Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves

Mad Max: Fury Road ends with a strange quotation, prompting some franchise fans to wonder where the line came from and how it relates to the preceding movie. The Mad Max franchise has never been big on explaining its complicated word building. However, 2015’s belated sequel Mad Max: Fury Road featured more unexplained lore than the series ever attempted before.

For example, viewers who hadn’t read the Mad Max: Fury Road tie-in comics would have no idea who the little girl that Max hallucinates is or how she relates to the movie's story. Similarly, a quotation briefly glimpsed at the end of Mad Max: Fury Road is closely tied to both the story and themes of the movie, but is never actually explained onscreen. The quote shows up just before the film's end credits, but fans who want to understand its significance will need to look further than the movie itself.

The quotation in question reads “where must we go… We who wander this wasteland in search of our better selves?” The line appears at the end of Fury Road and is attributed to the "First History Man." That figure is one of Mad Max’s History Men, a group of in-universe historians who track the history of Max’s post-apocalyptic wasteland home via elaborate tattoos. The quote itself applies both to Furiosa, as it asks where she’ll go from here—will she be a benevolent leader or a despot?—and Max, who chooses against settling down at the end of the Mad Max sequel and instead forges on in search of himself, just as he has at the end of every adventure so far.

The question of where Max will go is one likely to form the basis of the next movie in the series, although it may be a while before viewers see Tom Hardy’s next Mad Max movie. The next sequel has already been titled The Wasteland, though, which is in keeping with the closing quote’s question about where Max will eventually find his better nature, if anywhere, in his eternal wanderings. However, the question is also a vital one for Furiosa and once again reaffirms that the Mad Max franchise doesn't have an entirely positive perspective on the anti-heroine.

Before Mad Max: Fury Road’s action begins, Furiosa is firmly in service of the authoritarian fascist Immortan Joe, proving that she is not above being manipulated and misled. She later rebels against Joe, frees his captives, and eventually even kills him, but even this is not evidence that Fury Road’s heroine will be a morally upright figure forever. Beyond Thunderdome’s surprise villain Aunt Entity foreshadowed the possibility that Furiosa could become as evil as her predecessor, a theme that the Mad Max movies repeatedly return to and one which is encapsulated in the open-ended quotation that closes Fury Road’s action.

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WARNING: Spoilers for Mad Max: Fury Road.

What's the true meaning of the ending quote in Mad Max: Fury Road? After Tom Hardy's Max Rockatansky helps a group of fellow road warriors overthrow a military leader, the franchise character once again wanders off by himself to live a life of solitude. George Miller's 2015 action classic ends with a line of cryptic text attributed to The First History Man, which states "Where must we go... we who wander this Wasteland in search of our better selves." 

Mad Max: Fury Road retains the style and spirit of Miller's trilogy starring Mel Gibson, but it's not necessarily a faithful continuation. Tom Hardy stars as the title character, a man who begins the film by telling the audience that he's haunted by the past and just may be a little bit "crazy." This version of Max drives the same vehicle from the original films, a Special Pursuit, and also wears his Main Force Patrol jacket. Based on the character's look and surrounding environment, it's clear that he has seen much better days. The same applies to Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron), a rogue lieutenant who betrays her military leader, Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne), by taking his five wives and hitting the road. In a twist of fate, Max and Furiosa encounter each other well beyond the military's headquarters, The Citadel, and end up joining forces. The warriors track down Immortan Joe, defeat him, and subsequently save a starving and thirsty community that needs a leader to believe in. In the tradition of reluctant heroes, Max walks away from The Citadel after sharing a knowing glance with Furiosa.

The final quote in Mad Max: Fury Road doesn't cite a real historical scholar or a famous text but rather the director himself. Miller's First History Man is actually a reference to the Mad Max comic series and a character who was originally supposed to be part of the 2015 film's storyline. For Mad Max: Fury Road, Miller conjured up the "Where must we go" line to reinforce the central themes of the franchise that were originally established with Mad Max, a film about a reluctant hero. As Miller stated in 2015 (via USA Today), the Mad Max character is structurally rooted in Joseph Campbell's Hero's Journey, and so the "First History Man" correlates with the archetypal premise:

"'When you read Joseph Campbell, you realize what he is: He’s a character who predates cinema and is almost in all folklore, the wanderer in the wasteland searching for meaning." 

Based on the archetype concept, the opening moments of Mad Max: Fury Road can be interpreted as Max himself telling an imagined story. Interestingly enough, Mad Max 2 is told from the perspective of a kid who recalls his experiences with Max Rockatansky. In a way, Max is a cinematic descendant of Clint Eastwood's Man with No Name, the antihero of Sergio Leone Blood Money trilogy (Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, The Good, the Bad and the Ugly). And so Max walks away at the conclusion of Mad Max: Fury Road per archetype rules, just like lovers come together at the end of romantic comedies. As for Miller's quote, it could be applied to a different movie character like John Wick, an archetypal figure who understands his place in the world but struggles to find peace.

If Mad Max: Fury Roadis merely a tale being told by an unreliable narrator, then could Max himself be "The First History Man"? If so, he's somewhat like Game of Thrones' Samwell Tarly; a character who survives a dangerous world and then goes on to write about it. When interpreting Max as a narrative archetype - rather than a living, breathing man - he could even be viewed as a mental creation of Gibson's character; a part of his imagination. Based on these storytelling concepts, the next Mad Max film will look familiar but take place in an entirely different realm.

More: Fury Road: Tom Hardy's Mad Max Backstory Explained (In Canon)