[ad_1]
Spoilers are ahead for Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout season 1.
Summary
- The
Fallout
TV show features a new story that’s independent of the games, though it’s still part of the franchise’s larger canon. - The devastating Great War between China and the United States led to a world-altering nuclear exchange.
- The main events of the
Fallout
show unfold 219 years after the Great War — in a post-apocalyptic United States.
The opening sequence of Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout hints at what led to the show’s world-altering nuclear exchange, but, as the series goes on, more details come to light. Based on the fan-favorite video game series of the same name, Fallout‘s cast of characters includes Lucy (Ella Purnell), a Vault Dweller who’s pushed to explore the surface after her father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), is abducted; Maximus (Aaron Moten), a squire in the Wasteland’s Brotherhood of Steel faction; and The Ghoul, Walton Goggins’ radiated gunslinger who was alive when the bombs dropped 219 years before the show’s main story.
As in the games, the Fallout show’s timeline depicts an alternative history of the United States — and the world at large. The series opens with a flashback to 2077 and a ’50s-inspired Los Angeles. Goggins’ character, Cooper Howard, is performing cowboy rope tricks at a child’s birthday party, while the adults talk in hushed voices about the looming atomic threat. Just after the cake is cut, a series of nuclear bombs detonate across the far-off city. The family hosting the party rushes into a fallout shelter: clearly, people had been preparing for the nuclear exchange.
Vault-Tec Was Responsible For Fallout’s Apocalypse
Nuclear Technology Wasn’t The Only Thing That Decimated The United States
At first, viewers are led to believe that the post-apocalyptic landscape was the result of Fallout‘s Great War. In the franchise’s canon, the United States and China are locked in a heated conflict over natural resources, from petroleum to uranium. While China invaded Alaska in the desperate search for natural resources, the United States annexed Canada. Fueled by technologically advanced weaponry, including Fallout‘s Power Armor, the conflict took a toll on both sides. With many fearing the mutual animosity would end with a devastating nuclear exchange, one corporation found a way to turn Americans’ nuclear anxiety into profit.
Vault-Tec realized that an impending peace treaty between the US and China would render their Vaults useless…
Vault-Tec, “the first and last name in Vault technology,” won a contract to create a series of underground fallout shelters throughout the United States. Allegedly, the stalemate between China and the US erupted into the so-called Great War, with China preemptively launching its entire nuclear arsenal at the US, which responded in kind. Just two hours after it started, the Great War had ended, ushering in the time of the Wasteland. However, Fallout season 1 reveals that this story isn’t entirely accurate.
Fallout Season 1 Review: Prime Video’s Stellar Adaptation Leans Into The Offbeat & The Brutal
Prime Video’s long-awaited Fallout TV series adaptation knows its viewers well — and it isn’t afraid to give them a Vault Boy-style wink.
The war-profiteering Vault-Tec realized that an impending peace treaty between the US and China would render their Vaults useless. In order to combat this, Vault-Tec’s executives, including Cooper’s wife Barb Howard (Frances Turner), decide to strike first. Eager to make it look as though China had attacked the US, Vault-Tec drops bombs on cities across America. In short, while the nuclear threat felt imminent to denizens the world over, it was Vault-Tec that turned the cold war into a nuclear exchange. Vault-Tec’s grinning Vault Boy mascot couldn’t be further from the company’s truth.
…the
Fallout
series takes place in the same canon as the video games.
Was Vault-Tec Responsible For The Apocalypse In The Fallout Games?
Vault-Tec’s Canonical Role In Fallout Explained
Vault-Tec’s culpability in the Great War has long been the subject of fan theories and debate. While gamers have long-wondered how much Vault-Tec knew, Amazon Prime Video’s TV show confirms the bunker-making corporation was very involved. According to showrunners, the Fallout series takes place in the same canon as the video games. That said, whatever happens in the show is canonical. Although the Fallout games certainly delve into Vault-Tec’s sinister Vault experiments, it’s the show that confirms that Vault-Tec wasn’t completely committed to securing humanity’s future if it meant their product would become obsolete.
Fallout’s Brotherhood Of Steel Explained: Origin, Beliefs & Power Armor
Amazon Prime’s Fallout has already shown audiences glimpses of the Brotherhood of Steel. However, there’s a lot of crucial information on the faction.
Fallout’s Apocalypse Timeline Explained
Fallout Is Set 219 Years After The Great War
The bombs that destroyed the US (and most of the world) were detonated on October 23, 2077, but the events of the games and show don’t unfold until centuries later. For example, the main events of the Fallout show are set in 2296, which means Lucy, Maximus, and The Ghoul’s stories take place 219 years after the nuclear exchange that Vault-Tec set into motion. The Fallout games have occurred at many different points: Fallout 76 is set just 25 years after the Great War, while Fallout 4 takes place 210 years after the bombs were dropped.
…narratives like
Fallout: New Vegas
have a clear bearing on the Los Angeles-set series.
Since Amazon Prime Video’s Fallout TV show is set the furthest in the future of all the franchise stories, it has the opportunity to reference past outings. Moreover, narratives like Fallout: New Vegas have a clear bearing on the Los Angeles-set series. In many ways, the TV show’s timeline placement is the perfect move in that it balances both familiar and fan-service elements with compelling new stories and characters. Instead of being boxed in, the Fallout show has (very appropriately) given itself an open-world to play around in.
