Amazon’s Fallout TV sequence is fairly good, yeah? Not solely is it some darn nice tv in its personal proper, this high-budget, high-profile present would possibly simply be probably the most trustworthy adaptation of a online game ever put to screens huge or small. It’s so good that the Fallout video video games, the newest of which is sort of seven years previous, have been shooting back up the charts.
But if you happen to’re new to the crumbling, irradiated world of Fallout, you would possibly really feel just a little misplaced when the credit roll on the final episode. (By the best way, you’ll be glad to listen to that the TV present has been renewed for a second season.)
What’s this New Vegas place hinted at within the post-credits scene? Why did the pre-war flashbacks seem like Marty McFly’s 1955, however have nuclear-powered robots? How did folks invent Iron Man-style energy armor if they’ll’t make a pc smaller than a bread field? What’s a New California Republic? How did some folks survive the warfare as scarred, noseless ghouls that reside for hundreds of years? What the hell is a Mister Handy?
The Fallout TV present takes place throughout the world of the video games, and for probably the most half, doesn’t battle with the canon storyline that’s been ongoing for the reason that unique launched waaaay again in 1997. But even if you happen to’ve performed a number of the newer 3D video games, there are deep swimming pools of glowing inexperienced lore locked in these early video games that even a number of the greatest followers don’t find out about.
Fallout 1 and a pair of established lots of the pivotal story seen within the later video games (and in consequence, the TV present), however they’re video games from a really totally different world. The 2D graphics and top-down presentation are arduous to sink your enamel into if you happen to’ve by no means performed a sport off a floppy disk. And that’s a disgrace, as a result of they’ve some unbelievable storytelling, quests, and voice-acting performances, a lot of which is immediately related to the continuing sequence in each sport and present format.
Fortunately for us right here within the futuristic wonderland of 2024, you don’t truly must play a whole bunch of hours of video games from many years in the past to be taught concerning the world you’re so thinking about. There’s a wealth of data that’s been collated by followers and introduced on-line in easy-to-digest chunks. You can spend hours happening a lore binge to seek out out what occurred, why…and what would possibly simply occur subsequent.
Here’s a small collection of data, and some good locations to begin. Go on a deep dive for a short while, and also you’ll be a Fallout lore knowledgeable worthy of a Brotherhood Scribe very quickly. Some of the very best sources that cowl the Fallout sequence and its fascinating historical past are linked and embedded under, together with Synonymous and The Templin Institute, and naturally, the fan-maintained wiki.
The world earlier than the bombs
Fallout‘s sci-fi story technically takes place in the future, but it’s additionally an instance of alternate historical past, sharing lots of 20th-century revisionism with sequence like Red Alert. The world that was destroyed just isn’t the identical one you bear in mind, not even earlier than the primary sport in 1997. As a common rule you possibly can assume that the historical past on this planet of Fallout is similar as the actual world, up till the top of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War, simply earlier than 1950.
Bethesda
Bethesda
Bethesda
In Fallout, the Cold War principally by no means ended, and neither did America’s 1950s tradition. Instead of a pc age, the world skilled an Atomic Age, the place nuclear power unfold throughout the globe. Instead of fossil fuels, nuclear fission turned the predominant technique of powering just about every part from city-wide electrical grids to vehicles and even transportable radios. That’s why even centuries after the bombs fell, you possibly can nonetheless discover a couple of electrical home equipment and nuclear batteries (notably the fusion core that’s utilized in Power Armor and building-sized energy mills) which are nonetheless working.
But there are a couple of key variations between the Cold War in Fallout and the actual one. First of all, whereas the United States turned a nuclear-armed superpower in each, its major world rival was communist China as a substitute of Russia. The Soviet Union nonetheless existed in Fallout’s pre-war world, however its energy was significantly diminished, and the U.S. versus the CCP turned the first battle that outlined international relations.
