Vehicles of FURIOSA: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

---

The fifth instalment of the Mad Max film franchise is set just before the events of the last movie Fury Road. In this epic, sprawling episode, we get the origin story of Imperator Furiosa. But this is not a movie review. Nope…in this article the cars are the stars.

The characters in Furiosa make use of repurposed and run-down cars of the wasteland, and every customization on them uses parts designed for other purpose. For example, gas tanks are strapped to motorcycles using airplane seat belts. Not much airline travel in the post-apocalyptic future, but these found parts help create vehicles durable enough to engage in ‘car wars’. Essentially, the vehicles are characters themselves, or if that’s too much of a stretch, they are most certainly extensions of the main characters.

---

FURIOSA: 1962 Plymouth Valiant

Anya Taylor-Joy plays title character Furiosa. She’s a true heroine; director George Miller even has a scene where Furiosa stands next to a blackened gate that looks like a burning cross, full on Joan-of-Arc style.

It is certainly intentional that her escape vehicle is a Valiant. The very word means bravely determined when there is no cause for hope symbolizing Furiosa’s fighting spirit. When a battle is imminent, Praetorian Jack (Furiosa’s love interest) insists that Furiosa drive the Plymouth as a chase car, ready to escape if they run into an ambush. But when Furiosa jumps in the V8-powered 1962 Plymouth Valiant, she doesn’t run away; she turns around to fight.

---

DEMENTUS: 1967 Mack DM-800 ‘Six Foot’

With a name like Dementus, you just know that Chris Hemsworth played this villainous character as full-on bonkers. He even had a special contact lens made that made his left pupil appear dilated permanently. Crickey!

Dementous drives many vehicles in the film, but the most memorable is his monster truck called Six Foot. The highly modified DM-800 Mack Truck features a central seating position (like modern-day monster trucks) and a 1,000 HP V8 engine. This vehicle appears in the later stages of the movie and symbolizes the power that Dementus has achieved. Six Foot’s sheer size and weight allows antagonist Dementus to dominate other vehicles in wasteland battles by brutally crushing them.

---

PRAETORIAN JACK: 1997 Kenworth W-900 ‘War Rig’

In 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road the character of Furiosa steals evil ruler Immortan Joe’s ‘War Rig’ truck. but in Furiosa we get a time-lapse scene where the War Boys of the Citadel build the truck from the ground up into a shining beacon of power.

The ‘War Rig’ stands out amongst the other vehicles in Furiosa due to its immense size and ornate design. Whereas many of the cars in the Mad Max franchise are battle-scarred, rusty contraptions pieced together from wasteland parts, the ‘War Rig’ is totally different. Shining chrome and new, it has ornamentation along the side that look like religious icons from a Greek church. The ‘War Rig’ is entrusted to the best driver in the wasteland, Praetorian Jack (who looks an awful lot like Mel Gibson). A weapon on wheels and a transport vehicle in the clash between Immortan Joe and Dementous’ goons, as they fight along, on top of and underneath the massive vehicle.

---

FURIOSA: 1932 Ford Coupe ‘Cranky Black’

Protagonist Furiosa drives multiple vehicles over the course of the film, each symbolic of her position in wasteland society. In early scenes, she’s on a stolen motorcycle, then drives the Valiant, and in the final confrontation drives a ‘new’ interpretation of the original Pursuit Special from the first Mad Max movie.

By the end of the film, Furiosa is at her most powerful, and her vehicle of choice is a ’30 / ’31 Ford 5-window coupe (definitely not a 1932 …thanks Freg). A chopped-top Deuce Coupe hot rod in sinister black paint. This is Furiosa’s version of the original V8 Interceptor and symbolizes her relentless and merciless nature! Mimicking the Weiland supercharger on the hood of Max’s Interceptor, Furiosa has mounted a full-on machine gun. This Ford coupe has a rear-mounted, turbocharged, Chevy V8 engine with a massive air scoop just over the roof. Off-road tires (‘bigs’ & ‘littles’) plus long-travel off-road suspension like a Baja ‘trophy-truck’ allow Furiosa to speed through the sand dunes. According to Anya Taylor-Joy, the car has human teeth all along the inside. The car literally has teeth.

---

MAX: 1973 Ford Falcon XB ‘V8 Interceptor’

Mad Max himself makes a brief cameo in Furiosa (actually Tom Hardy’s stuntman Jacob Tomuri). Halfway through the film, director George Miller re-creates the opening shot from Fury Road with Max Rockatansky standing on a cliff next to his iconic car, while watching Furiosa fighting off Dementus. The scene merely establishes that the two characters of Max and Furiosa, who won’t meet until the events in Fury Road actually exist in the same wasteland.

---