Introduction
The MAD MAX series is crafted with a distinctive visual sensibility. This marks the fourth installment, with the latest film being 2024 Furiosa. Rather than relying heavily on CG, real-life filming took place in the Namibian desert and the suburbs of Sydney. The filming was grueling, with 95% of the dialogue recorded via ADR. This analysis examines the sound design aspects of this two-hour epic, crafted by the team led by Mark Mangini (who also won Best Sound for Blade Runner 2049 in 2017) for its vehicle sounds and battle scene sound design, alongside Junkie XL's score—a fully orchestrated composition requiring 18 months of work—and 8 months of sound production, culminating in a 75-day DolbyAtmos mix.
As director G. Miller stated, the scoring music was produced as a prequel rock opera, making up 88% of the film's audio. With immersive scoring present throughout nearly the entire runtime, how the sound effects and scoring share the frequency spectrum is a key listening point. The height channels are also used sparingly, often only for height front-left to front-right (FL-FR) placement.
1 Production crew
Director: George Miller
Music: Tom Holkenborg (Junkie XL)
Recording/Mix: Simon Leadley Scoring Stage Sydney
Sound Design: Mark Mangini. David White. Christopher Aud. Chuck Michael
Re-Mix: Chris Jenkins. Gregg Rudolf. Steve Maslow
Foley Artist: Dan Johnson. John Simpson. Mario Vaccaro
Production Sound: Ben Osmo
Sound Recordist: Oliver Machin
Final Mix at DDP Studio Sydney and WB Dub-10
2. Story and Main Characters
In the decertified and desolate Wasteland, former cop Max is driving his V8 Interceptor when he is ambushed by a mob and taken to a fortress called the Citadel.
This fortress is ruled by Immortan Joe, who controls the populace through abundant groundwater (Aqua Cola) and crop cultivation. Commander Furiosa Jo Basa, who leads Joe's forces, loads five wives—kept solely for childbearing—into a War Tank and heads for the “Green Place,” Furiosa's birthplace. Jo, realizing this, leads his combat group, the War Boys, to pursue and reclaim them. Max, brought to the fortress, is chained to a pursuit vehicle as a “blood bag” for one of the War Boys, Nux, and is drawn into this conflict.
During the chase, Max encounters a sandstorm and joins Furiosa's group. After racing for a day and night, they find the Iron Maiden women, Max's former comrades. However, the “Green Place” they sought had already been destroyed and vanished due to contamination. The group attempts to seek a new destination, but Max persuades them to return to the Citadel. Spotting Furiosa's group racing towards the Citadel, Joe's forces engage in an epic battle. Joe is finally defeated, and the group triumphantly returns to the Citadel, welcomed by the crowd.
3. Characteristic Sound Design for Each Part of the introduction-transition-main body-conclusion
3-1 Introduction 00:00:00—00:30:20
From the Avant sequence, Max appears after the MAD MAX FURY ROAD title, only to be captured by the mob at Citadel while driving through the desert and used as a blood bag substitute within the fortress. At the fortress, the ruler Immortan Joe controls the people using resources like water and food as weapons. When Joe notices Furiosa's War Tank veering east instead of toward the gas town, he grows suspicious. He then realizes five Breeders have escaped aboard the War Tank, triggering a chase that culminates in the first major climactic battle scene.
● WB LOGO
The WB logo appears at the beginning, perfectly capturing the Mad Max atmosphere. Immortan Joe's breath in the hard center, the engine roar of Max's beloved V-8 Interceptor, mechanical sounds, whale spouting sounds in L-R, engine reverberations, and mechanical sounds flyover from LS-RS to the front.
● Post-Logo Opening Title - 01
Max's monologue depicts a devastated world. Max's monologue is placed as an independent audio source at three points: hard center and LS-RS. A monologue with lowered pitch is placed in L-R. The background voices of people are designed to be heard independently from four channels throughout the space. The girl and woman's recollections seeking Max's help are similarly placed at three points: hard center and LS-RS. The height channels contain Max's monologue, the cries of people seeking help, and the 4-channel music components.
● Avant-Title 02: Desert and Max
This scene shifts to Max on the hill in the Wasteland. Here too, the ghost's recollection is placed on an independent 4CH track, creating an image of it surrounding Max. Mac's monologue is positioned in the same three-point configuration as before: hard center and LS-RS. In the scene where a lizard approaches Max near the foreground and gets crushed by his shoe before being eaten, the lizard's movement is on the hard center channel. When crushed by the shoe, a subtle sound of sand flying is placed on the LR-RS channels. The height channel features the girl's voice from earlier, calling out for Max's help in the memory sequence.
● The People of Citadel Fortress and Immortan Joe's Speech
People come to the base of the Citadel Fortress, built from rock mountains, seeking water. This scene uses the full 4-channel soundstage to create an ambient atmosphere representing a vast space. Eventually, Immortan Joe appears and delivers a speech. His voice is also positioned to represent the space: the main dialogue is centered, while the reverberation components are distributed across the 4 channels.
