The story of the series moved forward in a big way with the literal bombshells dropped by the Fallout TV show, including some controversial elements regarding the NCR and Shady Sands. Some of the most fundamental questions of the series have been answered, not limited to the very nature of Fallout's nuclear apocalypse. The series also unleashed a healthy number of small clarifications and origin stories for smaller elements of the series that have been present in most games, as well.

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11 Biggest Things We're Surprised Aren't In Fallout Season 1

The Fallout TV show, based on the game series of the same name, included great details from its source material, but some references were missing.

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10 Why So Many Vaults Were Conducting Experiments

Vault-Tec's true goals were never the stars

One of the first things new players learn of Fallout's world upon booting up one of the games is the true insidious nature of Vault-Tec's famed vaults. Not just meant to protect and preserve humanity past the point of nuclear annihilation, almost every vault was designed with some sort of horrific experiment in mind. Some of the wildest vaults from Fallout include mutated plant life, clones, and twisted games of moral calculus. The show gives an example of a particularly far-out vault containing mutated residents, including a cyclopean overseer.

The reasoning behind Vault-Tec's experiments was always murky in the games, being vaguely justified as trial runs meant to help Vault-Tec simulate problems humanity might encounter in spaceships housing generations of people as they look for a new planet. In reality, the vault's experiments were revealed to be the efforts of the biggest pre-war American companies, designed to cultivate their own twisted vision for a "perfect" new society. As much is revealed in the harrowing boardroom scene that Walton Goggins' Cooper Howard listens in on.

9 What Happened To The Enclave After Fallout 3

One of the series most prolific villains is still very much active

The closest thing to a continuation of the United States government after the fall of the nuclear bomb, the Enclave is one of the most iconic villainous groups in the Fallout franchise. The primary villains of Fallout 2 and Fallout 3 especially, the organization is known for its military might, stockpiles of weapons, xenophobic views, and signature prototype power armor. Known to have had chapters inhabiting both the East coast and West coast, the Enclave were thought to have been long gone by the time of Amazon's Fallout series, at least in the West.

However, one of the earliest moments in the series proves that isn't the case, as the scientist Dr. Wilzig defects from the organization early on. While the organization doesn't get much time on-screen, it's clear that the Enclave have some sort of hidden base still very much active somewhere within walking distance of the L.A. ruins. This is a sharp contrast to their apparent downfall in the region after the destruction of their oil rig base at the end of Fallout 2. Fallout 3 was the last time the Enclave were seen as an active threat, albeit on the East Coast.

8 Dogmeat's Origin Story

CX404 has a charming humble beginning

A name synonymous with the Fallout series and post-apocalyptia in general, Dogmeat is one of the staple characters of the series. Named after Mad Max's dog in The Road Warrior, a German shepherd simply named Dogmeat is a follower that can be recruited in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, and Fallout 4. The various animals under the same name have a variety of previous owners described across the games, but how a population of healthy purebred dogs came to wander a wasteland filled with otherwise mutated wildlife was a mystery for some time.

Amazon's Fallout seems to have finally explained where the various protagonists of the games have been getting their faithful canine companions from, introducing a Dogmeat of its own, a.k.a. CX404. Part of an Enclave breeding program, CX404 was saved by Dr. Wilzig despite not meeting the weight quota for healthy candidates in the program. Later, he's called Dogmeat by The Ghoul, officially taking his place as the latest in a long line of Fallout animal companions. It's possible that every Dogmeat in the Fallout series was an escaped result of one of a similar Enclave kennel.

7 Who Dropped The First Bombs

One of the biggest mysteries of Fallout given a climactic answer

For a long time, the subject of who struck first was a topic of mystery in the Fallout fandom. It was assumed that China, the United States' major superstate rival in the Fallout series' alternate history, was the one to drop the first nuclear bombs for a long time, setting off a deadly chain of mutually-assured destruction. This assumption came from the fact that China was losing the resource war to the U.S. thanks to innovations like Power Armor at the Battle of Anchorage, making them more desperate and likely to reach for a nuclear response.

That being said, rumors of Vault-Tec being the ones to ensure their vaults saw use had bubbled under the surface long before Amazon's TV show confirmed it. In Fallout 3, an undetonated nuclear warhead can be found with the Vault-Tec logo, and considering the already shady nature of the company, such a drastic accusation wouldn't be out of the question. It's now all but outright confirmed that Vault-Tec was indeed the one to begin the nuclear war, as Barb Howard suggests dropping the first bombs to ensure their hold on a post-nuclear Earth.

6 Who Won New Vegas And The Mojave

Amazon has narrowed down New Vegas' many endings

In many cases, the Fallout franchise has to work around the fact that each game has multiple possible endings depending on the player's actions. Sometimes a single ending is picked out as a definitive canon event, but in the case of Fallout: New Vegas, the moral complexity and variety in factions that can end up with control over New Vegas and the Mojave wasteland make things more of a continuity gray area. While Amazon had to write around this lack of information to a degree, Fallout still gave a glimpse of New Vegas, suggesting some clear winners and losers.

It's unlikely that the NCR ending of Fallout: New Vegas is now canon considering the nation's destruction not long after the events of the game. Caesar's Legion also seems like an unlikely pick, given that the ferocious nation of slavers isn't even mentioned by the Amazon series. This means it's more likely that the protagonist of Fallout: New Vegas, the Courier, wound up either siding with Mr. House or simply taking over the strip for him or herself.

