There are many films that fit the label of
a Sh*t Show, but nothing quite like Mad Max: Fury Road. Plagued by war and weather, Director
George Miller’s long in the making sequel, faced a decade of delays before he
shot a single scene. But once on set, things just got worse. Harsh weather,
life threatening stunts, actor feuds, studio interference, everything about the
movie is a prime example of a Sh*t Show. It was the mid 70s, and a young Australian
named George Miller had just finished his residency as an emergency room doctor. And like
most medical professionals who see the horrific violence of car crashes, Miller chose to
direct a movie about violence and cars. "And there's no question the Mad Max
was influenced by my childhood in rural Queensland. Completely flat roads, loamy soil,
heat haze, burnt land, with a very intense car culture. By the time we were out of our teens,
several of our - of our peers had already been killed or badly injured in car accidents. Kind
of got into me. I - kind of disturbed me quite a bit and I think all those things kind of
were part of the mix of the Mad Max films." With the help of his friend and producer Byron
Kennedy, and a bunch of their school buddies, Miller directed the 1979 indie classic,
Mad Max. The revenge fueled action film, starred the completely unknown Mel
Gibson, cost under $400 thousand dollars, and took in a worldwide total of $100 million.
To put that in perspective, in 2020 dollars, their return on investment was over $350
million. Not bad for a first movie that was mostly shot illegally along the Australian
outback. So, of course they made a sequel! Mad Max 2 in 1981 (also known as The Road
Warrior in the US) wasn’t nearly as big of a hit, grossing less than half of the
original. But what it lacked in receipts, it more than made up for with it’s stamp on
pop culture. Miller’s precise direction created an action classic that many still consider
one of the greatest. And his uncompromising vision is exactly what you think of when
someone says “post-apocalyptic,” as the film invented that visual style, which
has since been imitated for decades, from Waterworld to the Fallout games to the
Lego Movie, and even a Utah Highways ad campaign (I thought this guy was Mel Gibson for years). Another sequel was obviously in the
cards, but while in preparation, Miller’s friend Byron Kennedy, who co-created
the world of Mad Max, died in a helicopter crash. "We were like film-making brothers, and - so that
had a big effect. And then there was this sort of need to - sort of let's do something just to
get over the shock and grief of all of that." Miller reluctantly started a third Mad Max
film, while partially handing the reins over to co-director George Ogilvie. 1985’s
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome happily shows the backing of a big Hollywood budget. The
film has its own charm and moments, but is widely regarded as the weaker sequel. George
Miller decided to move on from the character. For the next decade, Miller inched his way into
Hollywood, but mostly withdrew from directing. In 1993, Warner Bros who distributed the Mad
Max films outside of Australia, hired Miller to helm an adaptation of Carl Sagan’s novel,
Contact. He worked on the film for two years, but in that time, the script still wasn’t final,
no budget was submitted, and the only thing the fastidious Miller had truly accomplished was
casting Jodie Foster. Warner Bros fired him without warning, and gave Robert Zemeckis
the job. Miller sued for breach of contract and in the 1997 settlement, he acquired full
rights to the Mad Max franchise. A year later, 13 years removed from Beyond Thunderdome,
Miller crossed a street in LA and suddenly an idea popped into his head. “What if there
was a ‘Mad Max’ movie that was one long chase, and the MacGuffin was human?”
...wait, what is a MacGuffin? Glad you asked Ian! A MacGuffin is a term commonly
used in fiction. Plainly it's something that moves the plot forward. It could be, find this person:
"Who gives a sh*t! Where is Doug?" Or find this object:
"The stones are in the past. We could go back, we could get them." It might be something rather pointless: "He peed on my rug!"
"He peed on the Dude's rug." "Donnie, you're out of your element!" Or world-ending:
"One ring to bring them all. And in the darkness bind them!"
Have a deeper meaning: "Rosebud..."
"It was his sled from when he was a kid. There I just saved you two long boobless hours."
Or you might never know what it is. Hell, both the Harry Potter and Indiana Jones series
have the MacGuffin right there in the title. And in the case of Mad Max: Fury Road, the
MacGuffin is Immortan Joe's runaway wives. Oh... thank you!
