“It was mental in a brilliant way,†Tom said about filming the movie. “You have no concrete, no coffee shops. We were in the middle of a sandpit.â€â€œI wanted to tell a linear story–a chase that starts as the movie begins and continues for 110 minutes,†director George Miller said to the mag. “In this crucible of very intense action, the characters are revealed.†EW.com
The film, which Miller calls “almost a continuous chase,†extends the story of the first Mad Max film, but it’s not necessarily within the canon of the rest of the series. “Of course it’s based on the same character that they’ll play, the lone warrior in the wasteland disengaged from the rest of the world,†he said in a press conference. “But naturally Tom brings his Tom Hardy-ness to it, and the story is different to some degree. The character is different to some degree.†Hardy’s Max will be joined by Charlize Theron, playing a warrior known as Furiosa.Miller said that his post-apocalyptic film will deal with some of the same issues as its older counterparts. “In many ways we’re sort of doomed to repeat the whole history,†he said. The Road Warrior, to some extent, was inspired by the oil crisis of 1973, when an embargo by oil-producing Arab countries led to shortages and rationing. “People effectively went to war for oil,†he said. “We arguably have been fighting oil wars ever since. Now, in some places in the world, there are water wars.â€