The 10 Greatest Lines In Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Ranked

"The problem with dialogue is that it tends to slow things down," director George Miller said, in a recent interview with The Telegraph. "Film is a medium often best enjoyed at high speed."

Few films move at a higher speed than Miller's "Mad Max" series, which came tearing back into town after a 30-year break with "Mad Max: Fury Road" and revved its engines again this year for "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga." The movies are set in a post-apocalyptic Wasteland that was created by devastating wars over dwindling resources. Somewhere in the middle of all those wars, people decided to take their anger out on books, resulting in mass book burnings that left the remains of human civilization with a paucity of vocabulary. The old words are carefully preserved by the History Men, who tattoo them on their skin. Meanwhile, the denizens of the Wasteland concoct new phrases to describe their world — like "bloodbag" and "black thumb."

Miller and his co-writer Nick Lathouris take a very lean approach to dialogue, but between the paring down of words and the oddities of Wasteland dialectic, the lines that did survive have a strange poetry to them that lingers in the ears. Let's take a wander through the greatest quotes from "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga."

Warning: major spoilers for "Furiosa" ahead!

It should come as no surprise that most of the lines on this list are uttered by Chris Hemsworth's Wasteland-wandering warlord, Dementus. There are two reasons for this. First, Dementus is absolutely in love with the sound of his own voice and keeps a History Man always close at hand to provide him with the perfect "wordburger" for every situation. Second, Hemsworth is clearly having the time of his life in this movie and absolutely nails every line that's thrown his way.

Dementus' gift for the gab is made apparent early on in "Furiosa" when he and his horde ride down a smaller Wasteland gang. With only five bikes to spare and 20 new prospective gang members, Dementus takes a meritocratic approach to recruitment: He throws the captured unfortunates a collection of crude weapons and tells them to fight each other to the death. As a reward, the survivors not only get to join his horde but also get to tear their former leader limb from limb by riding off on motorbikes that are chained to said limbs.

The introductory speech for this event is full of its own gems ("Today, we dance to Darwin") but the line that echoes in the mind most is Dementus' quirky command that kicks off the quartering: "Lady and gentlemens, start your engines!" (The "lady" in this case is the heavily mutilated Mr. Norton, one of two characters in "Furiosa" played by Hemsworth's real-life wife, Elsa Pataky.)

The Biker Horde scavenging team who kidnaps young Furiosa soon gets whittled down (courtesy of Mary Jabassa and her sniper rifle) to just two survivors: Toe Jam and Vulture. Now, they might be guilty of child endangerment and cruelty to horses, but it's hard not to feel a little warmth towards these two when they celebrate their expected reward with a chorus of "No one's gonna scum us anymore!"

Vulture gets taken out close to the gates of Dementus' camp, and ultimately only Toe Jam makes it across the finish line. By that point, he's determined not to let his valor be stolen. Toe Jam is the only gang member who knows the location of "the place of abundance" where they found Furiosa, and he's not about to give that information up to anyone except Dementus himself. When Dementus's lieutenant, Rizzdale Pell, tries to take Furiosa and the intel for himself, Toe Jam refuses to give it up. "My lips. Dementus's ear. My lips. Dementus!" he declares stubbornly. 

Thanks to a little violent intervention from Furiosa, Toe Jam's lips never reach Dementus's ear. But you've got to admire his conviction.

All hail Piss Boy, the Citadel's employee of the month! This War Boy's name is also his job title: he is in charge of the distribution of piss on Praetorian Jack's war rig. You see, water (or "Aqua Cola," as Immortan Joe has branded it) is a valuable resource, and too important to be wasted on the war rig's radiators. Instead, the crew's urinary output is carefully collected in jars for Piss Boy to use when the mighty machinery needs to cool off. 

It might not be the most prestigious job on the rig, but Piss Boy is deliriously happy in his work. And he's good at it, too! When Praetorian Jack loses a radiator and calls out for assistance, Piss Boy is right there to give the war rig a rich yellow drink, along with some words of encouragement. Elsewhere in the same fight, he weaponizes his piss jars against the attacking Mortiflyers. Then he rounds out his involvement in the whole sequence by riding to Valhalla on a fiery explosion that helpfully clears a vehicle from the war rig's path.

So shiny, Piss Boy! So chrome! 

Dementus is pretty bad at running Gastown, which descends into chaos and rioting under his rule. His comfort zone is war and marauding, and in that zone, he is actually something of a genius. Not only does he conquer Gastown with just a handful of well-placed soldiers in a Trojan rig, but he also conquers the Bullet Farm through unseen means and then lays a pretty decent plan to conquer the Citadel — which, if it worked, would make him the overlord of the Wasteland. Dementus lights fires in Gastown to give the impression that he's about to blow up the fortress and leave everyone without guzzoline, in order to draw Immortan Joe's forces away from the Citadel. And he would have gotten away with it too, if it wasn't for that meddling Furiosa.

Forewarned by Furiosa, Immortan Joe decides upon a ruse to make Dementus think the War Boys are all heading to Gastown — which in turn will draw Dementus out of hiding. When Dementus sees the troops going the wrong way, he smugly declares: "So gullible! I hold them profoundly in contempt." The History Man must have fed him that particular wordburger.

