Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga unsurprisingly includes several new cars, bikes, and other vehicles used by the characters for road warfare. Since its inception, the Mad Max franchise has always focused on impressive highway chases and battles, as ground vehicles are generally the easiest to modify so they will continue to work in the apocalyptic Wasteland. Throughout the original trilogy, Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) was the definitive road warrior due to his driving skills. However, he met his match in Mad Max: Fury Road with the introduction of Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), the franchise’s new leading heroine.
Furiosa reveals Furiosa’s (Anya Taylor-Joy/Alyla Browne) backstory, having been taken from her family and the Green Place as a child by Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) and worked her way up the ranks of the Citadel as a young woman. Throughout her travels, Furiosa makes the best out of run-down vehicles when she needs to escape and assists in building unprecedented machines of road warfare. The stunning new vehicles play an essential role in the movie — “In a sense, they’re characters – they’re extensions of the characters,” says director George Miller (via apnews.com) — making them just as vital members of the Furiosa cast.
10 Immortan Joe’s War Rig
Furiosa Features The Original Version Of Fury Road’s War Rig
Furiosa includes a kind of origin story for the War Rig itself as well as the title character.
In Fury Road, Furiosa’s title of Imperator includes the responsibility of driving the War Rig to and from Gastown and the Bullet Farm on behalf of Immortan Joe’s (Hugh Keays-Byrne) regime to make exchanges of supplies. As the cornerstone of the movie’s plot, Furiosa then conceals Joe’s “Wives” in the War Rig to deliver them to freedom.Furiosa includes a kind of origin story for the War Rig itself as well as the title character. Building it is a monumental moment for those working for Immortan Joe (recast as Lachy Hulme), representing the future of the Citadel’s power.
According to Furiosa’s behind-the-scenes vehicles feature, the War Rig was refashioned from a Kenworth W900 and has 615 hp and 2050 lb-ft of torque. However, while Furiosa and the War Boys built the War Rig from older cars to transport supplies, it was also necessary that the vehicle be battle-ready in the event of an attack. Therefore, Furiosa’s War Rig includes a lot of weaponry and defensive features that come into play when the convoy is attacked by raiders. The size and utility of the War Rig symbolize both Immortan Joe’s tyrannical rule and the skill of the characters who drive the Rig.
9 Immortan Joe’s Gigahorse
The Fury Road Antagonist Had His Iconic Vehicle In The Prequel
The War Rig isn’t the only recognizable vehicle owned by Immortan Joe that makes a return in Furiosa. The antagonist’s flagship vehicle, The Gigahorse, also makes an appearance in the Mad Max: Fury Road prequel, and remains just as impressive and intimidating a presence. Immortan Joe was an iconic character in Fury Road, and it’s only fitting that he has an instantly-recognizable vehicle to match. The Gigahorse serves this purpose incredibly well, and also perfectly captures the post-apocalyptic aesthetic of the world of Mad Max.
The body of The Gigahorse has two ’59 Cadillac Coupe de Villes chassis welded together atop a frame that houses an incredibly powerful custom engine. The front end of one of the Cadillacs remains present, though has been adorned with sharp blades to allow Immortan Joe to ram opponents from behind, causing serious damage. So vast is the Gigahorse that its wheels are tractor tires, and the engine allows the behemoth vehicle to reach speeds of around 125 km/h according to the Mad Max: Fury Road blu ray extras.
The Gigahorse doesn’t have as much screen time in Furiosa as it did in Mad Max: Fury Road, though this is simply because Immortan Joe isn’t the primary antagonist in the prequel. However, its appearance was celebrated by fans regardless, and it was no small relief that Joe’s return to screens wasn’t without his iconic ride.
8 The Doof Wagon
The Propaganda-On-Wheels Remains Present In Immortan Joe’s Armada
While it’s not as significant to the plot as the War Rig or as dangerous as The Gigahorse, the vehicle that stood out when Immortan Joe’s armada drove into battle in Mad Max: Fury Road was undoubtebly the Doof Wagon — and the utterly bizarre vehicle makes a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it return in Furiosa too. No other vehicle in the Mad Max franchise is quite like the Doof Wagon, which is notable since it seems to capture all the bombasticness that makes the series’ post-apocalyptic vision so iconic and distills it into a single vehicle.
The Doof Wagon is a modified MAN KAT A1 8×8, which is a construction vehicle. However, construction is the polar opposite of how this impressive industrial machine is used by Immortan Joe. The Doof Wagon in Fury Road and Furiosa has one purpose – to ensure Immortan Joe’s opponents know of his arrival long before his armada is on the horizon.
Every spare inch of space on the Doof Wagon is taken up by speakers. The only crew member aside from the driver is a War Boy suspended from the fram on bungee cords playing a double-guitar. It’s an impossible sight to forget, and it’s all-too-easy to imagine how intimidating it would be for the residents of the post-apocalyptic world to see the hellish contraption thundering towards them — especially with the amount of fire that both the car and the suspended musician emit.
