Furiosa - Is Dementus Max and is Fury Road Max the Feral Kid?

[CharlesPhipps]

These are a popular theory with Dementus having been driven "mad" by the murder of his family and building a family from the various tribals he's encountered over the years. He preaches liberation even as he has embraced no hope.

The Feral Kid, by contrast, would be the right age to have grown up and embraced the MYTH of Max as he remembered versus the man he was.

[Winter]

I need to check out Furiosa when I get the chance but for me personally I prefer the idea that Max is Max from the other films but it adds weight to his arc in Fury Road. If Max from Fury Road isn't Max but the Feral kid who took Max's name then it undercuts his arc in Fury Road because the whole point of FR is Max reconnecting with Humanity. That's why it's so important that he tells Furiosa his name at the end, it's him becoming who he was at the start of the series.

Remember Max was a man who failed to save his family in the first film but is able to save his family in the 4th thus his arc comes full circle.

Max's relationship with Nux is also a major part of that journey since Nux is similar to the kid Max killed at the end of the first film. Thus the series comes full circle again when Max saves a "kid" who fell in with the wrong crowed and while he still dies he dies saving people instead of being doomed for just hanging out with the wrong crowed.

If Max in Fury Road is the Feral kid then it's just someone who happens to have Max's name with none of his previous character development which means this is someone with a completely different arc who's journey is unknown to us cause we don't really know what these events mean to him.

To switch series I don't subscribe to the idea that Decker in Blade Runner is a Replicant because the film is then just about a Replicant hunting other Replicants who've run away and ends with that Replicant running away. Decker being human gives so much more weight to his actions throughout the film because he is the only one who comes to see Replicants as people, who is horrified by killing them, who fears them and risks everything to save one from being "Retired".

I get the appeal of Decker being a Replicant but I find it to be the less interesting idea.

Same thing with this theory. Max being the Feral Kid is interesting on it's own but in the series as a whole I think it's more impactful and meaningful if Max is Max in all 4 films. The first film ends with Max losing his humanity and 4th film ends with him regaining his humanity.

[Madner Kami]

Max is explicitly the same person over all five movies. Fury Road is a soft reboot mainly because Fury Road was originally set to be released in 2004 and various... let's call it mishaps and rocks and shoals, lead into the intended main actor, Mel Gibson, to becoming too old (by his own admission early into the project), which directly lead into Miller deciding to cast a much younger actor. First Heath Ledger and when that went kinda sideways, like many other things about the movie's development, Tom Hardy (though it remains unclear whether Ledger was ever actually involved before his death or remained a prefered prospect, until his demise ended that consideration). Both were explicitly cast for their ability to channel the "wild energy that Mel Gibson had". Also it has been stated at various points, that Fury Road is the "closing chapter" of Max' development over the course of the series by Miller himself, which very much leaves no doubt about Max Rockatansky being the main protagonist of all four "Mad Max" movies.

The casting leaves options open, to extend the story and I've no doubt that at some point, someone responsible somewhere will jump at the chance to make "Mad Max" an identity instead of a character, because of Franchise!!!111, but until that happens and even then, there is only one Mad Max.

As for Blade Runner, I agree. The question whether Deckard is a Replicant or not dangling in the air, does add to the overall story and synergizes well with the other themes, but the question is much more interesting than a definite resolution and especially much more interesting than a resolution that makes him a definite synthetic. The movie is about the question "What makes a human a human?" and the ambiguity of Deckard's identity is integral to the entire point of the story.

[CharlesPhipps]

I need to check out Furiosa when I get the chance but for me personally I prefer the idea that Max is Max from the other films but it adds weight to his arc in Fury Road. If Max from Fury Road isn't Max but the Feral kid who took Max's name then it undercuts his arc in Fury Road because the whole point of FR is Max reconnecting with Humanity.

Again?

Max reconnected with his humanity in the Road Warrior.

Max reconnected with his humanity in thunderdome.

Will he have to reconnect with his humanity in Fury Road?

[CharlesPhipps]

As for Blade Runner, I agree. The question whether Deckard is a Replicant or not dangling in the air, does add to the overall story and synergizes well with the other themes, but the question is much more interesting than a definite resolution and especially much more interesting than a resolution that makes him a definite synthetic. The movie is about the question "What makes a human a human?" and the ambiguity of Deckard's identity is integral to the entire point of the story.

Deckard being a replicant is the dumbest thing on the planet and shows that Ridley Scott has such a dismissive attitude to Sean Young that he actually forgot that there's ALREADY a Replicant who thinks she's a human being that is wrestling with the nature of their humanity in the movie. Basically, for Deckard to be one is to remove the actual character that has that role already. The movie is about a human being discovering his own humanity with a machine's love and another machine's mercy. It makes no sense if he's a machine himself.