Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

After years in development, Miller came back to the wasteland with what is essentially one long chase, built so it would read as a silent movie. Editor Margaret Sixel has said they cut silently for a long time, without temp music, apart from the dialogue scenes, so every image had to tell the story on its own. Tom Hardy is Max, but Charlize Theron's Furiosa is its real heart, and the stunts were staged with real vehicles in the Namibian desert. It earned ten Oscar nominations, including Best Picture and Best Director, and won six, more than any other film that year. If this is your favorite, everything else on the list is a branch of the same tree.