Why did Max leave the Citadel at the end of Mad Max Fury Road?

Question

I guess Fury Road was a story of redemption, not only for Furiosa, but for every other character in search of hope and salvation, including Max himself.

That being said, why did he leave the "green place" at the end of the movie? The others were like family to him. They helped him redeem himself. He was a savage, animalistic man at the beginning of the movie, as he was "reduced to a single instinct: survive" (god I love that line!), and at the end, after all that bonding and trust, he finally becomes more human. He even utters his real name to Furiosa when at the beginning, he simply grunted.

My point is: Max has redeemed at the end of this movie, and he couldn't have done it without the new family he has made. So why on earth did he just ditch them at the very last second?

(Please don't say "for sequel purposes!". Thank you)

Answer 1

Why did Max leave the Citadel at the end of Mad Max Fury Road?

In a world full of trouble and strife, he has the opportunity to step into that and fight against them. He can't just stay in one because he’s a reluctant hero, one who doesn’t want to get involved initially, who only wants to look out for number one, but is moved by forces greater than himself to intervene.

From cinemablend

Mad is both on a quest to find himself, his better self, and outrun his past. In 1979’s Mad Max, Max, played by Mel Gibson, loses his wife and infant son to a vicious motorcycle gang headed by Toecutter (Hugh Keays-Byrne, who also plays the villain Immortan Joe in Fury Road). In a ruined world already tearing itself apart, this was the last thing tethering Max to the remnants of civilization, and severing that final tie set him adrift, which we subsequently saw in The Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome.

On one hand, he floats through this desolate existence, just surviving. But on the other, as we see in Fury Road, as well as the earlier films, the flame of who he once was still burns inside of him—he was a cop, a husband, a father, a good man—which is the part of him that won’t let him walk away from trouble.

He wants to get away, to be left alone with his pain and his memories, but at the same time he can’t stand aside and not help when he’s needed. The lasting impression and legacy of his family (though in Fury Road he flashes back to a little girl, not his son, which potentially indicates further loss and trauma, and there are some interesting fan theories floating around about that particular tidbit), his wife’s belief that he is still a good man, is what drives him forward.

He may not go looking to play the hero, or just to help as is the case in Fury Road, but in a world full of trouble and strife, he has the opportunity to step into that role. With Immortan Joe toppled, with a good and just and strong leader like Furiosa installed at the Citadel, and the wives safe, his job, for lack of a better word, is done, and he’s free to ride off... and likely be a reluctant hero once again.

At the end, he just disappears, melting into a crowd, on the road to his next post-apocalyptic adventure, and all we’re left with is a mysterious quote.

The last thing we see before the credits begin is a black screen with a quote that reads:

"Where must we go, we who wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves?"
    -The First History Man

Answer 2

I also pondered that. But it was more impossible to imagine Max staying.

I think we need to understand why we ask why. The only reason that our minds even question this very fitting ending is that during the entire movie the characters were trying to find a place that would be more or less inhabitable. They found nothing 160 riding days out and finally decided that the Citadel is the most inhabitable place left, despite all of its drawbacks.... So when Max leaves, - it's natural to think: there is nowhere to go! where is he going? why would he leave? While leaving is so much more in the character of Mad Max, indeed, where is there left to go in a world like that?

The answer is provided by the quote at the end of the movie.

Wander this wasteland, in search of our better selves.

So, I imagine, he just went on a walkabout.

Answer 3

I think he realized that his worst fears were here at the citadel, and that his best strengths were out there on the road.

If he stayed, he would fall for Furiosa, and that would threaten the memory of his family who he had only just redeemed. He couldn't bear to care for another soul the way he used to, or he would not only erase or diminish the memory of his family, but he would be compromised again by loving someone who could die and who he could let down.

In a way, going back on the road is his way of loving her. He loves her enough to not distract her from her future reign, to not distract her from rebuilding an oasis. He loves her by not allowing her to give into too much hope, hope for them.

It was like when he and Furiosa chatted without words when saying the pregnant mother "went under the wheels" to convince the others. She didn't really, and was still alive and "on her last breath." The look at the end echoed this secret language of eye contact that they have. He could have just walked away, back turned, if he was really leaving. But by looking at her, he was communicating, "not now, maybe not ever, but we both know what we have to do."

I think Max went out to scout the boundaries around the citadel. He knows that other marauders and threats lie just beyond the borders. He roams the open road, protecting the citadel or perhaps scouting for it - but on his terms. If he ever comes across a notable threat, one he can't vanquish on his own, he'll come back to warn Furiosa. And maybe that's the plot for the next movie. Until then, he knows he's not ready to love, and neither is she. So they look at each other as he walks away. Neither can be fully aware of the other, or they'll be distracted and entangled. What they have to do to survive now is to be fiercely independent. To hold onto a hope that someday the winds will change, rain will return, and the green will grow. They also wait for a day when they can be together and hope together. Just not today.