None of the Mad Max films fit together in a way that feels particularly coherent, a sprawling, deranged, and contradictory mythology that speaks to how oral histories invariably transform as they are passed down through successive generations. Fury Road’s unsurpassably demented world-building expands the mythos of the series in strange and terrifying directions, the wonderfully twisted imagination of George Miller lending the otherwise barren wasteland a distinctive sense of character, a highly stylised and immaculately realised landscape full of curiosities beyond comprehension. The dystopian society around which much of the sequel revolves is one of the most intriguing elements of the entire series, the arcadian stronghold where the story begins and ends ruled by the ghastly figure of Immortan Joe who consigns its residents to a life of scarcity and exploitation, his radioactively compromised paramilitary unit shuffling out the remainder of their half-lives in service of the warlord’s every whim. The bizarre rituals of this unsightly company are based upon a baffling combination of Norse mythology and car culture, the supreme being to which the War Boys submit a deified automobile engine, the curious paradoxes that arrive out of this obsession demonstrating the uncanny nature of the wasteland. The language, clothing, religion, philosophy, and art of these people are so utterly removed from any modern setting, though their nefarious actions serve to reflect the most disturbing aspects of human behaviour. The deeply misogynistic practises which Immortan Joe employs are the impetus behind the entire plot, the film following Furiosa’s efforts to free his sex slaves from bondage, the gauntlet these women must run in order to regain their bodily autonomy littered with death and destruction. The character of Nux is very much the exception who proves the rule, this pathetic specimen ultimately finding redemption in the company of those he helps to freedom, his arc detailing the way in which he is deprogrammed from this violent cult. There are so many mystifying and beautiful details that help bring this world to life, Miller approaching the dominant society of the wasteland like a crazed anthropologist, even the most seemingly random elements fitting together in a way that feels meaningful.