Fallout

Originally based upon the Wasteland computer role playing game, Fallout is a role-playing games (RPGs)'s franchise published by Interplay and, later, Bethesda Softworks. Although set in and after the 22nd and 23rd century, its story and artwork are influenced by the post-war culture of 1950s America, and its striking combination of hope for the promises of technology and lurking fear of nuclear annihilation. In 2024, a TV series debuted.

This article is about the video game franchise, For the 2024 TV series, see Fallout (TV series)

War. War never changes.

Fallout (1997)

• War. War never changes.
  The Romans waged war to gather slaves and wealth. Spain built an empire from its lust for gold and territory. Hitler shaped a battered Germany into an economic superpower.
  But war never changes.
  • Opening narration by Ron Perlman

Fallout 2 (1998)

• Come here, Chosen One. There are things you should know.
  • The Village Elder

• You will be faced with many challenges throughout your lifetime, and the most difficult of these will be dealing with your fellow man. There will come a time when diplomacy and tact will prove to be useless and your hand must be raised instead.
  • Cameron

• You've gotten a lot farther than you should have, but then you haven't met Frank Horrigan either. Your ride's over, mutie. Time to die.
  • Frank Horrigan

• What do I want? I don't really know. Most of the time I ignore my quest and walk into the homes of others, riffling through people's shelves... oooh, like those over there!
  • The Chosen One

Fallout 3 (2008)

• Come on over here. I want to show you something. See that? It was your mother's favorite passage. It's from the Bible. Revelation 21:6. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely." She always loved that.
  • James

Fallout: New Vegas (2010)

• You’ve made your last delivery, kid. Sorry you got twisted up in this scene. From where you’re kneeling, must seem like an 18-karat run of bad luck. Truth is, the game was rigged from the start.
  • Benny [Before shooting the Courier]

Fallout 4 (2015)

• In 100 years when I finally die, I hope I go to hell. So I can kill you again.
  • Sole Survivor [To Kellogg]

About Fallout

The Fallout universe paints a picture of a dystopian future. It exists in what people on the cusp of the atomic revolution in the 1950s saw as the sci-fi world of tomorrow... if several thousand nuclear bombs were dropped on it. ~ Erik Brudvig

Trading heavily on its nuclear theme, the Fallout video game series has so far teetered between satirizing the Bomb, and reveling in its power. ~ Cameron Hunter

• The Fallout universe paints a picture of a dystopian future. It exists in what people on the cusp of the atomic revolution in the 1950s saw as the sci-fi world of tomorrow... if several thousand nuclear bombs were dropped on it. It's a quaint sci-fi view of a future filled with atomic cars, robot servants, and incredibly basic computer terminals. A nuclear war has taken away most of these technological comforts, providing the backdrop for a game with a dreary, desperate atmosphere filled with glib and dark humor. It's a world that is both fantastic and somehow believable. And it is one that's exciting to explore.
  • Erik Brudvig, “Fallout 3 Game of the Year Edition Review”, IGN, (Updated: May 9, 2012; Oct 15, 2009)

• Trading heavily on its nuclear theme, the Fallout video game series has so far teetered between satirizing the Bomb, and reveling in its power. But now it may be toppling over that fine line.
  These games are almost certainly the most well-known (and well-loved) media that deal with nuclear weapons today. Fallout must therefore be taken seriously as an influence on the real-world politics and culture of nuclear weapons in the 21st century.
  • Cameron Hunter, “The ambivalent nuclear politics of Fallout video games”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, (October 17, 2018)

• To be sure, the Fallout games have never had an explicitly anti-nuclear stance; they have never come across as an after-school special. But the satirical humor of the series has frequently targeted the hubris of mid-20th century science, politics, society, and industry. The alternative universe created by the game developers diverges from our own timeline after World War II, imagining a world where dreams of robots and nuclear-powered cars came true.
  Far from ushering in a utopia, however, in Fallout, nuclear technologies led to a nightmarish collapse of organized human civilization in the United States and the rest of the globe. The Bomb is only the most obvious cause. Before the war, nuclear-fueled consumerism and unchecked mega-corporations pillaged the natural resources of the continent and poisoned the environment. (The series has never been content to poke fun at the past, but often draws unflattering comparisons to our world today.) A rampant military-industrial complex led to a garrison state, social unrest, and international tension.
  In short, the setting of Fallout is hardly an endorsement of the nuclear age. As players move through the hellscape of post-nuclear war America, they are confronted by jarring relicts of the pro-nuclear age. Advertisements for the best-selling soda before the war, Nuka-cola, are everywhere. One variant of this soda was even sold with the exciting inclusion of real radioactive isotopes. All the while, players struggle to deal with finding food and water that isn’t dangerously irradiated. Take too many doses of radiation, or “rads,” and the player’s character will die. The nuclear utopianism of the past is made to look preposterous next to its horrific consequences.
  • Cameron Hunter, “The ambivalent nuclear politics of Fallout video games”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, (October 17, 2018)

• Blending history, science-fiction, and interesting decision-making is what makes the Fallout games modern classics. And while there is no need for the series to become full-fledged anti-nuclear weapons education materials, it would help if the latest incarnation maintained the closer connections that the older entries had to the realities of our own nuclear age. Earlier Fallout games show that a humorous treatment of nuclear weapons is possible without slipping into outright ambivalence about their implications. (And yes, one can indulge in dark satire and still be outraged by the dangers of nuclear weaponry; witness movies such as “Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb.”) What should be clear, rather, is that repackaging nuclear weapons and technologies as entirely unproblematic makes for less-interesting decisions for players and weaker ties to the historical flavor that has underpinned the unique appeal of the games.
  And, perhaps most important of all, these sanitized representations risk teaching a misleading version of humanity’s nuclear predicament to a massive audience.
  • Cameron Hunter, “The ambivalent nuclear politics of Fallout video games”, Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, (October 17, 2018)

External links

• Fallout 3 (2008) quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• The Official Fallout series Site