Trailer Trashin’: Welcome Back to the Wasteland in Mad Max: Fury Road

After another longer-than-expected absence, I’m back, dear readers, and I’m hoping to get this column back on something approaching a regular schedule. More importantly, this week finally sees the release of Guardians of the Galaxy, which I hope to be watching by the time you’re reading these words. But it’s never too early to look ahead to what’s coming out next year, and this Trailer Trashin’ column examines our first look at a film that’s definitely on my radar for next year: Mad Max: Fury Road.

Premise: An apocalyptic story set in the furthest reaches of our planet, in a stark desert landscape where humanity is broken, and most everyone is crazed and fighting for the necessities of life. Within this world are two rebels on the run, who just might be able to restore order. One is “Mad” Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy), a man of action and few words, who seeks peace of mind following the loss of his wife and child. The other is Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a woman of action who believes her path to survival may be achieved if she can make it across the desert back to her childhood homeland.

My take: There was plenty of cool stuff coming out of San Diego Comic-Con this past weekend, such as our first look at Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman in Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the news that Mothra, Rodan, and King Ghidorah might be in the next Godzilla film. But my favorite thing to come out of this year’s Con was the first footage of George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road, the long-awaited fourth entry in the Australian filmmaker’s venerable action franchise. I haven’t actually seen any of the previous Mad Max films, so Fury Road hadn’t held much interest for me. But after seeing this trailer, the movie has shot up my list of anticipated films for 2015.

In terms of the cast, the main focus is on Tom Hardy, taking over the role of Max from Mel Gibson, although we surprisingly don’t hear him speak in this trailer apart from his voiceover at the beginning. Hardy has proven both his action and dramatic chops in numerous films, and I’m glad to see him in the lead of a big film like this. We also see plenty of Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa, the woman that Max is forced to team up with. Theron is an actress whose work I’ve always admired, especially her willingness to dramatically change her appearance for a role. Plus she just looks really bad ass here, with her shaved head and robotic arm. The pale guy with the long hair and wearing the freaky tooth-mask is character actor Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe, the main villain. Keays-Byrne is a familiar name to fans of this series, because he previously played the villain Toecutter in the original Mad Max (1979), and he also played the character Grunchik on the TV series Farscape. We also briefly see Nicholas Hoult – best known as Beast in X-Men: First Class (2011) and X-Men: Days of Future Past – as Joe’s henchman Nux, although he’s almost unrecognizable with his head shaved and the scarring around his mouth. The five young women in the dirty white robes are the Brides – Zoë Kravitz as Toast, Abbey Lee as The Dag, Riley Keough as Capable, Courtney Eaton as Fragile, and Rosie Huntington-Whiteley as Splendid – a group of women who were being kept by Immortan Joe and who Furiosa is helping get to safety.

Although we don’t know her character’s name, the dark-haired woman with the shotgun who appears briefly is played by Megan Gale, who was supposed to play Wonder Woman back when George Miller was attached to make a Justice League movie back in 2008. And yes, many of these character names are pretty ridiculous, but I find that to be part of the charm of this franchise. Let’s not forget that the previous films had characters with names like Lord Humungus, Aunty Entity, Slake M’Thirst, and Dr. Dealgood, so it’s not like this is anything new.

The thing that impresses me most about this trailer is the visuals and action. This movie looks completely insane in the best possible way. I read an interview with Miller where he said he wants the film to essentially be a feature-length chase scene, which sounds like a crazy idea. But if this trailer is any indication, he might have pulled it off. The car chase stuff here looks amazing, and I really appreciate that it appears to have been largely done with practical effects. And I just love all the little details, such as the two-headed gecko, the tattoo on Max’s back that details his medical history, the combination wrench attached to the side of Furiosa’s robot arm, and the gearshift lever topped with a chrome skull.

As I said earlier, I have yet to see any of the three previous Mad Max films; not because I don’t want to, I just haven’t had the opportunity. But this trailer is the perfect impetus for me to finally get off my ass and watch them. This film has now gone from something I was mildly curious about to one of my most anticipated releases of 2015. When mid-May rolls around next summer, I will definitely be checking out Mad Max: Fury Road at my local theater.

ANTICIPATION: Yes, I think we do need another hero.