Here I am, hours later, still crying about Furiosa and Praetorian Jack. George Miller, Nico Lathouris, Anya Taylor-Joy and Tom Burke are geniuses. They completely sold me on just how much these characters loved each other.
Furiosa coming out of a nightmare, wielding a knife, to be caught by Jack. He doesn’t say it’s all right or that she’s safe, she doesn’t say it was just a bad dream. They don’t say anything. Jack eases her back down to her cot and they settle down, aware of each other.
Jack stitching up Furiosa’s shoulder in a hidden spot in the Citadel, Furiosa showing Jack the peach seed that she’s kept hidden in her hair for so long, proving that the Green Place is out there, asking him to come with her, pressing her forehead to his while cupping the back of his head, showing him her love in the manner of her people, and him returning the gesture. After fifteen years, she’s finally going home, and he’s coming with her.
And then...
Spoilers beyond here!!!
And then:
The battle of the Bullet Farm, which is where the strength and force of their love really started to batter me. Furiosa manages to avoid the ambush and get out of the Farm before the gate closes, and Jack could easily have slipped through the gate to join her, but he sees the enemy forces mustering and knows they’ll quickly be hunted down if there's nothing to stop their pursuers. He shoots off a green flare that clearly tells Furiosa to abandon him and get the hell out of there, intending to sacrifice himself so that she has a chance to escape and set off for the Green Place. Furiosa does drive off, but gets maybe five metres before she decides ‘fuck this’ and goes back in to try and save him. And she saves him from his pursuers and she saves him from falling to his death, and they get to their escape vehicle and drive off, with nary a word spoken or exchanged until they’re on the flat and heading for freedom. And even then, all that’s mentioned is what direction they should take to reach the Green Place. That's it. They don’t need anything else. They survived, they got out, they're together, they’re going to be all right.
And they almost make it. They almost get away.
When they’re captured by Dementus and forced onto their knees, there’s no special close up on them; mostly they’re on the edge of the shot while Dementus is ranting centre stage or screaming into their faces. They pay no heed to him. That love infuriates Dementus. He shrieks, he tears at them, but he can’t break them. He doesn’t matter. What matters is that they spend their last moments touching each other, leaning into each other, pressing their foreheads together, breathing deep, loving each other.
There are no parting words between Furiosa and Jack, no declarations or promises or screams of despair, but it hit me so hard and cut so deep that the second to last time we see Jack’s face, he’s craning desperately to see what’s happening to Furiosa, trying to get one final precious glimpse of her, before he’s quite literally dragged to his awful death.
We don’t see Furiosa’s reaction to her torture on multiple fronts, as she is strung up by her maimed arm and forced to watch Jack die. We’ve seen her scream and weep for her mother, but this moment is hers alone. It’s not for us.
How fitting it is that Jack saves Furiosa one last time, as his execution distracts Dementus and his crew from noticing that Furiosa has cut off her own arm to escape.
The last time we see Jack’s face is in Furiosa’s last nightmare.
Furiosa doesn’t mention Jack in her final showdown with Dementus, when she screams about her mother and her stolen childhood. But from what’s shown to us, I think that the spot in the Citadel when she imprisons Dementus and grows the peach tree in the midst of his emaciated, maggot-ridden body…is the same place where Jack stitched up her wounded shoulder, where she showed him the peach seed, where she asked him to come with her to the Green Place and he accepted, where she showed him her love in the manner of her people, where they embraced. Where she avenged herself and Jack, upon the man who destroyed their lives.
Where Furiosa now plucks the first fruit of the tree to bring to the Five Wives, whom she will bring with her to the Green Place.
like u walk into the inkigayo waiting room in 2008 and find the following ppl:
a guy in a fedora who passed an inpromptu audition by THE lee sooman who's the son of like butchers or something from Gwangmyeong who looks softer than a pile of laundry, and who goes around greeting everyone and smiling amiably. he seems laid back, and then he opens his mouth and the smoothest, steadiest, and strongest rnb voice you'll hear in your life pours out of him at high volume like he doesn't even need a mic
a high school dropout who's face is all knees and elbows and who has some absolutely whackass energy going on like an emotional oil spill, and who gets on stage procedes to run absolute RINGS around every other vocalist alive with an insane amt of stage presence packed into a surprisingly tiny body.
some kid from Daegu who's raised by his grandma and was a nationally competitive water-skier who's seems bitchy but is as reserved as a block of wood and then gets on stage like he invented being a hypeman while outsinging, outrapping, and outdancing just abt everyone else
the son of a nationally renowned soccer coach from Incheon who looks like he got lost on the way to the runway and who straight up doesn't talk but is obviously paying attention and who's tall but a little weird looking bc he hasn't grown into his looks yet, who then gets on stage like he invented charisma and being interesting despite the aforementioned not saying a damn word past hello
a literal honest-to-god child who doesn't even fucking SING but is apparently such a good dancer that it doesn't matter and has the most awkward face you've ever seen who makes everyone fall in love w him at first sight and want to protect them and then goes up on stage and owns it like he's not skipping fourth period math to be here
a scooby doo series set in community college where the gang is in a criminology class and end up in a huge debate on the first day of class that leads to them starting a podcast talking about local urban legends, only to realize things aren’t quite adding up and they go to investigate for ~journalistic authenticity~ and end up solving a real-life crime disguised as supernatural occurrences. this happens every week and they’re frequently featured on the school newspaper. they only have twenty listeners
