Joe controls the water and the food, but he needs bullets and gas to keep that control. He’s not the only warlord in the area and two other settlements — Gas Town and the Bullet Farm— rule the wastes with him. The three warlords control the area’s three most valuable resources and rule together as a triumvirate.

Got that? The villain of Fury Road has created a stronghold in the desert and controls his men with an elaborate religion whereby they are willing to die because they believe paradise awaits them afterwards.

The religion helps him control his warriors and allows him to secure a constant supply of bodies, bullets and gas. I feel as if there’s a real-world parallel …

Another brilliant aspect of Fury Road are the tactics of the Joe’s war party. Joe and the other warlords drive fast cars across a vast desert, seeking to stop a rig loaded down with armor and horsepower.

The chase doesn’t stop. Furiosa and Max fight, but they never stand their ground in any traditional sense. No, they fight their battles from moving vehicles. Warboys leap from their cars onto Furiosa’s rig. Fighters swing from ropes. Bad guys launch harpoons.

The tactics are naval. The fighting is like the battles between ships during the colonial era. It’s more Master & Commander than The Duel.

The wastes are like an ocean — one Furiosa uses to her advantage. Early in her flight, she steers the chase into a sandstorm with the hopes of losing her pursuers. It’s as if a rogue schooner pursued by the Royal Navy in the 1700s sailed towards a squall in the hopes it would survive and its larger pursuers would not.

One of the war party’s most bizarre members fits into this trope. It’s a truck rigged with dozens of speakers. Warboys sit behind the speakers, pounding on drums that feed through the sound system.

In front of the speakers is a skinny man wearing red pajamas. A rope covers his face and anchors him to the rig.

The skinny man holds a beautiful electric guitar. When he jams on it, flames spurt from the end. It’s insane and visually stunning, but seems impractical at first glance.

Except … not really. The guitar rig serves a couple of different purposes.

First of all, the drumbeats and guitar work up the warboys, urging them on in the heat of battle. It’s also possible that the drums and guitar act as a battlefield communication system, just like the drummer boys of the 19th century.

But more than that, the skinny man wailing on his guitar makes for a terrifying image. The human eye is drawn to the color red. The soldiers of any army going up against the Immortan Joe will see the noise car first, then the guitarist with his bright red PJs, grotesque face and flame-powered guitar.

Then, the discordant music and drum beats will hit them. It works to shatter the morale of the enemy. These tactics are akin to 18th-century pirates such as Blackbeard, who burned candles in his beard and launched shattered glass at passing merchant ships.

The black sails of the pirate flag, the fearsome and strange ammunition and the tales of butchery that preceded them all worked to frighten a pirate’s targets into surrender. It’s much the same with Joe’s noise car.