In the years following the global catastrophe of the Mad Max films, young Furiosa (Cayla Brown) and her sister find that motorcycle raider gangs have discovered their home, The Green Place of Many Mothers. Furiosa attempts to sabotage their vehicles but is taken captive. Her mother, Mary Jo Bassa (Charlee Fraser) pursues them in an attempt to get her daughter back, and also to protect the secret location of the Green Place. But Furiosa is taken to the campsite of the warlord Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). Furiosa is able to injure the last raider before he can reveal the secret location, and Dementus keeps her alive, hoping to get it out of her eventually. Mary nearly frees Furiosa, but she is captured, tied to a tree and executed. Furiosa is forced to watch.
Dementus and his horde arrive at the Citadel, a place in the desert with water and crops. He tries to incite a revolt against the leader, Immorten Joe (Lachy Hulme), but the latter sends his fanatical War Boys against Dementus and his army. Many men and vehicles are lost, but Dementus lays siege to Gastown in the wasteland, Immorten Joe pays ransom but demands Furiosa for a wife and takes the Organic Mechanic (Angus Sampson) as his doctor.
Furiosa survives and grows up, disguising herself as a boy to escape Immorten Joe’s idiot son, Rictus Erectus (Nathan Jones). She becomes a mechanic overseeing the War Rig monster truck. During one supply run, Furiosa and the War Rig’s driver, Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) are the only survivors of a raid and she tries to steal the War Rig to get back to her home. But Jack admires her abilities and makes her second-in-command. They fall in love.
Dementus has nearly run Gastown into ruin and is in conflict with the Citadel and the Bullet Farm, a metal refinery that produces ammunition. Furiosa (now Anya Taylor-Joy) and Jack are ambushed by Dementus and his horde and have to abandon the War Rig. Dementus captures them and flips their vehicle, injuring Furiosa’s left arm in the process. Jack is tortured to death, but Furiosa cuts off her arm to escape and returns to the Citadel.
Furiosa, with a mechanical prosthetic arm, leads a one-woman assault on Dementus and eventually captures him. She tortures him and he taunts her. The story does not explain how he dies, but the narrator suggests a tree is growing through his body from a seed that Furiosa kept from the Green Place. She becomes Joe’s Imperator and drives a new War Rig. She meets Joe’s five wives—The Splendid Angharad, Toast the Unknown, Cheedo the Fragile, Capable, and The Dag. She stows them in the War Rig to help them escape Immorten Joe and we are ready for Mad Max: Fury Road to begin. The credits are full of images from that movie.
The film, directed by George Miller and co-written by Nico Lathouris, is a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, which starred Charlize Theron as Furiosa. Ayla Brown, as she grew up in the film, had her face digitally altered at various times to resemble Anya Taylor-Joy more and more until the switch to the older actress was as seamless as possible, as opposed to de-aging Charlize Theron, as had been the original idea. Actor Jacob Tomuri appeared in a cameo as Mad Max. One scene required 200 stuntmen to work 78 days. Some critics praised the film, not only as having the best screenplay of any Mad Max film but called it one of the best prequels ever made. Taylor-Joy was called phenomenal. Despite Chris Hemsworth doing his best to steal the movie, and his is a bravura performance, Taylor-Joy is scarier than he is. The film is as spectacular as you would expect and a worthy successor to the Mad Max films.