Chapter 708: Similar Tastes

This was a brawl stripped of flashy techniques, where victory depended entirely on raw strength and willpower.

Beside the War Machine, Charlize Theron—half her arm tightly wrapped in green screen material—engaged in close-quarters combat with a muzzled Tom Cruise.

As with all action sequences, this scene relied heavily on post-production editing, fracturing the shoot into countless fragments. After every take, Duke and action choreographer Jimmy Carter gathered Charlize Theron, Tom Cruise, James Franco, Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, and the rest to go over the crucial details for the next shot.

Shot from tricky angles, the scene was undeniably star-studded. Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise's fame and status in the industry went without saying, James Franco was a highly bankable B-list actor, and the five supporting eye-candy roles were played by some of the most famous Victoria's Secret angels.

The sequence would absolutely blow audiences away.

After shooting take after take of gritty, realistic close-quarters combat, both Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise were drenched in fake blood. This was a direct confrontation between Furiosa and Tom, the male lead. Disadvantaged by her gender and missing arm, she inevitably lost, but her performance was dazzling enough.

Aside from the two leads, Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise, Duke had cleverly arranged scenes for the five highly distinctive supporting characters played by Alessandra Ambrosio, Adriana Lima, and the rest.

They were the inciting incident of the story. These beautiful, fragile women harbored a deep yearning for freedom. Refusing to remain mere reproductive tools for men, they bravely fled, even heavily pregnant.

Ambrosio's character was the backbone of the "breeders" and the most rebellious of the group. As Immortan Joe's favorite, she carried his child but refused to let her baby grow up to be a cruel dictator.

One could easily imagine that she was the first to advocate for the escape, and throughout their journey, she played a unique role.

During the initial brawl between Charlize Theron and Tom Cruise, she stepped in to help the female lead as much as she could, despite her pregnancy. Even with blood streaming down her legs, she bravely ran forward.

It was true that these five breeders were eye candy, but they each possessed distinct personalities. Aside from Ambrosio's character, the other four maintained a fighting stance throughout the journey. They screamed at times, yes, but every one of them contributed their strength to some degree. Even in fear, they took brave steps toward the ultimate victory.

They lacked Furiosa's capability, courage, and decisiveness, but they slowly grew and transformed during the escape. Fueled by a boundless thirst for freedom, they fought to become smart, brave, strong women who never lost their kindness.

The fact that the film could recruit five Victoria's Secret supermodels wasn't solely due to the prestige of working with Duke; it also had to do with the roles themselves.

When Alessandra Ambrosio—who had a past intimate relationship with Duke—arrived on set, she told him, "This is the most character-driven and in-depth eye-candy role I've ever played."

Of course, any role cast with a Victoria's Secret angel was bound to be eye candy.

"Cut!"

Duke shouted to cut the scene, then added, "Move on to the next setup! Get ready for the next shot!"

The camera glided forward along its track. Tom Cruise settled into the driver's seat of the War Machine. Duke remained seated behind the director's monitor and called out to John Schwartzman.

"Camera Two, track the War Machine. Camera One, shoot from the rear. You have ten minutes to calibrate."

Just as ten minutes passed, Duke called for action. Filming resumed, and Tom Cruise drove the War Machine forward, stopping after barely two hundred feet.

On the other side, Charlize Theron led the five Victoria's Secret angels in pursuit. Bar Refaeli even delivered a fierce kick to the chastity belt lying on the ground.

"This woman isn't bad."

Just as the shoot ended, a familiar voice rang in Duke's ear.

"Do you have her contact info?"

"Leo, are you getting ready to change girlfriends again?"

Hearing that familiar, faintly mocking female voice, Duke quickly turned his head. Scarlett, wearing a baseball cap, and Leonardo DiCaprio, sporting sunglasses, were already standing behind him.

Temporarily setting aside his work, Duke first nodded at Leonardo, then turned and gently kissed Scarlett.

"What brings you two here?" he asked.

Scarlett returned the kiss and smiled. "Filming for Iron Man 2 has wrapped. My work is done."

"She dragged me here," Leonardo said, sounding somewhat helpless. "I went to Malibu to return your yacht, but she caught me and dragged me all the way here."

As he spoke, his eyes drifted back toward the set, landing squarely on Bar Refaeli.

Duke shook his head.

"Blonde, long legs... you two have very similar tastes," Scarlett teased.

"Me and him?" Duke first pointed at himself, then at Leonardo. "Darling, Leo only likes models."

Scarlett knew almost everything about his past affairs, and Duke never tried to hide them.

