What would happen if total nuclear annihilation stared you in the face? As bombs start dropping from the sky and hitting civilization as we know it, would your first instinct be to run and find shelter or accept your fate whatever it may be? Those are pretty valid things to consider, as well as what would happen to the surviving remnants of civilization years later as they picked up the pieces and started rebuilding society amidst a world forever changed by nuclear destruction and Armageddon.
All those questions and a whole lot more are answered in “Fallout” – the newest television series premiering on Prime Video this month that is based on the popular video game series by Bethesda Softworks and sees the aftermath of an apocalyptic nuclear war depicted in an alternate history of Earth – where humanity and civilization living with 1950’s aesthetics and retrofuturistic technology has crumbled due to nuclear attack leading to society’s collapse. As a result, the world above has been reduced to a wasteland while pockets of the privileged have holed up and lived in fallout bunkers known as Vaults. Over 200 years later, one Vault dweller leaves her home of Vault 33 to venture outside what used to be Los Angeles, on a mission to find her missing father while also learning what it takes to survive and adapt in this harsh new world filled with all kinds of survivors and mutations brought about by humanity’s folly.
Ever since I heard that a Fallout show was being made, I was a bit hesitant and skeptical on how it was going to turn out given the track record of how certain live-action adaptations of video game properties have turned out. It’s gotten better in recent years to be fair, as some studios have approached the people behind the games to be involved in the project – such as HBO successfully adapting Naughty Dog and PlayStation’s seminal action-adventure series The Last of Us and turning it into a critically acclaimed post-apocalyptic drama that has earned awards and accolades and has a second season on the way. With Fallout, we thankfully got Amazon to purchase the rights to produce a live-action series – and they didn’t scrimp on things at all as they signed in Jonathan Nolan and his wife Lisa Joy’s Kilter Films as a producers and got Bethesda Game Studios and its leader Todd Howard to personally oversee production. That along with getting Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet as showrunners sealed the deal, and once this trailer was released fans were reassured the series was in safe hands.
Premiering on Prime Video this month starting April 11, Fallout has a pretty solid cast of talents playing the main characters who we will follow in this eight episode first season. Ella Purnell leads the cast as the naïve yet headstrong vault dweller Lucy MacLean – who leaves her home of Vault 33 to venture outside the wastelands to search for her kidnapped father. Aaron Moten plays Maximus – a squire and member raised by the Brotherhood of Steel who hopes to prove himself and earn his own T-60 power suit armor. And finally have Walton Goggins who plays the role of Cooper Howard aka The Ghoul – a man whose story began just as the bombs started falling and literally left him changed inside and out forever. These along with other guest stars that include veteran actors like Michael Emerson, Michael Cristofer, and Dale Dickey make this one of the most epic shows produced and made, and that comes as no surprise because Jonathan Nolan and his wife also worked on the Westworld television series.
Thanks to Vero Philippines and Prime Video PH, I got to see the first two episodes of Fallout in a special premiere screening this past April 8 held at Shangri-La Plaza cinemas. Together with friends, the press, media, and even fans of the games like myself, we were treated to an experience unlike anything we could have imagined. Once the first episode began we were treated to that pre-war 1950’s aesthetic and technology before the bombs fell, as well as seeing the vaults and their dwellers suited up in their jumpsuits while familiar 1930-1950’s music by the likes of The Ink Spots played out in the background. The production values were literally straight out of the Bethesda Fallout games like Fallout 3 and Fallout 4, and it was even more so when we started to see the rest of the post-apocalyptic world with the raiders, remnants of civilization, mutated creatures, and the bulky armored soldiers of the Brotherhood of Steel. It was clearly done by people who loved the games and wanted to be faithful to the source material, and just by seeing the first two episodes alone I can already tell you confidently that this show is undoubtedly the next video game TV series adaptation that will blow you away.
Once I finished watching and got out of the screening, I couldn’t help but geek out and share my thoughts and compare notes with my fellow viewers at the event – which even included Prince De Guzman showing off his amazing cosplay skills by suiting up as The Ghoul. Each main character in this live-action series adaptation represent what can conceivably be a representation of what the player experiences when they play a modern Fallout game. Lucy is undeniably the typical Vault Dweller that we control from the start that embarks on a quest outside of her comfort zone to save someone she loves in a strange and very changed world she us unfamiliar with. Maximus is the aspirant soldier who represents the player’s desire to level up and move up the ranks while facing all kinds of risks and dangers to get to what he perceives as his ideal purpose in life. The Ghoul is the cool mutant character who is a veteran and expert in dealing with dangerous situations, so much so that the fight scenes are actually reminiscent of using the VATS system in the game targeting extremities of enemies you encounter. All of these qualities plus damn good storytelling and pacing make this a show you must absolutely see, and even if you never played the Fallout games this will make you want to once all is said and done.
From seeing Vault Boy posters to Nuka-Cola machines, as well as bottle caps and familiar creatures that would make fanboys cry with pride, Fallout on Prime is an absolute gorgeous spectacle that needs to be seen. The entire first season is now streaming on Prime Video!