gains control of Gas Town, he has no clue on how to run it well and this causes unrest among its workers/inhabitants. He has some executed and their bodies hanged outside the town.
  • Dead Man's Switch: After taking over Gas Town, Dementus sets up explosives all over the town that only he knows how to disarm, in order to force Immortan Joe to negotiate with him.
  • Death by Irony:
    • This movie reveals how Joe took in Furiosa in the hopes that she'd bear his children and bring life. She — with help — kills him, destroys his legacy, and brings new life to his oppressed people.
    • All of Furiosa's possible fates for Dementus have this.
      • Coldly executing him while they were alone in the desert, with none of the attention or bombast he loved so much. And with his own gun.
      • She could drag him to death behind her car, like he did to Jack, or crucify him over a fire, like he did to Mary.
      • Or she could take the destructive, narcissistic warlord, use his body to create life and a symbol of hope, and give it to Joe's Wives just before they escape. Which would leave Dementus to die alone in a remote and unobserved corner of the Citadel, with the muscled body he was so proud of reduced to a withered husk, chained down by his arms and legs. Just as he liked to do to others - although giving him the exact symbolic, meaningful and "epic" death he spent his life hoping for does take the edge off the irony more than a little bit. For bonus points, she seems to have planted the seed in his groin, while her mother was heavily implied to be tortured to death via Groin Attack.
  • Defector from Decadence: In the aftermath of the Forty-Day Wasteland War, the History Man and Mr. Harley are seen apparently free in the company of Joe's commanders, having evidently gone over willingly (the latter likely due to Mr. Davidson's death).
  • Deliberate Injury Gambit: Furiosa's arm is mangled in a collision with Dementus' dune racer truck, and after being captured Dementus has her restrained by the same arm and raised above her head while they drag Jack's body in circles. All the dust in the air blocks her from view so when they are done, Furiosa's arm is all that's left attached to the chain; she had finished the job and stolen a motorcycle to escape in the chaos.
  • Didn't Think This Through: Dementus doesn't make for a good Wasteland Warlord with his piss-poor grasp of Apocalyptic Logistics, even with a History-Man by his side.
    • Upon learning of the existence of the Citadel, he immediately leads his entire horde to lay siege to it, without stopping for a second to gather any intelligence on the place's layout, defenses, manpower or fortifications. It goes as well as can be expected for him.
    • Moreover, he's a Myopic Conqueror who's totally clueless on how to run oil production once he gains control of Gas Town.
    • Then he has the "brilliant" idea of turning the Bullet Farm into a trap/battlefield, which wrecks the place.
  • Doomed by Canon:
    • Mary Jabassa, the mother of Furiosa, is mentioned to have died three days after she was kidnapped in Fury Road, so her days are numbered from the moment she appeared on screen.
    • The Green Place and its colony will be reduced to a toxic swamp and a handful of survivors who had to resort to banditry to survive.
    • Praetorian Jack, the driver of the War Rig before Furiosa. Sure enough, he's executed by Dementus for his part in devastating the Bullet Farm.
    • The current Mayor of Gas Town isn't the People Eater (who's part of Joe's court at the Citadel at the time). He's killed by Dementus after he takes over Gas Town.
    • Dementus himself has to be taken out of the picture since he's nowhere to be seen in Fury Road. He is, at the end, with four possibilities for his fate.
  • Downer Beginning: Furiosa is abducted by Dementus' horde, and her mother is tortured and killed by them after trying to get her back.
  • Dramatic Irony: Those who've seen Fury Road will realise that the Green Place has likely already been reduced to a polluted swamp by the time Furiosa and Praetorian Jack are able to realistically consider escaping from the Citadel.
  • Dressing as the Enemy:
    • Mary Jabassa steals the clothes from a mook she killed to sneak into Dementus' camp and rescue Furiosa.
    • In order to gain access to Gas Town, Dementus attacks a Citadel convoy, then has some of his men disguise themselves as War Boys to have them pretend they're under attack from his gang. It doesn't work until Dementus decides to legitimately kill his disguised men.
  • Elective Mute: When Furiosa passes as a boy mechanic at the Citadel to avoid becoming a Breeding Slave for Immortan Joe (and to avoid being raped by Rictus Erectus), she pretends to be mute instead of trying to have a boyish voice, until Praetorian Jack takes her under his wing. After that, she feels confident enough to speak, and rises in rank without Immortan Joe or anyone else seemingly having an issue with it.
  • Emergency Food Supply Animal: "Roach grub" and "maggot mash" are mentioned as valued exports of the Citadel (the latter seemingly harvested primarily from humans dead and alive). The Organic Mechanic also offers Scrotus "dog kebab", implied to be one of Dementus' hounds, in the immediate aftermath of the 40-Day Wasteland War.
  • Epic Flail: The "Bommy Knocker", the tail weapon of the War Rig prototype. It's essentially a giant wheel with flails attached on each one of the wheel's dent to knock pursuers aside. It's also devastating when ensnaring flying machines, as Octoboss finds out.
  • Even Evil Has Standards:
    • The Octoboss is outraged at Dementus's habit of offing his own men. In fact, by the time Furiosa has grown up enough to participate in runs with the War Rig years later, the Octoboss and some of his followers have gone rogue from Dementus and formed their own gang because of it.
    • As bad as Dementus is, he never once sexually abuses the child Furiosa and even orders two of his soldiers to make sure no other men in his ranks try to do so. He clearly sees her instead as a Replacement Goldfish daughter figure and is initially reluctant to hand her over to Immortan Joe, especially after the latter directly offers to make her one of his Wives when she's older, before Furiosa herself volunteers. Knowing the fate of the Wives (a fate Furiosa narrowly escapes herself), he was justified to be resistant on that account.
    • Immortan Joe himself doesn't give any indication that he intends to have sex with Furiosa as a child when he takes her in, as his words show he plans to wait until she's of childbearing age. Though this is largely Pragmatic Villainy since his Wives mainly exist as breeders (and he's shown to have many more of them at the start than the five from Fury Road), it also contrasts him with his son Rictus, who apparently is a pedophile and takes Furiosa from the Vault one night with the heavy implication that he's going to molest her (which she takes advantage of to escape).
