Summary
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga’s closing arc walks through all the potential ways in which Dementus is believed to have died before disclosing the truth behind what Furiosa did to him. Almost throughoutFuriosa’s runtime, the Anya Taylor-Joy character’s journey is marked by a series of brutal confrontations in which she loses several loved ones and one of her arms. However, inFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga’s endingarc, she finally gets the opportunity to make Dementus pay for all the suffering he mindlessly inflicted upon her, Jack, and her mother, Mary.
Despite the immense cost of losing the arm that had the map to her home, Furiosa finds a new sense of strength and resolve to seek vengeance. Therefore, with her newfound resilience, she shaves her head, builds herself a prosthetic arm, and tracks down Dementus. After gradually taking down his men, she corners the villain and ponders the best way to exact her revenge. This is when the film presents all the alternative ways Dementus could have died before revealing what actually happened to him.
10 Best Background Details & Easter Eggs In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga is littered with small details and Easter Eggs that serve a purpose, whether calling back to Fury Road or hinting at more.
4Furiosa Shoots Dementus In The Head
Her Own Remnants Of Innocence Are Humanity With This Potential Death Scene
When Furiosa first catches up with Dementus in the film’s final moments, she points a gun at his head. Realizing what is about to happen, Dementus turns his head away from the gun, suggesting that not knowing when Furiosa shoots would actually torture him even more. When he reminds Furiosa that he will likely be dead before he can even hear the gunshot, Furiosa tells him that she will hear it. She establishes that she will finally find peace after hearing the gunshot for the rest of her days and feeling the weapon’s kickback in her hand.
This is whenDementus starts to understand that she is not too different from him. Like him, she believes that by bringing pain and anguish to others, she might somehow be able to bring back everything she has lost in the sands of time. Therefore, before having a seizure, he tells her that no matter how she kills him, she can never find what she seeks. When he awakens, he tries to convince her that they are both the same because they are already dead. They are both trying to do the best they can to somehow feel alive again in the Wasteland but are fighting a losing battle.
…the teddy bear also seems to have poetic resonance, representing the death of the twisted remnants of the villain’s and Furiosa’s innocence as both become mere symbols of the brutality and despair of their post-apocalyptic world.
Since putting a gun to his head and using his own teddy bear as a silencer to shoot him was supposed to be Furiosa’s original method of killing him, it finds its way into the legends surrounding the Wasteland and the end of Dementus' reign. In this version of the story of Dementus' demise, the teddy bear also seems to have poetic resonance, representing the death of the twisted remnants of the villain’s and Furiosa’s innocence as both become mere symbols of the brutality and despair of their post-apocalyptic world.
Why Furiosa Shaves Her Head
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga explores the origin story of Mad Max: Fury Road’s Furiosa, and explains the reasons why she chose to shave her head.
3Dementus Died After Being Dragged By A Car
Furiosa Continues The Cycles Of Violence With This One
As the History Man claims in the ending scene, many also end up believing that Furiosa killed Dementus just like he and his men killed Jack. She tied him up with a rope to the back of her car and dragged him around till he was dead. Many likely believed this because it brought Furiosa’s quest for revenge into full circle. After Dementus took away the one person who gave her a semblance of hope in their dark world, she killed him by giving him a piece of his own medicine.
…according to this narrative, Furiosa became a mirror of the very tyranny she wished to dismantle instead of fulfilling her mother’s wishes to retain her humanity.
However, this method of killing would alsorepresent the cyclic nature of violence in the Wasteland. It would highlight how Dementus was right about Furiosa being just like him. Similar to how he started spreading terror in the world to project his anger and helplessness after his loved ones were brutally taken away from him, Furiosa, too, got too consumed by her desire for revenge. As a result, according to this narrative, Furiosa became a mirror of the very tyranny she wished to dismantle instead of fulfilling her mother’s wishes to retain her humanity by finding the Green Place.
The fact that many believe this to be true is also a reflection of how most people in the Wasteland have lost their sense of humanity. Their ideas of justice have been skewed by the harsh realities of their world, forcing them to believe that survival and vengeance are the only paths to meaning and redemption. Fortunately, this narrative only turns out to be a rumor and the truth behind what Furiosa does to Dementus ends up being far more complex.
2Dementus Was Crucified
Furiosa Kills Him Just How He Killed Her Mother
Another legend surrounding Dementus' death claims that Furiosa crucified him on a tree and tortured him to death, exactly how he killed her mother. Although theMad Maxprequel moviedoes not delve into the details of how Dementus and his men tortured Furiosa’s mother, it draws a visceral and unforgettable picture of all the pain she must have endured before her final moments. The final scene, in which Dementus can be seen hanging down a tree, serves as a reminder of all the atrocities he committed and the kind of death he rightfully deserved.
However, if Furiosa had actually killed him this way, she, again, would not have been any different from him. Her pursuit of retribution would haveled her to adopt the same methods of cruelty and violence that ruined her childhood. And asChris Hemsworth’s Dementuskept reminding her before his death, it would also change nothing. The crucifixion, therefore, underscores the notion that, despite Furiosa’s intentions, her actions towards the end of the film could have become a reflection of the same brutality that took away her childhood and innocence.
Every alternate way Dementus' death is portrayed inFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga:
1Dementus Turned Into A Tree In The Citadel When He Died
Furiosa Avoids Treading The Same Path As Dementus
After walking through all the rumors and tales surrounding Dementus' demise, the History Man finally reveals the truth. He says that Furiosa ultimately took Dementus back to the Citadel andused his flesh to nourish the peach tree seed her mother had given her as a child. While Dementus tried to convince Furiosa that all hope was lost in their post-apocalyptic world, Furiosa proved that with enough resilience and patience, life and hope could sustain itself even in the harshest conditions.
Although she does not return to the Green Place in the film’s ending, she grows a piece of it through the peach seed, using Dementus as the soil for its nourishment.
AsFuriosa: A Mad Max Saga’s ending arc suggests, the titular character was always drawn to killing Dementus and putting him out of his misery. However, instead of adopting Dementus' grim worldview, she follows her mother’s advice and refuses to stop looking for her home. Although she does not return to the Green Place in the film’s ending, she grows a piece of it through the peach seed, using Dementus as the soil for its nourishment. This makes Dementus' fate inFuriosa: A Mad Max Sagaa powerful metaphor for the triumph of hope and survival over death, destruction, and despair.
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
A prequel to Mad Max: Fury Road, Furiosa is an action-adventure film that tells the origin story of the headstrong and fearless Furiosa. Set shortly after the beginning of the “end of the world,” Furiosa is kidnapped and brought before a powerful warlord, now forced to work for him. To find her way back home, Furiosa will adapt to the new harsh and arid world as she grows into the Furiosa she becomes known to be.
