Favorite Scene Friday! Mad Max: Fury Road: The Blood Bag vs. The Imperator

All month long we'll be looking at fight scenes for FSF! So tune in every Friday for some brawling.

I wouldn't be the first to point out that Mad Max: Fury Road is just one big chase scene. There's nothing wrong with that - who doesn't love a little road rage? But amidst all that vehicular carnage, there's one badass fight scene that doesn't take place on a speeding tanker truck.

Max Rockatansky (the titular "Mad" one, played by Tom Hardy), a perpetual survivor in post apocalyptic Australia, has been captured by the forces of the tyrannical Immortan Joe. Max gets caught up in a mission to retrieve Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and Immortan Joe's young "wives". After surviving a massive sandstorm, Max is trying to escape and comes across Furiosa and the girls. To make things extra complicated for Max, he's chained to the unconscious Nux (Nicholas Hoult), one of Immortan Joe's "warboys". Nux had been using Max as a "blood bag" and hood ornament before the sandstorm hit. Just before today's scene begins, Max orders one of the wives to cut him free.

First and foremost, one of the best parts about this scene is how ferocious it is. Furiosa jumps Max unexpectedly and then it’s on. Shortly into the fight, Max briefly gets the upper hand and you can see his rage.

Brisk Graphics via JoBlo

This scene could just be Furiosa and Max fighting, and it would be great. But with Nux and the wives involved, it's truly fun, with the former mostly getting dragged around and the latter ganging up on Max. Everyone is great in this scene, but Charlize Theron really committed to it - Furiosa swings that wrench like a beast. And little details here are great too. Max's hallucination. The choreography. The entire bit with the handgun - from Furiosa cracking it out of its hiding place to the ringing in Max's ears when she fires it right next to his head - is thrilling. It all leads up to the most badass moment in the scene: Max, with Nux's help, shooting the warning shots off around Furiosa's head. The victory is short lived, however. We don't see it here, but Joe's forces, glimpsed in the beginning of the scene, are back with a vengeance. This throwdown was but a brief break in the feature length chase scene.

What's your favorite scene in Mad Max: Fury Road?