9. Every Single Character Had A Back Story, So You Actually Cared
The height of the madness in Mad Max is almost certainly the so-called Doof Warrior, the War Boy perched on the front of a truck carrying a half-dozen drummers who plays tasty licks on his guitar, blasted out of a stack of amps behind him. A guitar which just so happens to shoot flames out of the top of its neck at opportune moments. A flamethrowing axe that really worked, by the way. Using practical effects was just one aspect of "grounding" as over-the-top and ludicrous film as Fury Road, however. That guitar wasn't just there because it looked cool; like everything in Mad Max, it had a real, practical purpose in the fictional world, accompanied with a backstory. "It all hopefully has some sort of logic," said director George Miller about the numerous colourful background characters in the film. "It got to a point where if I picked up a prop, the person who made that prop or the performer working with that prop had to tell me its backstory." Stuff wasn't just in there because it looked cool (although it helped). Everything had its place, so everything feels at least semi-real.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
