Mad Max is dieselpunk, not steampunk. That’s important.

You might not think the distinction matters, but understanding the difference will make you love Fury Road even more.

Steampunk focuses on the aesthetic of the mid-late 19th century. It imagines that the technology of the age advanced into the future, but the aesthetic and cultural markers stayed more or less the same.

The core of the steampunk concept is that the world of the future still runs on steam power: steam-powered ships, airships, vehicles, and trains. It’s a sustainable resource, and it gives the steampunk universe the freedom to experiment with alternate technologies (or magical ones, if you’re into that). The steampunk world is an expansive world, growing and exciting, full of cogs and clocks and light and electricity.

Dieselpunk, on the other hand, fixates on the early 20th century, particularly the 1920s–1940s. Dieselpunk society is powered entirely by diesel. In the dieselpunk world, technology may yield power, but it comes at a cost.

In dieselpunk, the energy of pre-war art deco and its emergent technology comes head to head with the weary cynicism of a world made bleak by World War II. Dieselpunk emphasizes war and weaponry where steampunk emphasizes peace and technological invention. Dieselpunk is gritty and grimy where steampunk is clean. Dieselpunk emphasizes artillery, steel, and iron. In essence, steampunk is gold and brass; dieselpunk is silver and chrome.

A dieselpunk society is one in a state of depletion. Which brings us, of course, to Mad Max: Fury Road.

Normally, dieselpunk societies evolve from an anachronistic point in history, but the world of Mad Max has eroded there instead. The only cars that can survive in a post-apocalyptic wasteland are older cars made of steel and muscle.

Those metals aren’t signifiers of evolution or technology, but of decay and enslavement. Max is put in an iron mask, and the wives are put in steel belts. The core resources that are fueling their culture are also killing them. And so deep is the Warboys’ dedication to Immortan Joe’s dieselpunk aesthetic that before they die, they spray their mouths with chrome.

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