'I thought you weren't crazy anymore' (spoiler alerts)

[zykotec]

Was Max finally coming to his senses?
Just rewatched Fury Road today, and the point where the films almost stops, with Max left alone, and the girls and women are all entering the salt flats made me think.
This is where the film 'should have' ended, if it were one of the others in the series.
The 'good guys' are free to run, and Max is left alone, after 'finishing' his part of the job.
But Max's flashback/ghost-girl makes him think it over. Every other time he has helped the good guys escape, and then left them alone, without really solving anything. The first film just ends with him being wanted for stealing the Pursuit special and probably for quite a few 'murders' as he went all vigilante on Toecutters gang.
The other two films end with the people he helps probably surviving on shear luck, as we had no reason to believe they were going to make it at the time he left them. 'Deus ex machina' just sorted that part out.
But this time he realizes he may have been wrong all along, the story isnt finished just because they managed to escape, just like he has never managed to escape his monsters. He suddenly feels a need to at least try to resolve his and everyone elses issues (especially Furiosas need for redemption) and makes them go back again.

Also, he definitely reads the 'story' better than all the feminists and antifeminists that have watched the movie.
I admit having missed the metaphres the first time, but two things really stand out with the vulvanies.
First of all, they seem to be going extinct. As an all women gang, quite suspicious towards men, this makes sense.
One of them even says (not a direct quote, I'm sorry) ; 'nothing would grow, the earth had gone sour' possibly hinting towards them not being able to have children, either because of hitting menopause, or hinting towards their hate towards men, as they would no longer 'accept seeds' .

I also think both the feminists and anifeminists should be able to notice that the one girl screaming to Joe 'we are not things' ends up dead pretty quickly, and the warrior women aren't really doing to well either. Apparently downright hating and opposing the Patriarchy does you no favours in this film.
But Max seems to notice that they are running from one patriarchal society, ruled by old white men, that puts beatiful women and strong men on a pedistal, and only acknowledges strong women if they are 'like men' (Furiosa is just that kind of 'manly' woman). And then they end up with the exact opposite, a tribe that is going extinct because they can not see any value in men at all. (does this remind anyone esle about a struggle/war we see on the internet and other media every day ?)

So Max manges to convince them to head back and fight for their right to the goods of the Citadel, more or less ending the 'patriarchs' and the 'matriarchs' in the process.
And as any other Mad Max film, it still ends quite openly, with him alone, and possibly with the beginning of a new story for Furiosa, but at least this time they all tried to fight, they didn't just run.

I would say that at the point 'our hero' leaves the story in this film, he has both done more, and evolved more, than in any of the previous films.

[Uncle Entity]

Great analisys and insight!

I loved the Italian-dubbed dialogue better:

"I thought you healed from madness"