Mad Max: Fury Road Visions of the Apocalypse Quotes

Hmm. Okay. Good to know. For realsies, though, Shmoopers: his world pretty much is fire and blood—and it's not just his world; it's the whole stinkin' planet. It's no wonder Max has gone 'round the bend. When everything in your life is either dead, dusty, or depraved, insanity seems the only safe route.

Hooray, some exposition. Based on this brief audio montage of what sounds an awful lot like news reports (although we really can't be sure), it sounds like the apocalypse came about because Earth got all used up. In other words, everything went to you-know-where in a handbasket because there were too many people fighting over too few resources. That sure does sound like a recipe for ecological disaster.

The Organic Mechanic tattoos these words on Max's back when he's first in captivity at the Citadel. It's a great moment of characterization—we learn that Max is crazy (high octane), and that he's also a universal donor since he's got O-negative blood. But what's this got to do with the apocalypse? Well, for one thing it shows us that in the power vacuums that arose in the wasteland after the oil wars and the water wards, tyrants like Immortan Joe can gain power and treat everyone—and we mean everyone—like a commodity. That's how Max ends up acting as literally nothing more than a blood bag for Nux, the pugnacious but ill War Boy.