    • Misters Harley and Davidson allow Furiosa and Praetorian Jack, whom they'd subdued, to embrace, and even subtly bring them together again when Dementus parts them. Harley also attempts to restrain Furiosa by her good arm rather than her newly-mangled one, leading Dementus to reprimand him for "going soft".
  • Evil Counterpart:
    • Though they never meet, Dementus is this for Max. They're both extremely deadly and macho drifters who have lost their children to the Crapsack World they live in, causing them both to go insane. However while Max still has a Hidden Heart of Gold and ultimately chooses to protect people, Dementus has become a despicable and sadistic tyrant in his grief. Additionally, both Dementus and "Mad" Max have names meaning "Insane". On a meta level, several viewers have pointed out that Dementus's beard is of the same style as the beard Mel Gibson grew in the 2010s.
    • Dementus also insists he's also this to Furiosa, which she firmly rejects. This might be, however, part of why she chooses the Fate Worse than Death she gives him — in contrast to the death and destruction Dementus wreaks from his own pain, Furiosa chooses to make his body a source of life and hope whether he likes it or not.
  • Evil Versus Evil: Dementus first tries conquering the Citadel, and when that doesn't work, he takes over Gas Town and forces Immortan Joe to work with him. At least until he decides to try conquering them again.
  • Expository Hairstyle Change: The passage of time is conveyed as we see young Furiosa transition from a bob cut to flowing, long hair, indicating that at least a year has passed.
  • Face Death with Dignity:
    • Once Dementus and his men capture Jack and Furiosa, they clearly have no expectation of surviving, and neither of them speak an (audible) word at all, just sharing a Headbutt of Love and an Almost Kiss with each other that's clearly meant to be a "goodbye" of sorts. Furiosa ends up getting away by cutting off her arm, but Jack does die, and is never heard making even so much as a grunt of pain during his slow, torturous death.
    • When Dementus realizes that Furiosa has him completely dead to rights, he doesn't try to beg for his life or fight the inevitable. He just waits for her to pull the trigger. He even tells her that shooting him from behind might be more satisfying for her as it'll only make his death more nerve wracking for him since he won't see it coming. It's clear that he's just completely done with the world he lives in. With all that said, Furiosa's version of events imply that Dementus really doesn't enjoy his fate of becoming living fertilizer for a tree, unable to kill her or himself.
  • Fake Shemp:
    • Max Rockatansky is seen from a distance when Furiosa is returning to the Citadel after losing her arm. For this one brief scene, he's played by Jacob Tomuri, who was Tom Hardy's stunt double during Fury Road.
    • At the end of the film, Furiosa approaches the Wives from Fury Road and helps them sneak out to the War Rig. For the scene inside the vault, Furiosa's face is only shown briefly as she's still played by Anya Taylor-Joy and the Wives are filmed in a way that obscures their faces. The final scene of them boarding the War Rig is reportedly footage that was cut from Fury Road, with Charlize Theron and the Wives' actresses all shown briefly.
  • The Farmer and the Viper: When Mary Jabassa retrieves Furiosa from Dementus' camp in the first act, she immediately kills the man that was in the same tent and is about to do the same to woman. The woman begs for mercy, says she's also a mother like her, and promises not to say anything about their escape. Mary spares her, but the moment she's out of sight, she rushes to tell Dementus, which leads to Mary's death and Furiosa's recapture.
  • Fate Worse than Death:
    • Ultimately, Dementus is used as the soil for a healthy peach tree that Furiosa grows out of his abdomen, at least according to her words. It's made clear that she's deliberately keeping him alive, he's too weak to kill himself, and the maggots are having a field day.
    • Invoked: Immortan Joe's wives consider demotion from his cushy living quarters to becoming a "Milker" (glorified wet nurses fed great amounts of food to produce milk for Joe's children and those designated to become Warboys) due to being infertile or failing to produce viable, unmutated children as horrific, as one terrified wife begs to stay after a stillbirth.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Dementus has the initial vibe of being a man who is vicious towards his enemies but kind and loyal to his allies. He tortures Furiosa's mother to death right in front of her and upon defeating a smaller gang, he forces its members to fight each other to the death for five positions in his crew (and violently execute their old leader in the process). But the new members are treated just the same as the rest of his crew (the woman whose face was mutilated becomes something of a Mauve Shirt), and he treats Furiosa relatively well, seeming to see her as a replacement for his own children he lost. However, he is willing to kill his own followers if it serves him (such as when he kills the men disguised as War Boys to make their False Flag Operation look more realistic, which causes the Octoboss to defect with his crew), and when Furiosa speaks for the first time since Mary's death to tell Immortan Joe that Dementus isn't her dad and killed her mom (resulting in Joe demanding her as part of his price for an alliance), Dementus coldly rips the teddy bear he gave her away from her before walking away without a second glance at her. It's also all-but-stated that while he promises non-combatants of the settlements he takes over freedom and food, he delivers none and hogs it all for himself and his gang. When Furiosa and Praetorian Jack visit Gas Town after Dementus has taken it over, it's flooded with starving, desperate citizens who attack both the convoy and Dementus' men.
  • Finger in the Mail: After seizing control of Gas Town, Dementus sends a parcel to Immortan Joe containing the Guardian of Gas Town's severed finger (still wearing his large gold ring) along with a demand for a face-to-face meeting.
  • Flare Gun: Dementus's men have no idea about the purposes of flare guns and one tries it on the spot, aimed at the ground... After the resulting red smoke dissipates, he's covered in red color and decides to call himself "The Red Dementus".
  • Forced to Watch: Dementus inflicts this on Furiosa twice while he subjects her loved ones to a slow Cruel and Unusual Death: Mary the first time as a child, and Jack when she's a young adult. Ironically, he doesn't realize it's the same girl/woman both times until their confrontation in the ending, probably because it's heavily implied he does this very often to his defeated enemies.
    • In a Pet the Dog, Dementus does tell "Little D" she doesn't have to watch the initiation of the newest members of his gang, but young Furiosa refuses to look away.
  • Foregone Conclusion: As a prequel to Fury Road, several parts of this story are clear from the beginning:
    • Immortan Joe has to win his war against Dementus, since he's still in power some years later.