It isn’t clear who fired the primary shot in what turns into generally known as the Great War. (Not instantly, anyway…) But as seen in lots of Cold War fiction, mutually assured destruction left the floor of the Earth bathed in radiation and a devastating nuclear winter. For a deeper dive into the historical past of the world earlier than the top of the world — why is the U.S. utilizing a 13-star flag, for instance? — take a look at the movies above and under.
Frozen tradition
Fallout’s pre-war world was an instance of retro-futurist fiction. The bombs fell and irradiated the floor of the planet in 2077, 80 years sooner or later when the primary sport was launched. But for many of the western world, the tradition appears to have frozen in place round 1960 or so, with trend, music, motion pictures, and tv, and lots of concepts in some way not evolving for over a century.
That’s why you hear basic American requirements, doo-wop, and nation music like Nat King Cole, Johnny Cash, the Ink Spots, and the Andrews Sisters within the soundtrack. (And sure, the video games are full of the identical form of music.) Polygon has a deep dive into the music of Fallout, and an amusing tackle how actual music might need advanced within the wasteland, despite the fact that it didn’t.
Exactly why nothing new appears to have been made after the fictional boomer era was born isn’t clear. But the real-world clarification is that the producers of each the video games and the TV present are intentionally evoking the tradition of the Cold War, to harken again to an older time whereas having the flexibleness to inform a sci-fi story. Think The Jetsons…with extra swearing and dismemberment.
There are a few key cultural variations to remember, although. The upheaval of the Civil Rights Movement doesn’t appear to have occurred in Fallout, as racism, sexism, homophobia, and related issues aren’t clearly current within the pre-war world (not less than to not the identical diploma as the actual world). Instead the cultural divide deepens alongside class and ideological strains, with the real-world Red Scare of anti-communism changing into a a lot deeper and much more bitter struggle. One of crucial conflicts earlier than the Great War is an invasion of Alaska by communist China.
Capitalism and nationalism change into indelibly intertwined within the United States. As hyperinflation spreads and small wars over sources start, class divides deepen and the problems that the nation has failed to deal with for 100 years start to fracture society. Mega-corporations like Amazon Vault-Tec are primarily ruling the United States.
In Fallout, that’s, not the actual world. Of course. Did I point out that the sport sequence comes with a wholesome and pleasurable dose of tongue-in-cheek cultural criticism?
Retro-Futurist tech
Technology is in a bizarre place in Fallout, each earlier than and after the warfare. The abundance of nuclear power and the diminished reliance on fossil fuels implies that power is in abundance just about all over the place, and that appears to have stymied the event of some expertise whereas boosting others.
For instance, computer systems appear to be on concerning the stage that we noticed in the actual world in the course of the 1970s and early 1980s, with large rooms required for probably the most highly effective mainframes, and private units restricted to text-driven interfaces storing info on reel-to-reel magnetic tape. The iconic Pip-Boy “wearable” is about as small as a pc will get, with televisions and radios nonetheless working off vacuum tubes.
All that being mentioned, robots are far more superior in Fallout than in the actual world, working with unbelievable dexterity and functionality, and a few even seem to have rudimentary synthetic intelligence with their very own personalities. These resemble and are immediately impressed by the robots seen in basic sci-fi tv and flicks, like Robby the Robot from The Forbidden Planet and B-9 from Lost in Space. The firms in Fallout constructing super-advanced robots utilizing computer systems that appear to be much less highly effective than a contemporary calculator is intentionally anachronistic.
Weapons expertise can also be in an odd place. In addition to handheld weapons that resemble pistols, rifles, and shotguns in the actual world, Fallout has rudimentary laser and plasma weapons — pew pew as a substitute of bang bang. The video games even have small “mini-nukes” that may be launched from a bazooka-sized sling.
The U.S. and China have each developed giant, cumbersome fits of armor that run on their very own inner nuclear energy, Power Armor, that offers one individual the offensive and defensive energy of a real-world tank. These fits are principally Tony Stark’s first Iron Man armor within the film, and are closely influenced by the Space Marines in the Warhammer 40,000 series.
