American Tv Series Fallout

*Fallout*
Fallout
	Promotional poster
Genre	Action; Black comedy; Drama; Post-apocalyptic; Satire; Science fiction Western;
Created by	Graham Wagner; Geneva Robertson-Dworet;
Based on	Fallout; by Bethesda Softworks
Showrunners	Graham Wagner; Geneva Robertson-Dworet;
Starring	Ella Purnell; Aaron Moten; Kyle MacLachlan; Moisés Arias; Xelia Mendes-Jones; Walton Goggins;
Composer	Ramin Djawadi
Country of origin	United States
Original language	English
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	8
Production
Executive producers	Jonathan Nolan; Lisa Joy; Geneva Robertson-Dworet; Graham Wagner; Athena Wickham; Todd Howard; James Altman; Margot Lulick; James W. Skotchdopole;
Producers	Crystal Whelan; Halle Phillips; Gursimran Sandhu;
Cinematography	Stuart Dryburgh; Teodoro Maniaci;
Editor	Ali Comperchio
Running time	45–74 minutes
Production companies	Kilter Films; Big Indie Pictures; Bethesda Game Studios; Amazon MGM Studios;
Original release
Network	Amazon Prime Video
Release	April 10, 2024 –; present

Based on the role-playing video game franchise created by Tim Cain and Leonard Boyarsky, the series stars Ella Purnell, Aaron Moten, Kyle MacLachlan, Moisés Arias, Xelia Mendes-Jones, and Walton Goggins.

Amazon purchased the rights to produce a live-action project in 2020, and the series was announced that July, with Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy's Kilter Films joined by Bethesda Game Studios in the production. Nolan directed the first three episodes. Bethesda Game Studios producer Todd Howard, who directed various games in the series, signed on to executive produce alongside Nolan and Joy. Robertson-Dworet and Wagner were hired as the series' showrunners in January 2022, and Goggins and Purnell were cast in February and March, respectively.

Fallout premiered on Prime Video on April 10, 2024. The series received generally positive reviews. Later that month the series was renewed for a second season.

Premise

The series depicts the aftermath of the Great War of 2077, an apocalyptic nuclear exchange in an alternate history of Earth where advances in nuclear technology after WWII led to the emergence of a retrofuturistic society and a subsequent resource war. Many survivors took refuge in fallout bunkers known as Vaults, unaware each Vault was designed to perform sociological and psychological experiments on the Vault Dwellers. More than 200 years later in 2296, a young woman named Lucy leaves behind her home in Vault 33 to venture out into the dangerously unforgiving wasteland of a devastated Los Angeles to look for her father, who had been kidnapped. Along the way, she meets a Brotherhood of Steel squire and a ghoul bounty hunter, each with their own mysterious pasts and agendas to settle.

Cast and characters

Main

Ella Purnell as Lucy MacLean, a young Vault Dweller
- Luciana VanDette portrays young Lucy MacLean
Aaron Moten as Maximus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel who becomes an ally to Lucy
- Amir Carr portrays young Maximus
Kyle MacLachlan as Hank MacLean, Lucy's father and the Overseer of Vault 33, who originates from Vault 31
Moisés Arias as Norm MacLean, a Vault 33 resident, and Lucy's brother
Xelia Mendes-Jones as Dane, a scribe of the Brotherhood of Steel and Maximus's closest friend
Walton Goggins as The Ghoul / Cooper Howard, a once famous Hollywood actor and Vault-Tec ambassador who mutated into a ghoul after the bombs fell and now makes a living as a gunslinger and bounty hunter

Recurring

Sarita Choudhury as Lee Moldaver, the commander of a New California Republic military division with a past connection to Hank
Leslie Uggams as Betty Pearson, a member of Vault 33's governing council, and later Overseer, who originates from Vault 31
Johnny Pemberton as Thaddeus, a squire of the Brotherhood of Steel who serves Maximus
Zach Cherry as Woody Thomas, a member of Vault 33's governing council
Annabel O'Hagan as Stephanie Harper, a pregnant resident of Vault 33 and Lucy's closest friend, who originates from Vault 31
Dave Register as Chet, Lucy's cousin and Vault 33's gatekeeper
Rodrigo Luzzi as Reg McPhee, a member of Vault 33's governing council
Leer Leary as Davey, a Vault 33 resident
Elle Vertes as Rose MacLean, a former Vault 33 resident, and Lucy and Norm's mother
Teagan Meredith as Janey Howard, Cooper's daughter in 2077
Frances Turner as Barb Howard, Cooper's wife in 2077 and a Vault-Tec executive