    • Furiosa's escape attempts are doomed to fail, given she still works for Immortan Joe at the start of the original film. At some point she will also lose her left forearm to replace it with a mechanical substitute.
    • Something's going to take Praetorian Jack out of the picture, since there's no mention of him in Fury Road and Furiosa is the driver of the War Rig in that film.
    • The People Eater will end up in charge of Gas Town.
    • The lush, verdant Green Place will become a polluted bog.
  • Foreshadowing: The border between the Green Place and the Outback is a stretch of once arable land that has suffered desert encroachment, as shown by dead trees surrounded by sand. Over the next 20 years, pollution from the outside would creep into the Green Place and cause an ecological collapse.
  • Frantic Object Concealment: Rictus conceals young Furiosa's scalp behind his back when Scrotus approaches, sensing that something is off.
  • Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: It becomes clear at the end that Dementus is a man who was completely broken by the end of the world. He had children who he dearly loved and carries one of their teddy bears with him everywhere he goes as a memento. But Furiosa deems none of that excuses all the atrocities he has committed, and his Fate Worse than Death is treated as fully justified.
  • Friend-or-Idol Decision: Jack has his crew load up a vehicle with supplies and a couple of motorbikes for a "scouting run", and orders Furiosa to drive it. It's actually a pretext to allow her to escape to the Green Place. Jack intends to secretly join her later, but when it's revealed that Dementus has taken over the Bullet Farm he gets trapped on the wrong side of a portcullis and does a suicide run on his attackers to enable Furiosa to escape, which she can easily do now she has the vehicle, the opportunity, and no-one at the Citadel will know until it's too late. She chooses to rescue Jack instead.
  • From Bad to Worse: Played with when Furiosa is traded to Immortan Joe as part of the deal for Gas Town. In the short term, this makes her situation infinitely worse. While she loathes Dementus, he saw and treated her as a daughter, whereas Joe sees her as breeding stock and is clearly going to force himself upon her as soon as she's old enough to safely bear children. Still, Furiosa (understandably) hates Dementus so much for killing her mother that she practically volunteers herself to be traded just to get away from him, since he initially refuses to hand her over until she tells Joe the truth that he's not her dad and murdered her mom. Ultimately, Furiosa is able to use her wits to turn things around for herself in the long term by taking advantage of Rictus's lust for her to escape. While posing as an anonymous, mute male Citadel worker, she rises in the ranks over the course of a decade or so and learns a number of useful skills that are crucial to her survival in this movie and Fury Road, which she very likely wouldn't have if she'd stayed with Dementus (not to mention that his horde and hold on Gas Town increasingly falls apart during this time).
  • Gender-Blender Name: The one female member of Dementus's gang goes by Mr. Norton.
  • Gory Discretion Shot: Dementus' usual recruitment is initiating a Battle Royale Game where five people get on motorcycles to draw and quarter their former leader. The one example we see on-screen kicks up so much dust that we don't see the messy results.
  • Great Offscreen War: The 40 Day War takes place almost entirely offscreen as Furiosa spends most of the time recovering and building her new prosthetic arm. Only the aftermath is seen, as the War Boys sort through the wreckage of Dementus's forces.
  • Groin Attack: While the Octoboss' torture of Mary Jabassa is mostly obscured by his body, he seems to be focusing on or around her genitals. Furiosa would eventually (maybe) return the favor by planting her peach seed in his, slowly consuming them to feed its growth.
  • Guns Do Not Work That Way:
    • Dementus's weapon of choice is a Lemat, a real-life revolver with an underslung shotgun barrel. The Lemat is a black powder gun, which requires the use of external primer caps in order to fire (compare this to regular bullets, in which the primer is built into the round itself). These caps are missing from every single scene the gun is in, including several closeups. Certain Lemats WERE converted to fire standard case cartridges, but look different enough to the black powder versions that it's clear Dementus isn't carrying one.
    • Averted in one specific case. During the Bullet Farm fighting, Furiosa is seen cycling the action on an SKS; normally this is not necessary, as the SKS is a semi-automatic gun. However, Furiosa's SKS is missing its gas block, which would be needed for the action to cycle on its own, so she really would have to use the bolt each time.
  • Harpoon Gun: Furiosa fires a harpoon at the Octoboss from atop the War Rig.
  • Headbutt of Love: There's even an origin story for Furiosa touching foreheads with Valkyrie in Fury Road. Her mother does it with her and a comrade from the Green Place, establishing it as a tradition in their culture. Furiosa later does it with Praetorian Jack multiple times.
  • Hidden Depths: Mr. Harley and Mr. Davidson seem inordinately friendly for a killer biker hoard, especially the former. When introduced Harley waves a cheerful "G'day mate!" to the Immortan's entourage; despite subduing the captured Furiosa and Praetorian Jack for Dementus, the two allow them to embrace, and when Dementus breaks them apart they subtly bring them together again; Harley is told off by Dementus for restraining Furiosa by the good arm rather than the freshly-shattered one; and it's implied Harley helped sever her arm and escape (as he's sheathing his machete as Dementus approaches). Tellingly, he's seemingly the only one of Dementus' inner circle to either defect to or be taken alive by Joe's forces aside from the History Man, the other Punch-Clock Villain in the biker army.
  • Hollywood Healing: After Furiosa loses her arm, she bounces back incredibly quickly despite the low levels of medicine available in the wasteland. After no more than a day or two, she's up and about without any indications of discomfort or infection. By the time she rigs up her prosthetic arm, also a short time later, it's as if she never lost her arm at all.
  • Hollywood Tactics:
    • Played straight and then subverted by Dementus.
      • When trying to capture Mary Jabassa, Dementus sends his forces through a narrow gap in a rock formation where they get easily picked off one by one until the passage is blocked off by the large pile of dead bikers and motorcycles before he finally orders them to go around the rock and attack Mary from behind which ends the stand-off almost inmediatly.
      • His original attempt at conquering the Citadel consists of simply marching his horde up to the gates of the impregnable stone fortress whose very existence he just discovered (and thus knows nothing about its layout, defenses or manpower), loudly announcing that he's laying siege to the place and demanding its surrender. The War Boys attack his forces from fortified high ground and utterly crush them.