A substantial variety of nuclear-powered robots, fits of Power Armor, and mountains of each typical and laser/plasma weapons have survived into the post-war future. Other expertise appears to have survived as nicely, from private PCs resembling basic actual computer systems from Tandy and Commodore, to some radio and tv gear. Naturally, the locations with probably the most surviving expertise are the Vault-Tec Vaults, which have been shielded from the preliminary nuclear blasts. Speaking of which…
The Vaults
One of the largest corporations on this planet in Fallout’s 2077 is Vault-Tec, and its major product is Vaults. These are underground shelters meant to let people survive nuclear blasts. But not like the personal backyard bunkers within the real-world Cold War, these are designed to accommodate a whole bunch of individuals (with extremely costly paid reservation slots, after all). Internal energy and self-sustaining methods let these remoted communities of Vault Dwellers survive for hundreds of years till the floor is match for human habitation once more.
Or not less than, that’s the imaginative and prescient that Vault-Tec sells to Americans. While a couple of Vaults are certainly useful societies-in-a-bottle hoping to repopulate the United States sooner or later, most of them have a much more sinister software. In actuality, Vaults are supposed to home people as take a look at topics for any variety of experiments, each social and scientific.
This is likely one of the core revelations made early within the Fallout sequence. Each Vault is a tiny microcosm ready for the participant to find what its unique objective was, how its Vault Dwellers reacted to the experiment, and normally, the way it all went fallacious within the many years and centuries since they have been locked away.
There are over 100 identified Vaults within the Fallout sequence. The unique Vault from the primary sport is Vault 13, full of people who have been stored as an remoted inhabitants meant for use as future take a look at topics. Fallout 4‘s Vault 111 was meant to check the viability of cryogenic hibernation, a la Futurama. Vault 108 is designed to experiment with human cloning.
In Vault 11, one individual can be “sacrificed” yearly or the whole inhabitants can be killed. Vault 15’s inhabitants was particularly chosen to accommodate folks with radically totally different cultures and ideologies, to see if they might type a useful society. Vault 29 was initially full of youngsters no older than 15, in a type of sci-fi tackle Lord of the Flies. Vault 68 housed 999 males and just one girl, whereas Vault 69 had the alternative.
Finding out precisely what occurred in every Vault is likely one of the greatest attracts of the Fallout sequence. It doesn’t harm that Vaults make good online game dungeons, normally with a bunch of non-irradiated loot and supplies inside. The TV present explores three interconnected Vaults, 31, 32, and 33, and the way they work together with one another. You can discover omnibus movies briefly overlaying each Vault in Fallout, and deep dives into particular person Vaults, each of that are fairly entertaining.
The world after the top of the world
Much to the shock of the folks locked contained in the Vaults, the world exterior didn’t disappear after the bombs fell. While some components of the post-nuclear floor are certainly nonetheless smoking craters, accessible solely to probably the most horribly mutated folks and animals or with large quantities of radiation safety, the remnants of humanity have created a brand new world. And after all, there are factions vying for energy and management over the ashes. War by no means adjustments, in spite of everything.
There are tons of powers huge and small on this planet of Fallout, however listed here are those which are related to the TV present.
The Enclave
The Enclave is what’s left over from the federal government of the United States earlier than the bombs fell. While it’s a tiny group of individuals, its still-functioning group considers itself the professional ruling physique of post-war North America. For instance, the Enclave nonetheless has a “President,” and nonetheless has entry to a number of the strongest and complicated expertise round.
The Enclave’s major bases are remoted components of the Pacific coast, like oil rigs. In the TV present, scientist Siggi Wilzig (performed by Lost’s Michael Emmerson) runs away from the Enclave and into the stays of California for causes of his personal.
