Written by: Jules Dowling
I struggle to focus in class, people’s words to me go in one ear and out the other, I can’t sleep, I can’t think, I can’t eat–– my mind is too busy thinking about you.
And by “you”, I mean the riveting, impeccable movie trailer for Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024).
Image from Entertainment Weekly
In the world of action movie trailers today, at least the American ones that I am most familiar with, they all lack any sort of shock factor and unique quality; all of the trailers in at least the past 20 years have been quite formula-like. A trailer for an action movie usually proceeds like so:
- There is a slow build into what the conflict at hand is for the movie: this can be shown through a slow reveal of the lead character’s face, for example.
- There is a “braam” sound effect, or a really obnoxious sound that makes it clear to the audience that some epic action is going to occur.
- The primary song for the trailer becomes louder and louder, and is usually one of the following, typical songs that have somehow become the top movie-trailer beats: “My Way” by Frank Sinatra, “Immigrant Song” by Led Zeppelin, or “Eye of the Tiger” by Survivor.
- Finally, at the end of the trailer, there will be a funny one-liner revealed after all the music and sound effects are stripped away, only to come back to announce the last of the credits, the title of the film, and its release date.
(Don’t lie to yourself, this is exactly how all action films are portrayed today in trailers).
Are these trailers particularly bad? No. However, they can become quite boring, overdone, and do not give justice to the movies they advertise for. Also, how are you going to get people to see a film with a trailer that just throws up the same old entertainment and effects that have lost all their excitement?
Now, the trailer for Furiosa on the other hand, is one that can’t be beat. Sure it has its trailer commonalities as well like putting the starring roles in big letters in between each shot and the loud, thrilling music. But, this trailer has far more intriguing aspects that makes you ignore all those commonalities.
First of all the music, composed by Dutch conductor Tom Holkenborg, has a heart-pounding build throughout the trailer with an excellent and unexpected use of tube instruments. Music can either make or break a trailer, really, and the fact that the actual music for the film was chosen to be the theme-song of the trailer is a brilliant move–– it really draws you into the universe of Mad Max.
Image from IMDb
Along with the incredible composition and use of the film’s soundtrack, the layout of the trailer and how the snippets we see of the film are organized is perfect. A lot of the time, trailers end up giving away an entire movie in 3 minutes, leaving you wondering what the use is in seeing the actual film. Furiosa’s trailer does otherwise, and only shows short, effective snippets of the film that merely capture the scenery, the characters’ faces, and moments of action–– which are the primary motivations of an action film. Some action movie trailers tend to focus on the dialogue and funny commentary far too much; people want to see action movies because of the action, not because of the dialogue! Dialogue can bring so much weight and importance to a film, but action is the main driving force of an action movie.
Basically, this is my way of trying to convince you to watch the Furiosa trailer at least 30 times, or until you can make it through your day without having it on your mind every minute of every hour.
Oh, and of course, see the movie!