Why Fallout Is Blowing Everyone Away
From life-long fans to franchise newbies, it seems everyone is asking one thing: Is Amazon's new "Fallout" series proof we're living in a golden age of video game adaptations?
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00:00From lifelong fans to franchise newbies, it seems everyone is asking one thing.
00:05Is Amazon's new Fallout series proof we're living in a golden age of video game adaptations?
00:11Fallout has endured an uphill battle to attract new viewers beyond fans of the game,
00:16largely because there's been no shortage of post-apocalyptic stories for quite some time now.
00:20Even before The Walking Dead dominated the airwaves, post-apocalyptic fiction was
00:24extremely popular. But since then, we've been deluged with zombies,
00:28nukes, asteroids, climate change, and more. By now,
00:32it seems like we've all seen just about every doomsday that could possibly happen.
00:37Oh, baby!
00:39Nevertheless, Fallout breathes fresh air into the doomsday genre, particularly for viewers who
00:44aren't well-acquainted with the franchise's history. The world of Fallout is more than
00:48just a post-apocalyptic wasteland. It's an alternate branch in our own history that
00:52imagines what the world would look like if the best and worst of the future envisioned
00:56by 1950s America came to pass. The franchise's iconic atomic punk aesthetic shows up in
01:02everything from building architecture to weapon designs, and it plays an integral
01:06role in the plot of the show, too. Gamers have been in love with the fascinating world of Fallout
01:11for nearly 30 years, and the show brings that look to life in a way that is both hugely exciting
01:16and faithful to the series. Fallout knows exactly when to borrow iconic imagery and pieces of lore
01:21from the games, too, helping to flesh out a world that feels more lived-in and realistic
01:26than other grittier apocalyptic series, and a heck of a lot more fun, too.
01:30When the Fallout series began in the late 1990s, it gathered a small following of dedicated fans,
01:36but was still relatively niche in the gaming world. The PC gaming market was smaller back
01:40then, and Fallout was a top-down role-playing game that didn't necessarily attract a wide audience.
01:46Still, the franchise continued to grow with Fallout 2, while Fallout Tactics' Brotherhood
01:50of Steel brought fans of strategy games to the franchise in 2001. In the mid-2000s,
01:55developer Bethesda Softworks was hard at work on Fallout 3, which was to reinvent the mechanics
02:00of the franchise. At the time, Bethesda decided to buy the rights to the entire series from Interplay
02:05for $5.75 million. Bethesda was well-established thanks to its popular Elder Scrolls series,
02:11and it envisioned a bright future for Fallout. That investment has paid off more than Bethesda
02:16ever could have imagined. Fallout 3, Fallout 4, and Fallout Shelter are counted among Bethesda's
02:22best-selling games of all time. Fallout 3 and Fallout 4 have each sold over 12 million copies,
02:27while Shelter, which is free-to-play, has been downloaded more than 170 million times.
02:32Thanks in large part to Bethesda's support, the Fallout franchise was more popular than ever,
02:37even before Amazon began production on the live-action series.
02:41The creators of Fallout have walked a thin line when it comes to the show's relationship
02:45to the games, and this approach appears to have served them well. Fallout is set
02:48in the same universe as the video games, but it doesn't try to adapt the storyline of any
02:53particular game. The plot is entirely original, and outside of a few cheeky references,
02:58no characters from the games appear in the show.
03:00"...well now that is a very small drop in a very, very large bucket of drugs."
03:06Gamers are notoriously picky about their lore, and the Fallout series could very easily have
03:11left longtime fans bewildered and frustrated. Instead, the show's attention to detail is
03:16breathtaking, lifting objects, locations, and even sound effects straight from the games.
03:21The team working on the show clearly care deeply about doing right by the fans,
03:25and that benefits newcomers, too. Fallout stands out from the competition because it's so loaded
03:29with details, meaning you can give the first season multiple viewings and still catch something new
03:34every time.
03:36It's probably worth mentioning that Fallout fans aren't happy about everything the show
03:40has done. Prime Video's series is set in the year 2296, which is the latest point in the
03:45timeline that the franchise has ever explored. Because the show was pushed into new territory,
03:50it was bound to ruffle the feathers of the fans who are more well-versed on Fallout's history
03:54to this point. Controversially, the show establishes that a town called Shady Sands
03:58has been destroyed, which immediately upsets some fans of the franchise.
04:02For one, Shady Sands was the capital city of the New California Republic,
04:06a much-loved faction from the games. A blackboard in the show seemed to indicate that Shady Sands
04:11was destroyed in 2277, which is four years before the events of Fallout New Vegas,
04:17a game that featured the NCR in a pivotal role and yet never features the destruction of Shady Sands.
04:22If you're a newcomer to the franchise, this controversy won't affect your enjoyment of
04:26the show in the slightest. For diehard fans, though, it caused such a stir that
04:30Bethesda felt the need to clear the air and say New Vegas is still part of the canon.
04:35No doubt this timeline snafu is going to haunt Fallout subreddits for years to come,
04:39or at least until we get Fallout Season 2. Still, the fact that people won't stop talking about it
04:44is actually helping to maintain discourse around the show, giving it more time in the
04:48spotlight than the binge-release model usually allows. It's worth noting that Fallout is
04:53enjoying a serious boost due to the platform on which it was released. There are roughly
04:57800 million streaming services to choose from these days, but at least in terms of subscriber
05:02count, they don't all come equal. Amazon Prime Video boasts over 200 million subscribers,
05:07which makes it the second-largest streamer in the business. Only a portion of the subscriber
05:11base is going to watch any given show, of course, but Prime Video series nevertheless have a huge
05:16advantage, thanks to the sheer number of eyes that will see them on the home page when they
05:20sign into their smart TV. Prime Video has also had a string of successes lately, mostly involving
05:25shows that have some overlap with the Fallout fandom. The Boys, Gen V, and Invincible might
05:30be more focused on the superhero genre, but the heady mix of sci-fi, action, and gore you'll find
05:35in those shows happens to be a key ingredient in what makes Fallout work so well.