Fallout Games |
Year (In Game) |
---|---|
Fallout 76 |
2102 |
Fallout |
2161 |
Fallout 2 |
2241 |
Fallout 3 |
2277 |
Fallout: New Vegas |
2281 |
Fallout 4 |
2287 |
Fallout’s Vault Ownership & Experiments Explained
Vaults Weren’t Just Built For Survivors Of The Apocalypse
After the nuclear exchange of the so-called Great War, the US was completely ravaged. The nuclear fallout destroyed most of the country’s plant life, turning much of the US into a barren, desolate wasteland. Terrifyingly mutated monsters and animals roam Fallout‘s Wasteland, as do Ghouls — post-humans who have been transformed by prolonged exposure to radiation. While some survivors were forced to forge ahead on the surface, others took refuge from the radiation and violence in Vault-Tec’s shelters. While it’s not clear how many Vaults exist in Fallout‘s post-apocalyptic US, the network of bunkers is vast.
Vault-Tec makes a secret pact with other big-name companies…
Fallout season 1 not only reveals Vault-Tec’s role in the history-altering bombings, but the company’s long-term plan. Knowing that the nuclear exchange will eradicate society as it’s known, Vault-Tec makes a secret pact with other big-name companies, allowing for groups like Westec to conduct horrific experiments on the denizens of the Vaults. More than social experiments, the Vaults are proving grounds for the companies that control them, all of which want to take the reins once Vault Dwellers reclaim the surface.
Why Nuka-Cola Is So Important In Fallout
Nuka-Cola is extremely important to surviving Fallout’s wasteland, and the surprising reason for its significance made it an icon of the franchise.
Why Vault-Tec’s Vaults 31, 32 & 33 Explained: Pods & Breeding Plan
Fallout’s Bunkers Have Sinister Purposes
To escape the horrors and dangers of the Wasteland, people who could afford to flock to Vault-Tecs shelters. A story of the haves and have-nots, Fallout reaffirms humanity’s resilience — something Vault-Tec’s big plan didn’t quite account for when imagining a post-war future. As mentioned, the Vaults have a more sinister purpose: they are places in which companies can conduct long-term — and often very inhumane — social and scientific experiments. Initially, the series suggests that Lucy’s Vault 33 is designed to simulate a “perfect meritocracy.”
Vault 31 housed the most devoted of Vault-Tec employees…
However, things take a turn when it’s revealed that Vault 33 is part of a trio of shelters. Lucy’s father, Vault 33 Overseer Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), mentions hailing from Vault 31 in the series’ first episode, but what he fails to mention is that his arranged marriage to Lucy’s late mother was part of Vault-Tec’s big plan. In fact, Vault 31 housed the most devoted of Vault-Tec employees who were cryogenically frozen in 2077, thus ensuring the company’s intent would live on. Vaults 32 and 33 were merely “breeding pools” for Vault-Tec employees to mate with.
Key Vault 33 Inhabitants Involved In Vault-Tec’s Plan |
The Character’s Current Role |
Actor |
---|---|---|
Hank MacLean |
The current Overseer of Vault 33 and Lucy’s father. |
Kyle MacLachlan |
Steph Harper |
Lucy’s pregnant best friend. |
Leslie Uggams |
Betty Pearson |
The former Overseer of Vault 33 who joins the Vault’s council. |
Annabel O’Hagan |
Fallout’s Pip-Boy Explained: Why Vault Dwellers Wear Computers On Their Wrists
Among the many different unique gadgets featured in the Fallout series, the Pip-Boy is among the most useful and recognizable due to its versatility.
How Fallout’s Apocalypse Changed Society
Factions Emerged After The Great War
After modern society collapsed, survivors of the bombs tried to create something new. With the horrors of the war and radiation still present, however, society remained in its infancy even 219 years after the war. This gives rise to various factions, which are all driven by their unique ideals and visions of how society should be in the Wasteland. For example, the New California Republic (NCR), a group Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury) is connected to, tries to re-establish the former government of the US, while the technology-loving Brotherhood of Steel and the militaristic Enclave duke it out.
If anything, the world of Fallout proves that moral gray areas rule the Wasteland. No one is simply “good” or “evil,” but operating under their own code — intent on achieving their own goals. This ethos rules the various Wasteland factions, though it’s also true of Vault-Tec’s Vault 31 employees. Much of the first season hinges on finding Enclave scientist Siggi Wilzig (Michael Emerson), who is carrying a cold fusion reactor capable of producing unlimited energy. Clearly, technology with the potential to reshape the Wasteland does exist, and could potentially change the show’s world in Fallout season 2.
All 8 episodes of
Fallout
season 1 are now streaming on Amazon Prime Video.
Fallout
Based on the video game franchise of the same name, Fallout is a drama series set in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles. The series follows the survivors of the human race in an alternate 1950s timeline, where nuclear war laid waste to the Earth, spawning large irradiated areas and mutated humans who now roam the planet.
- Cast
- Walton Goggins , Ella Purnell , Kyle MacLachlan , Xelia Mendes-Jones , Aaron Moten
- Seasons
- 1
- Showrunner
- Lisa Joy , Jonathan Nolan
[ad_2]
Source link