With the shoot over, the actors headed back to their trailers to remove their makeup. Leonardo finally withdrew his gaze and turned to ask Duke.

"I recall she's a Victoria's Secret model, right?"

Duke sat back down behind the monitor and waved him off. "Go ask her yourself. Don't worry, I won't kick you off the set."

Leonardo's tastes were known to movie fans worldwide. Although Bar Refaeli was from Israel and of Jewish descent, she was a quintessential blonde beauty—exactly the type Leonardo DiCaprio liked.

Watching Leonardo ditch him—the supposed person he came to visit—and walk toward the crew's makeup trailers, Duke could only shake his head helplessly. He told Scarlett to grab a seat while he continued reviewing the footage they had just shot.

Scarlett, who had been sitting beside him, idly playing on her phone, waited until Duke was finally done with his work before speaking up again.

"I went to New York before coming here. Godmother said we're spending Christmas in New York this year."

"No problem," Duke said, standing up and exhaling a long breath. "I'll call her tonight."

He checked his watch and turned to his assistant on the other side.

"Pass the word down. That's a wrap for today's shoot."

After so many days of filming, the crew's progress hadn't been fast, as many of the action sequences were genuinely difficult. However, they were still moving along according to Duke's expected schedule. At this rate, all principal photography would be finished by early February of next year at the latest.

Moreover, aside from a small fraction of shots taken on the soundstages at Warner Studios, the rest of the film would be shot in the wastelands and deserts of New Mexico. The time saved from fewer location moves could be put straight into filming.

The only slight issue was Tom Cruise. With Mission: Impossible 4 in pre-production, he needed to leave the set from time to time.

Just as in the past, Duke was also an investor in Mission: Impossible 4, so naturally, he wouldn't object to Tom Cruise—the actual man in charge of that production—leaving. However, it meant that many scenes couldn't be shot in chronological order as he originally planned.

Still, this wasn't a major problem. With so many years in the industry, making the appropriate adjustments wasn't difficult for Duke.

Throughout the entire shoot, Duke treated this film with extraordinary caution. After all, Fury Road was not a genre he was intimately familiar with.

The plot of the film was simple, meaning many sections had to be padded out with shots of intricate little details, ensuring the audience felt utterly overwhelmed by the visual feast.

First was the color grading. Dry desert yellow served as the foundational tone, supplemented by the blue of the desert sky, the distinct iron-gray of battle-damaged vehicles, the manic red of the guitarist's clothes, the dash of peacock blue from the Flamethrower Electric Guitar in his hands, and the quiet, cold moonlight blue of the desert nights...

Since Fury Road was a highly visual film, the use of these colors had to be perfectly harmonious.

Second, the fight scenes had to be clear. The film had so many action sequences that a fast pace couldn't be allowed to leave the audience disoriented.

Then there were all sorts of apocalyptic accessories: Tom Cruise's muzzle, the various metal skull logos on the War Machine, Charlize Theron's mechanical arm, the heavily retro and intricately patterned guns, and the diverse array of weapons used during the car chases...

Most importantly, the background score needed to elevate the film and create a powerful sense of immersion. Coupled with the rhythmic strumming of the guitarist bouncing on bungee cords, the thrill would practically explode right out of the screen!

For this aspect, Duke had passed on Hans Zimmer—this wasn't his style of scoring. Instead, he selected a composer specializing in wildly manic heavy metal and electronic music.

Furthermore, Duke had to correct a bad habit he'd developed during his previous films: the protagonists in Fury Road were not superheroes.

They needed to be appropriately humanized. Although plot armor still existed, its power had to be scaled back significantly. For instance, in the three-way scuffle after the sandstorm, Tom Cruise only managed a grueling, hard-fought victory. Later, when Charlize Theron was stabbed deeply by her own gearshift-concealed weapon, she could still move, but only with such agonizing difficulty that she seemed on the verge of death. This grounded them, making them feel much more like ordinary humans.

With superhero movies dominating the market, protagonists were all incredibly flashy, cool, and arrogant. While the superhero genre was nowhere near decline, severe homogenization meant that releasing a sci-fi action film with a completely different style would undoubtedly bring audiences the fresh, thrilling experience Duke always emphasized.

After filming wrapped, Duke gave Anna Printz a few instructions before pulling Scarlett toward his trailer. The two hadn't seen each other in a long time.

By the time Duke and Scarlett left the trailer nearly an hour later and walked into the rest area in the gypsum desert, over a dozen bonfires had already been lit.