What’s Aged the Worst?
Nothing substantial after three years; Immortan Joe's unclear plan; the Doof Warrior's nu-metal act
In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:15Read transcript
- Only three years old, the film has none of the usual aging problems, nothing like relitigating the comedy of Wedding Crashers; the action sequences are perfect as they were, and the casting, direction and look all hold up.
- Flagged as more of a nitpick: what was Immortan Joe's plan? He pursues his five or six wives, who exist to help him produce one healthy son, and the question is why he must marshal the whole Citadel for a wild goose chase rather than turn to other women, and whether he is just an avatar of avarice with no logical motivation.
- A Helen of Troy defence: Joe's so-called brothers are really allied generals, war-mad enough to go fire bullets into the desert over a family squabble; the women pumping mother's milk look past their prime, so these wives are his shot at a male heir who is not Rictus or the man with the telescope.
- Whether Rictus could lead the Citadel is doubted, since all he does is guzzle breast milk and fire a Gatling gun with no Tony La Russa-level strategy; the hosts perform his 'I had a baby brother' line readings, joke about doing them in the office over blog posts, and one voice answers that Rictus does not realise he is being passed over and does not understand much.
- Legacy matters to Joe because, with little recorded history or stability, evil royal families have always cared most about continuing their reign through a male heir; the same primal urge to live beyond one's natural life explains podcasts, writing and books, which leads to the joke of what Immortan Joe's podcast would be called, answered with 'The Immortan Joe Budden podcast'.
- The Doof Warrior, despite winning the Dion Waiters Award, is also nominated as what aged the worst: rock is dead, the Slipknot-style nu-metal is dead, and in a world where energy is scarce and people drink breast milk, two mountainous stacks of 100-watt amps are the most wasteful and ridiculous part of the movie, though still loved; it is odd that English barely survives the wasteland while drop-D guitar and late-aughts metal do.