      • His attack on Gas Town on the other hand displays classic subterfuge tactics. He first attacks and captures one of the convoys, dresses some of his people as War Boys and chases them back to Gas Town faking an attack. Once the rig is inside the gates, his forces concealed inside quickly take control of the gates and let the rest of the horde in.
    • The 40-Day War subverts this trope as both sides resort to well-thought out strategies and subterfuge to gain advantage on the battlefield.
      • Dementus calls for a meeting of the Warlords at the Citadel in three days and while the others go there to prepare an ambush for him, he launches a sneak attack and conquers the Bullet Farm. He then sets a fake fire to make it look like he's destroying Gas Town to lure the bulk of Immortan Joe's forces away from the Citadel, all the while using a water truck to spray water ahead of the force he is leading to attack the Citadel through the desert so it doesn't raise a dust cloud and thus not be detected.
      • Despite Scrotus's insistence on playing this straight, Immortan Joe knows better. He intended to lay an ambush for Dementus at the meeting the latter called, but when Furiosa informs him and the other leaders that the apparent fire in Gas Town is an attempt to lure his forces away from the Citadel, he turns the trap on itself by sending a small party to raise a large dust cloud and make it look like the bulk of his army is heading to Gas Town to lull Dementus into going ahead with the attack, and eventually is able to destroy his forces in 40 days.
  • Holy Backlight: In the final moments, as Furiosa reveals herself to Dementus in the wasteland, she stands tall on the crest of a dune, the sun blazing behind her. This dramatic backlighting creates a striking silhouette of a power figure, emphasizing the power shift that has just occurred between them.
  • Homage Shot: For the cameo scene, Max Rockatansky and his car are seen in the exact same position as they were when Fury Road starts with Max's monologue, only this time it's another location and he sees a wounded Furiosa down below.
  • Hope Spot:
    • Mary Jabassa rescues her daughter and we see the wind blowing away the tracks of the motorbike as they ride off into the sandstorm. Then Dementus is shown using one of his mastiffs to sniff out their trail, since Mary is bleeding from a wound to her back.
    • After years of desperate survival and longing to go home, Furiosa discovers a true friend, ally and lover in Praetorian Jack, who's not only willing to let her escape the Citadel but also decides to go with her and help her to find the Green Place. Then Dementus once again ruins Furiosa's life by occupying the Bullet Farm and ambushing and destroying the War Rig; there's another brief moment of hope when they manage to escape in a vehicle, but Dementus catches up to them, tortures Jack to death, and maims Furiosa's left arm so severely that she has to amputate it; as her arm bears the tattoo of the star chart leading to the Green Place, she's thus lost her final tie to her beloved home.
  • Hope Sprouts Eternal: Before their final parting, Mary gifts her daughter a seed from their home as a reminder to find her way back through the now largely inhospitable desert. Furiosa keeps it through thick and thin, but finally plants it over Dementus' still alive but decaying body in an inhospitable cliff in retribution, and a symbol of life and hope. As a final kicker, she feeds the tree's fruit to the Wives before they escape.
  • Horrifying the Horror: Dementus and his lieutenants are formidable, intimidating fighters seemingly Conditioned to Accept Horror. But when Joe has one of his War Boys blow himself up merely to demonstrate how willing and eager they are to die in service to him, they respond one and all with expressions of shocked disbelief before peeling out without a fight.
  • Human Resources: Dementus has the Organic Mechanic harvest some of Furiosa's blood to make blood sausage/pudding for him.
  • Imminent Danger Clue: Upon returning to Gastown with their truck, Furiosa and Jack are greeted by an unsettling stillness. The peace is short-lived as they notice a dog wandering nearby, a human foot clamped in its mouth. Jack sounds the horn loudly, alerting their crew to the attack that unfolds immediately.
  • Important Haircut: Furiosa shaves her head twice in the film. The first time, she turned her hair into a wig so she could escape Rictus when he tried playing with her hair. She does so again just before the climactic battle, probably because she can no longer pull it back with her prosthetic arm so it will only get in the way and also possibly because she might already have a plan in mind for Dementus and the peach pit she's carried with her all these years, often in her hair, and she no longer needs her long hair to carry it.
  • Incest Subtext: Dementus seems to treat Furiosa like a daughter-figure, introducing her as such to the Immortan and giving her his daughter's keepsake teddy-bear, yet there's more than a few hints he views her as a long-term breeding tool no less than Joe. That legend suggests she planted her seed in his groin, and refers to the (incredibly-phallic) tree's peach as "our first fruit" makes it borderline on-the-nose.
  • I Surrender, Suckers!: After his defeat, Dementus performs a Pose of Supplication in front of Furiosa. But it's only a ruse as he then tries to lunge for the knife in her boot which turns out to be only the hilt.
  • It's Quiet… Too Quiet: The first time we see the War Rig visit Bullet Farm, they are met by a swarm of cheering miners lining the road. The second time, nobody is around and Jack is obviously suspicious. Dementus has conquered the Farm and the miners are all hiding in the pit.
  • It Works Better with Bullets: While Dementus was asleep during the sandstorm, Furiosa stealthily removed the bullets from his gun, ensuring that he would be deceived into thinking he could shoot her when she dramatically reveals herself to him at dawn.
  • Last Stand: Mary Jabassa tries this against Dementus's forces in the opening act, telling Furiosa to run away while she tries to hold them off. It's ultimately subverted; though she downs several men, she's eventually overpowered by a swarm of them and knocked out, then gets crucified to death, while Furiosa is re-captured almost immediately anyway.
  • Late-Arrival Spoiler: On the off chance that the viewer hasn't seen Mad Max: Fury Road, several scenes from it (shown in chronological order) are played throughout the end credits, including Nux's ultimate sacrifice to destroy the War Rig and impede Joe's forces at the canyon pass, which happened at the climax of the movie.
  • Lesser of Two Evils: Zizagged in regards to Dementus vs. Immortan Joe. Both are despicable men, but Dementus has some sympathetic moments whereas Immortan Joe is, well, Immortan Joe. On the flip side, as awful as Joe is, he is at least competent in running and maintaining his dictatorship, and he manages to keep the trifecta of the Citadel, Bullet Farm, and Gas Town afloat and operational, whereas Dementus runs Gas Town into the ground in a matter of years and completely wrecks the Bullet Farm just for the sake of an ambush on the War Rig.