05:39"'You're not the real heroes. I'm the real hero.'"
05:44Prime Video is becoming known more and more as a platform that crafts quality genre entertainment,
05:50so when it puts out a show like Fallout, even people who aren't familiar with the franchise
05:54are going to be tempted to check it out.
05:56A show like Fallout isn't merely designed to attract Prime Video subscribers,
06:00it's also supposed to bring new people to the platform. And it's clear that Amazon
06:04really believed in this show's potential to do just that. Amazon gave Fallout a jaw-dropping
06:09budget of $153 million, which puts it in league with the most expensive TV productions of all time.
06:16The budget shines through in the on-location sets, and practical effects on display in season one,
06:21of course. But Amazon's money also helped Fallout's marketing push before the series
06:25premiere. Amazon plastered Fallout all over Prime Video, with multiple trailers building
06:30hype for the series. Meanwhile, Bethesda produced a number of behind-the-scenes featurettes,
06:34with executive producer Todd Howard speaking in interviews about the show's accuracy in relation
06:39to the games. Then there's the merch. The Fallout franchise has always been ripe for swag,
06:44but Bethesda's latest Pip-Boy replica and Amazon's roundup of show-related merch really
06:49helped keep people engaged with the series, even when they weren't watching it.
06:53For a long time, the few video game adaptations that existed were anything but quality.
06:58The original Super Mario Bros., for example, or 2005's Doom movie.
07:04We're all killers, Reaper. It's what they pay us for.
07:09These films barely stuck to their source material, and didn't have many other
07:13redeeming qualities of their own. Compared to those days, the 2020s are a utopia for
07:17video game fans itching to put down the controller and watch something. Not only
07:21have we been given a redemptive Mario movie, but we've also been showered with TV adaptations
07:26that range from acceptable to award-winning. Shows such as Halo take their source material
07:32as a mere suggestion, but balance that out with great-looking effects and action.
07:36Twisted Metal ups the action even more, and demonstrates that a video game show
07:40can be just entertaining enough without taking itself too seriously.
07:44And then, of course, there's the elephant in the room. HBO's The Last of Us series
07:48sets a new standard for video game adaptations, and that's something Fallout executive producer
07:53Jonathan Nolan is well aware of. Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter that, when he first
07:57started working on Fallout, no one had any idea if a video game show could actually be good.
08:02Now that's changed, he says, telling the outlet,
08:04When somebody makes something as good as The Last of Us, it makes it easier,
08:08because suddenly everyone understands what's possible.
08:10In some ways, Fallout has been able to capitalize on the success of The Last of Us,
08:14thus potential viewers finally believe video game adaptations can actually work.
08:19Fallout has something for everyone — except maybe kids, that is. It's a post-apocalyptic
08:24show for adults, sure, but there are plenty of scenes that don't line up with the image
08:28that description might summon up. Fallout is frequently dramatic and consistently gory,
08:33but it's also satirical, slapstick-heavy, or downright silly at times.
08:37This is something gamers have already become quite used to. The Fallout games have remained
08:41so successful and popular because they aren't afraid to tell a story with a range of different
08:45tones. In the games, you'll go from a terrifying chase with a Deathclaw to delivering a violin to
08:50a tearful, elderly woman. Then, the next day, you'll stumble into the headquarters of a cult
08:54that worships the Talking Tree. Jonathan Nolan told The Hollywood Reporter that,
08:58when he first played Fallout 3, it was that variety that surprised him most. He said,
09:03It was the sense of humor and irony and the cutting level of satire,
09:06and this depiction of an Eisenhower-era America that never lost its swagger and kept lumbering
09:11forward. It just had a unique tone. The show has managed to perfectly translate all the
09:16different notes that the games hit so well. Individual episodes flip back and forth from
09:20comedy to drama to horror, making every scene incredibly engaging to watch.
09:25We were really interested in peeling back the layers of the absurd situations that
09:29are just very Fallout. This is like a new installation of the games."
09:33For an Amazon Prime Video show, Fallout has utilized an interesting release strategy.
09:38While some of the streamer's biggest shows have been released week to week,
09:41Prime Video chose the binge model for Fallout. In some cases, a binge release can mean viewers
09:46burn through all the material in one go and promptly forget about the series until a new
09:50season is released. But here, Fallout has another thing going for it. This show is just the beginning.
09:56Anyone who becomes interested in Fallout after watching Season 1 doesn't have to wait years
10:00before they can return to this world. There are a ton of Fallout games that they can dive into
10:04immediately. And that's exactly what seems to be happening. After the show's release,
10:08the Bethesda Fallout games have more than tripled their concurrent player counts on Steam.
10:13People are clearly enthusiastic about the series after Season 1, and the games are going to help
10:17keep that enthusiasm alive until the next season arrives. On top of that, because the show and the
10:22games are so intertwined, viewers can use their experience in the games to theorize about what
10:26might happen in the Wasteland when Prime Video's show returns. All in all, Fallout seems to be a
10:31best-case scenario as far as video game adaptations go. Roll on, Season 2!