S4E41.5: Mad Max: Fury Road

**November Kelly** (0:18)
Hello, and welcome to another bonus episode of Kill James Bond. I am November Kelly. I am joined, as always, by my friends, Abigail Thorn and Devon.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:26)
Vroom, vroom!

**Devon** (0:28)
Cowabunga, ladies and gentlemen.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:30)
Oh, yeah, baby.

**November Kelly** (0:31)
It's more truck season than it's ever been, I would suggest.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:36)
Oh, yeah.

**Devon** (0:37)
I'm calm, I'm normal.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:37)
Finally, some good fucking movie.

**November Kelly** (0:40)
This is the summer of the truck. This is the age of the truck.
Because it's Fury Road.

**Devon** (0:46)
It's Fat Truck Summer.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:48)
It's Fury Road, baby.

**November Kelly** (0:50)
It's Mad Max Fury Road, to give it its full title.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:53)
What a good movie. What a fucking great movie.

**Devon** (0:57)
I mean, like, big surprise. Cards on the table.

**Abigail Thorn** (0:59)
Yeah, big surprise. Hot take from Kill James Bond, Mad Max Fury Road, fucking whips.

**Devon** (1:04)
Mad Max Fury Road, probably maybe one of the greatest movies ever made, certainly in my top three, if I ever had to actually pick.

**November Kelly** (1:13)
I have a sort of nuance take, right, which is, on the one side of the scales, this movie fucks.

**Devon** (1:18)
Of course.

**November Kelly** (1:19)
And that's a heavy sort of weight. On the other side of the scales, it does have the kind of finest feminism of 2015

**Abigail Thorn** (1:27)
Yeah, for sure.

**November Kelly** (1:28)
And that was not a good vintage of feminism, I would suggest.

**Abigail Thorn** (1:32)
But it's got some feminism, you know?

**Devon** (1:34)
It's got some feminism in it.

**Abigail Thorn** (1:35)
It does.

**November Kelly** (1:36)
It's got the spirit. It's a little confused, but it's got the spirit.

**Abigail Thorn** (1:39)
Yeah. I can't believe it's taken us this long to get to this movie, but we should set the stage and try to explain Mad Max and the Mad Max universe.

**Devon** (1:46)
Yeah.
Shall I give you a little potted history of production of this? All right. George Miller is an Australian man who you may be most familiar with if you've played a shitload of Death Stranding 2 over the last couple of weeks, which I have because he's tar man in that. He drives you around the whole time.

**Abigail Thorn** (2:05)
Fuck yeah!

**Devon** (2:05)
He was born in 1945 in Chinchilla, Queensland by Greek immigrant parents to Australia.

**November Kelly** (2:13)
The place where the Chinchillas are from?

**Devon** (2:15)
Yeah, I guess they invented the Chinchilla out there.

**Abigail Thorn** (2:17)
Whoa.

**Devon** (2:17)
Just like small town guy, cinema, he trained as a doctor, gets into a directing workshop and meets a long-time collaborator called Byron Kennedy. Together, the two of them film Mad Max 1, this guy's first ever movie, basically Gorilla. They don't have permission, they don't have permits, they don't have road closures, they just show up, get the shots and then run away as fast as they can.

**November Kelly** (2:40)
That to me is the trucker's code.

**Devon** (2:41)
That's real cinema to me.

**November Kelly** (2:43)
Yeah.

**Devon** (2:43)
That's real filmmaking. He filmed it throughout 1977, I think, and it was up until 1978 He spends all of 79 editing it on his own, and he is in the weeds for the entire year. He is going through hell and back. He thinks that he's made the worst movie ever, he's like, gun to head the whole time.
Stolen line from my wife. He releases it though, and it turns out that he's made fucking Mad Max, so it goes great. Everyone loves the fuck out of it.

**November Kelly** (3:12)
This is a lesson about imposter syndrome, I would suggest, is that sometimes you think you are the worst cunt on earth, and then it turns out you've actually made Mad Max.

**Devon** (3:22)
Oh, this is dog shit, I'm going to kill myself, and then it turns out it's Mad Max.

**November Kelly** (3:26)
This is a useful lesson for me to learn. I've also been struggling with imposter syndrome, maybe, you know, lately, and maybe it turns out that the whole time, I've been making Mad Max, with unbeknownst, even to myself.

**Devon** (3:38)
You've been making Mad Max, as far as I'm concerned.

**November Kelly** (3:41)
Oh, thank you.

**Devon** (3:42)
So, obviously, great. He comes back, him and Byron Kennedy, and they're like, I'm going to put all of our lessons, all of our losses are now going to be lessons for the second one, where they make Mad Max 2, which Road Warrior, one of the greatest, the greatest movie ever made.