In this scene from George Miller's Mad Max: Fury Road, Max (played by Tom Hardy) explains to Furiosa (played by Charlize Theron) that the only way to freedom is to go back to the Citadel, the dreaded hell hole from which they had just successfully made their escape. Their original destination, the Green Place of her childhood and from where she was kidnapped has disintegrated into a wasteland.
Furiosa is totally perplexed by this extremely counter intuitive theory that Max presents to her, but realizes there really is no other hope for them, except to return and maybe somehow get inside the gates of the Citadel before Immortan Joe and the War Boys, thereby saving the The Five Wives (now only four). The Citadel is now the only place of water and greenery, but the people are all slaves.
Earlier in the film, when Max asks Furiosa why she was trying to save the Five Wives, which was an act of treason, she exclaimed with one word, "Redemption". From what was she redeeming herself?
Dr. Miller seems to be giving us a lesson here springing directly from Mahayana (literally, "the great vehicle") Buddhism. The Bodhisattva (Max) can reach Nirvana, not just by just releasing himself from suffering (his mask), but also by helping other sentient beings on the right path (Fury Road) to liberation from Samsara (the wasteland). Thus,the bodhisattva can attain pure Buddhahood (Trikaya) through compassion and transcendent wisdom.
Before his death, Philip K. Dick was working on his next novel, The Owl in Daylight, in which he was pursuing a story of this same concept. From The Exegesis of Philip K. Dick (p. 878).
Deconstructed, this pertains to all the avatars, Christ included. But Gautama most especially in the bodhisattva concept regarding compassion specifically expressed as : voluntarily returning to the maze; that is, the ultimate paradox of the maze, its quintessential ingenuity of construction, is that the only real way out is a voluntary way back in (into it and its power), which is the path of the bodhissatva. The maze, then, is one colossal and absolute Chinese finger trap.
If the final paradox of the maze is that the only way you can escape it is voluntarily to go back in, then maybe we are here voluntarily; we came back in. Hence release - to nirvana- consists of anamnesis...the loss of forgetefulness...thus my salvation was assured not by what I did in this lifetime but by this lifetime as such.
Furiosa, having now accepted this challenge of going "back in" to the matrix, has thus been redeemed - her karma has been cleared.
The solidification of this ying/yang synergy between Max and Furiosa lastly symbolized by the blood transfusion - the act of selflessness is complete. The flow of energy from the enlightened one to the one on the path. The Circle is complete. The balance is achieved.
In the final scenes, Max delivers the group safely into the Citadel and Immortan Joe is dead. Instead of staying with the others and receiving praises of its citizens, Max drifts through the crowds walking away - he has attained true emptiness - enlightened non-attachment of the Buddha.
Now that Furiosa is back in the Citadel and understands why she is there, what arises next is still in the mind of Dr. Miller.
For another good analysis of the film, please read this great essay from The Daily Grail
Review: Mad Max - Fury Road
