How pumped are you for Mad Max: Fury Road? It’s been 30 years since the last one, but now we’re just a week away from a new installment of George Miller’s explosion-tacular, post-apocalyptic festival of mayhem. First let’s look at the method behind the madness.
Ahead of the new movie’s release, The Verge has a really interesting and well-thought out breakdown of what makes Miller’s chase scenes unlike anything else in Hollywood. In short, they work because of chaos. Pure, unbridled chaos.
Most movies approach the action and chase scenes in particular in a kind of linear fashion, with everything happening for a reason and a clear-cut beginning and ending. Miller doesn’t do things this way. Bad things happen in his movies. Uncontrolled things. There’s a ton of collateral damage. This chaotic approach is why his scenes are so engrossing to watch.
Maybe it’s because Miller was an emergency room doctor in Australia before he was a director, and he saw the chaos of car chases and their after-effects on people firsthand. Or maybe he just has a talent nobody else has.
Either way, watch this feature and you won’t look at Mad Max’s chases the same way again.
Hat tip to Carscoops
Contact the author at patrick@jalopnik.com.