So once that was there, the rest kind of followed organically out of that basic structure. She kind of grew out of the warrior woman from the second Mad Max – she gets killed in the final chase – and I always thought about how could a female survive in this wasteland, in this medieval world, basically. Given that the MacGuffin was five female breeders fleeing from a warlord trying to make an healthy heir, they needed a road warrior. We try to tell ourselves that everyday and certainly Nux learns that.įuriosa’s character stems from the warrior woman in Mad Max 2. All we really have is the present and there’s no guarantee of a future, so be joyful in the sorrow and majesty of life and live it. So again, that’s one of the things we all face in our own worldview, our own philosophy. And that’s all we have really and I think that’s what Nux has learnt and then realising he’s doomed anyway and let’s use it for some greater purpose. And in that moment when Capable touches his lips, his scarred lips, that’s just purely being in that moment. He’s always wanted to drive the War Rig! And the great triumph of his life was being able to drag that War Rig out of the bog and he rejoices in that moment. So Nux who has no future lives out his moment when he gets to drive the War Rig.
One of the notions in storytelling is to find the eternal in the now, to be in the moment. But Nux has got the flexibility and just the basic life energy to actually switch from this fanaticism and this intense belief that this is the day he's going to die historic on the fury road to actually, deep disillusionment and failure and then finding another, someone else to believe in. He goes 180 degrees from his belief in that he ultimately relinquishes his self-interest the most for the greater good for love, really, which is available to him, to the younger people, in contrast to Max and Furiosa who are too basically damaged to even go there very far.