14 DAY TRIAL // George Miller’s “Mad Max: Fury Road” is now out in theaters, having opened wide in most territories last night, Friday, May 15, 2015. One of the most insane stunts featured in the film is the flame-throwing guitar player strapped to the front of a rig, rocking out throughout all the crazy battle scenes.
His name is Coma the Doof and he is “the biggest little drummer boy in the world,” as production designer Colin Gibson describes him in an interview with MTV News. Everything he is shown doing in the film he actually did on set: there was no CGI.
How one cabaret artist became a road warrior
In the world of “Mad Max,” men are either warriors or prove themselves useful to leader Immortan Joe through a special set of skills. Coma the Doof is blind, so he never stood a chance to be a warrior, Gibson reveals: but he learned to play guitar and this allowed him to be the drummer boy of the army.
The moment he appears in the film for the first time is one that will inspire awe in true “Mad Max” fans: as the War Boys set out to catch Furiosa, here he is, strapped in bungee ropes to the front of a truck that’s rigged with amps, “the last Marshall stack at the end of the universe.”
His guitar playing is the war cry Immortan Joe’s army needs and works in tandem with the drum boys. But Coma the Doof’s guitar does a bit more than just get the adrenaline rushing through the veins of these insane warriors, it also shoots flames, thus doubling as a weapon.
Writer and director Miller got cabaret artist iOTA on set weeks before the production started, so he could get used to playing a flame-throwing guitar on the front of a vehicle speeding through the desert, while blindfolded, moving in bungee ropes and basically eating sand.
Meanwhile, Gibson had to come up with the rig that would support all that, while posing no actual danger to iOTA and appearing as convincing as possible.
“We ended up with an 8-wheel drive, an ex-military rocket launching track to give us enough scale, and then turned the reverberators and built them out of old air conditioning duct steel,” he says.
And yes, everything worked: the guitar really did play and it really did throw flames. Miller, apparently, doesn’t like it when props don’t work in real life the way they’re supposed to on film.
“The first version of the guitar which - I think I put too much into the flame thrower, not enough into the reverb,” he says. “And yes, the flame throwing guitar did have to operate, did have to play, the PA system did have to work and the drummers… Unfortunately, I did get practice in all positions and I’ve got to tell you, the drumming was very uncomfortable at 70 [kilometers] an hour.”
An explosive comeback for the cult hero
“Fury Road” took what seemed like forever until it finally made its way on the big screen, but the wait has been well worth it.
George Miller also wrote and directed the original trilogy with Mel Gibson as lead, and with “Fury Road,” he expands on that insane and beautiful universe in ways not even the fans thought possible.
He introduces new characters and new war machines, and uses the available technology not only to create one of the most original and gutsiest releases of recent years but also to breathe new life into the now-stale action genre.
The amount of time and detail that went into preparing each stunt, like this flame-throwing guitar, proves that this isn’t just another Hollywood reboot that tries to capitalize on your childhood favorite films to make a quick buck. This is filmmaking at its most glorious… and mad.
A full “Mad Max: Fury Road” review is also available, if you wish to read more on the topic.
