Furiosa’s 5 End-Credit Dedications Explained

Summary

  • Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
    depicts the origin story of the title character, portrayed by Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne.
  • The movie is dedicated to five contributors to past
    Mad Max
    movies who played important but lesser-known roles.
  • Grant Page, a renowned stunt performer, was crucial in realizing George Miller’s vision for
    Mad Max
    .

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The latest addition to its critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic franchise, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is dedicated to five contributors to past Mad Max movies in the credits. A continuation of the movies that typically focus on reneged road warrior Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson/Tom Hardy), Furiosa is a prequel that depicts the tragic origin story of its title character, who becomes Max’s unlikely ally in Mad Max: Fury Road, the groundbreaking legacy sequel widely considered one of the best action movies of all time. Anya Taylor-Joy and Alyla Browne play Furiosa at different ages, taking over from Fury Road’s Charlize Theron.

Towards the end of the movie’s credits, five names are listed under the heading of “Vale,” meaning “farewell” in this context. The performers who are credited here contributed to the Mad Max franchise in crucial ways that may not be widely recognized by audiences because they are not among the headlining actors. Yet it is the work of a team of hundreds of people that makes this franchise possible, meriting this dedication in the latest installment that is proving to be one of the best Mad Max movies.

Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth as Furiosa and Dementus in the Furiosa Mad Max prequel
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Furiosa Cast & Character Guide

Once again returning to the post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max, Furiosa boasts a star-studded cast featuring Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth.

5 Richard Carter (1953-2019)

Played The Bullet Farmer In Mad Max: Fury Road

The Bullet Farmer in Mad Max Fury Road

Although Carter played only a small role in Fury Road, he was given some fairly memorable and dramatic moments.

Richard Carter plays a small role in Fury Road as the Bullet Farmer. As shown in Furiosa, the Citadel is controlled by Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne/Lachy Hulme). This location has running water and can sustain agriculture amid the desert wasteland. Immortan Joe trades supplies with the leaders of two other resource centers: Gas Town provides gasoline while Bullet Farm provides ammunition. The power dynamics between these three places are at the center of Furiosa’s plot, which includes a spectacular action sequence of Furiosa and Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) fighting Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) at the Bullet Farm.

When Furiosa helps Immortan Joe’s “wives” escape captivity in Fury Road, with the plan to flee to Furiosa’s childhood home, Joe calls upon Gas Town and the Bullet Farm for aid. The Bullet Farmer arrives and participates in the chase along with his supporters. He continues to pursue Furiosa, Max, and the wives despite being blinded, but is then killed by Max. Although Carter played only a small role in Fury Road, he was given some fairly memorable and dramatic moments. This was Carter’s first outing with the Mad Max franchise, and sadly his last.

Fury Road was Carter’s last movie before his death in 2019, following an unspecified illness, at the age of 65. He also appeared in both Happy Feet movies, Baz Luhrmann’s The Great Gatsby, and Our Lips Are Sealed alongside Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen. Carter was an Australian actor who lived and passed away in Sydney. Although the franchise has grown to have a much broader audience, Mad Max has maintained its characterization as an Australian movie franchise with the casting of actors such as Carter and Chris Hemsworth.

4 Quentin Kenihan (1975-2018)

Played Corpus Colossus In Mad Max: Fury Road

Quentin Kenihan in Mad Max Fury Road

Quentin Kenihan was an Australian disability advocate, writer, and actor, who was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare bone disease causing bones that break easily. Kenihan plays Corpus Colossus, Immortan Joe’s eldest son, in Fury Road. Colossus is the de facto second-in-command of the Citadel, as Joe leaves him in charge when he, the War Boys, and his other sons leave to pursue Furiosa and recapture the escaped wives. Colossus is the only member of Immortan Joe’s family to survive the events of Fury Road and still resides at the Citadel, but no longer has control over the water supply.

According to Empire Magazine Australasia in November 2015, Kenihan reached out to George Miller to ask if there was a role for him in Fury Road. Kenihan was already relatively well-known in Australia, having gained public attention when he appeared in a documentary at the age of seven and hosted the TV show Quentin Crashes. However, this did not guarantee him a role in the would-be Oscar winner. In another interview, Kenihan said (via acmi.net.au):

“The good thing about Fury Road was I auditioned three times for George [Miller]. […] It wasn’t some meeting and I got the role, he made you work for it. And that was the same for the other disabled actors cast in the film as well.”

Kenihan starred in some other TV shows and movies in his lifetime; Fury Road is also his last movie. Kenihan died in 2018, allegedly because of an asthma attack. At the time of his death, Kenihan was running for the position of councilor for the City of Adelaide in South Australia; the elections took place about a month after his passing. According to his wishes, the Quentin Kenihan Inclusive Playspace, a disability-accessible playground, is being constructed in Adelaide in his memory.

Dementus (Chris Hemsworth) aiming a rocket launcher and Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) reloading a sniper rifle in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
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Furiosa Chapter Titles Explained

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga features five different chapters, each with their own titles, and they all hint at key parts of Furiosa’s journey in the film.

3 Hugh Keays-Byrne (1947-2020)

Played The Toecutter In Mad Max & Immortan Joe In Mad Max: Fury Road

Hugh Keays-Byrne as Immortan Joe stares down the camera in Mad Max Fury Road

British-Australian actor Keays-Byrne brought to life a terrifying, brutal new villain in Fury Road as Immortan Joe, a warlord who controls the Citadel, withholding food and water from the population to maintain his power. He has several “wives” whose only purpose is to provide him with sons. As revealed in Furiosa, Furiosa grew up in hiding under Immortan Joe’s rule by chance and came to be a respected warrior of his regime when Jack made her his protégé and right-hand woman. Furiosa served Joe loyally, primarily so she could use his resources to kill Dementus and eventually escape home.

