Mad Max: Driving and trusting ... (pic spam and stupid thoughts)
I was thinking about Max and Furiosa and ... driving of all things. The War Rig is Furiosa's, when Max and Furiosa first meet, he's trying to steal her Rig. When he realises that she's put a kill-switch on the Rig so that no one else can drive it, he lets her back in reluctantly. She drives while he holds a gun onto her.
The first moment of quasi-trust takes place when he leaves the cabin to go and check on the fuel pod. Yes he's taken the weapons with him, but he must know that she must have something else in the Rig that can kill him. Nonetheless, he leaves and then returns.
Furiosa's first gesture of trust towards Max is to say that he might have to drive the Rig and she tells him the kill switch combination. During the pursuit through the canyon, it's Max driving the Rig while Furiosa's in the passenger seat.
He not only drives, he hands her guns ...
source
And again! :)
source: endlessimpossibility:
While she's shooting, he's driving - and also shooting ...
source
The two of them are totally in sync
source
When Rictus sends a harpoon through the cabin, pinning Max's hand, Furiosa and the others work hard to help free him
As she works her magic, Max puts his bloody hand there to steady the Rig
And here's the animated version:
source
They pause for a moment after the chase and both Furiosa and Max work on the Rig together
Post-repairs, I notice that Furiosa continues to let Max drive
Not only that, she trusts him so much that she leaves the cabin to go and do repairs on the Rig, leaving him alone with Toast, Cheedo and Dag.
Heading into the Bog, he's still driving
During the drive through the Bog, Furiosa takes over and drives
After Max kills the Bullet Farmer, he takes over the wheel and Furiosa sits in the passenger seat. This is interesting because Nux was only trusted to 'drive' the Rig to help them get get unstuck from the Bog but after that, his driving duties were removed from him.
Side note, I had never noticed until someone pointed it out on tumblr but in the bog scene, you can see Furiosa and Max swapping firearms (probably wordlessly) in the background behind the Dag as she sights the Bullet Farmer approaching.
After the leave the Bog, Furiosa's driving again - and Max is sleeping ... well as much as Max sleeps. Although his sleep is punctuated by nightmares, clearly he trusts Furiosa enough to let down his guard enough to sleep while she drives. I'm assuming that she also let down her guard enough to sleep while he was driving. To me this denotes a huge shift in their relationship from enemies to trusted allies if they're willing to sleep in front of each other.
As they approach the Vuvalini of Many Mothers, Furiosa and Max have swapped places again and Max is back to driving - presumably so that Furiosa can look around and see if she can find anything familiar.
For the final journey back to the Citadel (and the pursuit from Immortan Joe and the Armada), it is of course Furiosa back in the driver's seat.
He's still there helping though, spitting nitro/nitrous into the intake when Nux was in trouble
When Furiosa tells Max that one of the engines has failed, Max goes with Nux out the back to sort things out
And when Max is battling someone on the hood of the Rig, Furiosa does her bit to bump the bad guy off the Rig ... although she's careful not to bump Max off, which is why the guy can climb back up and stab her in the side :(
I find myself wondering at what point Furiosa starts to 'trust' Max - it seems quite early on - even as they approach the Canyon. When he does not betray her trust, she then trusts him even more. I have no idea when Max starts to trust Furiosa - that's harder to pick.
I find myself pondering how they did the switches. Did they pause for toilet breaks and at the first changeover, Furiosa offers to take over again. Is it difficult for them to fall asleep the first time the other one is driving? Is there any temptation to betray and seize control while the other one is sleeping?
I note that even though the movie's set in post-apocalyptic Australia the driver's seat is on the 'wrong' side i.e. on the left side instead of the right side :)
The first moment of quasi-trust takes place when he leaves the cabin to go and check on the fuel pod. Yes he's taken the weapons with him, but he must know that she must have something else in the Rig that can kill him. Nonetheless, he leaves and then returns.
Furiosa's first gesture of trust towards Max is to say that he might have to drive the Rig and she tells him the kill switch combination. During the pursuit through the canyon, it's Max driving the Rig while Furiosa's in the passenger seat.
He not only drives, he hands her guns ...
source
And again! :)
source: endlessimpossibility:
While she's shooting, he's driving - and also shooting ...
source
The two of them are totally in sync
source
When Rictus sends a harpoon through the cabin, pinning Max's hand, Furiosa and the others work hard to help free him
As she works her magic, Max puts his bloody hand there to steady the Rig
And here's the animated version:
source
They pause for a moment after the chase and both Furiosa and Max work on the Rig together
Post-repairs, I notice that Furiosa continues to let Max drive
Not only that, she trusts him so much that she leaves the cabin to go and do repairs on the Rig, leaving him alone with Toast, Cheedo and Dag.
Heading into the Bog, he's still driving
During the drive through the Bog, Furiosa takes over and drives
After Max kills the Bullet Farmer, he takes over the wheel and Furiosa sits in the passenger seat. This is interesting because Nux was only trusted to 'drive' the Rig to help them get get unstuck from the Bog but after that, his driving duties were removed from him.
Side note, I had never noticed until someone pointed it out on tumblr but in the bog scene, you can see Furiosa and Max swapping firearms (probably wordlessly) in the background behind the Dag as she sights the Bullet Farmer approaching.
After the leave the Bog, Furiosa's driving again - and Max is sleeping ... well as much as Max sleeps. Although his sleep is punctuated by nightmares, clearly he trusts Furiosa enough to let down his guard enough to sleep while she drives. I'm assuming that she also let down her guard enough to sleep while he was driving. To me this denotes a huge shift in their relationship from enemies to trusted allies if they're willing to sleep in front of each other.
As they approach the Vuvalini of Many Mothers, Furiosa and Max have swapped places again and Max is back to driving - presumably so that Furiosa can look around and see if she can find anything familiar.
For the final journey back to the Citadel (and the pursuit from Immortan Joe and the Armada), it is of course Furiosa back in the driver's seat.
He's still there helping though, spitting nitro/nitrous into the intake when Nux was in trouble
When Furiosa tells Max that one of the engines has failed, Max goes with Nux out the back to sort things out
And when Max is battling someone on the hood of the Rig, Furiosa does her bit to bump the bad guy off the Rig ... although she's careful not to bump Max off, which is why the guy can climb back up and stab her in the side :(
I find myself wondering at what point Furiosa starts to 'trust' Max - it seems quite early on - even as they approach the Canyon. When he does not betray her trust, she then trusts him even more. I have no idea when Max starts to trust Furiosa - that's harder to pick.
I find myself pondering how they did the switches. Did they pause for toilet breaks and at the first changeover, Furiosa offers to take over again. Is it difficult for them to fall asleep the first time the other one is driving? Is there any temptation to betray and seize control while the other one is sleeping?
I note that even though the movie's set in post-apocalyptic Australia the driver's seat is on the 'wrong' side i.e. on the left side instead of the right side :)