In a post-apocalyptic world where nothing is worth more that gasoline, water and power, Max wanders alone and without hope. Until a group of bloodthirsty thugs kidnap him and take him to their huge fortress to use his blood to refill the veins of the soldiers of Immortan Joe. But when Joe’s lieutenant, Imperator Furiosa, turns against him and steals his most precious collateral, she takes Max along on a chase through the desert, where he must team up with her to survive.

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There’s no point in worrying about chronology, the repetitiveness of the characters or the sometimes dumb dialogue. The beauty, rage and magic of Mad Max: Fury Road lies elsewhere: in the enormous destruction, sumptuous brutality and the instantly iconic dimension of this nonstop chase across an arid plain. Born in 1979 as Mel Gibson, this time around Mad Max deploys a colossal amount of energy for its great comeback 30 years after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome. Tom Hardy takes over for Gibson and is accompanied by the fabulous Charlize Theron as the two burn brightly in this action flick on steroids that manages to add a richness of subtext – a wealth of strong female characters, a matriarchy faced with a destructive patriarchy, blood as fuel for the mechanical human body. But the real star of Fury Road is Australian director George Miller, who at 70 reboots his original with imagination and an amazing strength that puts many recent Hollywood blockbusters to shame.