Trucking Tidbits | Trucks in Film: Mad Max Fury Road

Film director George Miller once said in an interview “Just because it’s the Wasteland, it doesn’t mean that people can’t make beautiful things.” The Mad Max films are home to some of the most expressive vehicle designs of all time. With Mad Max: Fury Road, things got kicked up to 11. No, to 12! The vehicles can be considered as part of the wardrobe of the characters. From Max’s cult status “XB Interceptor”, to Immortan Joe’s double monster truck throne “The Gigahorse”. Nothing quite resonates the heart and soul of the film quite like Imperator Furiosa’s tactical tank warrior fortress chapel “The War Rig”. Crikey!! This thing is awesome!

A powerful Czech military mining fire truck called the Tatra T815 was the vehicle of choice along with a beautiful 1940s Chevy Fleetmaster that had been cut in half in the middle horizontally and widened with more… car, for the rear of the truck for extra passengers! 

Its monstrously imposing design features decorative skulls to scare off unfriendly foes and a baby pinned to some spikes to scare off, well, just about anybody, really, also more spikes on the rim shields to prevent enemies from slashing its tires, and a lock-on accelerator powered by a 600 horsepower race engine for the multiple max-speed max-octane action set pieces of the movie. Three identical versions of this epic desert dragon were constructed to meet filming demands!

The sound department conceived the sound profile of The War Rig as Moby-Dick. They used whale and bear groans that were slowed down to make it sound like they were dying as the harpoon impact of the accelerator fired up the metallic sounding engine.

Life and death occurs on The War Rig. It’s where the drama and action takes place at the same time. It’s scary, powerful, and yet dying. This thing is awesome and perfectly expresses the character of Fury Road by being The Character of Fury Road. This is why The War Rig is one of the coolest vehicles in cinema!