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Wives

The Wives.
Foreground, left to right: Toast the Knowing, The Splendid Angharad, and Capable.
Background, left to right: The Dag and Cheedo the Fragile.

Immortan Joe's Wives were a group of "Breeders" belonging to Immortan Joe. (The well-known ones were called "Five Wives" and some times the "Five Wives of the Citadel") They appeared in Mad Max: Fury Road and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

Summary[]

Immortan Joe has many wives. They are all beautiful women with no externally visible mutations or cancerous growths, which are all-too-common among the population of the Citadel. This makes them perfect stock for breeding healthy children. Joe keeps them locked away in the 'biodome', behind a re-purposed bank vault door inside The Citadel. They wear fang-lined chastity belts held closed by padlocks.

Character conception[]

In very early stages of writing Mad Max: Fury Road, there was a concept of many wives, not necessarily five, who all belonged to Immortan Joe. That number of women was eventually reduced to five, each of them was described with a single word representing a core value each character would be built upon. And so, the original character outlines for the wives were as follows:[1]

  • "Leader" - The Splendid Angharad
  • "Funny" - The Dag
  • "Brainy" - Toast the Knowing
  • "Fragile" - Cheedo the Fragile
  • "Seductive" - Capable

The Five Wives[]

History[]

At the beginning there were many wives inside The Biodome, but their numbers began to dwindle over time. The rule was that a wife had three chances to conceive and give birth to a healthy male heir for the Immortan Joe. After failing to do so, a wife would've been thrown out of The Biodome, however there was a possibility of becoming a Milker afterwards.

The Immortan Joe picked candidates for Wives in many ways. They were selected from the Wretched, found and kidnapped in the Wasteland as was the case with Toast the Knowing, or traded in as young Furiosa herself. The women were selected based on their health and also physical appearance with the intent of delivering a healthy and genetically superior heir for the Immortan. The Wives were then locked behind a bank vault door in an isolated place near the top of the Citadel called 'The Biodome'. It was built to provide safety from the toxic Wasteland as well as physical and mental health in the forms of clean air, water, education and entertainment for the captive women. Originally the Wives were not under anyone's supervision, only after the events of 'Furiosa' they were assigned a teacher - Miss Giddy. This was Joe's grave mistake as the Wives rebelled against the Immortan after learning about the world from Miss Giddy, suggesting the books he provided for former Wives were perhaps not read whatsoever due to a widespread illiteracy. The warlord, desperate for having a healthy heir, would routinely rape the women and make sure they would deliver healthy babies for him. In most cases those attempts were futile until Angharad became pregnant with his child.[2] Immortan also impregnated the Dag, however the fate of that pregnancy remains unsolved.

Before the events of Fury Road, it is revealed that Imperator Furiosa was assigned to protect the Five Wives from Rictus Erectus. Over time, Furiosa changed her attitude towards the Wives from disregard to compassion and ultimately decided to include them in her escape plan. Under cover of a supposed supply run to Gas Town and the Bullet Farm, she smuggled the wives in the storage tank of her War Rig. Along the highway to Gas Town, she went off-road and started heading east. Immortan Joe, furious after finding out his most precious 'property' was taken from him, decides to go on an all-out chase across the wasteland to return what was stolen from him....

Trivia[]

  • Riley Keough, who plays the red-headed wife Capable, is married to Ben Smith-Petersen, who was Coma-Doof Warrior's stunt double.[3]
  • The Dag uses vulgar Australian slang throughout the movie, puzzling those unfamiliar with Oceanic Englishes. When she says "schlanger" with a hiss, she's insulting Max - and another time, Immortan Joe - by referring to them as "dicks".

Toast the Knowing is the only wife who knows how to maintain and use guns.

Videos[]

Mad_Max_Fury_Road_-_"Wives"_Featurette_HD

Mad Max Fury Road - "Wives" Featurette HD

Gallery[]

References[]

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