The Buzzards

The Buzzards are a scavenging wastelander tribe of bandits of Russian descent living in underground burrows known as the Sunken City.^[1] They appear in Mad Max: Fury Road, Mad Max Graphic Novel and Mad Max (2015 video game).

"From hidden underground tunnels came the buzzards, metal pirates from the buried city. They covered their bodies in bandages to keep the knifing sun at bay and their rides in rusty spikes to keep their enemies away. They lived to hunt the scrap"

Conception of The Buzzards

During very early writing process of Mad Max: Fury Road, George Miller and Brendan McCarthy came to a point in the story where the audience would be getting used to everything so they needed to show them something they hadn't seen before. That initial idea evolved into introducing a completely new tribe to the audience - The Buzzards. The inspiration for them came from studying the Australian outback and the spiky lizards that inhabited it. After Miller saw McCarthy's designs of The Buzzards' vehicles, he said that they looked like they were from the movie "The Cars That Ate Paris". That came as a surprise to McCarthy, who hadn't seen the movie.^[2]

Brendan McCarthy came up with the idea of installing buzz saws onto the Buzzard vehicles, the intention being that those cars were supposed to swiftly jump in and out of action, disabling vehicles with said buzz saws. They were the vehicular equivalent of Coyotes or Hyenas, with the general idea of being scavengers that let someone else do the killing only to come back for whatever is left.^[3]

Description

The Buzzards live a secluded life underground and emerge to hunt, fight, kidnap or trade. They occupy the territory surrounding 'The Last Road' connecting The Citadel and Gas Town. Their living quarters are described as 'The Sunken City', a metropolitan area that was covered with sand. Within the depths of the Sunken City, they find numerous items from the old world, and trade them with The Citadel or keep them for themselves. Those items are found by kidnapped children who are small enough to dig and crawl through tight spaces. One such child being Glory, Hope's daughter that was kidnapped by the Buzzards and later rescued by Max.

Despite having access to the wealth of old world items and materials, the Buzzards do not cherish them whatsoever. They are purely utilitarian. Contrary to the War Boys and their 'Cult of the V8' - the Buzzards only want their vehicles to be functional and serve a specific purpose. Aesthetics do not play a role in building their machines that are generally covered in rusty spikes. Aside from spikes, their vehicles are equipped with saws used to swiftly cut through the tyres of their prey. Fury Road's early scripts reveal that the Buzzards keep their vehicles underground in strategic places and eject them to the surface when needed. They also build traps for their potential prey.

The Buzzards suffer from a rare genetic disease known as Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP). Their skin is extremely sensitive to UV light, hence they cover themselves in bandages and use goggles when outside. This same condition forced them into living underground, away from the sunlight. They are cannibals which has its own number of health concerns. They do, however participate in Thunderdome Plus fights in Gas Town.

Trivia

• The Buzzard Excavator, is a MAN 6x6 tractor covered in 1,757 steel spikes hand-fabricated from old car panels. It's the same amount of quills found on Echidnas.^[4]
• A total of 5,000 of rusty spikes were welded to the cars in the Buzzard fleet.^[5]
• The look of The Buzzards cars was inspired by an Australian car movie: The Cars That Ate Paris.^[6][7]
• In the Russian version of the movie, The Buzzards speak German, and this ironically seems to make more sense in the real world considering that the real Australia has a larger minority of ethnic Germans than ethnic Russians.

Early concept art

Early concept art for The Buzzards was conceived by Brendan McCarthy and Peter Pound between 1999 and 2003.

Gallery

Buzzards concept art

Buzzards concept art 2

Buzzards concept art 3

Buzzard's Excavator destroyed concept art/storyboard

References