The first trailer for George Miller’s Mad Max reboot has been revealed at the San Diego Comic-Con. Mad Max: Fury Road stars Tom Hardy as Max Rockatansky, a character who was originally played by Mel Gibson in the first three Mad Max films.

Max lives in a dystopian future Australia where the world has been ravaged by wars and people are running out of fuel. Life in such a barren outback is harsh and people are willing to fight each other to the death for precious gasoline. To make matters worse gangs of raiders and killers roam the outback killing with impunity; there is no law enforcement anymore and some of the raiders are actually former police officers.

Plot details for Fury Road are scarce but the trailer does shed light on some things: Max is captured by a gang of raiders who are led by a man called Immortan Joe; he is played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who appeared in the first movie as the main villain, Toecutter. Another member of this gang is a character called Nux who is played by Nicholas Hoult from X-Men. Max is saved from the gang by a one-armed warrior called Imperator Furiosa and together they try to defeat the raiders. Furiosa is played by Charlize Theron who is almost unrecognizable here with motor oil on her face and a shaven head. Her character seems similar to Jenette Goldstein’s no nonsense Private Vasquez character from Aliens. The cast list also includes Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Zoe Kravitz and Riley Keough.

The trailer opens with a nice shot of a long haired Max standing next to his famous black V8 Interceptor car. The V8 Interceptor ‘Pursuit Special’ muscle car is almost as iconic as Max himself; it appeared in the first two movies and it was faster than all the other vehicles. George Miller has mentioned in interviews that Fury Road is like one long chase sequence and the trailer reflects that; after the opening shot with Max and his car the trailer focuses entirely on showing off some impressive action set-pieces. Cars smash into each other and people fight each other as vicious sandstorms encroach upon them. It is a visual spectacle of a trailer with some vibrant cinematography and colorful, larger than life characters.

One of the great things about the first two Mad Max movies is how they combined action and drama with interesting character studies. The films contained lots of little details which helped the viewer get to know the main characters. There was more going on there than just explosions and car chases. Hopefully, Fury Road will also have that nice combination of depth and spectacle. Miller has spent twenty five years trying to get this movie made and the first impressions are impressive.

The film will be released on May 15th, 2015. Check out the trailer and share your thoughts.