Mad Max: Fury Road
2015
Australian filmmaker George Miller had already established the post-apocalyptic world inhabited by ex-cop Max Rockatansky in three previous movies, all starring Mel Gibson; his first sequel, known on these shores as The Road Warrior, had been considered the gold standard for dystopian car-chase extravaganzas. When it came time to revisit the character decades later, Miller decided he’d try to outdo himself by relying on practical, nondigital stunts. He succeeded. To watch
Tom Hardy’s world-weary Max, Charlize Theron’s one-armed protector Imperator Furiosa, her fugitive female wards, and a gaggle of biker-gang cosplayers and War Boy soldiers duke it out in the desert at 120 mph is to witness action moviemaking at its finest and most fearless. There isn’t a single moment when you feel like this ongoing clash of metal and bone is happening without real stakes, narratively and in terms of everyone’s safety. (“It was literally like going to war,” stunt coordinator Guy Norris said.) Fury Road is a turbocharged version of an action movie that makes every chase scene, explosion, and death-defying bit of business somehow feel organically crafted with both tremendous care and total abandon. Accept no substitutes.