The Fallout series is violent, funny, and gives an apocalypse, a utopia, and a sinister high tech world! Fallout is a long running roleplaying video game stating with the first game in 1997. It was created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky. Fallout is from Betheseda Game Studios. The series creators are Graham Wagner and Geneva Robertson-Dworet. Wagner was the executive producer of the comedy, Portlandia. Robertson-Dworet is the writer of Tomb Raider (2018), one of my favorite video game adaptations. The premiere and two other episodes are directed by Jonathan Nolan who also created Westworld. We open on a black and white monitor. Some Nat King Cole plays as we see a lasso thrown beside trees.
This moves to the cowboy Cooper Howad (Walter Goggins) in blue shirt with the lasso looping around himself. Cecil was voiced by Goggins in the comic book animated series, Invincible. He smiles on his white horse as he goes through his rope tricks. This is in front of an audience of families at a swimming pool. A very homey and 50’s scene though actually a retro future of 2077. A radio report of the missing president is turned off by a mother, Mrs. Spencer (Janie Brookshire) with a birthday cake. Another black and white television showing news of nuclear war is also snapped off by Mrs. Spencer. We see the skyline of Los Angeles with a few new buildings. Interesting setting. Finished with his show to applause, Cooper goes to place the birthday boy, Roy Spencer (Mason Cufari) on his horse, Sugarfoot. The happiest audience member is Cooper’s daughter, Janey (Teagan Meredith), in the same cowboy outfit.
The father, Bob Spencer (Mike Doyle), takes the picture and then another with his wife. He refuses to give his signature thumbs up with the current situation. Mrs. Spencer gives him a card and Cooper takes away his horse with his daughter. Roy takes his birthday cake and turns on the television. Outside, Janey watches from the door, she is joined by her father. He explains that in the Marines that the thumbs up was a way to check a mushroom cloud. If it is smaller than you run otherwise there is no use to running. The little girl is too adorable! She asks if she could have a piece of the birthday cake. The camera flash and the overexposure of the sunlight outside seems to hint at the explosion. A massive flash and Janey holds up her thumb. Cooper brings her the cake and she panics. He looks up, the music is eerie as we see the birthday party frozen behind them, the city reflected in the glass door.
Cooper says it is smoke. The explosion begins to bloom from the city. It starts to form into a mushroom cloud, the party is watching the tv, and then the shock wave hits.The glass shatters and Cooper takes away his daughter. Eveyone starts to run a shelter is opened at the side of the house. Cooper sets Janey on Sugarfoot as the others scramble, the cloud starts to build, heading towards them! They gallop away, on the curving road, the nuclear explosion is seen joined by others. It goes silent and then we get “219 Years Later.” Next, we get a happy introduction by Lucy MacLean (Ella Purnell), the actress voiced Gwyn in Star Trek: Prodigy. She wears a blue uniform with a gold stripe. Lucy notes her repair skills and science skills also noting her father, Hank MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan). He is of course known for playing Paul Artreides in Dune (1984). She teaches American history and also practices gymnastics, fencing, and riflery. The target is the smiling face of the mascot, Vault Boy.
She spends time with her father, walking, which is really pedal machines, they pedal while watching television. It looks like Cooper Howard. At the dinner table, her brother, Norm (Moisés Arias) is too busy with his game on his wrist device, the Pip-Boy. Arias starred in the sci fi film, Divinity (2023). She mentions her “reproductive organs” are intact, funny!, shuffling through her note cards for her interview with three person panel. They are Betty Pearson (Leslie Uggams), Woody Thomas (Zach Cherry), and Reg McPhee (Rodrigo Luzzi). She is submitting to the Triennial Trade with Vault 32. The council starts to work on their Pip-Boys. Lucy checks her Pip-Boy and there is a Vault Boy giving the thumbs up. She smiles and then we get the title, “Lucy.” Lucy’s friend, Stephanie Harper (Annabel O’Hagan) helps her prepare for her wedding while the rest of her family is busy setting up tables. Lucy signs her wedding dress passed down through the years.
Lucy says she had ten years of “cousin stuff”, the comedy is great for this show. Stephanie says she is excited for their kids to be raised together which gives Lucy pause. She joins Stephanie to look out to the tables, fields, and mountains. Her father waves to her. Then, we see a projector, a Telesonic Magic of 3D, showing the scene. Below it are the levels of Vault 33. Lucy goes to hug her father who tells her he never stepped outside of Vault 31. We see a flashback of Hank meeting his wife, Rose (Elle Vertes). Betty gets the attention of the Overseer. They walk through fields until reaching a door. An industrial tunnel is illuminated, Norm wonders about her husband, the door opens to reveal the Vault door of 32. Overseer Hank has the Gatekeeper Chet open the door, she checks on him, and he says he loves her. She says that “messing around” with her cousin is not sustainable. Funny!, they must not know about Game of Thrones.