  • Let No Crisis Go to Waste: When it's become clear that Dementus, Immortan Joe and the Bullet Farmer are likely going to start a fight, Furiosa and Praetorian Jack decide to take advantage of the situation to defect from the Citadel and strike out for the Green Place.
  • Life-or-Limb Decision: Furiosa wastes no time tearing her broken left arm off when she's hanged on a crane by it by Dementus' horde, since she'll otherwise be tortured and/or killed by them once they're done with Praetorian Jack.
  • Lodged Blade Removal: At Gastown, Furiosa is ambushed by workers while seated in the driver's seat of her truck. The chaos of the moment obscures the full extent of her injuries and the immediate danger forces her to press on. It is only a couple of scenes later that we see a blade still embedded in her shoulder. Praetorian Jack gently removes it, with an After-Action Patch-Up scene unfolding soon after.
  • Logical Weakness: Dementus’ attempt to turn the War Boys to his side was doomed to fail. Why? Because populist talking points and tactics don't work on a literal cult.
  • Make It Look Like a Struggle: Dementus captures a supply truck headed from the Citadel to Gas Town and dress up a number of his men as War Boys to turn the vehicle into a Trojan Horse, faking an assault by his biker horde so the guards won't think twice about letting the truck through without first inspecting it, so they can capture the settlement. At first it doesn't work, as Gas Town's mayor gets suspicious when he notices nobody in the "assault" is actually hitting each other, so Dementus orders his men to "make it real" by actually shooting each other to kill. Now it's convincing enough, but this callousness leads to some of Dementus' men abandoning him later on.
  • Mama Bear: After Furiosa is kidnapped by Dementus' mooks, her mother Mary chases after them by herself and picks off all but one of them with her sniper rifle. Apparently Furiosa got her Improbable Aiming Skills from her mom.
  • Mid-Season Upgrade: Due to increasing violence and ingenuity with raiders attacking supply runs, Citadel mechanics create a custom War Rig with added armor, a motorized flail on the back and a backhoe towards the front. After one encounter that left everyone but Furiosa and Jack dead, a follow-up shows that the flail and backhoe have been updated to be controllable from the front instead of requiring someone manned at each station. This is not the same War Rig from Fury Road, as it is destroyed in a battle at the Bullet Farm.
  • Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The Octoboss and his crew turn on Dementus after years of mistreatment, starting when the latter kills several of them in order to gain access to Gas Town.
  • Mix-and-Match Weapon: Praetorian Jack has an Apache revolver that Furiosa takes during a fight and ends up carrying for a large section of the film. It combines a revolver, fold-out knife, and knuckle duster.
  • Myopic Conqueror: Throughout the story, Dementus is more fixated on getting his hands on things than in thinking through what he's going to do with them once he has them, having zero clue about how the sustainable three town ecosystem Immortan Joe and his colleagues had set up works and ruining it over time. After conquering Gas Town and getting Immortan to acknowledge it as his fief, he runs the place into the ground over the course of no more than a decade through his mismanagement. Worse yet, instead of acknowledging his failings and fix them, his solution is to double down and start a war to conquer the Bullet Farm and the Citadel. The trap he sets up for the war rig at the Bullet Farm ends up wrecking the place.
  • Mythology Gag: The bas-relief design on the proto-War Rig includes a figure dressed and posed identically to the original movie's "maximum force of the future" poster.
  • Never Trust a Trailer:
    • The trailer has Dementus saying "Do you have it in you to make it epic?" framed in a way that makes it look as if he's giving Furiosa a Dare to Be Badass pep-talk. In the actual film it's during their final confrontation, and he's asking her if she's going to kill him quickly or in a crueler and more theatrical way.
    • The trailers also paint the film as the relentless action spectacle that Fury Road was. While Furiosa certainly has plenty of action as well, it's a much slower, more contemplative story that's much more focused on character and theme than its action-packed predecessor, similar to Mad Max; the first major "road war" battle doesn't happen until well over an hour into the film.
    • The trailer makes Dementus' "Lady and gentlemens, start your engines!" announcement on loudspeakers coming off as a racing event, complete with a shot of a woman (Furiosa's mother, as it turns out) putting a skull-shaped helmet on, and Dementus preparing to fire a revolver shot for the start. It's actually the quartering of a man with bikes.
  • No Healthcare in the Apocalypse: After Furiosa is forced to tear her left arm off, she's brought to the Citadel and maggots are used to eat the necrosis on her stump.
  • No Romantic Resolution: Furiosa and Jack don't end up together because he gets killed on Dementus' command.
  • "Not So Different" Remark: Dementus notes that both he and Furiosa are driven entirely by the pain left in their hearts after the loss of their families, saying she'll be just like him in no time. Furiosa verbally denies this but one can see in her face that the observation gets to her. Her subsequent decision to depart with the wives to the Green Place seems at least partly motivated by not wanting to end up like Dementus.
  • Now That's Using Your Teeth!: Young Furiosa is tied up and hanging face down on the back of a raider's motorbike, so she bites open the fuel line to slow down her kidnappers. Later she's muzzled while in the Virgin Cage, implying that she's bitten her captors as well.
  • Obfuscating Disability: When growing up under the guise of a male mechanic, Furiosa pretends to be mute so she won't have to disguise her voice.
  • Oh, Crap!: Once Furiosa activates the Bommy Knocker on the War Rig's tail, there's a shot on the face of Octoboss. While his face is covered, he visibly panics as his paraglider is being dragged by the device and is about to be crushed by it.
  • One-Man Army: Or one Battle Couple army—Dementus lampshades how just two people were able to destroy the Bullet Farm that his biker horde had taken intact.
  • Onscreen Chapter Titles: Each section of the film is preceded by a title card, usually accompanying a Time Skip of several years.
