No, using a couple of mammoth, mountainside pipes to pour water down on the thirsty post-apocalyptic hordes of Mad Max: Fury Road didn’t make any logistical sense, but that’s the point. Inspired by someone complaining about the total impracticality of Immortan Joe’s water-distribution system, Rafael Hernán Gamboa created a video essay on his YouTube channel The Long Take that sets about deconstructing the largely unspoken mythology of George Miller’s modern classic, a film that Gamboa argues is itself an exploration of myths and how belief affects our lives.
While Immortan Joe used his catchphrases and utterly inefficient man-made waterfall to maintain his status as a life-giving mythical figure, Max might be the most mythical of all the film’s characters. Gamboa tracks his story through all four films, noting how it’s often told in slightly different forms and how his Interceptor, the Road Warrior’s legendary car, is always around in fine form even though it keeps getting destroyed. And in the end, Max’s actions, that of a wanderer and liberator, are perhaps the most legend-making aspect of all.