In the close-up shot of people advancing with pots and dishes seeking water, flies are subtly added as a hidden detail, moving from left to right.
The height channels carry Joe's speech, the sound of water cascading down, and the mechanical noise of the sluice gates closing.
● Immortan Joe moves to the birthing women's room
He emits a respirator sound akin to Darth Vader from Star Wars, but as he moves from the room, this breathing is emphasized within the tunnel, reverberating across all four channels. Inside the room, after passing through the vegetable fields, the sound effect of shotgun pellets fired by the attendant Gitty exploding and scattering across the walls echoes from the ceiling. The height channels feature the sound of chains in the vegetable field, Joe's voice, and the sound of Gitty's shotgun pellets flying off the walls.
This film features four intense battle scenes between the War Tank-riding Max, Furiosa, and the Childbearing Women, and the pursuing Immortan Joe's army. Since the basic design principles are the same for all four, they will be introduced collectively.
The hard center channel features main dialogue, mechanical Foley sounds, attack sound effects, and other elements representing size in L-R. It also contains explosion-on sounds and processed sound effects—whale spout sounds and bear roars—used by the sound design team to characterize the War Tank. The LS-RS channels carry explosion reverberations, mechanical sound-off cues, and forward/backward movement sounds. Simultaneously, scoring music plays across all channels plus LFE, creating a highly layered design. However, each element maintains distinct sonic separation, preventing any clashing sounds. In the first battle scene starting at 18', the cutters move L-R in the height channels, accompanied by sandstorm ambience and dialogue with vehicle interior reverberation.
3-2 Transition 00:30:20—01:00:04
Here, Max and Furiosa's group meet, and on their way to the “Green Place” in the War Tank, the second major climax unfolds with an attack scene involving the Motorcycle Army, Immortan Joe's Army, and the War Tank.
● Max's survival scene after the sandstorm
At 2'11" in length, it's exceptionally well-crafted, making excellent use of the range between the battle scenes, as Mark Mangini himself has stated he was pleased with the design.
It begins with a close-up of a desert landscape resembling Nonmon, where the faint sound of sand grains rustling softly begins to be heard in 4CH. Next, wind noise enters on L-R as Max emerges from the sand and leaps out. Here, sand flies over the entire scene, emphasizing Max's breath, heartbeat, and accent sounds from a hard center. The Foley of pulling the transfusion pin from Max's neck is expressed from L-R with an emphasized, lingering hiss from the center. The end of the chain is attached to the arm of one of the War boys, Nux. The Foley of searching for him lying in the sand and trying to remove the chain from his arm is designed with the center channel and its reverberation across the full 4CH, giving it a presence greater than the chain seen on screen.
The height channels feature processed whale and bear sounds as accents for MAX bursting out of the sand, delivering impact alongside the bass channel.
3-3 Main body 01:00:04—01:29:14
The group that escaped safely made their way through the swamp and emerged unscathed. What they passed through was the once-green land, now polluted and desolate. As they advanced, cries could be heard from atop a tower. Soon, women arrived on motorcycles—they were the mothers of the former Furiosa and the people who had once lived in the green land. The group sought hope beyond the Salt Lake, but following Max's suggestion, they resolved to return to Fort Citadel and build a new life.
● Max's Awakening
With the conflict against Immortan Joe's forces temporarily resolved, the group heads toward the green lands only to learn they've become polluted swamps, forcing them to embark on a new journey. In a long desert shot transitioning via a whiteout, Max is again assailed by visions of a woman and girl from his past. Here too, the voice collage designed for the opening title sequence reappears. The difference lies in the heightened tension created by the voice preceding Rea.
● War Tank Interior Dialogue Positioning
To convey the driver's compartment space within the massive War Tank transport vehicle, brief reverberation sounds are added in 4CH to the interior dialogue exchanges. This creates a distinct metallic reflection texture. Conversations within the tank consistently feature reverberation added to the height channels, effectively representing the enclosed space.
3-4 Conclusion 01:29:14—01:53:31
Immortan Joe's army discovers Max and his group, leading to a fourth, ferocious battle. Nux sacrifices his life to block the valley road, allowing the group to safely reach Fort Citadel. With Furiosa at the center, a peaceful life begins.
● Nux overturns the War Rig in a ravine, causing it to explode
Pursued by the Legion and fighting repeated battles, Max and his group approach Fort Citadel. To block the advancing Legion's path, Nux employs a desperate tactic: he overturns the War Rig in a ravine, creating the climactic scene that blocks their way. The overturned War Rig's attack features whale and bear cries on L-R, with a hard center hit during the rollover. Slow-motion of the overturned truck shows various parts sliding from front to rear.
Height CH features jump accents from the pole-vaulting squad, the girl's flashback, and the scream announcing Joe's death.
● Peace Comes to Shitedaru Fortress
MAX and his group return to the fortress with Joe's body loaded onto the War Tank. Cheers from the people fill the bass channel, while the treble channel carries the war boys' watchful voices and the sound of water cascading down in a grand torrent.
