Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, like other prequels, has a tricky task to accomplish. It has to tell a new and unique story about a character we already know, while setting the stage for a movie we’ve already seen. So does Furiosa manage to do it? Let’s break down that ending and see!
Warning: this article contains massive spoilers for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga.
What happens to Dementus?
The movie opens with Furiosa (Alyla Browne and Anya Taylor-Joy) getting kidnapped from her home and taken to the maniacal Dementus (Chris Hemsworth). After 15 years, Furiosa finally gets her revenge, confronting Dementus out in the Wasteland where there’s nowhere for him to run.
So what does she do, exactly? After Dementus warns her that revenge will make her just like him, and that killing him can never give her back the life she lost, we hear the voice of the History Man narrating the legends that have arisen around Dementus’s death. Did Furiosa just shoot him out in the dunes? Did she drag him behind a motorcycle, which is the fate to which Dementus subjected Praetorian Jack (Tom Burke)? Did she string him up to be eaten by crows?
Then the History Man reveals that high in Immortan Joe’s citadel, there’s a man trapped underneath a peach tree, which slowly feeds on his body.
See, Furiosa has been carrying a treasure with her for the entire movie: a peach pit that her mother gives her and tells her to plant. Furiosa never makes it home to plant it in the Green Place of Many Mothers, so she does the next best thing. She plants it in Dementus’ crotch, where it both flourishes and tortures him for the rest of his life.
When the first fruit ripens, Furiosa cuts it into pieces and gives it to Joe’s wives, a group of women dressed in white. From this point on, if you haven’t seen Mad Max: Fury Road, the ending of Furiosa might be confusing. If you have seen it, though, you’ll recognize what happens next.
How Furiosa sets up Mad Max: Fury Road
The group of women we see at the end of Furiosa are the very wives that Furiosa smuggles out of the Citadel in Fury Road, in order to take them with her to the Green Place of Many Mothers. At the every end of Furiosa, we see a quick shot of Furiosa—older and more muscular—sneaking them into the war rig and shutting the hatch behind them.
Then, as the credits roll, we see clips from Fury Road. Furiosa battles Joe’s forces as she drives east, towards her ancestral home. She reaches a desiccated wilderness full of dead trees. She falls to her knees and screams in a heartbreaking reveal.
I won’t spoil that reveal here, just in case you haven’t seen Fury Road and you’re still reading this article. So go watch it! It’s amazing! Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga may be over, but you’re lucky that Furiosa’s story continues.
