“The Man Became a God”: What Mad Max’s ‘Valhalla’ Actually Is, & Why the War Boys Will Die for It

Mad Max: Fury Road is an insanely wild ride from start to finish with no shortage of epic visuals, intense action, and fascinating concepts that offers full immersion for fans in every aspect of the experience – including the V8 cult of the War Boys, and their belief in ‘Valhalla’. While the film referenced the warrior-earned afterlife of Norse mythology throughout its runtime, there were some notable differences between the original ‘Valhalla’ of myth, and the ‘Valhalla’ the War Boys believed was waiting for them. Luckily, one Mad Max tie-in comic fleshes out the War Boys’ belief system more thoroughly.

Mad Max: Fury Road – Nux & Immortan Joe (by George Miller, Nico Lathouris, Mark Sexton, Leandro Fernandez, Riccardo Burchielli, and Andrea Mutti) is the canonical comic book tie-in that tells the origin stories of both the War Boy Nux and the tyrant of the Citadel, Immortan Joe. The story is told from the perspective of a man charged with passing down the tales of human history following humanity’s nosedive into a post-apocalyptic wasteland, and in this case, that included how a man named Joe Moore became a god called Immortan Joe.

Joe Moore was a colonel who fought in the Oil Wars and Water Wars leading up to the apocalypse. Once the world became a wasteland, Joe mounted a team of rough riders and went out in search of a new home. That’s when they found the Citadel, a mountainous fortress with a deep well and nearly unlimited water. After Joe launched a seemingly impossible strike to take the Citadel, everyone thought he had perished after three days with no word. But, on the third day, Joe Moore revealed himself victorious, effectively ‘coming back from the dead’ as Immortan Joe.

The legend of Immortan Joe spread across the wasteland, as every desperate person able to make the trek to the Citadel revered him as their god. Once half-life mutants called War Boys became Joe’s personal army, the legend had been accepted as absolute truth. Immortan Joe was their god, and only he could permit them through the gates of Valhalla.

What Do The War Boys Believe Their Valhalla Actually Is?

Immortan Joe’s Mad Max Afterlife, Explained!

Based on the verbal doctrine revealed in both the Mad Max: Fury Road film and the comic, one can only enter Valhalla after giving their life serving Immortan Joe, specifically on the Fury Road. If one gives their life for Immortan Joe, they will be ‘awaited’ in Valhalla, where they will ‘ride eternal, shiny and chrome’. There is also mention of an eternal ‘McFeast’ in Valhalla, which seems to be a reference to the fast food restaurant chain, McDonald’s, which – of course – the War Boys would have no knowledge of.

In Norse mythology, it was believed that those who died on the battlefield would enter the hall of Valhalla, where they would feast and drink until the time came when they would fight with Odin himself against the Jötunn. Of course, there are many renditions of what Valhalla is like across human history, though the consensus is that one had to die a glorious death in battle before earning a spot in a great hall where they’d await more battles alongside their gods.

The broad-stroke details of these two versions of Valhalla have some notable similarities. The War Boys have to die on the Fury Road just as the ancient Northmen had to die on the battlefield. Then, both would ‘ride eternal’ as the warriors they were in life, with great feasts awaiting them. Immortan Joe even acted as the War Boys’ Odin, as they truly believed he was their god.

The Promise of Valhalla & the Belief That Immortan Joe was a God was As Vital as Water

The importance of ‘Valhalla’ in Mad Max: Fury Road isn’t the actual mythology of it (as it is sorely lacking in mythology, and is instead nothing more than a bastardized version of Norse myth), but what it’s used for. Immortan Joe became a legend after he won a seemingly impossible battle against the already-established Citadel, and that legend quickly became myth, and that myth lifted the man up as a god – and Joe just ran with it.

Being their god meant he was more than just a leader of a society, but an untouchable dictator whose reign would not be challenged or questioned. Every decision Immortan Joe made was one of divine clairvoyance, and any mistakes he made were deliberate lessons he believed needed to be taught. With the promise of Valhalla, he controlled his army of half-life War Boys, and with his control over the water supply, he controlled the masses (even those who may not have believed him to be a literal god).

Immortan Joe Uses Religion to Become a Tyrant, Betraying the Leader He Once Was

Before he was Immortan Joe, Joe Moore was a colonel, a war hero, and a leader. Joe led any survivors of the apocalypse who were brave enough to ride with him through the wasteland in search of a better life. He took bold risks, he challenged his people’s resolve, and in the end, he won them salvation. Joe Moore may not have been a ‘good’ man (it is the apocalypse, after all), but he was a great leader, who cared for his own people deeply. However, all that changed when Joe Moore the man became Immortan Joe the god.

Joe stopped caring about the people he charged himself with leading, and instead became a greedy old man obsessed with power and control. He kept concubines as prisoners and forced them to bear his children, he attached pumping apparatuses to the chests of women producing breast milk, and he bred half-life War Boys to literally worship and die for him. Immortan Joe is the twisted antithesis of Joe Moore in every way, and the only way he was able to become this horrific monster was due to one thing: religion (including his ‘divine right’ to control the water supply).

Valhalla in the Mad Max universe is a lie used to manipulate the masses and keep Immortan Joe’s half-life War Boys fighting until the bloody end on Fury Road. Immortan Joe could only get away with this lie after his very real feats of conquest turned him into a legend, perpetuating the idea that he is a literal god – that is what ‘Valhala’ is in Mad Max: Fury Road, and that’s why the War Boys are willing to die for it.

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