  • Ordered to Die: When Dementus and his biker horde first arrives at the Citadel, he calls on the inhabitants to kill their leaders and surrender to him. The People Eater gets on the speaker and tells Dementus to pick at random one of the War Boys standing on the cliffs looking down at them. He has Smeg do so, and the War Boy in question takes an explosive-tipped spear in each hand and, at the command of Immortan Joe, leaps off the cliff for a Suicide Attack on the bikers below. This and the subsequent attack from the other War Boys forces Dementus to retreat, but he's not deterred.
  • Origins Episode: The film details how Furiosa was abducted from her home at the Green Place and came to be Immortan Joe's trusted warrior.
  • Our Acts Are Different: Rather than following a more typical three-act structure, the film is instead split into five acts, with each act break marked with a title card.
  • Out-Gambitted: Once war between Dementus' forces and the Citadel becomes inevitable, Dementus secretly takes over the Bullet Farm and plants a smokescreen around Gas Town, making it seem like he's destroying a vital settlement. He's hoping Immortan Joe will be tricked by this and send all his forces there as soon as possible to stop him, while his own horde captures the Citadel when they're gone (he even uses liquid spray to dampen the sand ahead of them to prevent a dust cloud from signalling their approach), but Furiosa is able to make it to Joe and warn him that Dementus is actually at the Bullet Farm, plus Joe realizes that destroying Gas Town is a completely illogical move from a strategic standpoint. In response, Joe tricks Dementus by only sending a small number of his forces in Gas Town's direction, intentionally raising up a big dust cloud that makes Dementus think his ruse was a success. Unsurprisingly, an utter Curb-Stomp Battle ensues that ends with nearly all of Dementus' bikers slaughtered within forty days.
  • Papa Wolf: Dementus provides a villainous example towards Furiosa when she was a girl, even saving her from a scavenger in the Citadel who tried pulling her into a hole. He seems to genuinely view her as his daughter after the loss of his own children. Unfortunately for Dementus, since he killed her mother, Furiosa only hates him.
  • Pay Evil unto Evil: The History Man remarks on several theorized fates of Dementus, from merely being shot in the head, to being dragged behind Furiosa's car like Jack, to being tied to a tree and slowly tortured to death like Mary. Only he and Furiosa know Dementus's ultimate fate: She plants a seed inside his body and keeps him alive as a tree grows out of his withered flesh.
  • The Power of Hate: During their final confrontation, Dementus explains to Furiosa that it was her unyielding hate for him that fueled her resilience and which enables her to endure and overcome the myriad hardships she faced along her journey.
  • Pragmatic Villainy: This film shows Immortan Joe at his most rational, demonstrating that when his judgment wasn't clouded by anger at having the Wives stolen from him, he could be frighteningly efficient.
    • Instead of being angered at Dementus conquering Gas Town, he simply negotiates down his demands (with a specificity to his demands that shows Dementus and the viewers that he is very knowledgeable about his own operation and not totally reliant on the People Eater to administrate) and even gets a new Wife and poaches Dementus' most competent underling right from under him.
    • After procuring her as a Wife when she's still a child, he doesn't lay a finger on Furiosa, and it's implied that it's not out of any moral qualms about molesting a child, but because she's still way too young to bear children.
    • While he callously walks out on a Wife who's given birth to a mutated child with no acknowledgement of her suffering or terror that she's going to be cast out or killed, the Organic Mechanic's reassurance to her that she'll still have a (relatively) decent life as a milk-maker shows that his cultish obsession with having children does not extend to blaming or punishing a woman for something totally out of her control, nor does he discard someone who is still useful to him.
    • Even though he probably doesn't recognize her as the child Wife that went missing from his harem years before, Joe doesn't throw the clearly healthy and beautiful woman into his harem the second he sees Praetorian Furiosa, recognizing that she's much more useful as Praetorian Jack's second in command than she is as a breeder. This ties in with what we see in Fury Road, where he publicly salutes her as "Imperator" as a matter of course and clearly respects her prowess as a fighter and commander too much to use her as a breeder.
    • When Jack and Furiosa return from Gas Town with no fuel despite having given the agreed supplies, he doesn't waste time even demanding a detailed explanation, let alone blaming and punishing them for the failure. Instead he simply orders the Citadel's own consumption of fuel down to an absolute minimum (showing detailed knowledge of his own operation) and sends the two highly competent subordinates to stock up on weapons and ammo in preparation for a war with Dementus.
    • Following this, when he hears Furiosa tell him and the arguing warlords that Dementus had blindsided all of them with his attack on the Bullet Farm, he quickly comes up with a plan that will not only let them turn Dementus' attempt at a surprise attack back on him regardless of where Dementus had concentrated his forces, but also effortlessly demonstrates to his increasingly challenging son Scabrous both who is in charge, and why he's in charge.
  • Raised Hand of Survival: After being buried under sand and debris from the collapse of a smokestack at Gastown, the first thing we see emerge from the rubble is Furiosa's hand.
  • Reflective Eyes: When young Furiosa is Forced to Watch her mother's death, the camera zooms in on her eye, capturing the reflection of her mother's crucified figure.
  • Relative-ly Flimsy Excuse: Dementus tries to pass off Furiosa as his daughter to Immortan Joe by dyeing her hair red to match his. Furiosa speaks her first words in a long time to vehemently deny this relation, only confirming Immortan Joe's suspicions based on how she looks nothing like Dementus and is suspiciously healthy for someone who has supposedly been with a desperate warlord her entire life.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Dementus tries to make Furiosa this for his dead children, dyeing her hair red to match his and presenting her to Immortan Joe as his "daughter". Furiosa hates him too much to go along with it and immediately tells Immortan Joe (who'd already noticed that they don't look related) that he's not her father.
  • Resolved Noodle Incident: We see how Furiosa lost her left arm.
  • Riddle for the Ages: What became of Dementus after Furiosa had him at his mercy? The History Man offers multiple ideas for it, but none of them are truly definitive.
  • Ripped from the Headlines:
    • Octoboss and his gang make heavy use of paragliding in combat, a tactic employed by Hamas militants in the opening battle of the ongoing Gaza War.
