Mad Max: Fury Road may have focused on Tom Hardy’s incarnation of the title character, but it was Charlize Theron’s Furiosa who stole the show in the 2015 movie, so much so that a prequel about the character was greenlit. We’re now just a month away from the Anya Taylor-Joy-led and George Miller-directed Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga arriving to the 2024 movies schedule, and another piece of intriguing piece of information has been shared about the project. There’s a 15-minute action sequence that took over two months to shoot, and I’m delighted by the nickname the cast and crew gave it.
While no specific details about what this Furiosa action sequence contains were shared by Total Film, producer Doug Mitchell informed the publication that it took 78 days and “close to 200 stunt people working on it daily.” This sequence was internally known as “Stairway to Nowhere,” and Anya Taylor-Joy said the following about why it’s a crucial moment in Curiosa’s journey:
George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long. 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!
First off, even though I’m not a wine drinker, I’d be willing to taste of “Stairway of Nowhere” based on the name alone and it being used to celebrate this massive filming undertaking. The action sequence being referred to as such also reminded me of a moment in the latest Furiosa trailer when Chris Hemsworth’s Warlord Dementus is shouting, “There is no hope!” For this post-apocalyptic environment, “Stairway to Nowhere” is a fitting twist on the Led Zeppelin song “Stairway to Heaven.”
As a lover of cinema though, getting to see this 15-minute action sequence unfold in Furiosa is an exciting prospect, and as Anya Taylor-Joy explained, it wasn’t thrown in to simply provide shock and awe. This will be the portion of the movie where her character can show off all she’s learned up to that point in the story, and let’s not forget that unlike Mad Max: Fury Road, which took place over just a few days, Furiosa covers a 15-year period. That’s a long time to learn how to survive in the Australian wasteland and drive like your life depends on it… although ironically, Taylor-Joy doesn’t have a driver’s license.
We’ll get to see this 15-minute action sequence and the accompanying craziness when Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga opens in theaters on May 24. That means there’s still plenty of time to stream Mad Max: Fury Road with a Max subscription if you need a refresher on where this character ends up later down the proverbial road.