7 Dementus’ Motorcycle Chariot
Dementus Drives A Strange Vehicle That Recalls Gladiator Battles
Furiosa introduces the flamboyant villain of Dementus, who meets a bizarre fate in Furiosa’s ending. His story has an element of absurdity from start to finish, warranting several dramatic modes of transportation that match his personality. Dementus’ more distinctive vehicle goes above and beyond in this regard, known as “the Chariot,” with three motorcycles attached to it as though they were horses. It is an ironic version of a more classic way of riding into battle, especially since a real horse does appear in the movie, ridden by Mary Jabassa (Charlee Fraser) and one of the other Vuvalini.
This strange parallel creates a stark contrast between the Many Mothers and Dementus. However, Hemsworth also says: “The bikes represent all the changes Dementus is going through as he becomes more regal and dominant.” Production designer Colin Gibson describes how the team built a motorcycle around a Rotec seven-cylinder engine, resulting in a vehicle with 79 hp and 110 lb-ft of torque, which Dementus is “just steering and holding on for dear life.”Dementus uses the Chariot primarily in the early stages of the movie’s plot when he is merely the leader of a massive motorcycle gang.
Dementus’ Other Signature Vehicle Proves To Be Destructive In Battle
However, Dementus also drives the Mac DM-800 known as the “Six Foot,” a monster truck that levels other vehicles during some of Furiosa’s most intense action sequences. If the motorcycle chariot symbolizes Dementus’ regality, reflecting the ancient Roman influences of the Mad Max franchise, then the Six Foot showcases the power he has amassed over time. When he first arrives at the Citadel, Dementus already has a force of thousands of biker bandits at his beck and call, making him one of the most dangerous Mad Max characters yet.
However, Dementus then goes on to take Gastown and the Bullet Farm by force, and wages war against the Citadel. The Six Foot conveys a yet unseen sense of brutality, even though Dementus has been Furiosa’s greatest enemy from the start of the movie. The Six Foot’s bulk allows Dementus a new dominance in battle, where he can crush other vehicles with little effort. “There’s a violence to that machine which is brutal,” says Hemsworth.
The Six Foot is also much better suited to various landscapes than some of the other vehicles in Furiosa, demonstrated by a scene where the monster truck succeeds in climbing a mountain and continuing its chase while the motorcycles backing it up slide down the slope. It completely destroys the Valiant that is Furiosa and Praetorian Jack’s (Tom Burke) escape, leading to Jack’s death and Furiosa losing her arm. With 1006 hp and 1000 lb-ft of torque, the Six Foot cannot match the sheer size of the War Rig, but it is doubtlessly more versatile and therefore more deadly.
5 Road Bandits’ Parasails
Furiosa Introduces New Hang-Gliding And Parasailing Bandits For Dynamic Action.
The first time the War Rig is seen in action in Furiosa, the supply convoy then led by Jack is attacked by road bandits driving a variety of motorcycles and smaller cars, some of which include hang-gliding and parasailing features. This allows them to attack the War Rig from above — not that it does them much good, as the Rig is durable enough to get away with little damage. However, the “flying” bandits are another example of how the general population in Mad Max continues to innovate and come up with creative new ways to establish themselves as contenders in the Wasteland.
The idea of the airborne bandits was conceptualized for Fury Road but shelved until Miller revisited it for Furiosa. According to Miller (via SlashFilm):
“In ‘Fury Road,’ […] there was a scene, a very brief scene, where someone was seen flying around on some sort of parasail sailing thing. It was storyboarded. But when we came to shooting it, […] we thought, ‘It’s unnecessary.’ But the idea was there. […] “I remember [Guy Norris] said, as we were devising the [Furiosa] sequence, he said, ‘How about we go back to these flying people in the air so we’re not only shooting underneath the war rig, or inside the cabin of the war rig, or on top of it or the back of it, but let’s have it attack from above, rather than the Pole Cats.’ So that’s how we started on that sequence.”
Therefore, the parasailing concept allowed Furiosa to claim another unique mode of transportation seen for the first time in this specific movie. The Mad Max movies will always face the challenge of coming up with more interesting vehicles, but they have not failed yet with Furiosa. It remains to be seen what other new ideas will appear in Mad Max 5.
4 Furiosa & Jack’s Valiant
The Classic And Versatile Getaway Car Of Furiosa
The 1962 Plymouth Valiant notably served as Taylor-Joy’s stunt training car before it was used in the movie. The War Rig carries this car on another run to the Bullet Farm, loaded with two motorcycles itself, as Furiosa and Jack are planning to leave for the Green Place. However, their plans go awry when they arrive at the Bullet Farm to discover that Dementus has already taken it. Jack drives the War Rig during this fight sequence while Furiosa commandeers another vehicle to help him, as the Valiant is trapped outside the Farm’s gate.
After Furiosa gets Jack, they flee in the Valiant but are overtaken by Dementus in the Six Foot. With 145 hp and 215 lb-ft of torque, the Valiant can’t compare to the more powerful vehicles in the movie — but this hardly matters when the classic car is so beloved by the cast.“Driving around in that is pretty unbelievable,” says Taylor-Joy. If the legacy Max Mad movies take place in the mid-21st century, the Valiant would have been around 70 to 80 years old by the time Furiosa drives it, and it still serves her well.
