'Mad Max' has lived in George Miller's head for 45 years. He's not done dreaming yet
The world of “Mad Max” has lived in George Miller's head for nearly half a century
CANNES, France (AP) — Only recently has George Miller realized just how influential his medical education was to the world of “Mad Max.”
Miller was briefly a doctor before finding filmmaking and his twin brother, whom he attended university with, remained one. As a resident at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Sydney, Miller saw people in birth and in death, in moments of, he says, “extremis.”
Extremis — a Latin word that literally translates as “at the point of death” — would be a fairly apt way to describe the post-apocalypse wasteland of “Mad Max.” It could apply to, well, all of the characters, or to the Earth, itself. The more you think about it, the more Miller’s desert dystopia begins looking like a fantastical ER. The human blood bags of “Mad Max: Fury Road.” Furiosa’s prosthetic arm. Immortan Joe’s respirator mask.
“I don’t think I’d still be making films if I didn’t have that part of myself,” Miller said of his medical background in a recent interview.
