Furiosa: This is the best action scene in the movie! How was this impressive 15 minutes prepared?

Warning, spoilers. Before continuing reading this article, it is recommended to watch the movie Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

Already at the French box office, Furiosa, the prequel to Fury Road, relaunches the Mad Max vehicle in the cinema. Almost ten years after the new Mad Max adventure, directed by Tom Hardy, George Miller offers a new film for the franchise, this time about the character of the Emperor, played by Charlize Theron.

The feature film Furiosa focuses on her younger years in a fallen world. Everything changes when he is removed from the green earth and captured by a horde of bikers led by the fearsome Dementus. As she tries to survive the desolation, the immortal Joe, and find her way home, Furiosa has only one obsession: revenge.

And it was a new actress who found it difficult to slip into the skin of this great hero: Anna Taylor-Joy, who gave 100% to this new role, with intense physical training.

Our podcast recap on ‘Furiosa’

A crazy 15-minute behind-the-scenes action scene

The actress, known for The Witch and popular since Split and The Queen’s Gambit, was chosen for this legendary role, and her intense training allowed her to perform in action scenes, especially the spectacular 15 minutes that were so talked about before the film’s release.

A pivotal sequence in the feature film, the Illegal Passenger scene, during which Furiosa secretly boards War Row, an incredible war carrier piloted by Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke).

Furiosa sets out to steal the Warbringer to return to Green Earth to her family, but the truck is vandalized and she has no choice but to reveal herself and help Praetorian Jack repel the attackers. He and Furiosa are the only survivors of this attack.

This impressive scene in the film took 2.5 months to shoot and 200 stuntmen, and faced many obstacles during the shoot, as producer Doug Mitchell* told us:

“We have 260 stuntmen working on stunts that make up 15 minutes of the film. But that scene took us 80 days to shoot. And on top of all that, there’s bad weather in Australia. We’ve had the worst weather of our lives. And then with Covid, people got sick and We had to quarantine, in my opinion, the risks were very, very high.

The challenges have been great, but our commitment is to make sure that it is absolutely and meticulously planned and that there are enough safety measures in place to ensure that no one gets hurt.”

A defining scene for Furiosa

The Stowaway Passenger sequence, highly calibrated and choreographed with as few special effects as possible, is crucial for Furiosa. It is from this moment that Jack, realizing his skills and abilities, decides to become Furiosa’s second-in-command. And during their missions, both develop feelings and dreams of escape.

“We discover him in a new light in this action sequence”Anya Taylor-Joy explained in the Furiosa press kit. “It’s actually the first time he can finally be himself, it’s the first time he’s not hiding when he’s trying to get away from it.”

And her encounter with Praetorian Jack allows her to come out of her silence and finally be herself. “He’s kind to her and offers her an opportunity, an attitude that’s completely at odds with the mores of the desolation—she’s up there.”Anya Taylor-Joy confirms.

“He’s becoming a Praetorian himself, and I believe he hasn’t felt this good at this point in his life in a long time. He deeply loves and respects someone he trusts to ‘help you achieve your goal.’she adds.

This explosive stage allows Furiosa to move more firmly towards her destiny and the other obstacles that await her as she builds her legend and plots her revenge.

*Comments collected by Megan Choquet on May 15 in Cannes.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is currently in theaters.