Few films hitting theaters in 2024 have more hyped-up horsepower behind them than “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.” And there’s good reason for that: George Miller‘s prequel to 2015’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” has a tough act to follow. “Fury Road” is one of the greatest action movies ever, a modern classic that’s part tour de force, part technical marvel, part pulpy sublime. If “Furiosa” is even half the movie “Fury Road” is, it’s bound to be one of the year’s best films.
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And from the sounds of things, Miller wants his latest film to measure up to his 2015 opus. In a new talk with Total Film, “Furiosa” star Anya Taylor-Joy talked about one of the movie’s most grueling set-pieces, one that producer Doug Mitchell describes as a “15-minute sequencewhich took us 78 days to shoot.” Dubbed the “Stairway To Nowhere” on-set, it’s an integral part in Furiosa’s story, showcasing the heroine’s ingenuity, skill set, and gritty determination. Oh, and almost 200 stunt people worked on the sequence daily, so the scale of it is pretty massive.
“George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long,” Taylor-Joy said about shooting “Stairway To Nowhere.” “It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot. On the day we finished, everybody got a “Stairway To Nowhere” wine!”
In the film, Taylor-Joy plays a younger version of Charlize Theron‘s character from “Fury Road,” who strikes up an uneasy temporary alliance with Immortan Joe to defeat Chris Hemsworth‘s Warlord Dementus. But Furiosa’s story isn’t just one of vengeance; it’s also an odyssey that sees the heroine fighting against the odds to return to the home she was kidnapped from.
“Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga” has its world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival on May 15 before it hits US theaters a week later. “Fury Road” premiered on the Croisette too, and it didn’t take long after its first screening for word of mouth to catch like wildfire, proclaiming the film a masterpiece. One only hopes Miller catches lightning in a bottle again with “Furiosa.” And with an action set-piece the scale of “Stairway To Nowhere,” it’s very likely that he has.
“Furiosa” hits theaters on May 24. Watch a trailer for the upcoming film below.