3 Mary Jabassa & Furiosa’s Stolen Bikes
Motorcycles Are Simple Yet Reliable In The Mad Max World
A single motorcycle can be associated with a lone rider who has no other resources, venturing into the Wasteland to pursue a dangerous goal.
In Furiosa’s opening sequence, Furiosa is kidnapped by bikers working for Dementus and taken from the Green Place. Her mother Mary Jabassa pursues them, shooting one of the bikers and commandeering his motorcycle to keep up. Mary Jabassa switches out her vehicle at one point when the remaining bandits leave one of their bikes behind. Despite the Vulvani appearing to be a less technologically advanced community, illustrated by Mary Jabassa and another woman initially riding a horse to rescue Furiosa, they are quick to adapt and still proficient with most vehicles and weaponry.
A regular motorcycle is not going to stand up to any of the larger battle vehicles in Mad Max, but it is useful if a character needs to make an escape. A single motorcycle can be associated with a lone rider who has no other resources, venturing into the Wasteland to pursue a dangerous goal. Mary Jabassa is on her own for most of her pursuit, making the best out of whatever supplies she picks up along the way.
Furiosa mirrors her mother years later when she steals one of Dementus’ bandits’ bikes and escapes his gang, having just lost her arm, in the scene that constitutes a major plot hole in Furiosa. The fleets of bikes in Furiosa were redesigned to look as though they belonged in the apocalyptic setting, rather than being a newly-made motorcycle of the modern day. Miller said (AP News):
“We were fortunate that BMW, Harley Davidson and Yamaha all came to the party and gave us generously of their beautiful machines knowing that there was no exclusivity and that by the time I got through with them, their mother wouldn’t recognize them.”
The Mad Max team dedicates time and energy to making every bike look weathered enough for the setting, characteristic of the on-hand vehicles that Furiosa or another character will use in a moment of desperation.
2 Furiosa’s Cranky Black
Furiosa Drives An Unexpected Choice For Her Final Confrontation With Dementus
“Furiosa ultimately has that vehicle we call the Cranky Black that’s an expression of who she is at the end of the movie,” says Miller (AP News). The older model has a meaner look, and even though it might not be the strongest car in the movie (229 hp and 277 lb-ft of torque), Furiosa can make it work with some modifications. She drives this vehicle when she pursues Dementus alone, following the 40-day battle between the War Boys and Dementus’ forces for the Citadel. The subsequent scene is transformative for her, characterized by her and Dementus’ intense, private conversation.
Here is where Furiosa makes her ultimate decision about how she will face what Dementus has done to her. While her choice may be interpreted as more hopeful, the car still reflects Furiosa’s relentless and merciless reputation that she will come to be known for in the Wasteland. Taylor-Joy particularly enjoyed Cranky Black’s understated yet scary look: “Like, the Cranky Black has human teeth all along the inside, which is so cool” (AP News).
1 Max’s Interceptor
Mad Max And His Signature Vehicle Make A Cameo In Furiosa
Max has a cameo in Furiosa, for which he is played by Tom Hardy’s stunt double Jacob Tomuri, as Max’s face is not seen and Hardy’s presence was not necessary. He stands on a cliff next to his rebuilt car, implied to be the same moment as the opening shot of Fury Road. Here Max witnesses Furiosa escaping Dementus but does not help her. The car seen next to him is none other than Max’s iconic Ford Falcon XB GT Coupe 1973, commonly known as the V8 Interceptor.
Max does not use the Interceptor much in Fury Road as it is taken from him when he is captured by the War Boys at the beginning of the movie. The car is used by the War Boys and destroyed in the chase to recapture the Wives. Despite the franchise’s confusing timeline, the Interceptor is a constant, as Max has been using it since he was a police officer. Its cameo in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a perfect accompaniment to Max’s cameo, especially if this is the last time the car appears in the franchise.
How The Cars In Furiosa Compare To The Rest Of The Mad Max Franchise
It was evident from the moment the Furiosa trailers dropped that the prequel would follow the precedent set by Mad Max: Fury Road and lean as heavily as it could into the post-apocalyptic aesthetic with its various vehicles. Earlier entries in the Mad Max franchise featured their fair share of cobbled-together cars, but it was Fury Road that took things to the next level when it came to exploring the potential of war-machines assembled from nothing but scrap parts.
The new cars in Furiosa continued this trend, but there were also a few subtle throwbacks to earlier entries in the franchise. For example, Furiosa and Jack’s Valiant was still more-or-less recognizable as the original vehicle it had been adapted from. This was a fitting choice for Furiosa as a protagonist, as the same was the case with Mad Max’s iconic Interceptor. Both had been modified, of course, but neither to the same degree as (for example) the two Cadillacs Immortan Joe dissected when assembling the Gigahorse.
Other vehicles, such as the War Rig, were similar to designs from earlier entries in the franchise. In the case of the War Rig, it’s clear to see how it was inspired by the tanker from Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior. However, the Furiosa cars also managed to be innovative. Designs like the chariot Dr. Dementus rides don’t have a comparison, and the paragliders were also an entirely new direction for the franchise.
Source: apnews.com, SlashFilm
