War. War never changes!”
These famous words have been the foundation of a great franchise, Fallout since its first game launched in 1997 by then Interplay Productions/Entertainment known for developing such hits as Baldur’s Gate, D&D, the Clayfighter series, and the Earthworm Jim series).
Fallout was created by Tim Cain and designer Christopher Taylor drawing on artistic inspiration of the 1950’s literature and media, and how America viewed the future “Atomic Age”. Set in an ‘alternate future’ which broke off from our timeline in the 1960’s, it basically set in the late 21 century, roughly 2070’s. Tim Cain and a team of 30 created a wonderous post-apocalyptic and retro-futuristic world with a core role-playing engine. The quests were up to the player on whether they would be rooted in morality, or choose a darker path, as the Wasteland could bend one into a cold hearted antagonist, depending on the choices made.
Fallout was created by Tim Cain and designer Christopher Taylor drawing on artistic inspiration of the 1950’s literature and media, and how America viewed the future “Atomic Age”. Set in an ‘alternate future’ which broke off from our timeline in the 1960’s, it basically set in the late 21 century, roughly 2070’s. Tim Cain and a team of 30 created a wonderous post-apocalyptic and retro-futuristic world with a core role-playing engine. The quests were up to the player on whether they would be rooted in morality, or choose a darker path, as the Wasteland could bend one into a cold hearted antagonist, depending on the choices made.
Three more core games were created (and another one in the Nuclear Oven) as well many spin-offs, DLC, tabletops games, etc., since this first creation:
Fallout 2 in 1998
Spin offs Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel in 2001 and another in 2004.
Fallout 3 in 2008 (post-acquisition of Bethesda)
Spin offs included the famous and critically acclaimed Fallout: New Vegas in 2010.
Fallout 4 in 2015, with several DLC’s over the years.
Fallout 76 in 2018 is a series which went away from the core single player format and into a very controversial open-world format, that is still being
refined to this day.
Spin offs Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel in 2001 and another in 2004.
Fallout 3 in 2008 (post-acquisition of Bethesda)
Spin offs included the famous and critically acclaimed Fallout: New Vegas in 2010.
Fallout 4 in 2015, with several DLC’s over the years.
Fallout 76 in 2018 is a series which went away from the core single player format and into a very controversial open-world format, that is still being
refined to this day.
Truly, Fallout has been a deep, lore driven franchise that has created decades of Fallout lore. Therefore, one can be justified in a DEEP concern of whether Prime could take this IP and create something good. (I mean look at the disaster they did with Lord of the Rings!)
Game adaptations have been VERY hit or miss in Hollywood, to say the least. I still have nightmares thinking about the first Super Mario Bros movie!
BUT breathe a sigh of relief Vault Dwellers, because in all honesty, Fallout was done quite well! And that’s coming from someone who had very little hope for the series based on many of the videos and spoilers we’ve been hearing about over the last couple of years of production. So feel free to pop open a Nuka Cola, turn on the black and white television, and pop a listen to “I Don’t Want To Set The World On Fire” …cause we’re in for a great
Fallout ride!
THE FOLLOWING WILL CONTAIN SOME SPOILERS. YOU’VE BEEN WARNED!
Power Armor Suits in “Fallout”
The series starts off with a great first episode, The End. Aptly named, as it is END of the world via nuclear war introduced in the 2077 timeline and a character named Cooper, a famous Hollywood actor who’s career appears to have seen better days. Cooper is in full cowboy costume doing lasso and various tricks at a kid’s birthday party. His daughter Janey is with him, assisting in tearing down and packing things up to head out. As all the children sit around the television and eat birthday cake, she asks her father about the thumbs up and what it means against the backdrop of seeing a nuclear blast. Setting up a scene that comes as he goes to grab her a piece of the cake. She looks off in the distance in fear and instantly puts her thumbs up. When he returns, his back is to the city, she asks if it’s based on the size of his thumb or hers. He seems confused till he realizes what she is saying, and
turns to see the bomb drop on LA. It’s a great setup of fear, and panic and he grabs her and jumps on his horse and begins to try to escape as we see more bombs drops on other parts of the city, and get a cut forwards 212 years and are introduced to our other main character Lucy,
who is in Vault 33.
I won’t spoil anything further, other than to say…that the producers and writers have aptly caught not only my attention within the first 10 minutes of the episode, but the feel of the Fallout world. From the vaults themselves, being near replicas of the game, the weapons, the Wasteland, power armor, or the sheer violence and ambiguous nature of people, I can confirm the creators of this series ‘get it’. Now this isn’t to say those that don’t know the lore, will be left in the dark or lost as to what is going on, as the creators of the series have let the Fallout world mostly speak for itself to the point where it feels like a character itself. The many (and I do mean many) Easter Eggs are just icing on the cake for those that are already familiar with this world. There were many a times watching the episode that I had a smile and thought to myself, “OH, that’s from Fallout 3!” or “That was referenced in Fallout 1!”. It’s well done, but not necessary to understand the main story itself.
Speaking of the main story itself, it’s very well written and laid out. I know, I know, that’s a rare thing in Hollywood these days! It truly is. But the Fallout writers did an excellent job, creating the characters in this World, making them believable (faults and all) and progressing the story forward logically and concisely.
