Jordyn Kopelson- Blog Post 6

X: In the film, Mad Max: Fury Road, the scene titled “I am waiting in Valhalla”, utilizes the visual element of costuming, which shows the bravery that Immortan Joe and his clan of War Boys seem to possess from the outside, yet also reveals the fear of their weaknesses that lie within them.

Detail 1: The costumes that the war boys wear, which includes bloody scars, tattoos, and imprints of skulls and other symbols illustrate the extreme and violent uniformity in both appearance and thought that Immortan Joe forces upon them.

Detail 2: Immortan Joe’s “Joker-like” mask makes him seem by many as a monster-like figure, yet, the fact that Immortan Joe can never reveal his real face and or physical qualities, proves the overall horrors that he experiences, despite having the power over an entire regime.

Y: In William’s article, “Ideology as Dystopia: An Interpretation of Blade Runner”, he says that the “replicants” created in Blade Runner learned to possess “real” feelings and emotions, which “pose an obvious security threat” (Williams 384-385) to those around them. Yet, this authentic feature that the replicants inherently possess suggests that having these emotions are truly what it means to be a human.

Detail: Likewise, in the scene in Mad Max: Fury Road, this authentic feature of possessing “real” feelings is exhibited through the character of Nux, where he sacrifices his life not only to prove his inner character, but also in order to save the woman he had developed a love for. Nux’s actions show that despite what Immortan Joe had intended on implementing on his war boys, the qualities that lied hidden inside of him were what allowed for him to finally reach his dreams.

X/Y Thesis: George Miller’s film, Mad Max: Fury Road, portrays a world that is controlled by the powerful Immortan Joe, who creates a clan of “war boys” who resemble the “replicant-like” characters in Williams’s “Ideology as Dystopia: An Interpretation of Blade Runner”, where they are both forced to hide their fears behind their outer appearances, despite the emotions that lie within them.