My favorite part of Mad Max: Fury Road is the circus
There are many things that cause it Mad Max: Fury Road one of the most enduring crowd-pullers of the century. Dangerous stunts, a fantastic and deep cast, extremely quotable dialogue, breathtaking images. But one of the most important elements of the film, and the Mad Max franchise in general, is its evocative character design.
The War Boys and The Doof Warrior get a fair amount of attention, and rightly so: their designs are vibrant and very memorable, and before a recent rewatch, they were the characters I remembered best. But there is one group that I feel has been overlooked and that I have gained a new appreciation for on recent re-listening: The Rock Riders.
Image: Warner Bros.
The Rock Riders are a group of motorcycle-riding bandits who live in a canyon right in the path of Furiosa’s breakaway convoy in Furieweg. Furiosa made a deal with them to exchange Guzzolene for safe passage, but the Rock Riders reneged on that deal when they saw how angry Immortan Joe was over Furiosa’s betrayal.
Image: Warner Bros.
That leads to a really cool sequence where Furiosa and her crew fight the Rock Riders as their motorcycles jump over The War Rig and repeatedly drop bombs on it. It’s like a circus act pops up in the middle of it Furiewegwhich injects some extra life and excitement into a film already full of it.
The circus act is not far away: the origin of the Rock Riders came from a beach trip by co-writer Brendan McCarthy. While at a surf cafe, a video caught his attention of bikers doing eye-popping stunts. He pitched the idea of bikers jumping Furiosa’s truck to George Miller (who of course loved it), and they hired professional motocross riders from all over the world to run the sequence.
Furieweg consists of a lot of great action scenes, yes, but they work in large part because of the character designs behind them and the hard work that goes into making them happen. The Rock Riders may not get as much attention as some of their bandit brethren, but they deserve recognition for this excellent series.