This moment breaks my heart, and feel free to delete my bullshit commentary if all you want is the gifset, but I just have to talk about this. Furiosa, who never balks from giving an order, who never speaks without intention and in fact asks permission before wasting her words on deaf ears, cannot bear to answer the Ace’s question. She can only look at him. She’s not being obtuse, a commander is only as good as her commands, and she knows clear communication is critical to keeping a group alive.
Ace knows it too. He leans in to clarify when she doesn’t answer his first guess: “Bullet Farm?” Furiosa would never make someone guess where they were going, it’s impractical and dangerous and stupid. Even worse than her silence, she opens her mouth to answer and then closes it again. She was a single breath away from telling him. She wants so badly to share her plan with her second-in-command: her throat is tight and you can see the shine of tears beginning in her eyes (far from the only time we see this sort of emotion from Furiosa).
Ace notices all of this too, and leans even further to check her expression because she refuses to face him. She knows he can read her, so only then does she answer, and she tells him a half-truth. “We’re heading East.” But that “we” doesn’t include Ace and Furiosa knows it, even as she flicks through every possible scenario one last time. In none of them can he come with them.
Ace looks ahead. With or without clarification or context, he’s there for the ride. He thinks he’s going with her.
Furiosa’s expression closes and she shifts gears. She’s already moving forward, and she’s already left him behind.
