“Furiosa” covers nearly 20 years of the titular character’s life, from her kidnapping as a child to the exact start of events “Fury Road.” And yet even after she is traded from Dementus to Immortan Joe as a young girl, the closest we see to experiencing sexual violence is when Joe’s son Rictus Erectus attempts to assault the girl, only for Furiosa to outsmart him and escape to safety — choosing from that moment on to live in disguise as a boy. Even after her identity is made known, she has proven herself to be such a useful figure on the Fury Road, that she is able to stay with Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke) and work on the War Rig. Now, this isn’t to say that Furiosa definitively did not experience sexual violence at the hands of the many men who served as her captors over her life, but if it did happen, that pain is not weaponized for shock value or cheaply evoking empathy from the audience in “Furiosa.”
Instead, George Miller presents Furiosa as a character who was trained from birth to survive the Wasteland, showcasing survival skills, self-defense, resourcefulness, and yes — how to escape the rampant sexual violence. Raised in the land of the Many Mothers (aka The Vuvalini), Furiosa comes from a community of strong women, and that upbringing courses through all of her decisions. At the same time, the men are still presented as lecherous, disgusting misogynists, and the future for “rejected Brides” is also not kept secret. “Fury Road” established that the Wasteland is not a safe place for women, and “Furiosa” wisely expects the audience to know if money is the root of all evil, in a world where women are currency — only the worst people imaginable are those willing to cash in.
“Furiosa” is now playing in theaters everywhere.