Directed by: Jonathan Nolan, Clare Kilner, Frederick E.O. Toye, Daniel Gray Longino, Wayne Yip
Distributed by: Prime Video
Written by Jeff Sparks
85/100
Live-action video game adaptations are notorious for turning out poorly. When these projects aren’t simply bad they fail in other areas. The “Halo” TV series from Paramount for example displeased its fans by being wildly different from the games. On the other hand, “The Last of Us” didn’t justify its existence for me personally because I didn’t care to watch the same story I had already experienced lazily copy and pasted to milk views from a new audience. When it didn’t look like any major game would have a worthwhile adaptation, creators Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet have given us an exceptional series for “Fallout.” Following multiple characters, the show takes place 200 years after a nuclear holocaust turned the world into a treacherous wasteland. The story centers on an adventurous vault dweller, a ghoul haunted by his past, and a disillusioned member of the Brotherhood of Steel. Throughout their adventures, our characters encounter mysterious strangers, deadly monsters, killer robots, crazy cults, century-old conspiracies, and much more.
Our central character is Ellie (Ella Purnell,) a vault dweller who ventures into the dangerous world above when her father (Kyle MacLachlan) is kidnapped by a notorious gang leader (Sarita Choudhury). As the wide-eyed vault dweller, Ellie represents the player character from all the games. Just as the player would, she discovers the realities of the wasteland one step at a time. Like in many of the games, the first threat she encounters on the outside is the creepy yet insubstantial radroach. After meeting a few shady strangers and braving her way through a couple of treacherous encounters it isn’t until her run-in with feral ghouls in the fourth episode that she loses a bit of her innocence that transforms her from the naive vault dweller into a wastelander. Though she has now been forced to kill, Ellie still prides herself on making her own decisions and picking her own path, similar to the freedom that the games give to the player. Along the way, she bumps into Maximus (Aaron Moten) a low-ranking member of the Brotherhood of Steel who finds himself losing faith in his comrades. After being rescued by them as a child, Max felt it was his purpose to do good within the group. But since joining he’s been relegated to doing chores at a base. When he’s finally able to go out into the field his newfound friendship with Ellie contradicts the selfish actions of his fellow soldiers who he begins to see for who they are. Putting a mainstay faction like the Brotherhood in the show was a no-brainer but the role they play isn’t just cosmetic. Max’s shattered view of them showcases that in the world of “Fallout,” there are no good guys and there are no bad guys. Characterizations pertaining to right and wrong all come down to individual perspective.
The most integral storyline to the “Fallout” franchise is that of Walton Goggin’s Cooper Howard. Before the bombs fell he was a western movie star who paid close attention to the morals of his characters depicted on-screen. Always wanting to be the good guy, Howard reflected his character’s forgiving nature in real life, consistently hoping to find the good in people. Hundreds of years later, the now pessimistic Howard still roams the world as a ghoul. No longer acting as a sheriff or a cowboy, but living as a gunslinger. Throughout its runtime, the show frequently travels back in time to Howard’s life before the war. In the flashbacks, we see sunny California as it was for millions of people before it was destroyed along with the rest of the world. Luxury homes, stylish cars, colorful landscapes, and bustling movie sets, all are things he sees rendered useless in a world that he would eventually forget. In the 200 years between the two timelines, Howard’s morals decayed like the remains of the decimated world around him. Whether that was quick or slow is left ambiguous. Not only does his storyline show us glimpses of the universe before the war, but it also comes with staggering reveals when he uncovers the origins of the wasteland.
Consisting of 8 episodes, “Fallout” is packed to the brim with aspects to appreciate. Mainly though, is just how faithful it is to its source material. The writers and directors visualize the universe and its lore down to every little detail. The costumes, the weapons, the set design, the factions, everything is accurate to the games with an abundance of easter eggs like bobbleheads placed throughout the frames for the longtime fans to recognize as well. Additionally, locations appear accurate whether that be general shanty towns or the iconic Red Rocket gas stations. Even the game’s signature German Shepherds play a role. Inconsequential details are represented as well, such as how the door rotates when the vault is opened. Even the way items work in the games is on the mark. In the first episode, Ellie takes a stab wound in the gut. In any other show, this would be her dramatic death scene but here she simply grabs a stimpak and heals herself like the player character would in the games. Smaller details are present as well, such as the labels of medicinal items like Rad-Away being the same even though they’re scarcely used. Even signs on billboards in the background advertise familiar brands. Not everything is ripped straight from the games, however, as the series does add some of its own lore to unanswered questions. One such answer reveals that ghouls have to consistently take medicine to stop themselves from becoming feral.
