Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is now streaming on Max, and it has plenty of great scenes that are well worth revisiting, from Octoboss’ attack on the War Rig to Furiosa’s final act of vengeance against Dementus. Although it received rave reviews from critics and expanded on one of the most popular action blockbusters of the past decade, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga unfortunately bombed at the box office. This means that the future of the Mad Max franchise is uncertain. But Furiosa’s arrival on streaming is a second chance for the film to find a wide audience.
George Miller is one of the greatest action filmmakers working today, and from The Road Warrior to Fury Road, his Mad Max movies have delivered some of the most exhilarating set-pieces ever put on film. Miller’s commitment to practical effects makes the action in his films feel totally real, and his Spielbergian command of clarity means that the audience never gets lost in the chaos. Every action sequence has a clear emotional hook for the viewer to latch onto, and that’s more evident than ever in the character-driven action of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
10Mary Picks Off Dementus’ Biker Horde
The Biker Horde Ambush
The epic tale of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga kicks off when a young Furiosa is kidnapped from the Green Place. Her vengeful mother Mary pursues her captors across the wasteland and sees them taking Furiosa back to their camp. Rather than going in guns blazing, Mary tactfully decides to snipe them from a distance. She picks off her daughter’s nefarious abductors from a vantage point, leaving just one still standing to deliver Furiosa to Dementus at the camp.
It’s easy to see where Furiosa’s signature badassness came from: she inherited it from her badass mom.
Mary ultimately fails her rescue mission as she’s crucified by Dementus, who then takes Furiosa under his wing as an unwilling adopted daughter. But before she loses her daughter to the warlord, Mary puts up a heck of a fight. It’s easy to see where Furiosa’s signature badassness came from: she inherited it from her badass mom.
9Dementus Attempts To Invade The Citadel
The Citadel Siege: A Battle for Survival
After taking Furiosa under his wing and learning about the Citadel run by Immortan Joe, Dementus naively decides to just wander into the Citadel and stage a siege. However, when he gets there, he finds that Joe isn’t particularly willing to just hand over his fortress. What Dementus didn’t count on was the War Boys’ unwavering loyalty to Joe and their almost religious willingness to sacrifice their own lives to protect his power.
This leads to one of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s greatest action sequences as the War Boys engage Dementus’ Biker Horde in an intense battle. The War Boys swing all across the Citadel, using their explosives to blow up bikers left and right. Miller gives the audience an emotional connection to the sequence as Furiosa tries to use the carnage as a cover to escape, but Dementus snatches her back in time.
8Building The War Rig
Engineering Survival
Not every rewatchable sequence in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is a high-octane action sequence. Granted, most of them are, because this movie is wall-to-wall action and its set-pieces are truly mind-blowing. But there’s a non-action-packed sequence that’s just as thrilling as any of the shootouts and car chases. After Furiosa escapes from Joe’s stable of wives and disguises herself among Joe’s men, she becomes a part of the team that builds the War Rig.
The construction of the War Rig makes for a really great montage that’s endlessly rewatchable. After being featured prominently in Mad Max: Fury Road, the War Rig has become a staple of pop culture and one of the most iconic vehicles in sci-fi cinema. The movie as a whole is an origin story for Furiosa, but this montage is an origin story for the Rig.
7Young Furiosa Speaks
Furiosa’s Early Rebellion
During her entire time as Dementus’ adopted daughter, young Furiosa refused to speak as an act of defiance against the man who killed her mother. This is perfect for Dementus, because there’s nothing he loves more than the sound of his own voice. And if Furiosa won’t say a word, then she won’t refute his lies. But that all changes when Dementus tells Immortan Joe that Furiosa is his daughter.
Suddenly, young Furiosa speaks up and reveals that Dementus murdered her mother and kidnapped her. Dementus tries to play it off, claiming he killed Furiosa’s mother as a favor to her, because it toughened her up. Seeing Dementus with his back against the wall like this is darkly hilarious, and Chris Hemsworth nails the humor of the scene. A good comedic sequence like this never gets old.
6Furiosa Escapes From Immortan Joe’s Vault
Defying the Oppressor
When Furiosa returns to the Citadel, Joe locks her away in the vault with all his similarly imprisoned wives. Initially, Furiosa tries to make do in her new life. But when Joe’s son Rictus starts making ominous sexual advances towards her, Furiosa starts plotting a way to escape.
One night, when Rictus breaks Furiosa out of Joe’s vault, she manages to escape his grasp using a wig made from her own hair.