As demonstrated by Fury Road, Furiosa has no love for Joe and opposes his tyrannical rule; she was waiting ready to help when the wives decided they wanted to flee. Ironically, Keays-Byrne also played the Toecutter, the main villain of the first Mad Max movie, who kills Max’s wife Jessie (Joanne Samuel) and son Sprog to avenge the death of the Nightrider (Vincent Gil), a fellow highway bandit. While it has been ruled out that the Toecutter and Immortan Joe are the same person due to continuity issues, the Toecutter has a secret cameo in Fury Road.

While he is still best known for his Mad Max roles, Keays-Byrne appeared in many other movies and TV shows throughout his long-running career. He was also a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company from 1968 to 1972. Following his death in 2020, Immortan Joe was recast for Furiosa, as he plays an important role in her backstory and could not be excluded. However, it seems unlikely that Hulme will be appearing in Mad Max 5 due to Joe being killed in the final chase of Fury Road.

2 Dawn Klingberg (1937-2023)

Played The Corpse Minder In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Dawn Klingberg in The Lost World

Dawn Klingberg is also a newcomer to the Mad Max saga in Furiosa. Credited as the “Corpse Minder,” the character’s title suggests that her job is to look after the dead. As the Mad Max world expands, more characters with strange titles and roles such as this are added to the franchise’s overall cast list. The addition of the wives in Fury Road was particularly interesting, as they all have distinctive, symbolic names, such as the Splendid Angharad (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley) and Toast the Knowing (Zoë Kravitz).

Klingberg’s other noteworthy roles include a one-episode appearance in Bed of Roses and a supporting role in The Dry. The former is an Australian TV show about a mother who is left bankrupt after her unfaithful husband’s death, forcing her to move in with her mother, bringing her daughter along. The latter is Lingberg’s second-to-last role, and stars Eric Bana as a man who returns to his hometown for a funeral and is drawn into an unsolved murder case. Furiosa was Klingberg’s last role before her death in 2023, when filming had been completed.

Unfortunately, this means that the character is unlikely to be further developed in future Mad Max movies. Although it is a small role, many of the passing supporting characters in the Mad Max movies have thematic relevance. For instance, Bruce Spence, one of the actors who appears in multiple Mad Max movies, plays the Gyro Captain and Jedediah, characters the movies could have done without but are present to show another way to survive in the Wasteland. It would have been interesting to further delve into the role and life of the Corpse Minder.

Tom-Hardy-as-Max-Rockatansky-and-Charlize-Theron-as-Imperator-Furiosa-from-Mad-Max-Furiosa-and-Anya-Taylor-Joy-as-Furiosa-from-Furiosa-A-Mad-Max-Saga-
Related
Every Upcoming Mad Max Movie In Development

George Miller already seems to have planned out the multitudes of ways in which the Mad Max franchise can progress after Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.

1 Grant Page (1939-2024)

Stunt Performer In Mad Max, Mad Max Beyond The Thunderdome, & Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Grant Page in Deathcheaters

“If there wasn’t a Grant Page, there wouldn’t have been a Mad Max.”

Grant Page has been called “the real Mad Max” (via giantfreakinrobot.com) because his role in the franchise was to perform the stunts the actors playing the main characters were incapable of. The Australian stunt performer worked on three of the Mad Max movies, and over a hundred additional titles. Other big-budget action blockbusters Page worked on include Mechanic: Resurrection and Gods of Egypt. However, as a contributor to the original Mad Max movie, Page was there when the franchise made a name for itself with a minimal budget.

Miller faced many challenges in realizing his vision for Mad Max due to budget constraints, some of which Page helped him overcome to create riveting action sequences. Miller told IndieWire:

“If there wasn’t a Grant Page, there wouldn’t have been a Mad Max. […] He taught me things about the work and how to approach it that I still remembered while I was shooting Furiosa.”

According to IndieWire, Page was in a motorcycle accident on his way to the Mad Max set but checked himself out after only a few days to come help coordinate stunts. After having more time to recover, he also performed Mad Max’s iconic stunt of a car driving through an RV.

Page died in a car accident at the age of 85. He is credited as a stunt performer (and likely contributed as a coordinator) for Furiosa: A Mad Max saga, his last movie. Given his renown for working on the franchise, this was a fitting final project for Page. The dedication included in the movie’s credits reflects the gratitude of Miller and his team for Page’s help, along with the other deceased actors.

Mad Max Poster Showing Mel Gibson Holding a Shotgun in Front of Bikers

Mad Max

Mad Max is an Australian post-apocalyptic franchise created by George Miller and Byron Kennedy. The first three films star Mel Gibson as Max Rockatansky, a former police officer who seeks revenge after his family is murdered. Tom Hardy took over the role for 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which was followed by Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Furiosa.

Movie(s) Mad Max , Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior , Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome , Mad Max: Fury Road , Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga , Mad Max: The Wasteland First Film Mad Max Cast Mel Gibson , Joanne Samuel , Hugh Keays-Byrne , Steve Bisley , Tim Burns , Roger Ward , Tom Hardy , Charlize Theron , Nicholas Hoult , Rosie Huntington-Whiteley , Riley Keough , Zoe Kravitz , Abbey Lee , Courtney Eaton , Anya Taylor-Joy , Chris Hemsworth , Tom Burke , Alyla Browne Character(s) Max Rockatansky , Immortan Joe , Imperator Furiosa , Rictus Erectus , Angharad , The People Eater , Corpus Colossus , Toecutter , Nux , Dr. Dementus Video Game(s) Mad Max (1990) , Mad Max (2015)

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Source: acmi.net.au, giantfreakinrobot.com, IndieWire

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