The hoky style of dark comedy is gracefully nailed in the series. Filled with cameos, the show constantly produces laughs even in the bleakest of moments, oftentimes with its absurdly over-the-top violence. Thankfully, Amazon allowed their creators to realize the ever-present brutality in the world of “Fallout.” One of the dangers that present this violence is the radiated monsters that were transformed when the bombs were dropped. A scorpion may have posed little threat before the Great War, but now stands the size of a car in the wasteland. Though the games contain dozens of creatures, this first live-action season sports only four. Despite convincing CGI recreations, the lack of variety in the enemy types lessens not only the danger of the world but the wackiness as well. Instead, the human adversaries do the heavy lifting to establish the hazards of the wasteland. Besides a few peculiar citizens, our characters also come into contact with raiders, the Enclave, the NCR, organ harvesters, cannibals, and peculiar vault dwellers.
It wouldn’t be a Fallout adaptation without a few Vault-Tec secrets uncovered. As mentioned before, the show fills in some blanks on previously unestablished lore. The most monumental example of this comes in the final episode when the show provides answers to the biggest mystery in the franchise: who dropped the bombs? The games always held that answer close to their chest but the show cracks the egg wide open. Through a flashback, we witness a Vault-Tec meeting where the corporation decides to ensure their vaults serve a purpose by starting the long-awaited nuclear war themselves. Previously the most destructive weapon in the franchise was the atomic bomb but according to the Vault-Tec corpos, there’s one exterminator that catches up to us all: time. By killing billions by setting the world ablaze and allowing the wasteland to finish off the rest, Vault-Tec planned to hide underground until the planet was rid of all other inhabitants as there could be no further destruction or danger if there was no one else left. For some fans, this revelation will be a cardinal sin but for me, I found it compelling and appropriate based on what we know about Vault-Tec’s previous misconduct regarding the experiments they conducted on their customers.
Much of this info is revealed by Sarita Choudhury’s Lee Moldaver who is revealed to be a high-ranking member of the New California Republic. Being the one who uncovers the true motivations of Vault-Tec, she is one of the most important characters in all of “Fallout”, yet she receives the least amount of attention in the writing room. As shown in flashbacks, Goggins ghoul had met her before the Great War when he was movie star Cooper Howard and she was scientist Miss Williams. After he begins to lose faith in Vault-Tec, it’s her that encourages him to dig deeper into their operation. Hundreds of years later he searches for her in the last couple of episodes after finding out that she’s still alive. Upon arriving at her location during the shootout at the observatory he doesn’t even end up speaking to her before her death. Furthermore, the show never explains how she is still alive yet hasn’t aged a day. Nor does it offer insight into what she’s been up to for the past two hundred years or why she and Howard didn’t reunite after his discoveries about Vault-Tec. These aren’t necessarily plot holes as you can fill in the blanks yourself but that doesn’t make for good writing, especially when the final episode plays out like a setup for season two. Perhaps the creators are saving the rest of her backstory for the next season, but for now, the lack of vision for Sarita’s character is the largest glaring issue in “Fallout” that keeps it from being truly great.
As someone who has experienced multiple “Fallout” games, it’s incredibly special to see this one-of-a-kind world brought to life on the silver screen. I could sit here and nitpick but it wouldn’t be fair to do that because the attention to detail is beyond what I ever expected to see in this adaptation. The entire team behind the show deserves to be commended for somehow perfecting this world that can only be described as retro-futuristic-post-apocalyptic. It isn’t just the authenticity to the source material but the engaging story that entertains while pushing the franchise into new territory that alters the way we look back on each installment. Without a dull moment, each hour-long episode flies by as our characters explore the wasteland. If the first seven hadn’t convinced me, it was how the show incorporated the main theme of the perpetual nature of war into the finale. By the time the credits rolled many of our characters have new perceptions on the world they live in. For Ellie and Max, it’s the sense of disillusionment that has washed over them. But for Howard and Moldaver, it’s the realization that no matter how much time passes war never changes. With two impactful uses of that signature line, it’s apparent that this show was made with the intention of giving viewers a new way to experience this universe while staying true to its roots. Unlike most video game adaptations not only is “Fallout” good, it gets it right.
“Fallout” Trailer
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