Wind whistling, the crunch of your boot on harsh terrain, and a brutal wasteland to explore. That is Fallout. First released in 1997 for PC, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic sci-fi RPG (role-playing game). Set in the future, It captures a 1950s aesthetic to help show the potential and danger of its main themes: nuclear weapons and power. With the massive popularity and sales of all eight games, it’s only fair it reaches its hand into the world of modern TV/movie adaption of beloved video game franchises. On April 10th, 2024, a Fallout TV series premiered on Amazon Prime.
Episode one is phenomenal. It has great world-building and non-forced exposition with us being introduced to three main characters and their backgrounds. We met our first character Cooper Howard, commonly referred to as Coop, who is a big-time Hollywood actor, played by real-world big-time Hollywood actor Walton Goggins. He’s commonly recognized as one of the antagonists from Marvel’s Ant-Man and Wasp. As Coop is at a birthday party for a boy he and his daughter perform tricks, take photos, and entertain the guests at the party. After the cake is served, Coop and his daughter Janey look at a big city from the house property. While eating cake, Janey asks Coop what is happening in the world. Coop replies with boring adult stuff knowing he can’t tell her because of the horror. We then see the main reason the show is called Fallout; we see a harrowing short scene of the bombs dropping that started The Great War. Afterward, everyone is rushing for survival, and people are fighting over safety and security from the bombs.
We then cut 219 years later in Vault 33. Vaults were created as a fail-safe for the rich if nuclear warfare ever did occur. In this vault, we meet our second character: Lucy Maclane. Lucy Maclane is played by British actor Ella Purnell previously in Yellowjackets. Lucy is currently being interviewed for her request to have a man of vault 32, their neighboring vault, transfer over for a suitable marriage partner. In a montage of Lucy’s skills during the interview, we meet her dad Hank, and her younger brother Norm. Afterward, she is accepted and gets to planning the wedding. Once everything is in place, they head to the vault doors they connect to vaults 33 and 32 and an exchange is made: The man from Vault 32 for Vault 33’s supplies. Once the swap is made both factions part ways. Shortly after Lucy is married during dinner, he asks to see Lucy’s room. While being shown her room, commotion interrupts, screaming and yelling, faint, but still loud. Lucy tries to see what is happening but is stopped by her new husband. She puts two and two together and understands they have been invaded by raiders who have been posing as Vault 32 members. A fight breaks out with Lucy being stabbed and her new husband dying. After cleaning herself up she heads out to find the Vault in disarray. Murder and blood fill the vault but it stops. Lucy finds her father, Hank in a bind: he either hands over himself or lets six of his vault members die. He makes his decision by locking Lucy in a room and leaving with the raiders. The bombs they set up explode, but everyone makes it to safety. Afterward, Vault 33 cleans up and decides how to run the vault without an overseer. When Lucy insists that they need to rescue her father, her pleas fall on deaf ears. And so, Lucy leaves the vault to find her dad.
Around the same time we meet our third character, Maximus, who is in a religious group of protectors called the Brotherhood of Steel. Maximums had dreamed of being part of this group, but when his friend is promoted to go on a mission he’s understandably upset. His friend is found the next morning with a razor blade in her boot. Maximus is promoted to go on the mission in her absence, alongside a rogue scientist carrying information crucial to the Brotherhood’s survival.
With the scientist having a bounty across the wasteland, we then meet our final character: The Ghoul. The Ghoul has been alive since the bombs dropped, becoming a husk of just flesh and bones. In the Fallout universe, ghouls become feral, cannibalistic beasts if they don’t consume a certain drug. It turns out the ghoul is Coop, who is now a bounty hunter on the hunt for the scientist.
The reason this episode is fantastic is for new fans it gives you the basics of what is going on, but it doesn’t tell you why to keep you intrigued. You don’t know what caused global tensions to rise nor why bombs were necessary. You don’t know why only select people were let into vaults or why this scientist is important, but you want to know. The most important part is that you care about these characters trying to survive the wasteland, and that’s enough to get you hooked from the start. It also uses good exposition of not dumping loads of things to remember, it spoon-feeds you small amounts so you stay intrigued and try and figure out what happened yourself.
If any of this remotely sounds interesting to you, please check out Fallout and its 8 episodes on Prime or play any of the games. All episodes are available on Prime for free; they are around an hour long and are 100% worth the watch.