Guest

Michael Cristofer as Elder Cleric Quintus, Maximus's superior
Mykelti Williamson as Honcho, a bounty hunter who revives Howard
Matt Berry
- as "Mr. Handy", a General Atomics helper bot in 2077
- as "Snip Snip", one of the organ harvesters
- as Sebastian Leslie, an English actor before the apocalypse
Cameron Cowperthwaite as Monty, a raider who seduces Lucy
Mike Doyle as Bob Spencer, Howard's employer for the birthday party
Michael Emerson as Dr. Siggi Wilzig, an enigmatic wanderer who aids Lucy
Michael Rapaport as Knight Titus, whom Maximus initially serves
Dale Dickey as Ma June, a cantankerous shopkeeper in the settlement of Filly
Jon Daly as a Snake Oil Salesman, a mercantile denizen of the wasteland
Michael Abbott Jr. as a farmer living just outside Filly
Neal Huff as Roger, a ghoul and friend of Howard's until he turns feral
Michael Esper as Bud Askins / Brain-on-a-Roomba, a senior junior vice president of the Vault-Tec and the overseer of Vault 31
Matty Cardarople and Elvis Valentino Lopez as Huey and Squirrel, a pair of bumbling organ harvesters
Chris Parnell as Ben, the cyclops Overseer of Vault 4
Cherien Dabis as Birdie, a surface-born resident of Vault 4
Glenn Fleshler as Sorrel Booker, the self-titled "president" of The Wasteland who seeks to maintain order
Dallas Goldtooth as Charles Whiteknife, a pre-apocalypse actor friend of Howard's
Eric Berryman as Lloyd Hawthorne, the first overseer of Vault 4
Angel Desai as Cassandra Hawthorne, Lloyd's wife
Fred Armisen as DJ Carl, the host of an old-timey radio station
Erik Estrada as Adam, a New California Republic ranger serving under Moldaver
Michael Mulheren as Frederick Sinclair, a top Big MT executive
Rafi Silver as Robert House, a top RobCo executive
James Yaegashi as Leon Von Felden, a top West-Tek executive
Rebecca Watson as Julia Masters, a top REPCONN executive