The Brotherhood of Steel
Stomping round in Power Armor and floating above the wasteland in artillery-laden airships, the Brotherhood of Steel is presumably probably the most iconic group of the Fallout sequence. The Brotherhood is a army group with quasi-religious overtones, and its mission is to gather expertise from the pre-war world…and preserve anybody else from getting it. One of its driving motivations is to safe and preserve army expertise like Power Armor and Vertibirds (Fallout’s model of helicopters) to develop its energy and management.
The Brotherhood is fanatical and obsessive, elevating its members to be completely dedicated to its trigger and harshly punishing any form of dissent or desertion. It’s additionally one of many extra overtly bigoted factions within the post-war world, with a hatred of ghouls, mutants, and something that diverts from customary humanity. The Brotherhood of Steel has no downside murdering anybody who will get in the best way of its targets.
The New California Republic
Usually shortened to the NCR, the New California Republic is an try to make a functioning society with floor dwellers within the new irradiated world. Its flag is sort of similar to the state flag of the actual California…with the notable addition of a mutated two-headed bear. The NCR was fashioned in 2186, a couple of century after the bombs fell, with its capital in Shady Sands, someplace close to the bombed-out stays of real-world Los Angeles.
The NCR makes an attempt to work roughly like a useful fashionable nation, with members each good and unhealthy, however it typically comes into battle with different powers within the wasteland. The Brotherhood of Steel, the Enclave, and numerous factions in and round New Vegas all oppose the NCR sooner or later, and even a number of the remaining Vault Dwellers have causes to dislike them within the Amazon sequence.
New Vegas
2010’s Fallout: New Vegas online game takes gamers to the stays of real-world Las Vegas, the playing and leisure oasis within the Nevada desert. In Fallout’s world, Las Vegas averted any direct nuclear strikes, and is a thriving metropolis full of playing and commerce.
The restyled New Vegas is dominated over by Robert House, a titan of business who survived the warfare (in some way) and continues to be answerable for the stays of the RobCo company. You can see Robert House (voiced by Deep Space Nine’s René Auberjonois within the video games, performed by Rafi Silver in 2024) in a short flashback within the TV present. My favourite exploration of Robert House is that this little diddy by The Stupendium.
House’s house base and the useful capitol constructing of New Vegas is the Lucky 38 Casino, full of an enormous quantity of expertise and defended by still-operating RobCo army robots. New Vegas makes a short look within the TV present, however saying anything is perhaps a little bit of a spoiler.
Other powers are in play within the Mojave desert round New Vegas, together with the NCR, the native chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, and Caesar’s Legion, a gaggle of violent nuclear survivors styling itself after the Roman Empire.
The folks and creatures of Fallout
You can broadly separate the survivors of Fallout into two teams: people (individuals who survived within the Vaults and people who are nonetheless dwelling on the floor) and everybody else. Vault Dwellers are just about the identical as fashionable real-world people, not less than those that aren’t horribly scarred and traumatized by the experiments happening within the Vaults. The people of the skin world are surviving within the stays, coping with struggles like radiation illness, discovering meals and water, faction energy struggles, and the terrifying wildlife that emerged after the bombs fell.
Ghouls
The solely main non-human sentient species featured within the Fallout TV sequence are ghouls. Ghouls are people who’ve been uncovered to very large quantities of radiation, giving them lengthy life however scarring their flesh. Soft tissues (most notably noses) and hair normally fall off, and so they communicate with gruff voices from broken vocal chords. But apart from a typically disagreeable look, ghouls are nonetheless considering, feeling folks, and could be good, unhealthy, and every part in between.
In the Amazon TV present Walton Goggins performs a ghoul, a human completely altered by radiation.
In the Amazon TV present Walton Goggins performs a ghoul, a human completely altered by radiation.
Amazon
In the Amazon TV present Walton Goggins performs a ghoul, a human completely altered by radiation.
