Shiny and chrome: 10 movies like ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’
After George Miller’s modern reimagining of his Mad Max franchise hit cinemas in 2015, the world of action cinema changed forever. Fury Road was an electric genre masterpiece that recast Tom Hardy as the character formally made iconic by Mel Gibson and took audiences on a wild ride through the apocalyptic Australian outback where insanity festers all shiny and chrome.
Forcing the rest of the genre to considerably up its quality, Fury Road was a return to the action movies of the late 20th century that cherished real-life stunt work, bombastic concepts and cinematic prowess above all else. Combining startling cinematography, a soundtrack that shreds through your soul and set design that will have you believing that Australia is some sort of genuine hellscape, Fury Road reintroduced audiences to Mad Max, a lonely wanderer who gets caught up in a warlord’s race for revenge against a pack of rebels.
Nominated for ‘Best Picture’ at the Academy Awards, Mad Max: Fury Road is one of the few action flicks that has come close to the Oscars’ most esteemed trophy over the years. It didn’t leave empty-handed, though, earning six awards in total, sweeping in many of the technical categories, including ‘Best Achievement in Makeup and Hairstyling’ and ‘Best Achievement in Production Design’.
Now, almost a decade after the release of Miller’s masterpiece, the madman is back with a prequel that delves into the backstory of the rebel Furiosa, played in the movie by Charlize Theron. So, to get into the headspace of Miller’s wacky world, it might be worth considering delving into some iconic classics that undoubtedly inspired his vision.
Dystopian movies like Mad Max: Fury Road
One of the greatest features of Fury Road is its attention to detail, building a utopian world that feels so real that it pulses with an energy of its own. Countless dystopian movies have done this over the years, with Dredd certainly being one of the best of its kind in the 21st century, adapting the classic comic book character to the big screen with a violent action flick that made better use of 3D than any other movie of the 2010s.
Perfectly balancing absurdity and tragedy, Fury Road’s world also shares similarities to the sci-fi dystopia of 1987’s The Running Man, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger as a falsely convicted man who must kill for his freedom in a twisted TV game show. Certainly one of Schwarzenegger’s finest outings, the tale, based on a story by Stephen King, is wickedly creative, showing the sort of imagination that would make Miller proud.
Elsewhere, dystopias are treated with a similar camp aesthetic, such as in John Carpenter’s underrated sequel Escape from L.A., which considerably ups the ante following 1981’s comparatively tame Escape from New York. A weird and wild action flick that features Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken, a maverick criminal tasked with recovering a doomsday device from a gigantic prison, the film certainly shares a frenetic mania with Fury Road.
Indeed, if you like your dystopias with a slice of fun, 1979’s The Warriors and 1998’s Six-String Samurai may, indeed, be the movies for you, with both being cult classics of their respective periods. While The Warriors is a little more known, telling the story of the hoards of gangs that ran New York in the 1970s (arguing that the dystopia was happening right now), Six-String Samurai is something of a lesser-discovered gem, following a lover of rock ‘n’ roll who traverses the post-apocalyptic landscape of 1990s Nevada with a guitar over his shoulder.
Action movies like Mad Max: Fury Road
But, if you’re after more of the action-packed insanity that Mad Max: Fury Road offered, instead of its dystopian feel, there are countless iconic movies to check out. Perhaps the most obvious of the bunch is the seminal 1990s sci-fi The Matrix, which also changed how the genre operated. Forcing filmmakers to think bigger, the Wachowskis created a marvel of action filmmaking that melded sci-fi, philosophy and much more.
One of the most striking features of Fury Road, however, is the sheer pace in which it is put together, with such classic action flicks as Gareth Evans’ The Raid and the anime flick Redline sharing this quality. Essentially one elongated action scene, The Raid has been celebrated ever since 2011 for its astonishing choreography and camera work, inspiring martial arts films across the world to step up their game. Redline had a similar effect upon its release in 2009, too, with the animation that tells the story of the biggest race in the galaxy being a hand-drawn marvel that thunders with energy.
Carrying a similar attention to pace is Quentin Tarantino’s iconic 2003 film Kill Bill, which stars Uma Thurman as a woman who wakes up from a coma to take revenge against the assassins who betrayed her. For a director known for his violence, Kill Bill is certainly Tarantino’s most infamous creation, with the film stuffed full of gorgeously enjoyable action sequences and set pieces that have you giddy for more.
Similarly violent yet not quite as frenetic, Paul Verhoeven’s RoboCop bookends this list fittingly as a quality action flick and a celebrated dystopian classic set in a futuristic version of Detroit. The story follows the story of a wounded cop who comes back to life as a seemingly unstoppable metal cyborg forced to carry out the bidding of the law, with Verhoeven being directly inspired by Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (which, in turn, became the basis for Fury Road) for the project.
10 movies like Mad Max: Fury Road:
- Dredd (Pete Travis, 2012)
- Escape from L.A. (John Carpenter, 1996)
- Kill Bill (Quentin Tarantino, 2003)
- The Matrix (Lana Wachowski, Lilly Wachowski, 1999)
- The Raid (Gareth Evans, 2011)
- Redline (Takeshi Koike, 2009)
- RoboCop (Paul Verhoeven, 1988)
- The Running Man (Paul Michael Glaser, 1987)
- Six-String Samurai (Lance Mungia, 1998)
- The Warriors (Walter Hill, 1979)
