Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga ending explained
"There will always be war. But to get home, Furiosa fought the world."
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"Ladies and Gentlemen! Start your engines." Chris Hemsworth as Dementus in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
45 years after the first Mad Max film, and in continuity 45 years after the collapse of society, the story of Charlize Theron, Anna-Taylor Joy, and Alyla Browne's Furiosa begins in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga. While it doesn't hurt to watch all of the previous Mad Max films (we have a guide for it here), you don't need to know the Wasteland timeline (but here, take this!) to understand, appreciate, and let out a rallying cry as you watch George Miller's latest.
But in the afterglow of watching it in theaters, you likely have some questions about what went on in the 2-hour, 28-minute film - especially that one scene, and that post-credaits scene. Like Furiosa herself, we won't leave you behind - we're coming back to save you - with context.
Spoilers ahead, war boy. And remember, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in theaters now - and you can buy tickets on Fandango or Atom Tickets.
What happened in the Furiosa ending?
In the final minutes of the standalone Furiosa movie, Anna Taylor-Joy's Furiosa finally catches up with Chris Hemsworth's Dementus - the man whose men abducted a young Furiosa from her home, and then personally killed her mother in a botched attempt at saving her.
Furiosa, fully reborn in the garb and paint of Immortan Joe's Citadel warriors as an Imperator, chases Dementus into the Wasteland and single-handedly takes down his last remaining allies before circling back like a wolf mother to take him out once and for all. She first sneaks up on him as he's holed up after a sandstorm, and disables his motorbike and slashes a whole in his water canteen, and then begins to methodically prowl on him in her vehicle as he runs away.
Dementus finally gives into his fate and leaves himself vulnerable to Furiosa, and after a futile attempt to steal her knife, comes to realize this adult-Furiosa is the little girl he kidnapped - the girl he nicknamed 'Little D'. After a taut, slow-burn deliberation on how Dementus was to be killed - along with an unnamed storyteller talking (and showing) of possible ways Dementus could die - it is revealed that, as far as the storyteller was told by Furiosa, she let him survive - but in a brutal way.
According to the storyteller, Furiosa chained Dementus to a peak of the Citadel and planned a fruit seed in his groin - which over the years grew and overtook his body, while he was still alive. The vision of a fruit tree growing from the naked body of a withering Chris Hemsworth is a weatheing final moment for the main movie itself.
Where is Furiosa set in the Mad Max timeline?
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga begins 45 years after societal collapse in the '70s with a young Furiosa (played by Alyla Browne) living in the Green Place of Many Mothers. Roughly dating to the late 2010s or early 2020s, this would place the time as sometime after the last Mel Gibson Max Max movie, Beyond Thunderdome.
About one third of the way through the film, it fast forwards to a more-adult Furiosa (played by Anna-Taylor joy) for a series of event speculating to account for 2-3 years, which would roughly be in the 2030s - about a decade before the events of Mad Max: Fury Road.
The film ends with Furiosa as a trusted liege in Immortan Joe's army, with the credits interspersed with scenes from Mad Max: Fury Road.
How did Furiosa lose her arm?
Charlize Theron's Furiosa having a mechanical arm (in replacement for her own) was an arresting image in all of Mad Max: Fury Road, and in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga we see how she lost it - and what she lost with it.
After she is abducted by Dementus' Biker Horde and imprisoned, a young Furiosa tattoos a star-chart map to remember how to go back to her homeland should she ever have the chance. But during the course of the film, that same arm - her left - is ground up in a particularly brutal car chase. As she has the arm sticking out the car window, Dementus' monster truck crushes into that side of the car and mangles her arm with it.
Furiosa's arm isn't completely gone here though - it isn't until Dementus strings her up by one arm to watch as Dementus' cronies kill her partner Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) that she loses her arm. But she doesn't just loose it - she tears it off herself in order to escape Dementus' clutches. But with it, she loses the map tattooed on her arm that could help her return home.
Does Charlize Theron appear in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?
George Miller originally hoped to use CGI de-aging technology to have Charlize Theron reprise her role as a younger Furiosa in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, but ultimately decided against it due to limitations in that technology. That led to casting Anna Taylor-Joy as a younger Furiosa, but there was speculation that Theron would find herself in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga one way or another.
And she does - but not in the way you think. While Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga does include characters from previous Max Max films (and one surprising cameo), Charlize Theron only appears in Furiosa in the form of scene excerpts played in the closing credits of the film.
Were there any Furiosa surprise appearances?
We were hoping you'd ask.
Mad Max does indeed appear in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga - but he's been re-cast, once again. In a scene where Furiosa is left standed in the Wasteland, we see Mad Max and his Interceptor on a clifftop watching her - with his back turned to the camera. That's all we see of him, but from the way the film is cut we're led to believe he saves her and brings her back to the Citadel.
Who plays Mad Max in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga?
While both Tom Hardy and Mel Gibson have openly said they'd love to reprise thier roles as Mad Max, for one reason or another writer/director/creator George Miller decided to go a different route. In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, actor/stuntman Jacob Tomuri plays Mad Max in the aforementioed cameo. But he's intended to be Tom Hardy's Mad Max.
How do we know? Tomuri has found a career for himself as Hardy's prefered stuntman, working with him on Mad Max: Fury Road, Legend, The Revenant, and Venom. For Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Jacob Tomuri not only played Mad Max but was also one of the film's many stunt coordinators.
Were there any Furiosa post-credits scenes?
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga has two things worth sitting through the credits for.
During the Furiosa credit scenes themselves, snippets from Mad Max: Fury Road are interspliced - in a way, telling an abbreviated sequel to the movie you just witnessed.
The Furiosa post-credits scene is quick close-up view of the crow skull bobblehead that Nux (Nicholas Hoult) had in Mad Max: Fury Road, shaking as if the vehicle it is in is being driven.
Did Mad Max appear in Furiosa?
Does Furiosa set up Mad Max: Fury Road?
While Furiosa; A Mad Max Saga doesn't hook up to Mad Max: Fury Road like a tanker truck and a tanker, it does very succinctly establish Furiosa, Immortan Joe, and the Citadel - which is the main conceits of Fury Road.
Is there another Mad Max movie after this?
Although the Mad Max movies are about the end of the world, there's no end in sight for the Mad Max movies. Back in 2015, Tom Hardy said his contract for Mad Max: Fury Road stipulated he's bound to star in three additional Mad Max films. Miller backed up that statement, saying that direct sequel to Fury Road was already planned titled Mad Max: The Wasteland. In 2019, Miller said the project was still in the works - but was delayed over a legal matter between he and Warner Bros. that has since been settled.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is in theaters now - if you got confused (or haven't got there yet), we have a guide to all the big questions with that ending. Get more with articles on Furiosa's new ride, an itinerary on how (and where) to watch all the Mad Max movies in chronological or release order, and the Mad Max movies' entire timeline explained.
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