Gadgetory

so there's a new Mad Max coming out and I'm really excited I want to talk about why George Miller is a great director and he takes a really different approach to directing action scenes especially car chases which are at the center of the new Mad Max road warriors the best example of this there are a lot of car crashes in it and they're all physical effects real cars real dusts often real people inside there's something viscerally exciting about seeing these crashes and Miller gives them to us over and over but what's interesting is how chaotic it is there's an immediate reason for each crash but there's no real intention behind it they just sort of happen that's not how action movies usually work usually there's a clear logic this is what they teach in screenwriting school think about the train chase and Skyfall James Bond wants to catch the bad guy but the bad guys shooting at it the shooting leads to this giant shovel which leads to the uncoupling which leads to this train jump it's unexpected but there's a clear logic and progression to the whole thing now look at this scene from Road Warrior it's a simple setup max is driving the big rig back to the refinery and the bad guys are trying to stop him so what happens first max knocks a guy off the road and he careens into the enemy camp causing this car to fall on this guy the Mohawk bad guy shoots the tires but it doesn't do anything so he jumps on the back a guy throws a rock at the windshield but it bounces off he tries to shoot the muscular bad guy but the shells a dud the muscular bad guy shoots the rig but it doesn't do anything the Mohawk guy punches through the window but they just wrestle a lot the gunner shoots out more tires but it doesn't do anything then the gunner gets a snake dropped on him so he shoots the driver who then almost crashes into his buddy but veers into a pile of burned-out cars you see the difference right nothing works there's a steady accumulation of danger but nobody gets what they want and when they do get what they want comes with all sorts of collateral damage that would be a real problem for a standard hero like Superman or Luke Skywalker but max doesn't care about a few extra casualties it's the apocalypse nobody cares about anything but the climax the examples get even more elaborate this guy's grappling hook pins this guy's leg instead of hooking onto the ledge then the buggy veers to the side and flips over and the whole ledge gets pulled off the truck and blows up max hits the brake pedal so Mohawk guy goes flying but then the hostages strapped to the front of the car behind him get their head smash max shoots a driver so he falls on the gas pedal and hits a dune buggy then two different bikers crash into the wrecked buggy at the end you get the definitive image of the movie a car flipping over and OH were out of control these people aren't crashing because max is such a badass what they're doing is just very very dangerous and Max's in as much danger as anyone else they all know what could happen and they don't care because they're out of their minds it also means that when you're watching the movie you genuinely don't know what's gonna happen which is rare for an action movie every car is just seconds away from careening off the road to a fiery death and that means even simple shots come with incredible tension dangers exciting and for Miller dangers everywhere