Episodes

No.	Title	Directed by	Written by	Original release date
1	"The End"	Jonathan Nolan	Geneva Robertson-Dworet & Graham Wagner	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
In 2077, actor Cooper Howard and his daughter Janey are caught in the middle of a nuclear attack against Los Angeles. 219 years later, Vault 33 dweller Lucy MacLean volunteers for an arranged marriage with a dweller from Vault 32. After the wedding, the Vault 32 visitors are revealed to be raiders led by Lee Moldaver. Lucy's father and overseer of Vault 33, Hank MacLean, is forced to leave with them. In defiance of Vault regulations, Lucy decides to go to the surface by herself to search for her father. Meanwhile, Brotherhood of Steel aspirant Maximus is promoted to the rank of squire and joins Knight Titus in hunting for a member of the Enclave. Elsewhere, several bounty hunters locate Howard, who has been transformed by radiation into a Ghoul, and attempt to recruit him to find the same Enclave member. Instead, Howard kills them all and pursues the bounty alone.
2	"The Target"	Jonathan Nolan	Geneva Robertson-Dworet & Graham Wagner	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
In an Enclave facility, Dr. Siggi Wilzig develops a mysterious blue device before injecting it into his neck. He flees the facility with his experimental dog, CX404. In the wasteland, Lucy encounters Wilzig, who urges her to return to Vault 33. Maximus and Titus begin their search and are attacked by a mutant bear. Titus is wounded, but his mistreatment of Maximus prompts the squire to let him bleed out before taking the knight's power armor for himself. Lucy reunites with Wilzig in Filly, where he attempts to arrange safe passage to Moldaver. Seeking the bounty, Howard attacks them but is distracted by Maximus, allowing Lucy to escape with Wilzig. A wounded CX404 is left behind, but Howard heals the dog and uses him to track Wilzig. Mortally wounded, Wilzig ingests cyanide as he believes he will slow Lucy down, instructing her to deliver his head to Moldaver in exchange for Hank.
3	"The Head"	Jonathan Nolan	Geneva Robertson-Dworet & Graham Wagner	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Maximus assumes Titus's identity, and the Brotherhood sends a new squire, Thaddeus, believing Maximus dead. Lucy is attacked by a gulper which swallows Wilzig's head. Howard arrives with CX404 and uses Lucy as bait to lure out the gulper, but the chems which maintain his health are destroyed in the attempt. Leaving CX404 behind, Howard departs with Lucy as his prisoner. Maximus and Thaddeus track the head to the same location and defeat the gulper, recovering the head and taking custody of CX404. Back in Vault 33, Norm asks the council to execute several captured raiders for murder, but he is rebuffed. 219 years earlier, Howard becomes a celebrity spokesman for Vault-Tec at the encouragement of his wife, a top company executive.
4	"The Ghouls"	Daniel Gray Longino	Kieran Fitzgerald	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
In Vault 33, Norm becomes suspicious after an exchange with a captive raider. He and Chet explore Vault 32, discovering that its residents died two years prior as a consequence of infighting and that someone used his deceased mother Rose's Pip-Boy to let the raiders in. Howard disciplines Lucy (to the point of cutting off her finger when she bites off one of his) and takes her to an abandoned supermarket. He trades her to a gang of organ harvesters for replacement chems but collapses before he can use them. About to be cut open, Lucy fights back and frees the captive ghouls held by the harvesters. The feral ghouls attack her and the gang, and Lucy is forced to kill for the first time. She leaves, but not before giving Howard some chems.
5	"The Past"	Clare Kilner	Carson Mell	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Maximus confesses his true identity to Thaddeus. Disgusted, Thaddeus disables Maximus's power armor and leaves with Wilzig's head and CX404. Lucy finds Maximus and they agree to work together to retrieve the head. The pair stumble upon the ruins of Shady Sands, a once thriving post-war city, and Maximus's former home, in their pursuit. Maximus is injured by a Fiend, and while searching for medical supplies in an abandoned Vault-Tec building, the two accidentally fall into Vault 4. Back in Vault 33, council president Betty Johnson is elected as overseer. Norm hacks Vault 32's central computer and finds that Vault 31 has provided the overseers (including his father) for 32 and 33 since the day the bombs fell. Betty orders that Vault 32 be repopulated by 33 once cleared of the deceased dwellers.
6	"The Trap"	Frederick E.O. Toye	Karey Dornetto	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Lucy and Maximus are greeted by Birdie, a Shady Sands survivor, and Ben, the Vault 4 overseer. They explain that Vault 4 has opened itself to the surface, taking in many refugees from Shady Sands and the surrounding area. While Maximus slowly acclimates to the Vault, Lucy is horrified over the refugees' eccentric rituals and worship of Moldaver as "The Flame Mother". Howard wakes up to find an armed posse has arrested him for past crimes; he stalls for time to regain strength and then easily overpowers and kills them. Convinced that Vault 4 is hiding something, Lucy ventures to the forbidden level 12. She uncovers human experiments before getting caught, but it is explained to her that Vault 4 citizens fought back against these scientists and now live in peace. Pre-War, Howard becomes conflicted over the secrecy of Barb's association with Vault-Tec. He is invited to a covert meeting to discuss the conspiracy behind Vault-Tec, hosted by a younger Moldaver.
7	"The Radio"	Frederick E.O. Toye, Clare Kilner	Chaz Hawkins	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Residents of Vault 4 gather as Lucy is prepped for expulsion from the vault. Maximus leaves with her, after a brief conflict with the vault residents. Thaddeus abandons CX404 and makes contact with the Brotherhood. Lucy and Maximus eventually catch up with Thaddeus; after learning that he is turning into a ghoul, for which the Brotherhood would put him to death, Thaddeus relinquishes the head. Lucy continues her journey alone while Maximus stays behind to distract the Brotherhood. Norm secretly enters Vault 31. Meanwhile, Howard, having determined Moldaver's location, reunites with CX404. In 2077, a younger Moldaver (then named Ms. Williams) reveals that the war-profiting conglomerate behind Vault-Tec shelved her cold fusion research despite its potential to provide unlimited energy and prevent impending war. She persuades Howard that he cannot trust his wife and should record all her conversations with the company board.
8	"The Beginning"	Wayne Yip	Gursimran Sandhu	April 10, 2024 (2024-04-10)
Lucy and Norm, independently, learn the truth of the war, while Howard also reminisces about that truth. Pre-War, Howard eavesdrops on Barb and her colleague, Bud Askins, learning they are explicitly managing Vault-Tec's plans to start a nuclear war to delete its competitors – ensuring peace-by-monopoly over the vault humans. Howard also meets Vault-Tec's Betty Pearson and Hank MacLean. Norm discovers Vault 31 contains the cryogenically stored Junior executives of Vault-Tec, overseen by the cyborg brain-on-wheels of Bud, who traps Norm in Vault 31. Lucy turns the head over to Moldaver, who reveals when Hank is from, that Rose left the vault with infants Lucy and Norm, that Hank found her and took the kids back, and that Hank nuclear bombed Shady Sands, turning Rose into a feral ghoul. Maximus is forgiven by the Brotherhood, joining the upcoming battle against Moldaver's forces. Lucy convinces Hank to give Moldaver the code activating her fusion reactor. Maximus makes his way to Lucy and frees her father. Hank is driven off by Howard after Lucy disowns him for his actions. Howard, believing his family might still be alive, offers to guide Lucy east to find him; she takes him up on his offer. Maximus witnesses Moldaver activating the fusion reactor, powering the city just before she dies from her wounds. The victorious Brotherhood forces assume that Maximus is responsible for Moldaver's death and acclaim him as Knight Maximus.