    • Speaking of Middle-Eastern conflicts, Dementus's disastrous early attempt to take over The Citadel plays out an awful lot like the American invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq. Upon seeing the miserable living conditions suffered by the majority of Immortan Joe's citizenry, Dementus believes he'll be able to win easily by positioning himself as a liberator to gain the people's support. Unfortunately for him he badly underestimates the Martyrdom Culture of the local fighters and suffers a humiliating defeat. Later, he successfully liberates several of Immortan Joe's towns, but he proceeds to run it into the ground while taking the resources all for himself and using the enraged populace as meatshields to sic on Immortan Joe's forces — not unlike criticism of how the US ran Afghanistan and Iraq after the invasions.]]
  • Rousing Speech: Dementus enjoys giving these and does so with flair, but they don't always land. Notably, his attempt to encourage the downtrodden slaves of the Citadel to overthrow Immortan Joe and accept the (supposedly) better deal Dementus would offer them as leader utterly fails in the face of the cult of personality that Joe has established.
  • Rule of Symbolism:
    • Dementus' cape starts out white, representing his (thin) messianic facade. Shortly after he executes Furiosa's mom, red dye from a flare gun stains the upper parts (also coloring his hair red for a while), and it then gets some black during his time in Gas Town, and he stops wearing the hood. Furiosa steals and wears it when she hunts him down, with the hood up, shortly before he says they're not so different.
    • The red dye is also in Furiosa's hair when Dementus claims she's his daughter and trades her to Immortan Joe, which starts her life on its bloody path to becoming like Dementus.
    • Dementus' revolver is a LeMat, with an underbarrel shotgun. Furiosa repeatedly uses an Apache revolver, which is also a knife and knuckledusters. Both of them of them end up with multi-mode revolvers specialized for close combat, because they're similar. Though Furiosa's also represents how she's capable of changing her appearance and presentation. She also uses the knife for utility purposes, not destruction, several times.
  • Saved by Canon:
    • The film is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, so the characters from that film who show up here (like Furiosa, Valkyrie, Immortan Joe and most of his retinue) are safe. Any new characters who don't show up in that film (such as Dementus and Praetorian Jack), however, are fair game.
    • This is murkier with characters who appear in the game (which was based on George Miller's notes about the universe, but ultimately developed without his involvement), such as Scabrous Scrotus and Chumbucket. They both survive.
  • Sawed-Off Shotgun: Praetorian Jack gives Furiosa a powerful sawed-off shotgun when he decides she's ready to strike out on her own, seemingly the same Nux carries in by Fury Road.
  • Schmuck Bait: Dementus grabs for the knife in Furiosa's boot, only to find the blade has been broken off beforehand.
  • Second-Person Attack: At the end, the shot where Furiosa strikes Dementus with the butt of her rifle is shown from Dementus' POV.
  • Senseless Sacrifice: Mary's sacrifice to allow Furiosa to escape is in vain, as Furiosa threw away her chance to escape to be with her dying mother, causing her to be recaptured.
  • Sequel Non-Entity: Prequel non-entity that is. Corpus Colossus (the dwarf with brittle bone disease) is nowhere to be seen at the Citadel, despite being the eldest son of Immortan Joe. Corpus' actor Quentin Kenihan passed away in 2018; it was decided not to replace him (either finding someone with the same disabilities or recreating him via CGI would have been awkward).
  • Shout-Out:
    • One of the opening voiceovers is a shout-out to Deus Ex: Human Revolution. "It's not the end of the world, but you can see it from here."
    • Dementus' favorite food is Blood Sausage.
    • The painting prominently featured in the mayor of Gas Town's office is Hylas and the Nymphs. There is a large mural of it in his office, a lackey is seen painting it, and the mayor's severed finger is sent to Immortan Joe in a postcard of the painting. The choice of painting is rife with potential symbolism — it's a relic of the old civilization in a desert lacking drinking water and full of people being driven to bad fates through greed. Later we see that Dementus's office has crudely repainted over the mural to show Hylas choking one of the nymphs instead, emphasizing the setting's resentment towards women and refinement ("Who killed the world?" the Wives ask in the next film).
    • According to the Organic Mechanic, Immortan Joe's wives get three chances to deliver a healthy, non-mutant baby before getting kicked out of the harem.
    • The Bommy-Knocker is named after the spiked morning star-style mace carried by the title character of the 1980 childrens' book The Hungry Giant by New Zealand author Joy Cowley.
    • At one point, Jack gets handed a sawed-off shotgun by someone who calls it a "boomstick." Does that remind anyone of another movie starring a badass character with a prosthetic hand?
    • During his final speech to Furiosa, Dementus says to her "We are the already dead."
  • Skeletons in the Coat Closet: Furiosa's mother dons a helmet made with a skull (stolen from one of the enemies she'd just killed) in order to sneak into Dementus's camp.
  • The Spartan Way: As in Fury Road, the Warboys see themselves as already dead due to their birth defects, and therefore, are emphatically unafraid of death in battle. Immortan Joe's cult-like control over them is demonstrated to terrifying effect in their first scene, when one of them is Ordered to Die.
  • Suspiciously Similar Substitute:
    • Praetorian Jack looks and behaves a lot like Max himself as depicted in Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. Retroactively, this gives off the impression that Furiosa trusts Max in part on account of his similarities with Jack and Jack becoming something of a Lost Lenore for her after Dementus tortured him to death.
    • The dwarf Warboy ("War Pup", in the credits) is one for Corpus Colossus, whose actor died in 2018, and fills a similar role as a spotter for Immortan Joe's forces. Unlike Corupus Colossus, however, he doesn't survive the film.
  • Sweet on Polly Oliver: Rictus seems to be attracted to young Furiosa even when she's disguised as a boy.
  • Sweet Polly Oliver: In order to avoid becoming a Breeding Slave for Immortan Joe, Furiosa escapes the wives' vault and grows up in the Citadel under the guise of a male (and mute) mechanic and rises in ranks as such.
  • Taking a Third Option: Technically a fourth, but still invoked by Immortan Joe when figuring out how to deal with Dementus during the climax.
  • Tasty Tears: When forcing Furiosa to watch her own mother getting tortured, Dementus tastes her tears.
  • Theme Naming: Some of Dementus' henchmen are named after classic motorcycle brands, such as "Mr. Harley", "Mr. Davidson" and "Mr. Norton" (the last of whom is actually a woman).
  • They Know Too Much: The Vuvalini General makes it clear to Mary Jabassa that all of the raiders who took her daughter must be killed to prevent them revealing the location of the Green Place.