Amazon
Amazon
Ghouls could be killed, however they don’t seem to ever age or die from pure causes. Some ghouls have been created within the preliminary nuclear bombardment, and have survived on the floor for over 200 years, like Walton Goggins’ character within the TV present. Some are “younger” ghouls, transitioning from human type someday after that. Ghouls could be created from new nuclear detonations, surviving whereas different people are killed by radiation poisoning. It isn’t clear why some people change into ghouls whereas others perish.
Ghouls are sometimes handled with worry and loathing by regular people, each due to their look and due to feral ghouls. At some level, some ghouls lose their sentience, changing into violent and animalistic, “going feral” and changing into Fallout’s model of unthinking zombies. Exactly how and why some ghouls go feral is explored within the TV sequence.
Super Mutants
The different main sentient species in Fallout is likely one of the few components of the lore that isn’t touched on by the TV sequence. Super Mutants are people who’ve been mutated by an experimental virus. But not like ghouls, Super Mutants change into large, hulking, green-skinned brutes. While they continue to be clever sufficient to speak and type fundamental social teams, Super Mutants are notably aggressive and dim-witted. Their violent nature makes them a menace to people and anything they arrive throughout.
Super Mutants lack the intelligence to type any form of giant group, however their large measurement, unbelievable power, and resistance to radiation imply that they’re a power to be reckoned with within the wasteland. The historical past and creation of Super Mutants is an enormous a part of the sport sequence, particularly within the unique sport, with some fascinating lore behind it. Perhaps we’ll see extra within the second season of the TV present.
Extremely wild wildlife
The floor world of Fallout is full of terrifying creatures, most of that are radiation-mutated types of current animals, however a few of that are the results of horrible experiments each earlier than and after the bombs fell. The most iconic critter, the Deathclaw, is simply briefly seen as a cranium within the TV present. It’s a big mutated chameleon that was developed with genetic engineering, escaping laboratories after the warfare and thriving on the irradiated floor.
Perhaps as a result of it was centered on conflicts between people, the TV present didn’t characteristic too lots of the sport sequence’ most notable creatures. In one scene the characters face off in opposition to a Yau Guai, a mutated black bear given a reputation by Chinese Americans held in internment camps earlier than the warfare (in a fictional mirror of the United States’ real-world internment of Japanese Americans in WWII).
In one other they face an aquatic Gulper, a big mutated salamander. We get a short take a look at a Brahmin, a two-headed species of cattle that turns into a beast of burden and staple meals within the wasteland. And at numerous factors they must take care of the surviving bugs on this planet of Fallout, all of which appear to have change into monumental and lethal as a consequence of mutation.
Thanks to over 25 years of historical past, just about each creature that gamers encounter within the Fallout video games, from scorpions to mole rats to the actual Mothman, has lots of lore behind it. Like the remainder of the sequence, you possibly can go down the rabbit gap for every of those on YouTube and fan wikis.
Ready to play?
The Fallout sport sequence is sort of 30 years previous, and all the entries are beloved by followers to a better or lesser extent. The first two video games made earlier than the sequence was acquired by Bethesda are nice, full of chunky lore…however are form of arduous to get into for some fashionable gamers.
But if you happen to’re able to make the plunge, it’s not arduous to really get your fingers on it. All of the canon video games (Fallout 1, 2, 3, and 4, plus Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 76) can be found on PC shops like GoG and Steam. Steam’s Fallout bundle is at present on sale with a 20 p.c low cost, providing you with each main RPG within the sequence, plus the DLC add-ons, the non-canon Fallout Tactics technique sport, and Fallout 4 VR.
Personally, I like to recommend beginning with Fallout 4 from 2015. While the story isn’t the best-regarded within the sequence, the mechanics will likely be acquainted to anybody who’s performed Bethesda’s extraordinarily in style Skyrim RPG, and it’s much more forgiving for contemporary gamers than any of the sooner video games. It additionally has a short prologue earlier than the warfare, one thing that different video games within the sequence (just like the much-loved New Vegas) are missing.