You're welcome! To Miller, once an idea burrows into his
head, he’ll stop at nothing to get it out. He spent the next 3 years perfecting the script,
calling it Fury Road. Once he had it locked, he reunited with the now superstar
Mel Gibson, to pull it off. This time, a clearly confident 20th Century Fox was ready
to shell out $100 million to see it through (ten times what Beyond Thunderdome cost).
Production was all set for the end of 2001, in the desolate Namibian Desert in Africa. Then
September 11th. The world was rattled and the US economy fell on shaky ground, forcing the
budget to escalate at an alarming rate. So Fox pushed the shooting date to March of 2003. Miller
and his team patiently waited a year and half. "So we wait." However, once that shooting date approached,
the US was preparing for war and Islamophobia was setting in. This time, travel restrictions
made things nigh impossible, and filming in an African country (where Muslims might live!)
terrified investors. Fury Road was deserted. By 2006, Gibson said the movie was dead and
that he was getting too old for it anyway. Miller started conversations with fellow
Aussie, Heath Ledger, to pick up the mantle, but Miller too decided to move on and pursue
a film placed in a different lonely wasteland: Antarctica. He directed the animated feature
Happy Feet... for Warner Bros (apparently the two parties mended their relationship). The film
was a big success, and won Best Animated Film at the Oscars, so Warner Bros wanted to stay in
the George Miller business. They gave him, of all things, a $200 million dollar adaptation
of the Justice League of America. Miller wanted to film in Australia and turn his home country
into a thriving production destination, much like how Lord of the Rings turned New
Zealand into the production juggernaut it is today. But that film ended up being
its own sh*t show and was never made. By the time Miller got around to Mad Max again,
his work on Happy Feet gave him the idea of just making Fury Road animated. He teased the R-Rated
3D anime in March of 2009, but by May, he was back to location scouting in Australia. And in October,
Mad Max 4: Fury Road was officially announced, to start shooting by the end of 2010, with Warner
Bros producing. The casting rumors immediately started. Gibson was obviously a no, because he
was, let’s say, not very well liked anymore. Jeremy Renner fought hard for the role of Max,
but Miller went with Tom Hardy, after seeing him back to back in Bronson and the TV movie Stuart:
A Life Backwards. He saw an actor with range. "It was that thing - that when the
moment Tom - he walked through the door, I felt that same - whatever that feeling is, that I felt when Mel Gibson first
walked in the door, 30 odd years ago." Alongside Hardy, Charlize Theron was
cast in a role sizable enough that Miller toyed with shooting two films
back to back, the other being Mad Max: Furiosa, titled after Theron’s character.
Either way, Fury Road was picking up speed. In Late 2010, it was actually happening.
Crews arrived in Broken Hill, Australia; the same desert location they filmed The
Road Warrior. Miller was hoping once again to kickstart Australia’s film business. They shipped
dozens of vehicles built years ago to the site, constructed a few dozen more, and plowed roads
for shooting... just in time before a heavy rain storm. But that storm was massive, and dropped
rain on Broken Hill that had not been seen in over a century. When the cast arrived two weeks before
production, instead of apocalyptic barren sand dunes, the landscape had bloomed into a wonderland
of wildflowers. Dumbfounded and without options, the producers pulled the plug, putting everything
into storage, and Theron shaved her head for no reason. Warner Bros still believed in the project,
and suggested Miller wait for the desert to dry up, and restart then. It didn’t. Miller waited
a year and a half, yet the flowers remained. Apparently he had enough time to direct a Happy
Feet sequel, so it wasn’t all a waste (though it was widely panned). He said screw it and
decided to head back to Namibia, Africa. In June 2012, all 150 vehicles were
shipped to Africa, Theron shaved her again, and cameras finally rolled on Fury Road.
And that's when things got bad. First off, the Namib Desert was a rollercoaster of
an environment. The first 3 weeks were hounded by unpredictable, blinding dust
storms, putting a pause on all filming. "Oh what a day! What a lovely day!" At the worst of times, temperatures would
reach over 110 degrees one day and, weirdly, drop below freezing on another. And most of the
cast weren’t exactly dressed for it. Then there was the sheer scale of the production, and
the many ways people could have died on set. Miller knew he wanted his film to never break the
laws of gravity, and to him, that meant filming everything for real, and not leaning on CG as a
crutch. He was adamant that everything had to look dangerous. But doing so would require meticulous
planning and some truly harrowing stunts, in and around fast moving vehicles. This film was
going to live or die (figuratively AND literally) through Miller’s stunt team, led by Guy Norris.
