6 Lessons That Mad Max: Fury Road Can Teach Future Action Movies

Lesson 1: Your Hero Doesn’t Have To Be All That Heroic

There are two heroes of Fury Road: Max himself, and Charlize Theron’s Imperator Furiosa. From the outset, Max appears to be out for himself, even trying to beat the shit out of Furiosa and steal her truck, thus abandoning her and the Wives to recapture and potential execution. Even when he joins with the women, Max continues to be pretty silent and pretty reluctant, holding guns on his companions, grunting and growling his way through, and at one point almost taking the bike and running.

Only very late in the game does he attempt to do more than just go along for the ride. For her part, Furiosa’s motivations are murkier than Max’s – she claims that she is “searching for redemption,” although it is never made clear what has she done as an Imperator to make her feel like she needs to be redeemed.

In short: these are two heroes who often behave un-heroically. Neither Max nor Furiosa are any better than they appear. They do the right things for the right reasons, but they’re also destructive, damaged warriors, capable of exceptional cruelty and selfishness. Neither of them sits around ruminating on their flaws, however, they just go right ahead and get the job done.