schwarmerei1 asked: Given your username...have you spotted a gifset for all the appearances of Furiosa's femur-topped gearshift knife? There ought to be one....
You’re entirely responsible for tonight’s rewatch btw. Anyone able and willing, feel free to snag these below.
Introduction:
Sandstorm:
Revealed as a knife when Max left to fix the pod:
In the fight against Nux:
With the Vuvalini, I think this is the only shot like this, with the knife centered in a two shot. Increasing suspicion that the bone was from Mary JoBassa:
Used to stab a War Boy:
Who used it to stab Furiosa:
Bonus, the knife Max used on Furiosa wasn’t bone-handled and it was the only time he used a knife:
Otherwise knives were used on him:
In the bottom fight, Max is swinging the boltcutters, which Furiosa used against him in their first fight. How’s that for a theme?
Reblogging this because–well, for one thing, bonehandledknife does awesome stuff–but also because I’m still not over how the femur-bone knife is such an awesome Chekhov’s Gun.
Max strips the cab of every last concealed weapon–sike he doesn’t!!
Furiosa reveals the knife. We know about it, she knows about it, the “wives” know about it, Max doesn’t know about it. The presumption here is that it could be used against Max. In any event, we now know about it and we’re waiting for it to be used, for the metaphorical gun to be fired. We’ve got characters in the know and characters ignorant. It’s going to be revealed to the ignorant characters sooner or later. That’s how it works.
But then who pops up through the floor of the cab like some kind of homicidal jack-in-the-box but Nux. The one weapon left in the cab, Furiosa puts the knife to him–a totally unexpected situation. (So, in other words, those characters who knew about the knife were ignorant of this other, well, weapon. Nice.) It’s even a little unexpected for the viewers, though we saw Nux catch up to the rig. (Nux is a bit of a Chekhov’s Gun here himself, isn’t he? He’s there–now what?) So at this point, having seen the knife put to someone’s throat, we figure, okay, we’ve seen it used. There we go. Wow, aren’t we glad they had it? Yes.
Weirdly, interestingly, and this may be the real clue, Max doesn’t seem to react to there being this bonus weapon in the cab (character development here too). But we’re all figuring, okay, there’s the knife, the knife has done its part.
WRONG. Because, although the knife has been brought out, it hasn’t really be put to use. In fact, it’s got two more moments.
Skipping ahead, blah blah, the knife rides along and we know about it, and we get to the fight with the Polecats on the return trip. Furiosa, in the course of the fight, uses it to stab a Polecat (see screencap above).
“Okay!” we all think, “Pointing it at Nux without using it was just part of the set-up, part of the revelation. This must be it’s Real Use. Now it’s been actually bloodied and used for its actual purpose–that is, as a weapon.” Kapow! we think. We have heard the gun fire.
But it’s not as simple as that–because, as zombie hunters will tell you, you don’t have to reload a knife.
Because what happens? Furiosa gets stabbed by the Polecat she just stabbed and with her own knife. Guns can have more than one bullet in them; a gun on stage can be fired twice.
And it feels, all at once, both unexpected and inevitable. It’s a terrible part of the fight, these Polecats climbing all over the rig, Toast is captured, chainsaws revving up. This is not the slick marksmanship and silent teamwork that made up the first fight in the canyon. This is up close and dirty and messy. It’s all close-quarters, blood, and guts. A stabbing–sure, makes sense in a fight like this.
It’s like a layer cake of true irony: revelation of knife, knife not used, knife used, knife used twice including on its keeper.
The final signature on the whole progress of the knife is Nux, the one who had the thing first pointed at him, setting it back in the gearshift again, setting in back in place. I just–I love the progression of the femur knife, okay? It’s not a “pure” Chekhov’s Gun, but it’s an interesting detail played out well.
Also, I am totally on board with the idea that the bone is from Mary JoBassa. That’s just twisted enough to work.
