Film

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Name: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Genre: Action, Science Fiction, Adventure
Released: 2024
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Chris Hemsworth, Tom Burke, Alyla Browne, George Shevtsov

Car-chase action
Very dark

George Miller's prequel traces Furiosa's transformation from kidnapped girl to legendary warrior across a ravaged Australian wasteland. It's a two-and-a-half-hour-long action symphony: vehicular ballet, hand-to-hand brutality, and optical practical effects that make CGI look like spreadsheets. For anyone who thinks blockbusters can still be art.

TMDb rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you are won over by bold, hand-built stunt spectacle and a wasteland world so specific it feels like a place with its own history, especially if you enjoyed the earlier films in this series.

Skip it if you want a lean, fast story, since this is long for a chase film, its middle stretches out, and its violence is relentless and brutal.

What it asks of you: Expect nearly two and a half hours shaped in chapters of escalating set-pieces, where patience with long plot stretches and sustained brutality is part of the deal.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Mad Max: Fury Road2015

The film that spawned this prequel. Same director, same scorched-earth philosophy, same commitment to practical stunt work over digital trickery. It's the companion piece that makes this one sing.

But If you haven't seen Fury Road, some of Furiosa's resonance will land softer. And it's equally relentless—not everyone wants that much velocity for two hours.

Dune: Part Two2024

Epic scale, visual ambition, a protagonist learning to weaponise themselves in a hostile world. Denis Villeneuve reaches for the same operatic register Miller does here, and mostly sticks the landing.

But It's slower, more meditative. If you came for non-stop kinetic chaos, this will feel like someone pressed pause every twenty minutes.

Mad Max 21981

Miller's 1981 masterpiece: the blueprint for the franchise, and proof he's been making the same perfect film for four decades. Raw, economical, bewilderingly inventive. Watch the lineage unfold.

But It's 1981. The technology shows. Some will find it dated; others will recognize it as immaculate. Your mileage varies.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Annihilation2018

Both films treat the body as a text being rewritten by violence and environment. Both are about survival that costs an essential part of yourself.

Alex Garland's science-fiction meditation on transformation and self-annihilation. A woman enters a shimmering, impossible zone and changes forever. Like Furiosa, it's about what remains when you're stripped of everything—but it moves inward instead of outward.

But It's cerebral, deliberately ambiguous, and utterly uninterested in spectacle. The final act divides audiences. It demands more from you than it gives.

Extraction2020

Stunt coordinator Sam Hargrave's directorial debut. One man, one mission, one long sustained action sequence. It has Furiosa's DNA—practical effects, no cut-aways, clarity of purpose—but compressed into a lean two hours.

But It's thinner narratively. All skeleton, no meat. The action is so precise it can feel clinical if you want character depth.

The Fall2008

Tarsem Singh's fever dream about storytelling itself. Gorgeously surreal, built from practical sets and stunts, a meditation on imagination and survival. It has Furiosa's commitment to the handmade and the impossible.

But It's slow, hallucinogenic, deliberately oblique. If you want plot, you won't find it. If you want colour and texture instead, you're home.

Killers of the Flower Moon2023

Scorsese and De Niro reunited for a film about power, corruption, and the machinery of exploitation. It's a different beast—quieter, more insidious—but it has Furiosa's moral weight and refusal to simplify.

But It's a three-and-a-half-hour slow burn about American greed. No action sequences. Some find it glacial; others find it devastating.

Alita: Battle Angel2019

A cyborg girl discovers her lethal capabilities in a neon-soaked wasteland. Robert Rodriguez leans into practical stunt work and body horror in a way that echoes Miller. It's pulp, but smart pulp.

But It's more manga-influenced, more baroque. If you want restraint and clarity, this will feel overwrought. Plus: the uncanny valley is real.

Atomic Blonde2017

Charlize Theron as an MI6 agent in Cold War Berlin, with fight choreography that rivals Fury Road. Long takes, no cutaways, brutality that costs something. It understands that good action is dance.

But It's shorter and tighter, so the emotional stakes feel smaller. Some will find it slight compared to Miller's apocalyptic ambition.

Top Gun: Maverick2022

Practical flying, real stunts, a director (Joseph Kosinski) who believes in putting the camera in the real world. It's a different genre entirely, but it shares Furiosa's philosophy: the physical matters, and the frame must prove it.

But It's an action film built around sentiment and legacy. If you want existential dread instead of earned nostalgia, this will feel safe.

Stalker1979

Both films understand that the wasteland is the real character. Both make the journey itself the point, not the destination. Both trust the audience to sit in bewilderment and find meaning there.

Andrei Tarkovsky's philosophical science-fiction film about three men journeying through a mysterious zone toward a room that grants wishes. It's a prequel template done backwards: instead of action tracing an origin, it's inaction exploring desire. Hypnotic, profound, incomparably strange.

But It's three hours of deliberate pacing, minimal dialogue, almost no spectacle. If you came for momentum, you've entered the wrong room. Requires patience as an act of faith.