Rictus takes chase, but Furiosa manages to escape his line of sight and immerse herself in the legions of Joe’s men. This sequence is infinitely rewatchable, because it’s a masterfully crafted escape scene and Furiosa’s actual escape is a moving triumph on every viewing. Miller builds the suspense spectacularly right up to Furiosa’s narrow escape. Even when a returning viewer knows where the scene is going, it keeps them on the edge of their seat.
5Dementus Ambushes Furiosa & Praetorian Jack At The Bullet Farm
A Fierce Fight
After Furiosa teams up with Praetorian Jack, a very Max-esque lone-wolf post-apocalyptic warrior, they decide to escape Joe’s rule together. They spy an opportunity to launch their escape when Joe starts plotting to attack Gastown, which has been run into the ground by Dementus’ crummy leadership. Joe sends Furiosa and Jack to pick up weapons and ammo for the assault from the Bullet Farm. Unfortunately for them, Dementus predicts that move.
Miller does a terrific job of building the tension as it seems less and less likely that Furiosa and Jack will make it out with their lives.
When Furiosa and Jack arrive at the Bullet Farm, they’re ambushed by Dementus and his goons. Miller does a terrific job of building the tension as it seems less and less likely that Furiosa and Jack will make it out with their lives. All the obstacles that Miller throws in Furiosa and Jack’s way as they try to get out makes their eventual escape all the more satisfying.
4Furiosa Chases Dementus Across The Wasteland
A Desperate Race
Furiosa and the People Eater manage to devise a strategy to give Joe the upper hand in his war against Dementus. Joe lures Dementus into a trap at the Citadel, where the War Boys are waiting to destroy his forces. Over the course of a blood-soaked 40-day war, the War Boys wipe out Dementus’ soldiers and leave Dementus panicking. But it’s not the War Boys that Dementus has to worry about; it’s Furiosa.
As Furiosa relentlessly pursues him through the barren desert, Dementus sends his goons off in different directions in an attempt to throw her off. But she tracks down all of them and doesn’t stop until she finally finds Dementus himself. This climactic chase recalls the vehicular carnage of Mad Max: Fury Road, which is essentially a feature-length car chase with the same sense of momentum.
3Furiosa Loses Her Arm
A Sacrifice for Survial
Whether or not this scene can be deemed rewatchable depends entirely on a given viewer’s tolerance for on-screen gore. One of the biggest questions going into Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga was: how did Furiosa lose her arm? She’s got a missing arm in Fury Road, but she has two arms at the beginning of Furiosa, so at some point, her arm was going to come off.
Miller came up with the nastiest way possible for Furiosa to lose her arm. After having her injured arm chained to a truck by Dementus as a method of torture, Furiosa ripped off her own arm, Deadpool-style, to free herself from the chains. Not only was this a totally unexpected way for Furiosa to lose her arm; it gave her character a surprising amount of agency (in a really messed-up way).
2Octoboss Attacks The War Rig
A Battle for Survival
There are many great action sequences in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but arguably the greatest is when the Octoboss attacks the War Rig. Furiosa and her team have just been seen designing the Rig to withstand any kind of possible attack from raiders during its journeys across the wasteland. And right after its completion, Miller puts it to the test by having Dementus’ rogue lieutenant, the Octoboss, launch an aerial assault on the Rig.
It’s a truly spectacular action sequence that will never get old.
Not only is this a fast-moving, pedal-to-the-metal showdown on wheels recalling the best action beats from Mad Max: Fury Road; it’s also the catalyst for Furiosa and Jack’s team-up. After Jack’s entire crew is killed, he and a stowaway Furiosa reluctantly join forces to fend off the Octoboss’ henchmen. It’s a truly spectacular action sequence that will never get old.
1Furiosa’s Final Revenge Is Revealed
Justice Served
The entire episodic epic of Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is driven by Furiosa’s unceasing desire to exact revenge against Dementus for murdering her mother. After chasing him across the wasteland and picking off his goons, Furiosa finally has Dementus alone and unarmed in the middle of nowhere. After all that build-up, it would’ve been a huge let-down if Furiosa’s revenge amounted to a bullet in the back or something equally underwhelming.
Thankfully, Miller had something a little wilder in mind. He had a typically twisted revenge scheme up his sleeve all along. According to the History Man, Furiosa took Dementus back to the Citadel and used her mother’s peach pit to plant a tree in Dementus’ still-living body. This was a gruesomely satisfying, oddly poetic, and endlessly rewatchable way to end Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
