I totally thought Furiosa was going to shoot Cheedo.
I did too, and I think it’s absolutely deliberate. We see Furiosa take aim in the shot above, and then we see this:
Furiosa’s crosshairs moving across Cheedo’s back. She moves over the women to aim at something beyond them - two war boys on a motorcycle. That’s the first time we see those two war boys, so in the image above, it absolutely look as if she’s aiming to shoot Cheedo in the back.
So why? For me, this goes back to something Charlize Theron said: that at the start of the film, Furiosa isn’t rescuing the wives, she’s stealing them. That if killing them would have hurt Joe more, she’d have done it. And that’s what this moment looks like: that she’d rather kill Cheedo than give her back.
It’s not what’s happening: I think Furiosa’s attitude has already changed, given her reaction to Angharad’s death. But I love that the film makes you wonder.
And I love this whole scene. Cheedo’s reaction is completely understandable: okay, Joe is horrible, but at least in captivity nobody was trying to blow her up every two minutes. It references the way abuse victims often return to their abusers, driven by fear and other complex motives. The timing within the film is brilliant. In her conversation with Capable and the Dag, it’s clear that Cheedo’s attempt to go back is a reaction to Angharad’s death, a mix of fear and grief. And of course it sets up the way Cheedo tricks Rictus.
Then there are the reactions of the onlookers. Furiosa’s response is ambiguous, taking action while not involving herself in the emotional fallout. And Max just… watches. He looks sympathetic, but he doesn’t comment or get involved, because it’s none of his business. This isn’t a movie that expects women to listen to the white dude’s opinions on their choices; Max is an action hero who knows how to stay in his lane.