3-5 End Credits 01:53:31—02:00:00
Amidst the cheers of the crowd, MAX departs alone, and the lingering echoes of Furiosa watching him go from atop the fortress lead into the end theme.
4. How to Using the Height Channel
When examining the use of the height channel in this work across the D-M-E elements, the following characteristics emerge.
4-1. Examples in Dialogue
In dialogue, reverberation components are placed in the height channel to represent enclosed spaces like car interiors or open environments like swamps.
4-2 Examples of Use in Sound Effects
Two types of usage are employed:
* Placing only on height and front L-R channels to emphasize the spatiality of video cuts.
* Using as a full 4-channel ambience.
4-3 Examples of Accentual Use in Music
While the entire piece is an immersive MIX, it is used accentually in parts.
5. Scoring Music
Tom Holkenborg, who handled the scoring for this film, composed and produced the music almost entirely alone over a period of 18 months. Director G. Miller stated, “I conceived this as a rock opera,” and indeed, scoring music occupies 88% of the runtime, creating a structure where music is ever-present. While the overall musical image remains consistent, cue points feature remarkably detailed and meticulous transitions in rapid succession, showcasing a veritable parade of “segue techniques.” The entire score utilizes a 4-channel configuration without specific instrument panning, with height channels present throughout.
The fundamental structure of the music centers on a rhythm dominated by drums and Japanese taiko drums positioned broadly across the L-R channels, with rock guitar resonating prominently in front. This core 4-channel setup is complemented by variations on this image found in the LS-RS channel configuration.
Born in the Netherlands in 1967, he moved to the US in 1998 to pursue a career as a scoring composer after starting in a rock band. He trained under Hans Zimmer and made his major debut in 2014 with the groundbreaking, entirely CGI-animated film “300.” He is a new-generation scoring composer who then took on this project. These new-generation scoring composers are characterized by their wide range of activities—not only in film but also in games, remixes, and DJing—and by a one-man workflow where everything is completed using computer-generated music.
Music featuring the hard center is limited to the violin riff in the scene depicting Furiosa and Max's friendship and the melody that appears in the latter half of the ending music.
This violin idea was reportedly inspired by the string usage Bernard Hermann, a master of scoring music whom he admires, employed in the film Psycho.
● Development driven by music rhythm synchronized with SE rhythm
An interesting example is the scene starting at 32'36" in the second act, where Furiosa uses a spanner to knock off the sand accumulated on the War Tank after it emerges from the sandstorm. Here, the scoring music's rhythm develops while inheriting the rhythm of this spanner. While examples of synchronizing the pitch of sound effects with the pitch of the music intro are common, I found this example of rhythmic synchronization to be a particularly interesting application.
The scoring music is almost entirely programmed, and a defining characteristic is the presence of LFE throughout the entire piece. I wondered if such continuous LFE might be tiring, so I examined its frequency characteristics. Compared to the LFE typically used intentionally for sound effects, it has a gentler LFE profile.
Music production was handled at Leadley Scoring Stage, near Lane Cove Deluxe Studio in Sydney where the sound design team performed the pre-mix.
In an interview, he stated that while meeting with the sound design team every morning, he considered the presence of music that wouldn't clash with these sound effects in scenes where they were crucial. (Un-Clashed with Tonalities)
His behind-the-scenes production work is featured in a series on YouTube, so interested readers should definitely check it out.
5. Foley. Sound Effects. Raw Material Recording
Listening to the hard center alone reveals the meticulous use of Foley accompanying various actions. Unfortunately, the continuous presence of music and dynamic sound effects throughout the film makes it difficult to fully appreciate its true value.
Production sound recording was carried out using a large-scale system as shown, but due to the continuous intense battles, dialogue was almost unusable, with 95% being ADR. For various vehicle sounds, an enormous amount of source material was recorded. Additionally, interviews mention that the extensive location range made sending materials back to staff and establishing communication systems extremely difficult.
● 4 Sound Devices 788T recorders with CL-8 accessories
● 1 Sound Devices 744T recorder for sound effect
● 1 Pro Tools 10 system
● 6 Lectrosonics Venues
● 2 Venue fields
● 1 Mackie Mixer 1604 for monitor mixes
● 1 Meon UPS and Meon Life
● 4 Lectrosonics IFB transmitters
● DPA 4061 lapel mic
In Closing
Mark Mangini participated as Sound Supervisor, but the production involved a large team of 35 sound personnel. Preparation took eight months, followed by sixteen weeks for the final mix (ten weeks in Sydney and six weeks at Warner Bros. in Hollywood).
He specifically considered how to express the character of the massive truck called the War Tank through sound. The image of the giant whale from the movie “Moby Dick” came to mind, so he states that for the War Tank's sound design, he used whale spouting sounds, jumps, and the voices of bears, vultures, and long tailed weasels.
His favorite sound design elements are:
● The design for Max bursting out of the desert's silence
● The section where the rhythm of hammering the car with a wrench syncs with the music's rhythm
● The sound effect when the War Tank overturns in the valley during the final climax.
He states that the greatest compliment came after the mix when director G. Miller told us, “MAD MAX is a movie you hear with your ears.”