Norris’ first film was The Road Warrior, playing one of the villains, as well as being his own
stunt man. He even broke his leg on that movie, so Norris felt an immense responsibility in making
sure Fury Road went injury free. As Hardy said, their methodical professionalism kept things
from getting dangerous… or at least not as dangerous. Each day demanded hours of
preparation for every vehicle on screen and behind it. Not only was it a safety-first
operation, it was also like solving a gigantic math problem. All this combined made Miller
insanely nervous each time he called action. Having crafted this story for so long, Miller
(along with co-writers Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris) had pages upon pages about
each character and gang. Yet he deliberately wanted the film to have as little dialogue as
possible, therefore the entire film was laid out in storyboards. To the point that there was no
screenplay for Fury Road... only 3500 hand drawn black and white panels of every shot of the movie.
For the cast and crew standing in Miller’s office, it sold them completely on a project that seemed
to have every detail ironed out. But in practice, in the middle of the desert, without a script?
The cast had little to wrap their heads around what was currently being filmed on any given day.
Miller would construct elaborate half-day set ups with dozens of vehicles and actors in frame, and
only film seconds of it. He had mapped out the whole film in his mind, but it was difficult
for him to relay his vision. And he was so focused on the safety of everyone involved, he had
little time for the actors and their questions. "You know... I know what I'm doing." [Laughter] This gnawed at Tom Hardy, and it would
turn into explosive arguments with Miller. "And George will ask you to do things, which
may seem insane... and they are. And then when you see the movie, having been there, and I see
what he meant now, and he was trying to explain in the sand, when we were out there... and it
was a nightmare! [Laughs] A brilliant nightmare! And confusing. You're not really in
a movie, you're in George's head." The actresses who played the five wives, were
all relative newcomers and terrified by the utter madness Miller had orchestrated. They
latched onto Theron as a guide. But Theron herself was having doubts Miller knew what
he was doing. Having experienced directors who fail at their promises, she started
putting up emotional barriers. Meanwhile Hardy’s insecurities about replacing
Gibson got the better of him. Then life started imitating the art. Theron and
Hardy entered a relationship gauntlet, driven by exhaustion and survival,
frequently bursting into yelling matches. "It set up the two characters to be that,
and there were days on the shoot where Tom and I felt that way towards each other. And
I think it was impossible not to have that. I think even if you don't believe that material
affects you, it's an impossible notion. When you're living something and doing something for
eight months straight, it's just is under your skin and you want it to be under your skin, as
an actor. And so there were days where I think it was almost just easier for us to show
up and deal with each other in that way." When asked about their time on set,
and their heavily rumored feud, Theron and Hardy portray a mental and
physical crucible, where they grew to outright hate each other. But through that,
gained a fierce respect for one another. As production continued to fall behind
and run over budget, Jeff Robinov, then president of Warner Bros, ran out of
patience. He visited the set in October and drew a line in the sand. December 8th would be
the last day shooting, regardless of how much was done. When that day came, Miller had yet to
shoot anything for the beginning or ending of the movie (essentially everything at The Citadel).