Dementus doesn't exactly make the best first impression on Furiosa, and his second impression (which involves crucifying her mother) is even worse. Nonetheless, the warlord seems to acquire a bit of affection for his ward, seeing her as a potential replacement for the children he lost. So, when Immortan Joe lobs the mildest of criticisms at "Little D," observing that she looks pale, Dementus is greatly offended and immediately fires back. This results in a bit of emotional splash damage for Joe's sons, Scabrous Scrotus and Rictus Erectus. (Though with names like that, they're probably used to emotional damage.)

Not only is this line perfectly delivered by Hemsworth, but Dementus actually has a point here: for the chalky-white Immortan Joe to accuse anyone else of looking pale is pretty rich. But then again, Immortan Joe is a walking bag of pustules and tumors who puts the blame on his perfectly healthy wives when all their children come out a bit wrong. Self-reflection isn't his strong suit.

Immortan Joe? He's fine. Dementus? He's okay. But there's only one true king of the Wasteland — and indeed, one true king of our hearts — and that's the Octoboss. He only has about four lines in the whole movie, but who needs dialogue when you have a flying Harley Davidson trailed by a giant octopus kite? 

When the Octoboss does speak, he conveys an enormous amount of information about his character with just four words: "You're scum, Dementus. SCUM!" These words come in the wake of Dementus betraying and killing several of the Mortifiers (the Octoboss's gang, a begrudging subsidiary of the Biker Horde). The gambit gets them into Gastown, but drives a wedge between Dementus and the Octoboss, with the latter rejecting the relative comfort and security of Gastown and breaking away from the Biker Horde to continue living in the desert.

That the Octoboss' men choose to join him (transforming themselves from Mortifiers into the more aerially mobile Mortiflyers) is a testament to his rare code of ethics for a Wasteland warlord. While Immortan Joe and Dementus see their minions as disposable, the Octoboss genuinely cares for his comrades. As actor Goran D. Kleut told Inverse, "some of his men had been loyal to him since they were young, and he to them." 

The Octoboss might be a bad man, but he's a good boss.

Not since Mark Darcy told Bridget Jones "I like you, very much, just as you are" have such romantic words been uttered in a film. Buried in all the fire and metal of "Furiosa" is an achingly tragic love story between the titular character and the commander of the Citadel's war rig, Praetorian Jack (introduced with awe by one of the black thumbs in the House of Holy Motors as "the Praetorian Jack"). 

After discovering Furiosa as a stowaway on the war rig and seeing her in action against the Octoboss and his Mortiflyers, Jack offers her an official place on his crew and promises to train her up in all the skills she needs to get back home. The two eventually reach a place where, as Miller puts it, "they are prepared to give of themselves entirely to the other." And it all starts with this one-sided conversation on the road — where Praetorian Jack is just a boy, standing in front of a girl, offering to teach her road war.

Okay, the main thing that makes this line memorable is Anya Taylor-Joy's growl as she delivers it. But it's also the key to the ending of "Furiosa" and the movie's meditation on revenge.

When Furiosa finally tracks down Dementus — utterly defeated and deprived of all his cronies — she takes her time psychologically tormenting him as she slowly pursues him through the desert. But when she confronts him, wearing his own discarded cape, Dementus turns the tables. He taunts her for her rage over the death of her mother, the theft of her childhood, and the horribly drawn-out execution of Praetorian Jack. Being no stranger to grief himself (he lost his own "magnificent beauties" a long time ago), Dementus knows that no amount of revenge will satisfy Furiosa — especially since he has a very high pain tolerance.

Furiosa follows up the declaration of "I want them back" with a softer demand: "Give them back." It sounds absurd, but in that respect, it highlights the absurdity of revenge as a concept. No amount of torture inflicted on Dementus will bring back Furiosa's childhood, or her mother, or her lately lost love. As Dementus has learned the hard way, it won't bring her peace or chase away the "cranky black sorrow." Revenge is a fool's errand.

Following an epic battle at the Bullet Farm, Furiosa and Praetorian Jack come painfully close to escaping and embarking on their quest for the Green Place. These efforts are foiled by Dementus and his big monster truck, but his victory doesn't seem to bring him much happiness. Seeing Furiosa and Jack's love for each other breaks his heart. "You make me the Dark Dementus," he tells them (in a strong runner-up for this list). But what really drives him wild is witnessing their hope.

This line is partly a callback to "Mad Max: Fury Road" and Max's declaration that "hope is a mistake," but it's also central to Dementus as a character. His wholesale rejection of hope is how he has remained (relatively) sane. When he later tries to snatch a knife from Furiosa's boot, only to discover that she's tricked him with a dud handle, his immediate priority is to insist, "That wasn't hope, that was instinct." And though we know that Furiosa decides to brave hope again a few years down the line, Dementus does have a point about its dangers. As the saying goes: It's the hope that kills you.

For all the reasons previously mentioned, the Octoboss is loved and respected by his Mortifiers. That's why, when Dementus tries telling one of them what to do, he gets the retort: "I only take orders from the Octoboss."

Dementus does defer the matter to his colleague, who wearily tells his comrade to do what Dementus says — but not before Hemsworth mutters one of the most laugh-out-loud lines in the whole movie. Questioning his bossority, indeed.