5 The Voice Actor Of The Mr. Handy Robots

The charming housekeepers had something of an origin story

The Mr. Handy series of robots is one of the most iconic designs in the Fallout series, and has a voice just as familiar as their unique construction. Essentially a hovering orb with three sets of specialized limbs and optical sensors, the Mr. Handy bots were once meant for domestic servitude, but remain surprisingly useful in a post-nuclear wasteland, able to be recruited as companions in Fallout 3 and Fallout 4. The soothing British voice every Mr. Handy is equipped with is given a face in Amazon's Fallout TV show.

The voice of Mr. Handy is revealed to be none other than Sebastian Leslie, portrayed in the series by the irreverent Matt Berry. Leslie was known for playing a butler on TV known as Bartholomew Codsworth, explaining the nickname of the Sole Survivor's own Mr. Handy model in Fallout 4. Amazon's Fallout manages to not only explain the origins of Mr. Handy's vocal package, but the nickname of one of the line's most prolific individuals in the series.

4 How Mr. House Knew Nukes Were Coming

Turns out, Rob-Co's founder had more than mere algorithms

One of the few of Fallout's cast that's actually a major character in the games is Robert House, better known as New Vegas' own Mr. House. The CEO and brilliant engineer behind the majority of the retrofuturistic robots of Fallout, Mr. House was a genius who ends up surviving the apocalypse and far into the future, becoming a major player in the ruins of what used to be Las Vegas. In Fallout: New Vegas, Mr. House intimately describes the preparations he was able to make to not only survive the impending doom, but thrive in it.

In Fallout: New Vegas, Mr. House tells the Courier that he was able to accurately predict the time and locations of the nuclear strikes thanks to cutting-edge simulation software. However, the reveals of the Fallout TV show prove this may be a self-aggrandizing lie typical of the egotistical Mr. House. As Mr. House was actually present at the clandestine corporate meeting in which Vault-Tec announced their plans to make the first nuclear strike, Mr. House may have simply had insider knowledge regarding when and where the first bombs would fall, allowing him to prepare accordingly.

3 The Origin Of Vault Boy's Iconic Pose

A not-so-innocent wink and thumbs-up

The mascot of Vault-Tec and the Fallout series itself, Vault Boy is one of the most iconic images of the entire series. Depicted as a young, chipper man with blonde hair and an optimistic smile, Vault Boy is used as a corporate mascot for both Vault-Tec and the franchise as a whole, often appearing in the games' interface. His iconic pose is a wink and a thumbs-up combination seemingly meant to put the viewer at ease, like any good corporate art style.

Amazon's Fallout reveals that the gesture may have a more ominous meaning, as Cooper Howard uses his thumb to measure the size of a nuclear blast's mushroom cloud in the distance shortly before his transformation into a ghoul. Later, it's shown that Howard may have been the original model to inspire Vault Boy, striking the thumbs-up pose when told to improvise in a Vault-Tec photo shoot wearing the company's signature jumpsuit. Indeed, Vault Boy's frequently-seen pose may be more of a warning than a sign of warm reassurance.

2 How Ghouls Turn Feral

Radiation in the Fallout universe plays by different rules

Ghoulification is a very real danger that anyone living Fallout's wasteland has to contend with, with deadly dosages of radiation sometimes turning normal humans into skinless immortals. Ghouls can often turn feral, giving into their bestial nature and becoming little more than animals obsessed with eating human flesh, as Lucy learns the hard way in Amazon's Fallout. The exact mechanics behind ghouls turning feral is never laid out in the games, but the TV show has done so more clearly than ever.

It turns out that simple time isn't the only matter factoring in as to whether a ghoul goes feral or not, with some ghouls still very cognizant despite being around since before the bombs fell and others quickly denigrating into flesh-eating monsters. It turns out that usage of certain chems is the only thing that can keep a given ghoul from turning feral, with the series' own gunslinging ghoul taking great care to stay stocked-up. This would explain why some ghouls are able to stave off the mental effects of their condition for centuries while others become flesh-eating zombies in record time.

1 Who Else Is Playing The Great Game

Every major pre-war player is still around in some form or another

In the story of the Fallout 3 DLC Point Lookout, mention is made of a "Great Game" being played between the most powerful people who managed to survive the Great War. In the small side story, there are two vestiges of the pre-war government, the British Ghoul spy Desmond Lockheart and the prestigious RoboBrain Professor Calvert, who wrestle for power. Their so-called "Great Game" never comes up again in the franchise, although it's suggested that far more important people than Desmond Lockheart and Professor Calvert are playing.

In a way, Amazon's Fallout confirms the competition of pre-war actors in the clandestine meeting hosted by Vault-Tec, in which the spirit of capitalistic competition survives into the post-apocalyptic age. Big names like Vault-Tec, Rob-Co, West Tek, BIg MT and REPCONN are all essentially confirmed to have survived into the future in some form or another, either via RoboBrain, Ghoulification, or cryogenic stasis. In this way, one of the most obscure, yet world-shattering implications of the Fallout series was revisited by the TV show.

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Release Date

April 10, 2024

Showrunner

Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan

Writers

Lisa Joy, Jonathan Nolan

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  Ella Purnell

  Lucy MacLean
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  Aaron Moten

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Set 200 years after an apocalypse, Fallout follows residents of luxury shelters as they re-enter a post-nuclear world. Confronted with a bizarre and violent landscape, the series explores the stark contrasts between their sheltered existence and the harsh realities of the outside universe.

Seasons

1

Creator(s)

Geneva Robertson-Dworet, Graham Wagner

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