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Fallout (2024) - Prime Video Show

Jonathan Nolan (June 6, 1976) is the director/showrunner of the 2024 Prime original show Fallout. The series is based on the popular video game franchise created by Tim Cain. Nolan is known for co-creating the series Westworld, which examines themes of consciousness and identity, and Person of Interest, known for its exploration of artificial intelligence and surveillance. He is also known for co-writing several films with his brother, Christopher Nolan, including The Dark Knight and The Dark Knight Rises. His adaptation of Fallout showcases post-apocalyptic narratives, and his signature storytelling blends with the game’s iconic universe.

Summary

Fallout opens with huge nuclear bombs hitting Los Angeles, ending the world. It then jumps 219 years into the future, focusing on Lucy Maclean, who lives in Vault 33, a bunker built by Vault-Tec to house communities that could survive a nuclear war. She is supposed to marry someone from Vault 32, but he turns out to be a raider from the surface who has infiltrated Vaults 32 and 33, killing multiple people and kidnapping Hank MacLean, the overseer of Vault 33 and Lucy’s father. Determined to rescue her father, Lucy sets out to find Moldaver, the leader of the raiders. Meanwhile, we are introduced to Maximus, a recruit for the Brotherhood of Steel, a military organization dedicated to obtaining technology and keeping it from the general public. His first mission is to find a fugitive scientist who injected cold fusion technology into his neck and escaped.

Lucy’s search takes her to Filly, a post-apocalyptic town built in a landfill, where she finds her father's Pip-Boy, a wrist device used in the vaults for accessing information, but is turned away when asking about Moldaver. She meets the fugitive scientist, who is being smuggled out of town. However, a bounty hunter is also after him. The bounty hunter has absorbed so much radiation that he has become a ghoul, halting his aging process. After a shoot-out, Maximus saves Lucy, who then takes the scientist's head to find Moldaver. A flashback scene reveals that The Ghoul is Cooper Howard, a famous movie star from before the apocalypse whose wife worked for Vault-Tec.

Back in Vault 33, her brother Norm and their cousin investigate Vault 32. They discover that everyone had been dead long before the raiders arrived. Norm realizes that overseers have only ever been elected from Vault 31. Lucy takes the head to Moldaver’s base, a surprisingly happy settlement with many civilians. Moldaver reveals the truth about Lucy's father. Norm makes it into Vault 31, which appears empty, but encounters the overseer, a brain attached to a movable machine. This is the brain of a Vault-Tec executive, Bud, who wanted a vault where Vault-Tec managers would always be in charge, so they were frozen and defrosted one by one to become the new overseers of the vaults. This is where Hank MacLean came from. Moldaver tells Lucy that her mother discovered the surface was habitable and brought Lucy and Norm to live there, but their father killed their mother and brought them back to the vault. He was also responsible for bombing Shady Sands, a promising and thriving community and the capital of the New California Republic. Vault-Tec and other companies were the ones who dropped the bombs, as part of a pre-war conspiracy involving political and corporate interests. The cold fusion had enough power for entire cities, and Moldaver intended to use it for the people, but she dies, and the Brotherhood of Steel takes over. The show ends with Lucy and Cooper traveling together, searching for Hank as he approaches what appears to be a different city.

Analysis

Fallout shows how control, power, and greed push the use of nuclear energy. In revealing that Vault Tec and other corporations were the ones behind the nuclear attacks, to create use for the vaults, it highlights the dangers of corporate power and greed in capitalistic societies. By framing corrupt and manipulative corporations as the actual villains, it makes the audience think about the alternate forces that may be driving the use of nuclear energy. This serves as a reminder that technological advances can be used for personal gain rather than the well-being and benefit of humanity and the environment.

As seen in Fallout, the city of Shady Sands was a thriving civilization after the apocalypse but was destroyed when Hank’s wife left for the surface. With Hank being a member of the Vault-Tec corporation, he did not want others to know about civilizations on the surface. Hanks's desire for Vault-Tec to maintain power and use destruction to further their control pushed the use of nuclear energy to destroy Shady Sands. The destruction of Shady Sands was detrimental to its citizens and development, showing how power and greed lead to nuclear energy being used for personal gain instead of the betterment of humanity.

The theme of power and control is also seen in the Brotherhood of Steel's obsession with hoarding pre-war technology and gaining power. By contrast, Moldaver's plan of power and control of technology is meant for the better livelihood of everyone. This highlights how technological advances can be used ethically in a beneficial way when it’s not misappropriated.

The 1950s aesthetic of the show reflects the time of when there was widespread fear of nuclear weapons. The retrofuturistic aesthetic is meant to be satirical as the 1950s era was marked by the height of the Cold War, consumerism, and a nuclear arms race, making it ripe for critique. Setting the story in a world where the 1950s never ended satirizes the absurdity and dangers of capitalism, as seen in the actions of companies like Vault-Tec, which manufactured the apocalypse for profit. This emphasizes the good and evil in nuclear power, contrasting the 1950s optimistic view of nuclear energy and the consequences of its misuse.

By using nuclear power as its main focus, Fallout blurs the line between heroes and villains. The series flips the script by showing that the “good guys," like Vault-Tec, are actually the ones causing the destruction. It reveals how those in power act in ways to support their own selfish motives. For example, Hank might look like he’s protecting and helping the civilization in Vault 33, but he’s really driven by greed and a hunger for control. On the other hand, characters like Cooper, who is a ghoul with a deteriorating body, is a victim of Vault-Tec and acts in cruel ways as a way to survive and get his family back has real moral strength and the potential for true heroism. This complex portrayal of heroes and villains makes the audience question what power really means, how technology should be used, and what it truly means to be a hero. Fallout challenges the audience to look beyond simple ideas of good and evil and to think about the deeper motivations and consequences of actions in a world where technology is advanced, but morality is not always clear-cut.

Conclusion

Fallout emphasizes the importance of ethical and moral responsibilities when dealing with nuclear energy and technological advances in general. By illustrating how corruption and greed can lead to detrimental effects on humanity, the show pushes the audience to think about the lengths to which we use nuclear energy. This is especially resonant when we think about real-world events such as the Chornobyl disaster or the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which remind us of the massive impact of nuclear technology when it’s used irresponsibly. Through the retrofuturism aesthetic, it depicts a 1950s vision of the future that’s both idealized and dystopian to highlight the contrast between past promises of technological progress and the harsh realities of a post-apocalyptic world that come with it. It pushes us to not only consider the immediate impacts of nuclear technology but also the long-term effects on society. Considering the effects, benefits, and motives for the use of nuclear energy is crucial to ensure that the well-being of society is a priority.

Bibliography

“'Fallout' Is a Different Nolan Approach to Nuclear War.” The Ringer, 11 April 2024, https://www.theringer.com/tv/2024/4/11/24126746/fallout-show-review-amazon-prime-jonathan-nolan-ella-purnell. Accessed 28 July 2024.
Morrison, Sean, et al. “Why Does The World Of Fallout Look Like It's Stuck In The '50s?” Screen Rant, 22 April 2024, https://screenrant.com/fallout-world-1950s-setting-future-explained/. Accessed 31 July 2024.
Wagner, Graham, creator. Fallout. Kilter Films, 2024.

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