His movie was forced into post-production, with no explanation of why Furiosa was on
the run, or why Max was tied to the front of a car, or who the bad guys were, and,
even worse, no conclusion to any of it. "And this goes on and on, and back
and forth for 90 or so minutes, until the movie just sort of ends." "That is brilliant!" The cast and crew left Africa,
amazingly, without a single injury, but not with a finished film. Miller retreated
home. The six months of raw anxiety had left him skinny and defeated. He spent the next full
year with his wife and editor, Margaret Sixel, cutting the film without a solution. All
the while Warner Bros kept a watchful eye, constantly wanting the film to come under a 100
minutes, possibly brought down to PG-13 rating, and questioned if that guitar
dude really needed to be in it. In June of 2013, Robinov was removed as the
president of Warner Bros and Kevin Tsujihara replaced him. Tsujihara was then given the task
of figuring out what to do with Mad Max. He met with Miller, who showed him a rough cut of
the film (besides the book ends of course, as well as CG). Tsujihara saw the potential
and elected to give Miller the chance to complete his vision. Miller was granted 3 weeks
of reshoots and an extended budget to finish the visual effects. He waited until his stars were
available, pulled his vehicles out of storage, and shipped them once again back to Australia (and
Theron shaved her head... again). That November, Hardy and Theron had cooled off and were ready
to reconcile (while also making sure all that pain was worth it). And Miller was given a
second chance that he wasn’t about to waste. He hammered out his beginning and end sequences,
including the climatic crash of the War Rig. Then drove the massive Doof Wagon into that, for
good measure. Ahh catharsis. On the last day, Hardy gave Theron a self-portrait, with
a note: "You are an absolute nightmare... but you are also f***ing awesome.
I'll kind of miss you. Love, Tommy." As much as people like to say that Fury Road was
all filmed practically (including George Miller), and was a return to classic filmmaking, the
movie actually uses an impressive amount of visual effects. And that isn’t a knock at
Fury Road. The difference is how seamless it is. Miller smartly blends the practical with
the CGI, where everyone walks out of the theater thinking it was all real. Then, it all came
down to the film’s absolute biggest hurdle; the editing room. Miller and Sixel had 450
hours of footage to scour through. For all the battles they had fought and won, the final
edit couldn’t be where they lost the war. If the film was too slow, too overwhelming
or too confusing, none of this would have been worth it. For the next year and a half,
Sixel constantly held test screenings then reworked scenes with the feedback. And using
a combination of rescaling and speed ramping, Miller and Sixel would maintain the viewer's focus
to a singular point between the rapid cuts to keep it from being jarring. A painstaking process that
explains the extremely long post-production time. Lastly, Tom Holkenborg’s gritty rock anthems
crucially helped Sixel tie the film together. Miller and Sixel locked picture two weeks before
release. 17 years after that one idea jumped into George Miller’s head, and 3 years after
production started, Mad Max 4 was finished. "I don't think I've ever hugged cast
and crew as much as I did on this film, when we were done. It was a really emotional
goodbye. We had really been through it. We had lived it. We were in it. You know,
it's still a very, very close family. And I don't think a lot of movies have
that, because it's just not enough time, where you really feel like you've seen
people at they're worse and you've seen them at their best. And - and at the end of the
day you just kind of go, 'we did it!'" [Laughs] In a dark room, filled with 6000 anxious fans,
George Miller debuted the first trailer of the fourth Mad Max film at 2014’s San Diego Comic
Con. Jaws hit the floor, the doors blew off. Production was so silent for so long, no one was
prepared for it, and they certainly couldn’t wait 10 months to see it. 36 years since Miller's
journey began and 30 years beyond Thunderdome, Mad Max: Fury Road reached theaters on May 15th,
2015. While Fury Road faced stiff competition from Avengers: Age of Ultron and couldn’t beat Pitch
Perfect 2 on opening weekend, the film was still a hit. And thanks to the phenomenal reviews, word of
mouth gave the film legs. Bone-crushingly intense, richly detailed, flawlessly edited and masterfully
directed. Audiences hadn’t seen anything like it. Fury Road instantly became a modern classic,
and topped critics’s lists not only for 2015, but for the decade. Upon seeing the
film, Hardy atoned for his behavior. "I have to apologize to you,
because I got frustrated. And I'm - there is no way that George
could have explained what I saw, which is a relentless barrage of complexities
simplified in a fairly linear story. I mean, I knew he was brilliant, but I didn't quite know
how brilliant until I saw that. That's - what my first reaction was 'oh my god, I owe
George an apology for being so myopic." "Thanks Tom."
"No, no. George, it's true." It was nominated for 10 Oscars, including Best Director and Best Picture,
a rarity for action movies. It won six. "What another lovely day." One of them being for Margaret Sixel’s editing.
Miller fought tooth and nail to bring his vision to life, it may have cost him years of misery (and
dragged others into it), but on the other side, he crafted a film for the ages and set
the scene for the future of the franchise. Oh god damnit!
