Serving as a prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa is a sprawling tale of vengeance and hope that brings something both familiar and new to George Miller’s famous post-apocalyptic world.
The film frequently serves as a story of pain and suffering, beginning with Furiosa’s kidnapping, and taking us through chapters of her life that include losing loved ones, enduring torture, and being traded from captor to captor. But, as we are reminded by the film’s end, suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Every hardship she experiences is building something new in her, moving her beyond vengeance and creating an internal stream of purpose amidst the surrounding wastelands.
So, in the words of the film’s storyteller, “as the world falls around us, how must we brave its cruelties?” With hope. Furiosa carries a fruit tree seed throughout the film, representing that very hope – not yet realized, but sure to come. And when that seed is finally planted, it quite literally grows from the pain of her past. We all are called to carry a seed of hope for Christ’s restoration of a better world and a dedication to being a part of that restoration.
This hope is what makes Furiosa such a powerful prequel. The events of this film lay the emotional groundwork – her suffering, her perseverance, her character, her hope – for the promise of what’s to come in Fury Road.
“See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.” – Isaiah 43:19
— Christian Jessup (2024), A Cloudy Picture
Arts & Faith Lists:
2024 Arts & Faith Ecumenical Jury — #8