The Mad Max: Fury Road prequel Furiosa is set to release in theaters in mere weeks, and Total Film magazine has a feature on the film coming out in its latest issue. One of the tidbits in that piece includes details about a fifteen-minute action sequence dubbed “Stairway to Nowhere” that involved over two hundred stunt people and took seventy-eight days to shoot.
That’s certainly a lot! But for anyone who has seen George Miller’s Fury Road, that seems about right for his prequel, where Anya Taylor-Joy takes on the titular role, a part that Charlize Theron played in the previous film. What’s perhaps more interesting is the fact that Taylor-Joy did all these driving stunts even though she has never had a driver’s license! (She apparently had to learn to do a J-turn on her first day of stunt school even so.) The sequence is meant to be formative for Furiosa.
“George and I would have these big conversations about why this particular set-piece was so long,” Taylor-Joy told Total Film. “It’s because you see an accumulation of skills over the course of a battle, and that’s very important for understanding how resourceful Furiosa is, but also her grit. It’s the longest sequence any of us have ever shot. On the day we finished, everybody got a ‘Stairway To Nowhere’ wine!”
Cheers to that!
In addition to Taylor-Joy, Furiosa stars Chris Hemsworth as Warlord Dementus, the leader of a Biker Horde who captured Furiosa when she was a child, leading her to a quest for vengeance that we presumably see unfold in the upcoming film.
We can bear witness to this action sequence and see Taylor-Joy’s unlicensed driving skills when Furiosa zooms its way into theaters on May 24, 2024.