(L-R) Ella Purnell (Lucy) and Kyle MacLachlan (Overseer Hank) in “Fallout”
It allowed us to see what happened with Cooper (oh yes, he’s still around after 200 years). Lucy who is a Vault 33 dweller, and her desire to be a good person, despite what has occurred and how bad the world is. Maximus, a squire in the Brotherhood of Steel who has some obvious anger against the people who destroyed his city as a young boy and was seemingly rescued by the Brotherhood of Steel. Every character introduced was well rounded, well written and was there to not only highlight the characters themselves but drive the story forward in some capacity. Being the first season, it also ended with more questions than it answered, but did it with such skill that I literally did not want to wait for another year or two to see what was going to happen next! It really was that good. I’m sure you’re asking at this point what were its weaknesses, as clearly, I’ve been going on about its strengths. Well, there were a few. The Brotherhood of Steel as an organization was left a bit ambiguous. It was clearly the weakest part of the overall storytelling and the
groups’ defining purpose was somewhat lacking. It may be that they left some of this on the editing floor, but they should have spent more time explaining the reason they are there, how they got the tech they did, and better defined their drives them forward.
The NCR (New California Republic) was also barely explained, if at all and only focused on what appeared to be their main leader Lee Moldaver (who admittedly has a unique, and interesting past..and present). The NCR was a major player in almost all the games and fleshing out the group would have served the plot better. The likelihood of the Brotherhood of Steel and NCR clashing with little story behind it, seems counter to lore of the Fallout franchise (though possible if written well). Another minor weakness was the de-aging of one of the characters in 2077. It was not done very well, and literally seemed to be mutating with the actors’ face when shown. Odd, considering that almost ALL the special effects and CG portions of the show were of high quality and extremely well done. I guess you can’t always hit home runs!?
Walton Goggins (The Ghoul) in “Fallout”
The story, again, really drew me in and although I had many of the characters figured out quickly, there were a few surprises here and there that made me really appreciate the outlook of people. It did not shy away about what we will do when we think we are ‘right’ or ‘moral’. A fascinating look at who people TRULY are as human beings in my opinion. The end episode was also aptly named The Beginning and logically left all the characters with unfinished business to attend to and many with pasts that were still mysterious! It was not as strong as the first and other episodes, but it served its purpose at the end and left me wanting more!
Conclusion:
Fallout surpassed my expectations in many ways, and as a fan who has put many countless hours into the franchise and read much of its canon and non-canon backstory, I can say with great enthusiasm that this series is worth a watch! It does not spread any current day DEI messaging (that I could see) and treated the world of Fallout with respect. It also gave the fans MANY easter eggs that will likely not all be spotted in one sitting as well as a true to form world versus the many decades of lore. Unlike Star Wars or Star Trek of current day. Minor grips aside, I would give this series a solid 9 out of 10!
Let me know what you think, in the comments, and thanks for reading!
SPACEDAVE…out!
SPACEDAVE…out!
The woke overtones are still there. But they are being more subtle and not throwing them out there from the beginning as most other series have.
Well, there’s the obviously “trans” Brotherhood character, Aspirant Dane, who is clearly a girl but is referred to as “they”, but so far she’s very minor. And there’s the whole capitalist vs. communist thing, but these days with megacorps trying to ram wokeness down our throats and control everything on the market, I’m a little more receptive to anti-corporatism than I used to be.
I’m trying very hard to like it. The 1950s music is overdone. Almost annoying. It’s as if music and style is frozen after a nuclear bomb. It doesn’t in real life. The 1950s was just a decade, but actually less as culture changes. It’s Hollywood cynicism since they hate the 1950s for its toxic masculinity and domestic housewives culture while loving society’s idealism that doesn’t exist today. It’s great if it can be preserved in a vault as a time capsule, but we have ghouls out there. The story is a slog to get through. I’m barely getting beyond episode 2.
If that’s all that’s holding you back: it’s not a Hollywood thing. The 1950s thing was a gimmick in the games; the idea was that their history diverged from ours (not a literal “alternate timeline”, just a meta interpretation) when nuclear power was discovered. In real life we were cautious with it, but in this version of events they embraced it, and it provided so much power and convenience that the glory days of its discovery became ever-popular and lasted for another 150 years. Then the bombs fell, and all people knew of society were those 150 years’ culture.
It also follows the games’ basic pattern of every faction being either a) a little good but mostly terrible because they’ve had to fight to survive, or b) a naive member of one of those factions who hasn’t “figured it out” yet. It’s pessimistic on humanity, but optimistic on individual humans.
Not the only thing. I said it was a slog to get through. It’s a tedious story. Needs quicker pacing.
I could not go past the first episode. I guess the last years of excess wokeness gave me a gag reflex to things I would have found acceptable before…. or maybe we are so used to shit that diluted woke shit seems good. As far as I can tell, I saw no positive white male. The protagonist is a white woman…maybe not a super-whamen but I still could not believe the fight scenes … Only good man is black or ghoul… is this not awful? Should we be happy because instead of aggressively insulting them, you just cancel positive male & pale humans…. hard pass
Not a winner and still woke. Not at the highest level – but still is:
Woke elements :
Protagonist : woman – not super powered but fight scenes are still not believable. woman that fights trite rope must be here
Non present: Positive white men: even the father is after all a shady guy
Very present: Representation !!!- main characters woman, POC (feminized), and to represent caucasians…. a ghoul
The show 6.5/10 : very good visuals – slow pace, did not draw me in. this is not for the woke part, I loved Arcane with all its message because it was excellent. This is just ok-ish, without the message.
Enough for a hard pass.
Boycott the message – let’s not be happy with moderately offensive propaganda wrapped in a passable show.