Creating the elaborate action sequences in the new “Mad Max” film required the creation of a massive fleet of custom cars — 150 frightening machines. Writer-director George Miller mandated that the vehicles fit the film’s doomsday aesthetic, emphasizing “found objects that had been repurposed.”
Production designer Colin Gibson helped create many of the film’s show-stopping cars — including these, his four favorites.
Constructed from the union of a Czechoslovakian Tatra military off-road vehicle and a pair of 1950s Chevy Fleetmasters.
“It needed to be both behemoth and hot rod, trade vessel and attack dog, with occasionally a dozen [passengers riding] in its cabin as hell is rained down upon them,” Gibson says.
War rig
Constructed from the union of a Czechoslovakian Tatra military off-road vehicle and a pair of 1950s Chevy Fleetmasters.
“It needed to be both behemoth and hot rod, trade vessel and attack dog, with occasionally a dozen [passengers riding] in its cabin as hell is rained down upon them,” Gibson says.
GigaHorse
“The apocalypse may have left civilization in free-fall . . . but there is always a nagging memory of greatness, of beauty lost, treasure given up,” Gibson says. “And few things better carry that echo of once-were-kings than a ’59 Cadillac Coupe de Ville’s tail-fin chrome and rocket-red brake lights.”
Cranky Frank
The body is carved from a Holden FJ, a 1950s Australian utility coupe made by GM.
“It came to us almost fully formed by a rev-head named Snow, who had manufactured it solely to do doughnuts,” Gibson says. “We expanded its horizons and sent it to war.”
Doof wagon
A twisted take on the military drum corps. The vehicle is stacked with speakers, and on its front, a guitar player hangs from cords and shreds metal while throwing flames from his instrument.
“The last mosh pit on the way to Valhalla,” Gibson says.