Furiosa: A Mad Max Story

Australian director George Miller’s reboot of his Mad Max series of films continues this summer, with the release of Furiosa: A Mad Max Story, a prequel to the blockbuster Mad Max Fury Road (2015). We analyze a lot of action film trailers on our Trailaurality blog, and I love that instead of simply building towards a predictable series of “trailer triplets,” this Furiosa trailer does more with less: it occupies vast spaces between dialogue, using sound design, thoughtful instrumental layering and unusual time signatures to create suspenseful builds.

During the first 22 seconds of the Furiosa trailer, over a single swelling orchestral chord, there is an interesting delay effect added to what may be the voice of Furiosa’s mother, giving parting advice about finding her way home. From 0:24 until 1:02 - so interesting - there is no dialogue. Instead we hear an industrial high-pitched synth accompanied by various rising tones, patiently building tension, as text on screen approaches from the horizon like an oncoming storm. At 0:48 the risers, climaxing in volume, are blended with sound design evoking wind and trickling liquid.

At 0:51 the screen fades to white, and as we hear a low booming impact sound we cut to Chris Hemsworth (Thor from the Marvel Cinematic Universe) on a microphone inviting drivers to start their engines. I mean it just wouldn’t be right if a prequel to Fury Road didn’t feature wild vehicles speeding across the desert. Unlike the low-budget original Mad Max films that George Miller began four decades ago, the two latest Mad Max films have cornered the market on overpoweringly vivid red desert action sequences and chases.

To kick things up a notch, at 1:04, a 5-beat repeating rhythm begins to cycle. So much of the music we listen to in North America is based on 4-beat or 3-beat cycles that to a North American ear 5-beat cycles can feel jarring or even disorienting. Cinematic music has often used the 5/4 time signature to signify danger and impending conflict. We can trace this back to the cultural influence of Gustav Holst’s 1916 composition “Mars” from The Planets suite. Mars, the Roman god of war, is evoked in Holst’s piece through driving 5/4 rhythms. We’ve heard film composers employ 5/4 rhythms in action films from Howard Shore’s theme for the Uruk-hai in his Lord of the Rings scores to Lalo Schifrin’s iconic Mission Impossible theme.

From 1:04 to 1:49, large drums accent two of the beats in the 5-beat pattern, then create a call and response with other instruments. While we see montage images, the synched music slowly builds, using volume, filtering and instrumentation to continually up the ante. At the start of the build, the high frequencies are filtered out of the mix, slowly entering as we build. Gradually strings and brass are added playing insistent repeated rhythms. By 1:40 the choral voices become more high-pitched, frequent and urgent, even as she declaims “I’m Furiosa”!

The music pauses from 1:55 to 2:00 to give sonic spotlight to the sounds of explosions and speeding cars. Pounding drums return briefly from 2:01-2:07, not 5/4 here but rather a 3-beat pattern that feels as if someone remixed Queen’s “We Will Rock You”. Finally, after the obligatory turn phrase by Hemsworth, we hear another round of the fully orchestrated 5/4 groove over the title card, with a percussion hit on the graphic “Remember Her.”

Furiosa blasts into theatres May 22, 2024

— Jack Hui Litster