He activates the door which is massive and Overseer Hank introduces himself. The Vault 32 Overseer, Lee Moldaver (Sarita Choudhury) introduces herself in turn. He mentions that Overseer Jackson had died, the message delivered by telegram!, and Lee tells him that the marriage will help them through the loss of their wheat crops. The exchange is for a breeder whom Lucy wants to know who she is marrying. He steps from the door and says his name is Monty (Cameron Cowperthwait). Stephanie whispers, “Lucky.” They are wed, kiss, and the celebration is at the tables in the field. The people of Vault 32 are a bit rougher than the caught-in-the-50’s Vault Dwellers. For some reason, Monty doesn’t seem interested in Lucy, a poor breeder. Overseer Hank makes an announcement that the next generation will be ready to face the outside world with the drop in radiation.
Hank says they don’t know what to expect, it could be violent, this is why they are preserving civilized ways. They start the dance with the projector showing an evening sky. Hank dances with his daughter and then Monty dances with Lucy. Chet looks heartbroken. Then, we get the music outside in the corridor, kinda sinister. Monty wants to go to his new home. There is a strange look with Overseer Lee. A betrayal? He closes the door. Then, takes off his clothes. She says, “Okey dokey” and runs into his arms. They kiss and then go to the kitchen table. Norm walks into the opened Vault 32 and finds the crops are withered. Monty leaves the bed. Norm sees the rest of the Vault is a wreck. The people are not from Vault 32? He enters a nursery room and finds a corpse in a chair! Hank fills a pitcher of water and gulps it down as a scream is heard. An invasion! She takes out her Pip-Boy and finds that Monty is radioactive, from the surface!
Monty slams her around, Lucy is able to fight, but he tosses her across the room! He takes out a knife and tells her it was the best day of his life. They struggle, Lucy takes the knife and cuts him, then we find that Monty has stabbed Lucy in the side! Alarms sound and Lucy shatters a glass pitcher on his head, then uses the shards to slice Monty! She goes to the bathroom to inject herself with a stimpak. Lucy walks out, a man is pinned to the wall, and she goes to the armory. She arms herself and kills an invader with the 10mm pistol. Lucy finds the wedding party is something out of Mad Max. Violence in a small town, in this case vault, makes me think of Truman Capote's novel In Cold Blood (1966). Norm sneaks past the killing. Councilman Woody finds more killing. The Vault 33 people are not prepared, little defenses. Lucy gets involved in the fighting, the projector is destroyed, Stephanie is lying with the body of her husband. She starts to scream and uses a rifle to gun down invaders even with a fork jammed in her eye!
Norm hides under a table until a woman invader drags him out. She holds up a knife, but is shot by Lucy! She takes Norm to a shelter and then confronted by Monty with jagged, bloody mouth and he chokes her! Her father strikes him with a shovel and then begins bashing him again. The armed bride reminds me of the horror movie, Ready or Not (2019). Hank shoves Monty’s head into a water barrel until he stops struggling. They start to run and Hank stops to see the survivors including Stephanie held prisoner. He sees Lee and says he knows her identity. Lee gives him a Sophie’s Choice of choosing the death of the survivors or his daughter. He takes Lucy to a sealed door and tells her, “You are my world.” Hank is shot and Lee tells Lucy that she looks like her mother. Intriguing a connection with the mysterious mother who is also taken away? Then, Lee says he is being taken to the real world. Lee tells the others that they should “run and hide” activating a bomb. It explodes and we fade to black.
Next, we get military recruit, Maximus (Aaron Moten), beaten by other soldiers on the surface. Moten starred in the historical action movie, Emancipation (2022). His friend, Dane (Xelia Mendes-Jones) helps him up. The flag of the Brotherhood of Steel is pulled up a flagpole. It is a sword around gears with red and white stripes. The recruits run into the camp. In a hangar, they attend a class about the Brotherhood of Steel where the recruits are told the purpose is to “secure the Wasteland.” Cleric Felix (Jacinto Taras Riddick) says they will be eventually be squires helping knights to find prewar tech. He calls on Aspirant Maximus to identify some tech, he says it is a rotor, and gets smacked in the face with a long ruler! They turn to see looming in the sky, a gigantic Prydwen ship dispatches rotary aircraft. Several T-60 power armors walk from the aircraft. This feels like a variation on Robert Heinlein’s Starship Troopers. Maximus works at digging latrines when Dane calls him over.
They see the power armor in a hangar. Maximus reaches out to touch one and we see a flashback of the young Maximus (Amir Carr) saluting a power armor. Aspirant Dane is brought by Officer Shortsight (Brendan Burke). Maximus is wakened in his bunk by cheering. He finds Dane is chosen to be a squire. Dane is taking away by a crowd cheering his name. At night, Dane screams in frustration at his work. The next morning, Dane is screaming, Maximus goes to see him, and Dane pulls out a bloody stump of a foot! Officer Shortsight finds a razor blade in Dane’s boot. Maximus is led by Officer Shortsight with a hood over his head! We return to Vault 33 where the blood is covered over with white paint. Bodies are dragged away to a room labeled Compost! Lucy staples the wound at her side. She slips on her uniform. At the field, Lucy stands up to make a proposal to send a search party for her father. Reg is stunned that she would open the outer vault door. Betty says the priority is security. Lucy’s quest to find her father will bring in Maximus and the mysterious bounty hunter, The Ghoul (Goggins). Fallout is a great look at a post apocalypse from an idyllic small town wrecked with violence, to sci fi power armor, and the harsh Western inhabited by these survivors!
Five Pip-Boys out of Five!
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