Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road

by Kyle Buchanan

Overview

One of Entertainment Weekly's Best Books of 2022!

"New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan details the bonkers construction of director George Miller's long-awaited and often seemingly-doomed fourth Mad Max movie via testimony from the filmmaker, Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and a host of others. The result is an epic and – when it comes to the Theron-Hardy on-set relationship – acrimonious tale no less jaw-dropping than the movie itself." — Entertainment Weekly

A full-speed-ahead oral history of the nearly two-decade making of the cultural phenomenon Mad Max: Fury Road—with more than 130 new interviews with key members of the cast and crew, including Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and director George Miller, from the pop culture reporter for The New York Times, Kyle Buchanan.

It won six Oscars and has been hailed as the greatest action film ever, but it is a miracle Mad Max: Fury Road ever made it to the screen… or that anybody survived the production. The story of this modern classic spanned nearly two decades of wild obstacles as visionary director George Miller tried to mount one of the most difficult shoots in Hollywood history.

Production stalled several times, stars Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron clashed repeatedly in the brutal Namib Desert, and Miller’s crew engineered death-defying action scenes that were among the most dangerous ever committed to film. Even accomplished Hollywood figures are flummoxed by the accomplishment: As the director Steven Soderbergh has said, “I don’t understand how they’re not still shooting that film, and I don’t understand how hundreds of people aren’t dead.”

Kyle Buchanan takes readers through every step of that moviemaking experience in vivid detail, from Fury Road’s unexpected origins through its outlandish casting process to the big-studio battles that nearly mutilated a masterpiece. But he takes the deepest dive in reporting the astonishing facts behind a shoot so unconventional that the film’s fantasy world began to bleed into the real lives of its cast and crew. As they fought and endured in a wasteland of their own, the only way forward was to have faith in their director’s mad vision. But how could Miller persevere when almost everything seemed to be stacked against him?

With hundreds of exclusive interviews and details about the making of Fury Road, readers will be left with one undeniable conclusion: There has never been a movie so drenched in sweat, so forged by fire, and so epic in scope.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780063084346
Publisher:	HarperCollins
Publication date:	02/22/2022
Pages:	384
Sales rank:	19,988
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.25(h) x 1.20(d)

Table of Contents

Author's Note XI

Cast of Characters XIII

Part I Building a World Gone Mad

Introduction 3

Chapter 1 Eyewitness Accounts of those who Survived 7

Chapter 2 The Mad Mastermind 10

Chapter 3 Everyone in the old World has a show 25

Chapter 4 The History Men 34

Chapter 5 Who Killed the World? 46

Chapter 6 I Live, I Die, I Live Again 56

Chapter 7 Where are you, Max? 68

Chapter 8 Pick up What you can and Run 84

Chapter 9 Witness me 93

Chapter 10 "We were basically defeated" 103

Part II Shoot to Thrill

Chapter 11 Preparing for War 119

Chapter 12 Oh, What a Lovely Day 126

Chapter 13 My Name is Max 137

Chapter 14 "It was all in George's Head" 148

Chapter 15 Figuring out Furiosa 153

Chapter 16 Out Here, Everything Hurts 163

Chapter 17 All Hail the Immortan 171

Chapter 18 "The Last Great Action Film" 179

Chapter 19 The War Party 191

Chapter 20 Shiny and Chrome 200

Chapter 21 We are not Things 208

Chapter 22 The Many Mothers 216

Chapter 23 "Dudes were coming in through the Roof" 223

Chapter 24 Fire and Blood 230

Chapter 25 Some Furious Vexation 241

Chapter 26 "Spent and Enriched" 251

Part III End of the Road

Chapter 27 If You Can't Fix What's Broken 261

Chapter 28 "That's Not a Mad Max Ending" 272

Chapter 29 The Final Battle 278

Chapter 30 What was Lost 292

Chapter 31 Some Kind of Redemption 298

Chapter 32 Awaited in Valhalla 309

Chapter 33 "Nothing Good Comes Easy" 323

Acknowledgments 337

Sources 341

Index 350

Editorial Reviews

"New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan details the bonkers construction of director George Miller's long-awaited and often seemingly-doomed fourth Mad Max movie via testimony from the filmmaker, Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy, and a host of others. The result is an epic and – when it comes to the Theron-Hardy on-set relationship – acrimonious tale no less jaw-dropping than the movie itself." — Entertainment Weekly