  • This Means Warpaint: After she becomes a part of the War Rig convoy, Furiosa starts wearing her trademark war paint, though it's implied to be to keep the sun out of her eyes, as her partner Praetorian Jack wears the same.
  • Time-Passes Montage: A montage depicts Furiosa's scalp resting on a tree branch in the foreground, while the sun cycles through the sky multiple times in the background.
  • Time-Shifted Actor: Anya Taylor-Joy takes over Charlize Theron as about a decade younger Furiosa, while Alyla Browne plays the character as a child.
  • Time Skip:
    • One of several years after Furiosa escapes from Immortan Joe's harem.
    • The very end of the movie features one, as after Furiosa captures Dementus and the History Man goes over the possible fates she may have inflicted on him, the film jumps approximately 5 years into the future to right before the events of Fury Road with Furiosa smuggling the Wives out of the harem and loading them into the War Rig. During her final confrontation with Dementus, Furiosa tells him that it's been 15 years since he killed her mother, and thus since she was taken from the Green Place. Fury Road takes place over 7,000 days (approximately 20 years) after Furiosa's abduction from the Green Place, which means that the time gap between the end of one film and the start of the other is of around 5 years.
  • Title In: Newly visited locations like Gastown and the Bullet Farm get introduced with a tile card.
  • The Title Saga: The subtitle is "A Mad Max Saga".
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The trailer shows Furiosa's climactic capture of Dementus.
  • Trojan Horse:
    • Dementus pretends to "chase" a rig back to Gas Town, so they'll let his hidden men inside. All he had to do was sacrificing a few of his men to sell the attack.
    • He arguably does the trope psychologically by showing the War Rig that he's losing control of Gas Town, and says he needs a meeting in three days... so he has time to conquer the Bullet Farm in preparation for going after the Citadel again.
  • The Ugly Guy's Hot Daughter: Invoked. Dementus pretends Furiosa is his daughter when presenting her to Immortan Joe, who is instantly suspicious of the mangy, brutal biker-warlord Dementus siring such a clean, healthy, and pretty child.
  • Underestimating Badassery: Dementus attempts to take over the Citadel by appealing to those living there to turn against Immortan Joe. Joe responds by showing off his Cult of Personality before having his forces wreck Dementus's gang. This is inverted later when Dementus catches everyone off-guard in his takeover of Gas Town and the Bullet Farm despite the warlords thinking of him as a base lunatic.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: The woman whom Mary spares at the camp promises to keep quiet but immediately alerts the camp as soon as Mary leaves.
  • Unwilling Suspension: After she's captured by Dementus' horde following the battle at the Bullet Farm, Furiosa is hanged to a crane by her broken arm while Dementus and his men watch as Praetorian Jack is dragged to death behind a motorcycle. She manages to tear her arm off and escape unnoticed.
  • Vehicular Sabotage: In the opening scene, young Furiosa uses her knife to sever the fuel line of one of the bikes, attempting to trap the strangers in the forest. She gets caught while trying to sabotage a second bike. Later, we see her cutting the fuel line of her kidnapper's bike with her teeth.
  • Vengeance Feels Empty:
    • Mentioned by Dementus at the end: no matter how much Furiosa rages and screams and beats him, her family and old life are gone forever and trying to get closure will always be futile. Dementus cites his own experiences with losing his family as reason enough not to dwell on trying to get justice for past transgressions. If the ending where Dementus is chained up and used to host the peach tree is what actually occurred (and it is strongly implied to be true), it's likely that this was Furiosa's way of ultimately subverting this trope: by using her nemesis' body to grow fresh fruit, she can help nourish new life rather than try to trade taking lives to balance the scales.
    • Another example occurs earlier when Dementus catches Jack and Furiosa after they take out his Bullet Town forces. At first Dementus is giddy with excitement over exacting his revenge, stringing Furiosa up by her mangled arm and forcing her to watch as he subjects Jack to a long, drawn-out death. Several hours later, however, the initial excitement has passed and all Dementus's mooks are doing is just dragging Jack's corpse around in a circle. Dementus exasperatedly declares his boredom, and makes ready to leave. Then he finds Furiosa's now severed arm, indicating her escape, and his excitement returns.
  • Villainous Breakdown: After Jack and Furiosa completely decimate the Bullet Farm not long after he conquered it, Dementus is nothing short of livid, his usual bombast giving way to murderous rage as he immediately hops into a monster truck and goes barreling after the pair with his horde in tow. Once he catches them, Dementus launches into a furious, unhinged rant, growing even angrier at seeing the pair share a Headbutt of Love since it reminds him of the family he lost, and he then orders Jack's brutal execution with the intent of forcing Furiosa to watch his demise.
  • Wake Up Fighting: Furiosa attacks Praetorian Jack with knuckle dusters when the latter sneaks up on her sleeping in the dormitory. Jack calmly catches her arm in mid-strike.
  • Weather Saves the Day: The approaching sandstorm assists Mary in her Roaring Rampage of Rescue by providing cover as she approaches the settlement and later obscuring the tracks left by her getaway bike.
  • What a Drag: In a brutal display of cruelty, Dementus orders Jack to be tortured to death by dragging him behind a motorcycle.
  • What Happened to the Mouse?:
    • Scabrous Scrotus survives the war against Dementus, yet isn't featured in Fury Road, leaving his fate unknown. Although what seems to be the same character previously showed up in the game Mad Max (which appears to be set after this film) and got a definitive fate of being killed by Max there.
    • The History Man is last seen in the company of Scrotus as Furiosa takes off after Dementus at the end of the fourth act, with his fate left unresolved by the time Fury Road occurs. Barring He's Just Hiding or death by old age, his ultimate fate is left unknown (though his writings are still referenced in the latter film).
  • Wife Husbandry: The Immortan Joe's ultimate intent with the young Furiosa is this. There's quite a bit of suggestion Dementus had a similar intent.
  • Won the War, Lost the Peace: Dementus is a skilled enough military leader to conquer Gas Town and the Bullet Farm. However, he is an incompetent administrator, to a degree that causes Gas Town to descend into riots and the other warlords turn against him.

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