There are many things that make Mad Max: Fury Road one of the most enduring crowd-pleasers of the century. Death-defying stunts, a fantastic and deep cast, extremely quotable dialogue, breathtaking imagery. But one of the most important elements in the movie, and the Mad Max franchise in general, is the evocative character design.
The War Boys and The Doof Warrior get their fair share of attention, and rightly so — their designs are vivid and very memorable, and before a recent rewatch they were the characters I remembered the best. But there’s one group I feel gets overlooked, that I gained a new appreciation for on that recent rewatch: The Rock Riders.
Image: Warner Bros.
The Rock Riders are a group of motorcycle-riding bandits who live in a canyon smack dab in the middle of the path of Furiosa’s breakaway convoy in Fury Road. Furiosa made a deal with them to trade Guzzolene for safe passage, but the Rock Riders reneged on that deal when they saw just how upset Immortan Joe was at Furiosa’s betrayal.
Image: Warner Bros.
That leads to a very cool sequence where Furiosa and her crew fight off the Rock Riders, as their motorcycles jump over The War Rig and repeatedly drop bombs on it. It’s like a circus act shows up in the middle of Fury Road, injecting some extra life and excitement in a movie already full of it.
The circus act isn’t far off — the origin for the Rock Riders came from a beach trip by co-writer Brendan McCarthy. While at a surfer pub, a video caught his eye of bikers doing eye-popping stunts. He pitched the idea of bikers leaping over Furiosa’s truck to George Miller (who, naturally, loved it), and they hired professional motocross riders from around the world to perform the sequence.
Fury Road is made up of many great action sequences, yes, but they work in large part because of the character designs behind them, and the hard work to pull them off. The Rock Riders might not get quite as much attention as some of their bandit brethren, but they deserve recognition for this excellent sequence.