Production

Development

Bethesda had been approached multiple times about a television adaptation of the Fallout video games since the developer released Fallout 3 in 2008, according to Bethesda's Todd Howard, though he felt none of the suggestions met the vision of the Fallout series. Bethesda's marketing executive Pete Hines had also cautioned the company in 2015 on the potential impact of a poor adaptation of their video games, saying "There's way more things that can go wrong than can go right with this" since the adaptation's director may override the vision of the series. Hines pointed to the example of the 2005 Doom film as an example of a bad adaptation.

The situation changed when Jonathan Nolan approached Bethesda with his idea of a Fallout television series, having been an avid player of the game series. Howard, having seen what Nolan had created with the Westworld series, found that Nolan had a clear vision for the adaptation, and agreed this approach was a good way to bring the game series to the television screen. Bethesda gave Nolan freedom to craft a story as long as it remained true to the Fallout universe but served as its own unique story within the game series and not translate one of the existing games to television.

The television adaptation was formally announced in July 2020 under Amazon Studios (later renamed Amazon MGM Studios) with Nolan and Lisa Joy developing the work. Joy described the series as "a gonzo, crazy, funny, adventure, and mindfuck like none you've ever seen before".

In January 2022, Geneva Robertson-Dworet and Graham Wagner were hired as showrunners for the series, with Nolan set to direct the pilot episode.

The series is canon with the games. Howard wanted an original story, instead of an adaptation of the games, but the series continues game storylines and factions, such as the Brotherhood of Steel. The series' 2296 setting is the furthest in the future that the Fallout franchise has occurred. On April 18, 2024, Amazon Prime Video renewed the series for a second season.

Casting

In February 2022, Walton Goggins was cast in a lead role as a Cooper Howard, a Hollywood actor who became a Ghoul after the bombs fell. In March 2022, Ella Purnell joined the cast. In June 2022, Kyle MacLachlan, Xelia Mendes-Jones and Aaron Moten joined as regulars.

In October 2023, additional casting including Sarita Choudhury, Michael Emerson, Leslie Uggams and Zach Cherry was announced.

Filming

Filming began on July 5, 2022, in New Jersey, New York and Utah. Additional filming took place in Namibia on the Skeleton Coast, including the wreck of the Eduard Bohlen and Kolmanskop, an abandoned mining town in the region. Nolan directed the first three episodes of the series, with Stuart Dryburgh and Teodoro Maniaci serving as cinematographers.

Primary filming of the second season will occur in Los Angeles to take advantage of a $25 million tax incentive offered by the state.

Music

In January 2024, it was revealed that Ramin Djawadi had composed a score inspired by the works of Inon Zur's Fallout series compositions. Fallout also features a licensed soundtrack like the video game series.

The television series' first soundtrack was released by Amazon on April 8, 2024.

Release

Fallout was scheduled to premiere on Amazon Prime Video on April 12, 2024, but this date was later moved forward to be released on April 10, 2024, at 6 PM Pacific Time (GMT-8:00).

Reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 93% approval rating based on 107 critic reviews, with an average rating of 7.9/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "An adaptation that feels like a true extension of the games, Fallout is a post-apocalyptic blast for newcomers and longtime fans alike." Metacritic assigned a score of 73 out of 100 based on 32 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Kristen Baldwin of Entertainment Weekly gave the series a B+ and said, "The eight-episode season exists in a vivid and captivating universe that will be familiar to gamers—though knowledge of the franchise isn't required to enjoy its darkly comic dystopian pleasures." Reviewing the series for the San Francisco Chronicle, Zaki Hasan gave a rating of 3/4 and wrote, "With a raft of unfolding mysteries, protagonists we care about and a quest we want to see through to the end, Fallout is well situated to grow the loyal fan base that has kept the video game franchise going for 27 years."