Watch: All of the Incredible Practical Effects in 'Mad Max: Fury Road'
Ever wonder what was CGI and what wasn't?
Mad Max: Fury Road quite literally took the box office by storm last year as the ageless George Miller dizzied audiences with an unrelenting display of automobile aerobatics. 36 years after the original Mad Max was unleashed onto the world, Miller found himself a host of new technology and toys. One would assume, perhaps for experimental sake alone, that the director would use these tools to their fullest extent in making a blockbuster for the modern age. And based on the insane explosions and crazy car chases in the film, you might conclude similarly.
The video below, a mashup of behind-the-scenes footage and special features by YouTube channel ESPORTS TV, proves otherwise.
Prior to the film's release, Miller gloated over the fact that 90 percent of the film was shot with practical effects. The compilation above affirms his claim, showing many of the explosive car and motorcycle stunts before CGI or VFX were added. Lo and behold, the footage looks almost exactly like what we ended up seeing in theaters, full to the brim with pyrotechnics and massive pile-ups of axle and metal.
The original Mad Max was filmed on a meager $200,000 budget; Fury Road was shot for a staggering $150,000,000. It would be great to see a breakdown of that budget, but we can rest assured that Miller sunk his dough into the right areas of spectacle. The film nearly swept all the below-the-line categories at this year's Academy Awards, earning Oscars for Film Editing, Costume Design, Makeup and Hairstyling, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing, and Production Design.
Which begs the question: how the hell did Mad Max: Fury Road not win best VFX?