“[A] must-have oral history… it’s as if the entire cast and crew were in a big room, sharing their stories. The book is so good that, even though we know how the story turned out… we are somehow in a near-constant state of suspense… Filled with surprises and illuminating behind-the-scenes stories, this is the book Mad Max fans crave.” — Booklist (starred review)

“An insider’s guide to Fury Road that will inspire fans to rewatch and leave them eager for the next installment on Furiosa.” — Library Journal

“The pop culture reporter for The New York Times assembles scores of voices that rev up a narrative that will excite Mad Max fans specifically, and entertain film buffs generally, on how ideas are realized as epics…. Not unlike “Fury Road,” Buchanan’s “Blood, Sweat & Chrome” succeeds largely at the level you choose, summed up best by War Boy Ben Smith-Peterson: ‘Sometimes you don’t need to know the backstory of a character that doesn’t have any lines... but I don’t know. I’m a stunt guy. I let people set me on fire.’" — Associated Press

“Crazy, riveting.” — New York

“Deft and rollicking.”  — Air Mail News

"This in-depth oral history [is] as awe-inspiring as the film itself. This is as much a story of persistence as of filmmaking genius. Boasting well over 100 interviewees, the level of New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan’s access is impressive....A book that doesn’t shy away from candid revelations; this entertaining tome is fitting testament to a film that played by its own rules." — SFX

From the Publisher

The pop culture reporter for The New York Times assembles scores of voices that rev up a narrative that will excite Mad Max fans specifically, and entertain film buffs generally, on how ideas are realized as epics…. Not unlike “Fury Road,” Buchanan’s “Blood, Sweat & Chrome” succeeds largely at the level you choose, summed up best by War Boy Ben Smith-Peterson: ‘Sometimes you don’t need to know the backstory of a character that doesn’t have any lines... but I don’t know. I’m a stunt guy. I let people set me on fire.’"

Associated Press

[A] must-have oral history… it’s as if the entire cast and crew were in a big room, sharing their stories. The book is so good that, even though we know how the story turned out… we are somehow in a near-constant state of suspense… Filled with surprises and illuminating behind-the-scenes stories, this is the book Mad Max fans crave.

Booklist (starred review)

Deft and rollicking.” 

Air Mail News

Crazy, riveting.

New York

"This in-depth oral history [is] as awe-inspiring as the film itself. This is as much a story of persistence as of filmmaking genius. Boasting well over 100 interviewees, the level of New York Times journalist Kyle Buchanan’s access is impressive....A book that doesn’t shy away from candid revelations; this entertaining tome is fitting testament to a film that played by its own rules."

SFX

02/01/2022

In 2020, New York Times reporter Buchanan wrote an oral history of Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) to coincide with the film's fifth anniversary. That viral article was the basis for this full-length treatment of how a film that almost didn't get made (one movie studio even walked away) turned into an unexpected success, winning six Oscars and becoming a feminist classic. Buchanan interviewed more than 130 members of the cast and crew in order to present this oral history of the decade-long process of developing the film, the fourth in a franchise. Director George Miller shares his vision for focusing the film on one long car race and discusses the decision to center Furiosa (Charlize Theron) alongside Max (Tom Hardy). Fans of Mad Max's car chases will enjoy behind-the-scenes insight on filming the stunts in the Namibian desert. Buchanan's interviews hear the crew expressing frustrations about the lengthy casting process and the film's tendency to run over budget and behind schedule. Throughout the book, Miller's vision is brought to life. VERDICT An insider's guide to Fury Road that will inspire fans to rewatch and leave them eager for the next installment on Furiosa.—Stephanie Sendaula

Library Journal