I've always loved you. >> We are full on in awards season,
but since nobody wanted to do the research for
seven things you didn't know about The English Patient,
we decided to do the most un-Oscarsy Oscars movie we could think of.
With ten nominations last year and
six wins, Mad Max Fury Road definitely fit the bill.
So, here are seven things you didn't know about Mad Max Fury Road, probably.
(Music)
The Mad Max franchise is one of the most hardcore franchises in the history of
movies and Fury Road definitely added to that tradition.
So a lot of people are surprised to find out that the mastermind behind Mad Max
is the same guy behind some of the most family friend movies of the 90s and
early 2000s.
George Miller, the creator of all the testosterone fueled action and
carnage you see here, is the same guy responsible for this adorable singing pig.
>> La, la, la.
La, la, la.
La, la, la. >> Miller co-wrote Babe as well as
Happy Feet, which he also co-directed and produced.
He even won an Oscar when Happy Feet won Best Animated Picture in 2007.
I'm not sure if this makes him a renaissance man or just really,
really twisted.
(Music)
Hey.
What's your name?
What do I call you? >> Does it matter?
>> Mad Max Fury Road
keeps it pretty light on the dialog, just like the earlier Mad Max movies.
Show, don't tell, as they always say in filmmaking.
But you may be surprised to hear one of George Miller's main influences for
this method of storytelling, Alfred Hitchcock.
He looked at Hitchcock's films like music in that Hitchcock was able to create
a mood and an experience without relying heavily on words.
So, Miller set out to create something that could be watched anywhere
in the world without subtitles.
And since chases, crashes, and explosions are the universal language,
he definitely succeeded.
(Noise) Speaking of crashes and
explosions, you probably didn't know just how many vehicles
were involved in creating Fury Road.
There were 150 hand built, driveable vehicles,
which the team made from the bodies of 350 salvaged cars.
They then had to go through the process of breaking down, packing, and shipping
the 150 vehicles, along with all the other production gear, props, costumes, cast and
crew from Australia to Namibia, where they shot the film over the course of 120 days.
Jeez, I bet the studio is sorry they ever gave the Fury Road team their
FedEx account number.
Moving on.
(Music)
Fury Road was in development for so
long that the original plan was to have Mel Gibson return as Max.
But as some 15 year went by, we learned a few things about Mel Gibson and
pretty much everyone agreed revamping and
recasting was in order. >> My name is
Max. >> But
most people don't realize that Tom Hardy, Gibson's replacement,
was only six weeks old when Mad Max was first released.
But he still went and
saw Mad Max in theaters because even baby Tom Hardy was a badass.
There's a high likelihood that I made that last part up.
But the point is Tom Hardy put some respect on the Mad Max name and
had lunch with Mel Gibson to get his blessing before taking over the role.
because Tom Hardy isn't just a bad ass, he's a gentleman.
(Sound). >> You will ride eternal shining and
chrome.
Nicholas Hoult underwent quite a transformation to become Nux.
Still, you probably didn't know that it actually took
two hours of makeup each day to bring Nux to life.
Turns out it takes a lot of work to look like hell.
Charlize Theron, on the other hand, had next to no time in the makeup chair.
She just had to grease up her forehead and then she was off to the set.
Theron did however have a make-up bag in the cab of the war rig just to touch up
her grease paint on fly, which is, boom, a bonus thing you didn't know, and, boom,
a segway to our next thing.
(Sound).
The war rig is about as tough a vehicle as you can imagine, you know,
as long as you forget about the makeup bag and the cap.
Anyway, the rig was made from a Tatra.
Tatra is a Czechoslovakian car manufacturer that made tanks and
trunks for Germany in World War Two after the Nazis invaded.
They fused the Tatra with a Chevrolet Fleetmaster,
welded a Volkswagen Bug to the hull,
and added truck cabin shells creating an eighteen wheeler with six wheel drive.
It's basically a collage of a bunch of really old cars and
trucks that create the driveable version of Beast Mode.
Meanwhile Immortan Joe's Gigahorse is what Miller calls a Cadillac on steroids.
It is, for sure, a lot of car, and that's because it's literally two cars.
They took 1959 DeVilles, split them, widened them, and
then mounted one on top of the other.
They also had to customize the guts of the car with its twin V16 engine and
rear wheels that are six and a half feet high.
Sure, it looks pretty sick, but I have a feeling the gas mileage is terrible.
(Sound) There's a reason the Fury Road
team went with much older cars to create the vehicles of a post apocalyptic future.
Basically it's because they don't make them like they used to.
The cars in the film are made from the vehicles most likely to survive and
have some chance of functioning 45 years after the end of society as we know it.
Odds are the cars with computers, rear view cameras and
crumple technology aren't going to make it in the dystopia.
Not to mention this movie would have looked pretty lame if they were fusing
a bunch of Priuses together to make the Gigahorse.
On the other hand, the gas guzzlers of our grandparents and
great grandparents will probably have a decent shot of still being functional, or
at least repairable in the apocalypse.
So good luck with your plug-in hybrid when there's no accessible electricity.
Suck it, climate change!
That's it for this one,
but be sure to check out our previous episode on Mad Max where we drop
things on you guys not just from Fury Road, but from the entire franchise.
Thanks for watching and subscribe to Cinefix for more truish things about
movies and sometimes the Gigahorse right here on Things You Didn't Know.
(Noise)