How Mad Max May Have Predicted Our Future?
Films reveal, twist, and challenge our societal expectations, allowing us to indulge in our guilty pleasures and challenge taboos. Directors and writers convey their ideologies, thoughts, and socio-political ideas through the celluloid screen. Often the realism of film and tv in describing our current state even accurately envisions our future; the most notable and infamous example of this is The Simpsons, where multiple episodes have correctly predicted events such as the 2016 election, the coronavirus pandemic, the Ebola outbreak, and even Greece’s economic downturn.
The Mad Max franchise is a blockbuster popcorn-thriller franchise, spanning thirty years, that movie-goers may think is merely conceived by one of the most imaginative minds in cinema, George Miller. On a more in-depth look, the collective films mimic and reflect socio-political tensions of the time and the future. They distinctively depict a post-apocalyptic future, showcasing rival gangs, thugs, and survivors fighting for clean resources and fuel in the Australian Badlands. The recent addition, Mad Max: Fury Road, is widely considered the best action movie of recent times. The themes and ideologies explored within the franchise are often topics of film analysis. Yet, their highly relevant socio-political messages warn us of the potential dangers of socio-environmental apathy and political incompetence. It’s a dark and dismal perspective of humanity’s worst.
The first film, released in 1979, is contextually rooted in global issues such as the Western economic turmoil, climate change realities, the oil crisis, and widespread war and revolution. Climate models in the 1970s started to outline the increasing global temperatures and its devastating impacts. Petrol and gas as precious resources and currency reflect the 1973 oil crisis and 1979 energy crisis, as a result of the Arab oil embargo and the Yom Kippur War targeting mainly Western nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom.
The effects of these global issues are heightened in the film’s landscape, atmosphere, and themes. The gang rivalry concentrates on the accumulation of petroleum as a source of power, negotiable resource, and currency. At the same time, the scorching heat of the Australian desert with water shortages and extreme weather conditions reflect the dangers of global warming and ecological collapse. There is no illusion of paradise as the environment deteriorates, land degrades, and biodiversity goes extinct. We turn our land into poison, and it poisons us.
Likewise, Mad Max: Fury Road has continuously been referred to as one of the greatest movies of the 21st century and the best action film of our times (for right reasons). It has resonating themes within the simple redemption arc. Max, our protagonist, is coerced by Imperator Furiosa, a rebel soldier, as they begin a race against time to save a group of enslaved young, pregnant women trafficked by Immortan Joe, the fascist overlord. While the plot appears simple – saving the underdogs, themes of anarchy, revolution, anti-capitalism, and feminism underlie.
Feminism is a predominant theme within the movie, with women making up half of the main cast and many of the supporting cast. The different female characters symbolize the diversity in the female condition in society and how the patriarchy can develop. The Five Wives represent the extreme in the subordination of women. They are restricted to their femininity and traditional gender preconceptions, trafficked and seen as only useful for their reproductive uses, and stripped of their individual identity. This is a nod to the extremely high rates of human trafficking and sexual slavery prevalent worldwide, especially in developing nations such as Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand.
On the other side of the spectrum lies Imperator Furiosa, her hair short, dressed in worn, masculine clothing, sporting a metal arm, and wielding a weapon throughout the film. She subverts gender expectations. Her masculine features, her stoic nature, and steely gaze underlie her keen sense of self, her moral compass, and fearsome personality. Furiosa represents a feminist warrior; she liberates the breeders, ensures the freedom and well-being of all citizens, and fights against the patriarchal tyrant. The Vuvalini of the Many Mothers, an all-female biker gang, serves as a midpoint of these female iterations. They appear resourceful and independent, while also taking care of the supposed Green Place. Femininity in all forms defies the patriarchy.
The atmosphere and setting of Fury Road is an anarchical late-capitalist wasteland. Women, men, and resources are reduced to commodities for trade and consumption of the elite few and upper class, i.e. Immortan Joe and his associates, and the War Boys – Joe’s personal army. They dehumanise and objectify citizens as Breeders or Blood Bags. Humans are only as valuable as their usefulness, for example, their reproductive uses, their youth, their blood type, and their blind devotion. Resembling the current prison-industrial complex, the film emphasizes the fetishization of human labour. They are no longer individuals with desires and wants, but workers and weapons segregated and labelled for their purpose. Immortan Joe is the tyrannical fascist overlord mercilessly ruling over the masses, controlling the strict flow of the economy, and hoarding precious resources, specifically water. Surrounding the Citadel, other small city-states and gangs co-exist with evil dictators. Similar to modern political leaders, he uses propaganda and fear-mongering to remain in power, promoting sacrifice and killing any deterrents.
Next in the hierarchy, the War Boys represent the violent, authoritarian military state and police brutality. Recently, global fascist and nationalist leadership surged with the backing of militia in countries such as Belarus, North Korea, and Russia. While nomads like Max represent the apathy of the common man at the state of humankind. From the start, Max is disillusioned, desensitized, and deeply affected by the condition. Yet, the film stresses that change is possible through his character arc. He aids and fights oppression. Revolution is at its core; masses attain class consciousness. Max, Furiosa, and The Five Wives overthrow an authoritative and vicious dictator and aid the people to freedom.
All of this sounds hugely familiar in our current socio-political climate. We are living in an era of political dissolution, rising nationalist and fascist government, the devastating effects of global warming, a global pandemic destroying our populations and our way of life, and constant socio-economic turmoil. Protests as a form of social discontent are widespread and worldwide. So George Miller might be trying to warn us of the ill effects of state-issued violence and societal collapse, aka our potential future. In his vision, the apocalypse is not an unforeseen and distant anti-society in the future; the seeds of discontent and turmoil are sown in the present. Our current unregulated capitalist society thrives on constant crisis and the exploitation of the disadvantaged. Thus societal decay is imminent if we continue down this destructive path.
On a more positive note, Mad Max is a story of survival and endurance; common themes of humanity, home, and matriarchy transcends the present or past. One crucial lesson Mad Max teaches us is that there is no paradise. It is an illusion. Capitalism encourages the notion that we need to work regular 9-to-5 jobs to save money for retirement and delayed gratification in our 60s and 70s. Like the masses discovering the water reserves and agriculture in their own Citadel, paradise is right under our nose. Resources are merely hoarded by rigid hierarchy and exploitation, which keeps us passive and oppressed. Life is complicated, and there are no shortcut solutions to widespread issues until we develop a sense of community, awareness, and knowledge of our oppressive systems.